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ignorance of the cause of each particular variation/’ After 
stating with great care all that is known about the causes, 
Mr. Darwin fails to establish any law of variation. He 
comes to the conclusion that “ our ignorance of the laws of 
variation is profound. Not in one case out of a hundred can 
we pretend to assign any reason why this or that part differs 
more or less from the same part in the parents;” and he sum- 
marizes the questions thus : — “ Whatever the cause may be of 
each slight difference in the offspring from their parents — and. 
a cause for each must exist, — it is the steady accumulation 
through natural selection of such differences when beneficial to 
the individual, that gives rise to all the more important modifi- 
cations of structure by which the innumerable beings on the 
face of the earth are enabled to struggle with each other, and 
the best adapted to survive.” 
39. From the above quotations it is easy to tabulate what 
Mr. Darwin means. 
1. The word “ chance” is used instead of saying “ we 
don’t know.” 
2. We are profoundly ignorant of the causes of variation, 
therefore, to cover our ignorance, he says, “ they vary 
by chance.” 
3. All variations are governed by the same law. 
4. Natural selection is the power by which all such 
variations are accumulated for the benefit of the 
creature, and to enable it to be among the “ survivals 
of the fittest.” 
40. Natural selection, therefore, is the keystone of Darwin’s 
philosophy. But what, I think we may fairly ask, has become 
of the potentially-endowed plasm ? Does it contain “ natural 
selection ” among its “ laws ” ? It cannot be, because the 
imperfection of the power as a means of creation has been 
proved by Mr. St. George Mivart and admitted by Mr. Darwin, 
and a Divine law must be supreme, perfect, unchangeable. 
41. It is, however, in his latest work, the Descent of Man, 
that Mr. Darwin has most decidedly rejected a Divine guidance 
• and power in creation. The limits of this paper will not allow 
me to make many quotations. 
42. Perhaps the most significant utterance on this point is 
that in which he argues (vol. i. pp. 66-7) about the proba- 
bility of religion having its origin in dreams. “ It is probable, 
as Mr. Tyler has clearly shown, that dreams may have first 
given rise to the notion of spirits,” and “the belief in spiritual 
agencies would easily pass into the belief in the existence of one 
or more gods.” And so, according to Mr. Darwin’s views, was 
religion “ evolved.” 
