38 PART n. Cii. L— ORIGIN OF MAN.
nation of laws. Now Mr. Darwin's work has for its main object, to show, that all the phenomena of living things — all their won- derful organs and complicated structures ; their infinite variety of form, size, and colour; their intricate and involved relations to each other, — may have been produced by the action of a few geiieral laws of the simplest kind, — laws which are in most cases mere statements of admitted facts." ^ In opposition to the doctrine that God " applies general laws to produce effects which those laws are not in themselves capable of producing," he says, " I believe, on the contrary, that the universe is so constituted as to be self-regu- lating ; that as long as it contains life, the forms under which that life is manifested have an inherent power of adjustment to each other and to surrounding nature ; and that this adjustment neces- sarily leads to the greatest amount of variety and beauty and enjoyment, because it does depend on general laws, and not on a continual supervision and rearrangement of details." ^
Dr. Gray^ endeavours to vindicate Darwin's theory from the charge of atheism. His arguments, however, only go to prove that the doctrine of development, or derivation of species, ma}' be held in a form consistent with theism. This no one denies. They do not prove that Mr. Darwin presents it in that form. Dr. Gray himself admits all that those who regard the Darwinian theory as atheistic contend for.* He says, " The proposition that things arid events in nature were not designed to be so, if logically carried out, is doubtless tantamount to atheism." Again,^ he says, " To us, a fortuitous Cosmos is simply inconceivable. The alternative
is a designed Cosmos If Mr. Darwin believes that the
events which he supposes to have occurred and the results we
1 Wallace on Natural Selection, p. 265. When a man speaks of the "action of law," he must mean by law a permanent, regularly acting force. Yet the hiws to which Mr. Wallace refers in the above passage are not forces, but simply rules according to which an agent acts, or, a regular, established sequence of events. The laws intended are the law of multi- plication in geometrical progression, the law of limited populations, the law of heredity, the law of variation, the law of unceasing change of phj'sical conditions upon the surface of the earth, the equilibrium or harmonj' of nature. There is no objection to these being called laws. But there is the strongest objection to using the word law in different senses in the same argument. If law here mean the rule according to which an agent (in ihis case God) acts, the Duke of Argyle could agree with every word Mr. Wallace says; if taken in the sense intended by the writer, the passage teaches the direct reverse, namely, that all the world is or contains is due to unintelligent physical forces.
2 Ibkl. p. 268. Mr. Russel Wallace says that he believes that all the wonders of animal and vegetable organisms and life can be accounted for by unintelligent, physical laws. The fact, however, is, as we have already seen, that he believes no such thing. He does not believe that there is any such thing as matter or unintelligent forces; all force is mind force; and the only power operative in the universe is the will of the Supreme Intelligence.
* In the October number of the Atlantic Monthly for 1860.
* On page 409. s On page 416.