for though he twits us with our ill-disguised ignorance, yet when it comes to the point where the real difficulty lies, and where the explanation is wanting, he is just as ignorant as we are, and plainly confesses that he can neither account for the first beginning of life, nor for the mode in which the alleged mutations are effected.

He uses very strong language in some instances, and tells us that it is impossible to conceive by what steps these wondrous organs have been produced' (p. 818).

He acknowledges, not merely once or twice, that these things pass his knowledge-the unknown quantity of the problem he cannot discover, he is fairly baffled, and he tells us so.

As then he is not, by virtue of his new method, onc inch in advance of other physiologists in the exposition of the secrets of Nature, he must be content to be, in that respect, as we are—and if we are 'looking at organized beings as a savage looks at a ship,' he is in the same predicament, as true a savage as ever was tattooed in full cannibal decoration. All that we can do, savages as we are, is to be looking still closer, to be continually recording the facts we discover, and for which we can show our proofs, and thus by slow degrees we may perhaps learn more, in the prescribed labours of patient observation.

But we do not repudiate this charge of ignorance; we

It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as the 'plan of creation," "unity of design," &c., and to think that we give an explanation when we only re-state a fact. Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of a number of facts will certainly reject my theory '(516).

Here Mr Darwin plainly sets himself up as the great interpreter of the difficulties of nature, and tells us that those whose disposition leads them to prefer ignorance (for that is the meaning of the words) will reject his theory. After this it is amusing to see him check-mated over and over again when he comes to these very difficulties.

know that we are ignorant, we are sure that there are limits for the utmost reach of our knowledge, and we know full well we are, as yet, at a vast distance from those limits, but if ever we should reach them we know that further progress will be impossible. We see the fiery sword turning every way to guard the way of the tree of life. We shall be able to describe life in the forms in which it is presented to us, but life itself, its essence, the secret of reproduction, and the profound and awful mystery of our creation, we shall never touch.

We believe that infinite wisdom was united to infinite power to effect this first construction and arrangement of all things; and as there we come to a light that dazzles us we turn away, for to press onward against dazzling light would only produce blindness.

But Mr Darwin in a better mood has himself confessed the greatness of our common ignorance, which he does not seem to think will be much diminished even by his new method. It deserves a special notice that the more important objections relate to questions in which we are confessedly ignorant, NOR DO WE KNOW HOW IGNORANT WE ARE' (499).

These last words of deep import open a wide field for reflection, and remind us of a sentence uttered by Laplace in his last moments, our ignorance is immense.' The height to which a superior intellect can ascend only increases the horizon of things that have yet to be discovered, the more we know the more we shall have to know, and at the same time it is important to remember, and to some minds of the utmost consequence never to forget, that there are many things, which, though it is tempting to examine,

we never can explain. Unfortunately, however, Mr Darwin himself forgets his own wise words, and though he confesses that our ignorance is deeper than we suppose, he nevertheless ignores the possibility of an intellect superior to that of man, to whom, nevertheless, he has attributed no very intellectual origin. Hence he plainly declares that he cannot believe in the works of creation.

'Almost every part of every organic being, at least with animals, is so beautifully related to its complex condition of life, that it seems as improbable that any part should have been suddenly produced perfect, as that a complex machine should have been invented by man in a perfect state' (46).

This reasoning takes for granted that there is nothing wiser or more skilful than man; if man is not able to make a complex machine perfect without a long time for its preparation, how can the limb of an animal have been suddenly made perfect?

Certainly the atheistic sentiment was never more broadly stated, though it contains a latent argument against the very Theory it is intended to support. For it is clear that the passage has this import, the complex machinery of men requires a long time for design and construction, therefore a much more complex and wonderful machine must require much more time for the design and construction to bring it to perfection. But as this would be a proposition opposed to the Theory, Mr Darwin's meaning probably is this, as a human machine cannot be made by design and skill suddenly, an infinitely more intricate machine can only be made by long-protracted ignorance and inability.

Now that a dissimilar deduction would be suggested by

common sense, and assented to even by those who allow themselves great freedom of thought and language, we may see in these words of Voltaire :*

In perceiving by the mind the infinite relations that are in all things, I suspect a Workman of infinite ability.' And indeed the questions have ramifications not acknowledged in the theory, for the argument would, if fully stated, set in against it from many a quarter besides that of organization; as it is abundantly clear that the earth itself, with its diurnal revolution, the length of day, its atmosphere; the ministrations of the sea, its tides and currents; the birth of the clouds, the winds; the diversities of the seasons, the range of climates, the balancing of temperature, the partition of light and solar heat, the main properties of light, its refraction and reflection; the laws of electricity, its relation to air and moisture, the fluidity, density, and elasticity of the ether, by means of which its vibrations produce light, the composition of the atmosphere-these and a vast many other arrangements show plainly enough a preparation and a design for life, and lead us to expect something answerable to such wonderful and complicated dispositions. When therefore we find life in all its myriad forms of enjoyment, when we see the senses by elaborate organs enabled to apprehend and reap the benefit of these preparations, we understand the object of the work, and see it brought to perfection in the organic beings adapted for all climates.

If therefore we deny the will and the work of a Creator in the existence of organized beings, we must deny it in the cosmical arrangements also: we must carry out the

* En appercevant par la pensée des rapports infinis dans toutes les choses, je soupçonne un ouvrier infiniment habile.'-Lettre à Diderot.

theory of Natural Selection to the earth itself, and the whole machinery of the solar system. We must not mince the matter, but must be prepared to affirm that the world itself is the result of Natural Selection, and that myriads of globes were exterminated before this actual sphere with the density of its mass, its size, its peculiar shape, the inclination of its axis of rotation to the plane of the ecliptic, its climates, its distance from the sun, and its rate of motion in its orbit, were brought to that condition which constitute it a theatre for the life of animals and plants.

To allow that the earth was arranged as it is, by design, but to deny that organic life on the earth is the production of design, would be to allow the greater miracle and deny the smaller. If Natural Selection be a true theory, it must embrace the whole heavens. If an artificer and a design can be discovered anywhere in the universe, they will be acknowledged everywhere. If a supreme Intelligence created all worlds, the same power beyond all doubt created intelligent man who is able to scrutinize all the phenomena of the celestial orbs. There is no breaking the chain of this argument; if there is creation at the beginning, there is creation at the end, and vice versá.

We have just seen that Mr Darwin cannot believe that the perfect parts of organized beings have been made perfect suddenly, we must now contemplate him finding fault with Nature, and for the purpose of reminding us that where there are such faults, we can scarcely admit them to have been produced by an act of creation. "We ought not to marvel if all the contrivances in nature be not, as far as we can judge, absolutely perfect, and if some of them be abhorrent to our ideas of fitness. We need not marvel at the sting of the bee causing the bee's own death, or drones