antagonist races do more. Climate has a powerful influence in preventing the spread of certain species beyond their appointed latitudes. Severe cold and intense heat kill vast numbers of young animals. Many are not viable, due to unknown causes. Scarcity of food for such vast numbers is probably amongst the most energetic of destroying agencies. Animals are also subject to epidemics much more destructive than the worst of those to which man is liable. It is with plants as with animals. "All the plants of a country (says De Candolle) are at war one with another;" and animal life is at war with them. Of 357 young plants which Mr. Darwin watched, no less than 295 were destroyed by slugs. All this describes what is metaphorically termed the struggle for existence. "Two canine animals, in a time of dearth, may be truly said to struggle with each other which shall get food, and live; but a plant on the edge of a desert is said to struggle for life against the drought, though more properly it should be said to be dependent on the moisture. A plant which annually produces a thousand seeds, of which, on an average, only one comes to maturity, may be more truly said to struggle with the plants of the same and other kinds which already clothe the ground. . . In these several senses which pass into each other, I use for convenience' sake the general term of struggle for existence."*

There are many singular instances given of the curious and unexpected correlations between the various forms of life exemplifying this struggle. It would not appear probable at first sight that there could be much connection between cats and the fertility of clover fields; yet it is not altogether impossible. It seems that the visits of bees are necessary effectually to fertilize the clover flowers; only the humble-bee can reach the nectar of the red clover; field mice prey upon the nests and honey of the humble-bee; and cats prey upon the mice. Hence, the more cats there are in a district, the fewer mice there will probably be, and consequently more humble-bees and more abundant crops of clover. The whole chapter upon the struggle for existence is full of instruction, and affords an excellent picture of the constant and internecine warfare in progress between the various tribes of organic life, whether allied or distant.

Natural Selection.—Mr. Darwin having shown that variations of structure may arise in successive generations, takes for granted that of these variations, some will be profitable to the individual, and some will be injurious; and that the former will necessarily

Chap iii. p. 63.

be preserved, whilst the latter will be rigidly exterminated.* It is difficult to give a full idea of the working of this theory of Natural Selection without quoting the entire chapter with the diagram that illustrates it. We will suppose species A to be primarily existing, and in the course of time, certain varieties, a, b, c, d, and e, to manifest themselves. In the great struggle for life, a and b, which are useful variations, enable their possessors to survive; whilst c, d, and e, being injurious, are of course destroyed. This variation from A to a or b, is extremely slight, "Infinitesimally" so;t so very small that it takes a thousand (or rather "ten thousand "+) generations to make the difference ordinarily existing between a species and one of its varieties.§ Varieties a and b in the lapse

of ages are subject to the same possible variations or modifications as those which affected the original species A; and produce (a), (a), (a), and (b), (b,), (b) respectively; and of these perhaps only (a) and (b) are preserved as profitable. By this time (a) and (b) have acquired characters sufficiently distinctive to be ranked as separate species; and pursuing the same law of variation and selection, in hundreds of thousands of generations we find (a) and (b) widely enough separated to form types of genera, each the centre of a number of species.

Although not a full exposition of the system, we believe this to be, so far as it goes, a correct one. Of all our objections to the theory, which are many, we at present shall only hint at two, reserving for a time the remainder. The first is that on the hypothesis of a Creator, which Mr. Darwin does not altogether repudiate, his operations are only distinguished by imperfection; and any power of continuance and prosperity is left dependent upon pure accident: species are eminently unfit by nature for preservation, and only endure by chance. The second is, that variations so slight as here supposed, could by no apparent possibility enable their possessors to struggle effectually against destroying agencies such as are enumerated. What advantage could it afford an insect that was about to be swallowed by a bird, that it possessed a thousandth fragment of some property possessed by its next most nearly allied species or variety? What preservation against ravages of the slugs would be afforded by an "infinitesimal" difference between one weed and its neighbour? What minute difference would avail the duckling that the fox was about to carry off? These may perhaps be deemed feeble and trifling

† See p. 95.

* See Chap. iv., p. 81.

+ p. 117.

§ After a thousand (or ten thousand) generations species (A) is supposed to have produced two well marked varieties." p. 117.

illustrations; yet it is only by bringing the principle to some such practical test as this that its truth or probability can be recognized. It sounds at first plausible enough to say that profitable variations will naturally tend to the preservation of individuals; but when we put it to the test, and see that it is theoretically improbable, and that there is a total lack of direct evidence that such has ever been the case, we are disposed to look upon it as more sound than sense.

Extent and Bearing of the Theory.-More cautious than Lamarck, Mr. Darwin does not dwell minutely upon either the beginning or the probable termination of organic life. We are chiefly left to infer that his original organic germ can be no other than Lamarck's gelatinous homogeneous spherule; and that man was developed from something analogous to an ape, and may be further perfected by the same process of development. In the earlier chapters we only hear of species becoming varieties and other species; and the author dwells mostly upon the nondistinction between specific differences and those which constitute varieties. As we progress we find that generic differences are considered only degrees of the same variation; then that all Vertebrata are descended from one parent, the type of which we shall in vain look for "until beds far beneath the lowest Silurian strata are discovered-a discovery of which the chance is very small." It is only, however, in the concluding chapter that we find a full confession of belief.

66 It may be asked how far I extend the doctrine of the modification of species. The question is difficult to answer, because the more distinct the forms are which we consider, by so much the arguments fall away in force. But some arguments of the greatest weight extend very far. All the members of whole classes can be connected together by chains of affinities, and all can be classified on the same principle, in groups subordinate to groups. Fossil remains sometimes tend to fill up very wide intervals between existing orders. Therefore, I cannot doubt that the theory of descent with modification embraces all the members of the same class. I believe that animals have descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number.

"Analogy would lead me one step further, namely, to the belief that all animals and plants have descended from some one prototype. I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed by the Creator."+

Chap. x, p. 338, and see note by Sir R. Murchison, infra. † Chap. xiv., p. 484.

As nothing is said to suggest the idea that man differs in anywise from the other "organic beings," we. are justified in concluding that his origin was from this same primordial form. This conclusion is still further confirmed by the enumeration of the many advantages to be derived from this view in natural history and psychology. After speaking of the simplification of system that will attend the reception of the development theory, and the far grander views of nature and creation that will accrue, Mr. Darwin continues :

"The whole history of the world, as at present known, although of a length quite incomprehensible by us, will hereafter be recognised as a mere fragment of time, compared with the ages which have elapsed since the first creature, the progenitor of innumerable extinct and living descendants, was created.

"In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man* and his history.

"As all the living forms of life are the lineal descendants of those which lived long before the Silurian epoch, we may feel certain that the ordinary succession by generation has never once been broken, and that no cataclysm has desolated the whole world. Hence we may look with some confidence to a secure future of equally inappreciable length. And as natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection."+

And what of our aspirations after a glorious immortality? What of that wondrous scheme of redemption which the ancient

In reference to the history of man, we take this opportunity of alluding to a work recently published, called "Pre-Adamite Man," and professing to be "the Story of our Old Planet and its Inhabitants, told by Scripture and Science." The theory contained in it is, that the creation of man, as described in the first chapter of Genesis, is quite distinct from that in the second, and alludes to a pre-Adamite race that lived for long ages, and disappeared before Adam was created. These became the angels; and some of them the fallen ones, which accounts for our finding no traces of their existence.

The book is well and pleasantly written; but it is very much to be regretted that very good, but non-scientific men, will join in a controversy which, if fought at all, must be fought by combatants with no flaw in their armour. A weak man, overthrown in however good a cause, does but injure the principle for which he fights. We cannot but respect the good and pious spirit in which this little book is written (with due allowance for the strange theory); but when we are told (p. 59) that water sufficiently heated separates into its component gases, oxygen and hydrogen, which again unite on cooling to form water, and that no fishes are found in any but the uppermost of the Silurian strata, with many other facts equally authentic, we cannot but deplore the weakness of the arguments that are but too frequently pressed into the service of reconciling Scripture and science. Chap. xiv., p. 489.

66

seers dimly foretold, gazing with rapt wonder into the profound obscure of the future, whence to them the star of Bethlehem was beginning to gleam? What connection have these with a development theory? Dreams all-figments of a philosophic braininventions of priestcraft! What room is there for these in a theory of development? Immortality! How can we be immortal? Our fathers, where are they? From the monad to our immediate monkey-parent, were they immortal? And if not, what claim have we to such an endowment, save by a special interposition of Divine will and power? And it is the very essence of the development hypothesis to account for all phenomena without such special interposition; all must be due to secondary causes. No, we shall live again it is true, but how different our life will be from that "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" to which we have been vainly and ignorantly aspiring. Our race shall be perfecting itself by its own powers and faculties, but we shall have no conscious part in it. Our course is run when the grim tyrant has visited us. Of mucus and infusoria we were made, and unto mucus and infusoria we shall return, to run again through the vast cycle of monad, worm, mollusc, &c., up to-where? Redemption! All honour to man rather, he requires no redemption, he has never fallen. He has ceased climbing trees, and has expelled his former brethren into the wilderness; he has dispensed with his tail; he has invented speech, and looms and railroads, and development hypotheses; he has had no time to fall; no leisure he to be redeemed. His own powers and the accidents of nature are all in all.

We are ready to grant that this is not argument; and that the hopes and faith of the Christian have no weight, no place even, in any development discussion. But we indicate the absolute incompatibility of this hypothesis with any faith in revelation, in order to guard the unwary against the specious fallacies of those who consider that "it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms, as to believe that He required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of His laws."+ As noble a conception it may be; indeed, we can see that more skill and ingenuity (not to speak irreverently) might be imagined necessary to create a germ, which after thousands of transformations and millions of ages, should develop itself into so wondrous a mechanism as man, than to create man originally and independently. But this being, as we conceive, utterly at variance with His revealed word, and

Chap. xiv., conclusion.

† See chap. xiv., p. 481.