[September, 
566 A Change of Front. 
evils, such, namely, as are founded in the very nature of 
matter and of physical energy. If a man steps over the 
edge of a precipice he must be dashed to pieces by the 
action of a law necessary for the very stability of the solar 
system. And, by multiplying examples of this kind, these 
writers draw away the attention of their readers from evils 
which cannot be thus explained or justified, and which 
mainly accrue from the aCtion of certain portions of the 
organic world. 
Another school of teleologists— still accepting man as the 
measure of all things, and upholding the “ perfection of 
Nature ’’—seek to show that creatures openly and palpably 
injurious may possibly render us some secret and unimagined 
service, which latter is the purpose of their existence. To 
this contention the reply is easy : we condemn, and seek to 
supersede, any human contrivance if along with much good 
it effects even occasional harm. How, then, can we pronounce 
anything a Divine contrivance for our good which inflicts 
upon us great harm, and whose benefits are merely supposi- 
tious ? It may further be asked, if seeming evil is only 
kindness in disguise, may not apparent good prove to be 
closely masked evil ? 
There is another theory of evil held by the religious world, 
which, though of late years it has been kept somewhat out 
of sight, harmonises better with faCts and with the results 
of modern science than do the optimist dreams of the 
“ natural theologians.” According to this theory venomous 
serpents, locusts, mosquitoes, evil beasts of all kinds, are in 
their nature punitive — a consequence of the fall of man.* 
I have met with a naturalist who contends that the entire 
order of Diptera, or two-winged flies, is a Satanic creation, 
— a profane parody on the Hymenoptera, called into being, 
under Divine permission, for the chastisement of man,— 
and who hopes to find scientific evidence of that crisis 
which in Scriptural language is described as man’s original 
apostacy. 
There is a further explanation of some at least of the 
existing evils and imperfections which meet our gaze wher- 
ever we look with eyes not dimmed by preconceived notions. 
The earth is a raw material which man is to “subdue.” 
He is to drain the swamp, to extirpate the tiger and the 
* It would be ludicrous, were the subject less grave, to find men who accept 
the Bible as a Divine revelation, and who consequently must believe that the 
earth is cursed for man’s sake (Genesis iii. , 17), and that it therefore brings 
forth weeds — and if weeds, why not animal plagues ?— to find such men still 
endeavouring to explain away the existence of evil in Nature. 
