Natural selection not inconsistent with natural theology : a free examination of Darwin's treatise On the origin of species, and of its American reviewers / by Asa Gray.
- Asa Gray
- Date:
- 1861
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Natural selection not inconsistent with natural theology : a free examination of Darwin's treatise On the origin of species, and of its American reviewers / by Asa Gray. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![85 ! I , .or less than a formal denial of any agency beyond that of a blind I hance in the developing or perfecting of the organs or instincts of rented beings.” “It is in vain that the apologists of this hypothesis I jight say that it merely attributes a different mode and time to the rOivine agency, — that all the qualities subsequently appearing in their ^descendants must have been implanted, and remained latent in the frriginal pair.” Such a view, the Examiner declares, “is nowhere ji.tated in this book, and would be, we are sure, disclaimed by the au- |;aor.” We should like to be informed of the grounds of this sureness. ?he marked rejection of spontaneous generation, — the statement of a (elief that all animals have descended from four or five progenitors, nd plants from an equal or lesser number, or, perhaps, if constrained it by analogy, “from some one primordial form into which life was i rst breathed,” — coupled with the expression, “ To my mind it accords tetter with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the ■>eator, that the production and extinction of the past and present in- aabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes,” nan “ that each species has been independently created,” — these and iiimilar expressions lead us to suppose that the author probably does eccept the kind of view which the “ Examiner ” is sure he would L'isclaim. At least, we charitably see nothing in his scientific theory )) hinder his adoption of Lord Bacon’s Confession of Faith in this e 3gard, — “ That, notwithstanding God hath rested and ceased from creating, [in the sense ‘ f supernatural origination,] yet, nevertheless, He doth accomplish and fulfil His i'ivine will in all things, great and small, singular and general, as fully and exactly f j providence as He could by miracle and new creation, though His working be not n nmediate and direct, but by compass ; not violating Nature, which is His own law pon the creature.” However that may be, it is undeniable that Mr. Darwin has purposely f een silent upon the philosophical and theological applications of his dieory. This reticence, under the circumstances, argues design, and taises inquiry as to the final cause or reason why. Here, as in higher ■istances, confident as we are that there is a final cause, we must not e over-confident that we can infer the particular of true one. Per- ‘aps the author is more familiar with natural-historical than with hilosophical inquiries, and, not having decided which particular theory bout efficient cause is best founded, he meanwhile argues the scientific : uestions concerned — all that relates to secondary causes — upon •urely scientific grounds, as he must do in any case. Perhaps, confi- ent, as he evidently is, that his view will finally be adopted, he may njoy a sort of satisfaction in hearing it denounced as sheer atheism by he inconsiderate, and afterwards, when it takes its place with the neb-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22344949_0035.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
