Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/110

100 simple particle of protoplasm, unendowed with any distinctive forces, then the whole of the complex phenomena of animal and vegetable life are effects without causes. Protoplasm may be chemically the same substance, and the germ-cell of a man and of a fish may be apparently the same, so far as the microscope can decide; but if certain cells produce men, and others as uniformly produce a given species of fish, there must be a hidden constitution determining the extremely different results. If this were not so, the generation of every living creature from the uniform germ would have to be regarded as a distinct act of arbitrary creation.

Theologians have dreaded the establishment of the theories of Darwin and Spencer, as if they thought that those theories could explain every thing upon the purest mechanical and material principles, and exclude all notions of design. They do not see that those theories have opened up more questions than they have closed. The doctrine of Evolution gives a complete explanation of no single living form. While showing the general principles which prevail in the variation of living creatures, it only points out the infinite complexity of the causes and circumstances which have led to the present state of things. Any one of Mr. Darwin's books, admirable though they all are, consists but in the setting forth of a multitude of indeterminate problems. He proves in the most beautiful manner, that each flower of an orchid is adapted to some insect which frequents and fertilizes it, and these adaptations are but a few cases of those immensely numerous ones which have occurred throughout the life of plants and animals. But why orchids should have been formed so differently from other plants, why any thing, indeed, should be as it is, rather than in some of the other infinitely numerous possible modes of existence, he can never show. The origin of every thing that exists is wrapped up in the past history of the universe. At some one or more points in past time there must have been arbitrary determinations which led to the production of things as they are.

The following article, upon the same general subject, recently appeared in Church and State:

The last lecture in the course on "Christian Truth and Modern Opinion" was delivered in Christ Church, New York. The subject was, "Evolution and a Personal Creator." Dr. Smith commenced by saying that while he was very far from being an advocate for the theory of evolution, it was no part of his purpose to attempt its refutation. He expressed the opinion, judging from former conflicts between religious and scientific theories, and the evident tendency of scientific investigation and discovery, that not many years would pass away before some theory of evolution would be generally accepted by