and the "Principia." Equally in either case an intelligence, guided by
a purpose, must be continually in action to bias the directions of the
steps of change--to regulate their amount, to limit their divergence,
and to continue them in a definite course. We do not believe that Mr.
Darwin means to deny the necessity of such intelligent direction. But it
does not, so far as we can see, enter into the formula of this law, and
without it we are unable to conceive how far the law can have led to
the results. On the other hand, we do not mean to deny that such
intelligence may act according to a law (that is to say, on a
preconceived and definite plan). Such law, stated in words, would be
no other than the actual observed law of organic succession; a one more
general, taking that form when applied to our own planet, and including
all the links of the chain which have disappeared. BUT THE ONE LAW IS A
NECESSARY SUPPLEMENT TO THE OTHER, AND OUGHT, IN ALL LOGICAL PROPRIETY,
TO FORM A PART OF ITS ENUNCIATION. Granting this, and with some demur
as to the genesis of man, we are far from disposed to repudiate the view
taken of this mysterious subject in Mr. Darwin's book." The sentence
in italics is no doubt the one referred to in the letter to Lyell. See
Letter 243.), has a sentence with respect to the "Origin," something to
the effect that the higher law of Providential Arrangement should always
be stated. But astronomers do not state that God directs the course
of each comet and planet. The view that each variation has been
providentially arranged seems to me to make Natural Selection entirely
superfluous, and indeed takes the whole case of the appearance of new
species out of the range of science. But what makes me most object to
Asa Gray's view is the study of the extreme variability of domestic
animals. He who does not suppose that each variation in the pigeon was
providentially caused, by accumulating which variations, man made
a Fantail, cannot, I think, logically argue that the tail of the
woodpecker was formed by variations providentially ordained. It seems
to me that variations in the domestic and wild conditions are due to
unknown causes, and are without purpose, and in so far accidental; and
that they become purposeful only when they are selected by man for his
pleasure, or by what we call Natural Selection in the struggle for life,
and under changing conditions. I do not wish to say that God did not
foresee everything w