ut reasonable to regard
the force of gravitation as the direct or indirect result of a
consciousness or will existing somewhere.' And even if we cannot
certainly identify force in all its forms with the direct energies of
the one Omnipresent and All-pervading Will, it is at least in the
highest degree unphilosophical to assert the contrary,--to think or to
speak, as if the forces of nature were either independent of, or even
separate from the Creator's power."[6] The Duke, however, in the general
tenor of his book, does not differ from the common doctrine, except in
one point. He does not deny the efficiency of physical causes, or
resolve them all into the efficiency of God; but he teaches that God, in
this world at least, never acts except through those causes. He applies
this doctrine even to miracles, which he regards as effects produced by
second causes of which we are ignorant, that is, by some higher law of
nature. The Scriptures, however, teach that God is not thus bound; that
He operates through second causes, with them, or without them, as He
sees fit. It is a purely arbitrary assumption, that when Christ raised
the dead, healed the lepers, or gave sight to the blind, any second
cause intervened between the effect and the efficiency of his will. What
physical law, or uniformly acting force, operated to make the axe float
at the command of the prophet? or, in that greatest of all miracles,
the original creation of the world.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] _The Theory of Natural Selection._ By Alfred Russel Wallace. London,
1870, p. 368.

[6] _Reign of Law._ By the Duke of Argyle. Fifth edition, London, 1867,
p. 123.

_Mr. Darwin's Theory._

We have not forgotten Mr. Darwin. It seemed desirable, in order to
understand his theory, to see its relation to other theories of the
universe and its phenomena, with which it is more or less connected. His
work on the "Origin of Species" does not purport to be philosophical. In
this aspect it is very different from the cognate works of Mr. Spencer.
Darwin does not speculate on the origin of the universe, on the nature
of matter, or of force. He is simply a naturalist, a careful and
laborious observer; skillful in his descriptions, and singularly candid
in dealing with the difficulties in the way of his peculiar doctrine. He
set before himself a single problem, namely, How are the fauna and flora
of our earth to be accounted for? In the solution of this problem, he
assumes:--