which it can no more see again than a man may recall his infancy, I should expect to be a witness of the evolution of living protoplasm from not living matter. I should expect to see it appear under forms of great simplicity, endowed, like existing fungi, with the power of determining the formation of new protoplasm from such matters as ammonium carbonates, oxalates and tartrates, alkaline and earthy phosphates, and water, without the aid of light." ^ It had been well for the cause of truth, and well for hundreds who have been per- verted by his writings, if Mr. Darwin had recognized this distinc- tion between " scientific belief" needing " strong foundations," and " expectation " founded, as Professor Huxley says in a following sentence, "on analogical reasoning." In the paper already quoted in " Fraser's Magazine," the writer says in reference to Darwin : " We would also further remind him that the philosophical natu- ralist must not only train the eye to observe accurately, but the mind to think logically ; and the latter will often be found the harder task of the two. With respect to all but the exact sci- ences, it may be said that the highest mental faculty which they call upon us to exert is that by which we separate and appreciate justly the possible^ the prohahle^ and the demonstrable" ^
Darwin.
3. The third speculative view is that of Mr. Darwin and his associates, who admit not only the creation of matter, but of living matter, in the form of one or a few primordial germs from which without any purpose or design, by the slow operation of unintelli- gent natural causes, and accidental variations, during untold ages, all the orders, classes, genera, species, and varieties of plants and animals, from the lowest to the highest, man included, have been formed. Teleology, and therefore, mind, or God, is expressly ban- ished from the world. In arguing against the idea of God's con- trolling with design the operation of second causes, Mr. Dar- win asks, " Did He ordain that the crop and tail-feathers of the pigeon should vary, in order that the fancier might make his grotesque pouter and fan-tail breeds ? Did He cause the frame and mental qualities of the dog to vary in order that a breed might be formed of indomitable ferocity, with jaws fitted to pin down the bull for man's brutal sport ? But, if we give up the principle in one case, — if we do not admit that the variations of the primeval dog were intentionally guided, in order that the greyhound, for in- stance, that perfect image of symmetry and vigour, might be formed^ 1 AtheruBum, London, September 17, 1870, p. 376. 2 July, I860, p. 90.
24 PART n. Ch. I — origin of man.
— no shadow of reason can be assigned for the belief that variations, alike in nature and the result of the same general laws, which have been the groundwork thx'ough natural selection of the formation of the most perfectly adapted animals in the world, man included, were intentionally and specially guided. However much we may wish it, we can hardly follow Professor Asa Gray in his belief ' that vari- ation has been led along certain beneficial lines,' like a stream ' along definite and useful lines of irrigation.' " ^ In this paragraph man is declared to be an unintended product of nature.
J. J. Murphy.
4. Others again, unable to believe that unintelligent causes can produce effects indicating foresight and design, insist that there must be intelligence engaged in the production of such effects, but they place this intelligence in nature and not in God. This, as remarked above, is a revival of the old idea of a Demiurgus or Anima mimdi. Mr. J. J. Murphy, in his work on " Habit and Intelligence," says, I believe " that there is something in organic progress which mere natural selection among spontaneous varia- tions will not account for. Finally, I believe this something is that organizing intelligence which guides the action of the inorganic forces and forms structures which neither natural selection nor any other unintelligent agency could form." ^ What he means by intelligence and where it resides we learn from the preface to the first volume of his book. " The word intelligence," he says, " scarcely needs definition, as I use it in its familiar sense. It will not be questioned by any one that intelligence is found in none but living beings ; but it is not so obvious that intelligence is an attri- bute of all living beings, and coextensive with life itself. When I speak of intelligence, however, I mean not only the conscious in- telligence of the mind, but also the organizing intelligence which adapts the eye for seeing, the ear for hearing, and every other part of an organism for its work. The usual belief is, that the organ- izing intelligence and the mental intelligence are two distinct intel- ligences. I have stated the reasons for my belief that they are not distinct, but are two separate manifestations of the same intelli- gence, which is coextensive with life, though it is for the most part unconscious, and only becomes conscious of itself in the brain of man." ^
1 The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, ei\t New York, 1868, vol. ii. pp. 515, 516.
2 Habit and Intelligence, in their connection toith the Laws of Matter and Force, A aeriifi of Scientific Essays. By Joseph John Murphy. London, 1869, vol. i. p. 348.
• Ibid. vol. i. p. vi.