i88o.] 
A Change of Front . 
567 
wolf, and the cobra ; he is to develope the flowers and the 
fruits to higher beauty and luxuriance. He is to supersede 
the struggle for existence, which may be characterised as 
the “ old covenant ” of the organic world ; and in doing all 
this he is to show himself the joint worker, the co-evolver 
with God. 
On the design and contrivance hypothesis parasitic worms, 
&c., “ can only be regarded as instruments of torture devised 
by the Creator, and whose existence no writer of Bridgewater 
Treatises has yet even attempted to reconcile with His infi- 
nite wisdom and benevolence.”* 
Evolutionism gets rid of this difficulty, but not by showing 
that the existence of species and their properties is a result 
of blind chance. Fully admitting that the animal and the 
vegetable kingdoms have been developed according to God- 
given laws of which the most advanced of us all have as 
yet but very shadowy conceptions, I must call attention to 
the following considerations : — Every theist, and assuredly 
Mr. Baildon, holds that e.g. each individual man, though 
procreated by his parents, is created by God. But what if 
a man turns out a hunchback, a cripple, an idiot, a dipso- 
maniac, a kleptomaniac ? Shall we dare to say that this is 
God’s contrivance ; that He has designed and willed deform- 
ity, idiocy, vice, and crime ? Just as little has He designed 
or contrived what we may call loathsome or criminal spe- 
cies, the aphis, the scale-insert, the screw-worm of Texas, 
the Pulex penetrans , the Lucilia hominivora , and legions 
more. 
But Mr. Baildon, with a boldness that is perfectly amazing, 
comes forward to defend Nature against those whom he calls 
her “ slanderers ” and “ libellers,” — in other words, those 
who cannot shut their eyes against fadts. He evades the 
main question at issue by stating that he wishes to “ confine 
the enquiry to sub-human Nature.” Yet he elsewhere loses 
sight of this limitation when he says — “ The impartial 
thoughtfulness of Nature puzzles us. We are offended to 
find the existence of a noxious weed, insert, or parasite 
cared for as tenderly as man’s.” But what should we think 
of a human government, very limited in power and wisdom, 
which should not merely fail to extirpate, but should know- 
ingly and of full purpose cherish Thugs, Inquisitors, brigands, 
poisoners, promoters of bubble companies, and other the like 
human parasites and beasts of prey? Yet Nature, which 
* Habit and Intelligence. By J. J. Murphy. See Journal of Science, May, 
1879, p. 350- 
