803 
It 13 then that the man of science, as much as the theologian, has 
to face many perplexing (questions. !My father has remarked 
(in some MS. notes for a lecture), that— 
“ Evidence of Divine Wisdom may be seen in each individual, and the 
re ations of tlie whole. Beauty is everywhere apparent, not only in form and 
colour, but in that higher e.xcellence, fitness, or adaptation to purpose. The 
ques ion anse.s, Wliat evidence is there of Goodness 1 One half the living 
world preys on the other half, and thus to morbid sentiment it appears a vast 
cliainel hou.se in which deeds of violence extinguish all gentler feeliii" if 
not checked numbers the bivalves (e.g.) exhaust the ground, and die out 
t IS an essentud part of the Economy of Nature that the young, feeble, and 
Moial World stands in contrast to, not in harmony with, the Pliysical world 
kin I tL . I '' «»ections are extended from family to all man- 
k Id, that ho.spitals are established, the weak protected, the sick tended the 
old leveronccd, and a kindly spirit cultivated.” * 
To some of the conclusions in tlie ‘Origin of Species,’ as taught liv 
I anvin, lie mado grave objections. In many of Ins reviews lie 
had occasion to touch upon tlie subject, and, inasmuch as he 
supported lus objections by an appeal to the species of ^[ollusca it 
wi l not perhaps bo thought inadvisable that I sliould brie’llv 
mdicate the position he took. The subject was one that lie had 
well considered. As early as 1 856 (J uly 18th) .Mr. Darwin wrote : 
am gi’O'vmg as bad as the worst about species, and hardly have a 
vestige of belief in the permanence of species left in me, and the con- 
os^on wi i make you think very lightly of me; but I cannot help 
It, such has become my honest conviction, though the difficulties 
and arguments against such heresy are certainly most weighty.” 
In a review of Phillips’ ‘Life on the Earth ’ (1860) my father 
spoke ot the transmutation theory as “useful in tracing out the 
than the scaffolding is identical with the temple it is used to mise ” 
c coincided with those who maintain “that the array of 
fceta winch ho. been relied on for proving that the Jorld 
was a|,a,u lonod to .Iself f.«.„ the T«gi„„i„g, are in reality so 
nany evidences of the manner in which tlie Divine author has 
hoen pleased to work;’ and that ‘natural selection’ has operated 
as a provision for niaiiilaiiiing-not for dcstroying-the stability of 
X 2 
