58 
And yet Darwin's system is of no small value, so far as it 
truthfully goes. We feel ourselves irresistibly drawn by it 
greatly nearer to the comprehensive statements of Sacred 
Scripture, in which the species, or kinds / 5 are placed 
before us as at first less numerous than, but for Darwin's 
reasonings, we should be tempted to regard them in reality. 
He narrows, beyond doubt, the original field of creation, as 
that is contended for by naturalists of an opposite school ; 
and so far he does real, though, it would seem, unconscious, 
service to the Bible. 
But when we follow this naturalist on to the point at which 
he not only lessens the vast number of species, but proceeds 
to establish the doctrine of an all but universal evolution, we 
need have no difficulty in perceiving his utter lack of evidence. 
There is no such thing as a fragment of proof such as would 
show improvement of form. On the contrary, there is only 
too strong evidence of the opposite, especially so far as the 
nations of men are concerned. What is wanted, as we have 
said, is progression in kinds 55 — shell-fish, if you will, im- 
proving into higher shell-fish — not dwindling and dying out, 
but rising to higher forms of molluscous being. There is the 
chalk of what geologists have gloried in as the Cretaceous 
Period — placing it back ever so many ages — going on now 
at the bottom of the North Sea; and the chalk-forming 
creatures exactly of the same standing in nature as they ever 
were.* Is this evolution ? Assuredly it is not. If we look 
to apes, how is it that there is just as little sign of evolution 
among them as there is in the lowest of creation ? It is not 
the silly talk in which men describe, in fancy, all the process 
by which an ape becomes a man; it is some sign of such 
an improvement actually going on among the simian race 
that we must seek. We seek in vain. But enough, for the 
present, on the ideas of Darwin. 
I am endeavouring to keep closely in view that we are at 
present dealing with ideas rather than with things. As 
we have seen, “ forms / 5 “ types / 5 “ force / 5 “ life / 5 “ law / 5 
and all the other words that go to make up the vocabulary of 
abstract thinking, are representative of states of mind only. 
“ Varieties , 55 “ species , 55 “ genera / 5 are all expressive of 
ideas, and nothing more. The truth of this comes very 
strongly upon us when we pass from one great school of 
thought to another and opposite school. “ Forms 55 have no 
longer the same significance — “ types 55 mean totally different 
abstractions , — “ Life / 5 with all its “ forces , 55 “ laws / 5 “ uni- 
* See Dr. Carpenter’s Report, given in Scientific Opinion, vol. i. p. 231. 
