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characters exhibited by species in nature, has ever been originated by selection either artificial or natural."*

St. George Mivart, F. R. S., also, after enumerating the objections and difficulties of the theory, and reviewing them over 240 pages, says: "A cumulative argument thus arises against the prevalent action of natural selection, which to the mind of the author is conclusive. As before observed, he was not originally disposed to reject Mr. Darwin's fascinating theory. Reiterated endeavors to solve its difficulties have, however, had the effect of convincing him that that theory as the one, or as the leading explanation of the successive evolution and manifestation of specific forms, is untenable. At the same time he admits fully that natural selection acts, and must act, and that it plays in the organic world a certain, though a secondary and subordinate part."†

Space will only permit one other testimony, and we will take it from one of the ablest American evolutionists, Professor Winchell. After a lucid exhibition of the difficulties, covering 90 pages, of the last of which-the necessity of multitudes of animals simultaneously exhibiting similar minute favorable variations in the same region, and for thousands of generations, in order to overcome the preponderant numbers of the original type-he says: "It seems to us the Darwinist is here placed in an appalling dilemma, and that the only rescue is in precipitate retreat." He goes on to add: "In offering this array of difficulties, which the theory of the organic evolution of organic beings must encounter and vanquish, we have not taken the time to indicate distinctly against what phase of the doctrine the difficulty more especially presses. We think it proper therefore to state in general, that all the objections seem to be valid against those forms of the doctrine which assume a gradual variation involving

*Lay Sermons, p. 323.

† Genesis of Species, p. 240.

vast periods of time, and necessitating the intervention of all conceivable links. That is, they all rest against the theories which appeal solely to external influences, like those of De Maillet and Darwin, etc. . . . . The principle of natural selection, or survival of the fittest, it ought to be remarked, though inadequate to account for the origin of new forms, may be legitimately appealed to for their preservation when produced by any adequate means. Viewing specific types as absolutely constant, with a limited elasticity, it may undoubtedly be regarded the principle of the survival of the fittest which maintains the species at the healthful standard of normal vigor."* On page 49 he says: "The Lamarckian theory of inherent appetency is little insisted on at the present day; and unmodified Darwinism, it may be added, has fallen into disrepute. Neither Huxley, nor Parsons, nor Mivart, nor even Wallace, one of its original propounders, accepts the doctrine in its integrity," etc.

Darwinism, then, has had its day, like many another once popular ism and ology. It has been succeeded by a number of rivals for popularity, each evolutionist having an improved theory of his own. But none of them has equaled Mr. Darwin in presenting a multitude of facts in pleasant popular style, nor in dressing up fictions as plausible presumptions; and so none of them has achieved anything like his popularity. If the preceding view of the difficulties of the theory has satisfied my readers that Darwinism is an untenable hypothesis, I do not suppose they will try to lasso another horse out of that band, for Darwin's is the best of the drove; and we see how he has stumbled and thrown his rider. It is needless to discuss improvements in the saddle when the rider has broken his neck.

I have not glanced at all at the difficulties connected

The Doctrine of Evolution, p. 79.

with the evolution of man, nor at the moral and religious problems raised by the survival of the fittest as the law of society. These we hope to consider hereafter.

The failure of natural selection leaves us in possession of the Bible account of creation; that "God created the beast of the earth after his kind, cattle and creeping things of the earth after their kind;" birds, and fishes, and the great geological monsters, after their kind; and they continue as He created them. The death of Darwinism leaves us also in undisputed possession of all the evidence of the wisdom and goodness of God which Christian philosophers have delighted to discover in the beautiful contrivances of the structures of plants and animals. That result is worth contending for. In the struggle for existence God still lives, and shall live, even in the principle of the survival of the fittest. It would be a poor exchange for the struggling world of working men to accept Natural Selection instead of our Father in heaven.

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Agricola, 94.

INDEX.

American Cyclopedia, 38.
Anaximander: Matter and motion,
45; an ancient Darwinian, 92, 74.
Animalculæ, 181, 183.
Ansted, Prof., on granite, 144.
Anti-christian clergymen, 104.
Argyle, Duke of, 262, 263.
Asiatic Evolutionists, 170.
Asylum for Animals, 174.

Atheistic conceit and guess work,
22, 24.

Atlantic Ocean's depth and tempera-
ture, 130.

Babinet, rotation of nebulæ, 33.
Bakewell on granite, 135.
Barraude, Joachim, 225.
Boussingault on mountains, 121.
Brahma, his age, 88.
Brahma and his egg, 86.

Bricks, compound, not eternal, 61.
Buchner's matter and force, 171.
Buckland, Dr., 104.

Buddha, 170.

Buffon, 99.

Bunsen's discoveries, 61, 64.

Comte's mathematical forgery, 33,
34.

Correlation of forces, 49.
Crockery steam-boiler, 127.
Crosse, Andrew, 181.

Crust of the earth, its thickness,124.

Darwinism, 201.

Darwin a believer in Christianity,
205n; Darwin's bear, 217; his
confessions of ignorance, 215; de-
nial of Divine Providence, 215.
Dawson, Prof., 235.
De Castilio, 96.
De Maillet, 176.

Density of Solar System, 34.
Descartes, Cosmogony, 14.
Deucalion, deluge of, 91.
Disagreement of geologists, 119.
Droz's writing boy, 47.

Early Fathers on Evolution, 206.
Earth not a molten mass, 116.
Egyptian brick making, 134.
Egyptian geology, 91.
Eternal freeze-up, 112.
Eternity of matter, 56.

Burnet, Theory of the Earth, 96, 97. Equlibrium of forces, 52.

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Evolu tion, its pedigree, 170; Tyn-
dall, 162; McCosh, 270; Spencer,
206; Winchell, 219.

Falloppio, 94.
Forbes, David, 122.

Gay Lussac on earthquakes, 120.
Geological map from a spiritualistic
vision, 105.
Geological evolution, 81.

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