the atheistical character of a book is a recommendation, says tl)at Darwin's " theory is the most thoroughly naturalistic tliat can be iuiao-iued, and far more atheistic than that of his despised {verru- feneti) predecessor Lamarck, who admitted at lease a general law of progress and development ; whereas, according to Darwin, the whole development is due to the gradual summation of innumerable minute and accidental natural operations." ^
Mr. Darwin argues against any divine intervention in the course of nature, and especially in the production of species. He says that the time is coming when the doctrine of special creation, that is, the docti'ine that God made the plants and animals each after its kind, will be regarded as " a curious illustration of the blindness of pre- conceived opinion. These authors," he adds, " seem no more startled at a miraculous act of creation than at an oi'dinary birth. But do they really believe that at innumerable periods in the earth's history certain elemental atoms have been commanded suddenly to flash into living tissues?" [This is precisely what Darwin pro- fesses to believe happened at the beginning. If it happened once, it is not absurd that it should happen often.] "• Do they believe that at each supposed act of creation one individual or many weri' produced ? Were all the infinitely numerous kinds of animals and plants created as eggs or seed, or as full grown ? And in the case of mammals, were they created bearing the false marks of nourishment from the mother's womb? "^
Mr. Wallace devotes the eighth chapter of his work on " Natural Selection"^ to answering the objections urged by the Duke of Argyle to the Darwinian theory. He says, " The point on which the Duke lays most stress, is, that proofs of mind everywhere meet us in nature, and are more especially manifest wherever we find ' contrivance ' or ' beauty.' He maintains that this indicates the constant supervision and direct interference of the Creator, and cannot possibly be explained by the unassisted action of any combi-
efftct as a watch which shall keep time, is a contrivinjT intelligence adapting the means directly to that end." Suppose, however, he goes on to sa.j, it could be shown that the watch was the product of a structure which kept time poorl}'; and that of a structure which was no watch at all, and that of a mere revolving barrel, then " the force of Paley's argu- ment would be gone;" and it would be "demonstrated that an apparatus thoroughly well adapted to a particular purpose might be the result of a method of trial and error worked by unintelligent agents, as well as of the direct application of the means appropriate to that end, by nn intelligent agent." This is precisely what he understands Darwin to have accomplished.
1 Seclis Vovlesvngm iiber die Darwin'sche TTieorie, etc., by Ludwig Biichner, Zweite Auflage, Leipzig, 1868, p. 125.
■2 Origin of Species, ^. bll.
8 Wallace on Natural Selection, p. 264.