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did not prevent us from holding, if we chose, that, by some unex- 
plained means, the germ of life was supplied with such a principle 
of growth as, under certain physical conditions, developed itself 
into these adaptations. We could hold design still to be there, 
although its direct means of operation was shrouded from our view 
in the laboratory of Nature. But Mr Darwin’s theory is not only 
opposed, but absolutely inconsistent with any such idea. The talons 
of the eagle have not been framed as they are by design, to seize 
and hold its prey. The wonderfully constructed hand of the mole 
was not a designed gift from the Creator, but merely some variety 
of the hedgehog, which had broadest paws, and, being most adapted 
to digging, adopted the mode of life of the mole. The implement 
was not made for the animal, but the animal for the implement. 
The assumption is, that it is not alone beneficial variations which 
Nature makes. She makes them in any and every way ; some 
being profitable, others the reverse ; and the reason why we find 
all that have ever been seen on the face of the earth beneficially 
endowed (that is, provided with structures which, to the unillumi- 
nated eye, indicate design) is, that only those variations which 
happen to have been so endowed have been preserved, — the blots 
which Nature made having become extinct through the preponderance 
of the beneficially endowed. To use Mr Darwin’s words, “ Natural 
selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing throughout the world every 
variation, even the slightest ; rejecting that which is bad, preserving 
and adding up all that is good, silently and insensibly working 
whenever and wherever opportunity offers at the improvement of 
each organic being, in relation to its organic and inorganic condi- 
tions of life.” (P. 84.) Now, I cannot believe in such doctrine. 
When I look at the anatomy of any part of the body, and see exactly 
the same mechanism and contrivances had recourse to which a 
mechanician would have used to secure similar results, I cannot 
bring myself to believe that it is fortuitous, or other than evidence 
of the presence of direct design. A belief in such design I should 
be most loath to surrender, and I am therefore glad that, on other 
grounds, viz. the legitimate result of the argument already discussed, 
I have come to be of opinion that Mr Darwin’s theory is unsound, 
and that I am to be spared any collision between my inclinations 
and my convictions. 
