Owen.
5. Professor Owen, England's great naturalist, agrees witn Dar- win in two points : first, in the derivation or gradual evolution of species ; and secondly, that this derivation is determined by the operation of natural causes. " I have been led," he says, " to recog- nize species as exemplifying the continuous operation of natural law, or secondary cause ; and that, not only successively, but pro- gressively ; from the first embodiment of the vertebrate idea under its old ichthyic vestment until it became arrayed in the glorious garb of the human form." ^ He differs from Darwin in that he does not refer the origin of species to natural selection, i. e., to the law of the survival of the fittest of accidental variations ; but to inherent or innate tendencies. " Every species changes, in time, by virtue of inherent tendencies thereto." ^ And in the second place he does not regard these changes as accidental variations, but as designed and carried out in virtue of an original plan. " Species owe as little," he says^ "to the accidental concurrence of environ- ing circumstances as Kosmos depends on a fortuitous concourse of atoms. A purposive route of development and change, of cor- relation and interdependence, manifesting intelligent will, is as determinable in the succession of races as in the development and organization of the individual. Generations do not vary acciden- tally, in any and every direction ; but in preordained, definite, and correlated courses." *
The Reign of Law Theory.
6. Still another view is that which demands intelligence to ac- count for the wonders of organic life, and finds that intelligence in God, but repudiates the idea of the supernatural. That is, it does not admit that God ever works except through second causes or by the laws of nature. Those who adopt this view are willing to ad- mit the derivation of species ; and to concede that extant species were formed by the modifications of those which preceded them ; but maintain that they were thus formed according to the purpose, and by the continued agency, of God ; an agency ever operative in guiding the operation of natural laws so that they accomplish the designs of God. The difference between this and Professor Owen's theory is, that he does not seem to admit of this continued
1 American Journal of Science, 1869, p. 43.
2 Ibid. p. 52. 3 Ibid. p. 52.
< See Prof. Owen's work on the Anatomy of Vertebrates, the fortieth chapter, which ehapter was reprinted in the American Journal of Science for Jauuaiy 1809.
26 PART I. Ch. L — origin OF MAN.
intelligent control of God in nature, but refers everything to the original, preordaining purpose or plan of the Divine Being.
7. Finally, without pretending to exhaust the speculations on this subject, we have what may be called the commonly receiv^ed and Scriptural doctrine. That doctrine teaches, — (1.) That the uni- verse and all it contains owe their existence to the will and powei of God ; that matter is not eternal, nor is life self-originating. (2.) God endowed matter with properties or forces, Avhich He up- holds, and in accordance with which He works in all the ordinary operations of his providence. That is, He uses them everywhere and constantly, as we use them in our narrow sphere. (3.) That in the beginning He created, or caused to be, every distinct kind of plant and animal : " And God said. Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth : and it was so." " And God said. Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind : and it was so." This is the Scriptural account of the origin of species. According to this account each species was specially created, not ex nihilo, nor without the intervention of secondary causes, but nevertheless originally, or not derived, evolved, or developed from preexisting species. These distinct species, or kinds of plants and animals thus separately originated, are permanent. They never pass from one into the other. It is, however, to be remembered that species are of two kinds, as naturalists distinguish them, namely, natural and artificial. The former are those wliich have their foundation in nature ; which had a distinct origin, and are capable of indefinite propagation. The latter are such distinc- tions as naturalists have made for their own convenience. Of course, it is not intended that every one of the so-called species of plants and animals is original and permanent, when the only dis- tinction between one species and another may be the accidental shape of a leaf or colour of a feather. It is only of such species as have their foundation in nature that originality and permanence are asserted. Artificial species, as they are called, are simply vari- eties. Fertility of offspring is the recognized criterion of sameness of species. If what has been just said be granted, then, if at any time since the original creation, new species have appeared on the earth, they owe their existence to the immediate intervention of God.
Here then are at least seven different views as to the origin of species. How is it possible for science to decide between them }