avelling beyond his proper province. "An
omniscient Creator must have foreseen every consequence which results
from the laws imposed by Him. But can it be reasonably maintained that
the Creator intentionally ordered, if we use the words in any ordinary
sense, that certain fragments of rock should assume certain shapes, so
that the builder might erect his edifice? If the various laws which have
determined the shape of each fragment were not predetermined for the
builder's sake, can it be maintained with any greater probability that
He specially ordained for the sake of the breeder each of the
innumerable variations in our domestic animals and plants,--many of
these variations being of no service to man, and not beneficial, far
more often injurious, to the creatures themselves? Did He ordain that
the crop and tail-feathers of the pigeon should vary in order that the
fancier might make his grotesque pouter and fan-tail breeds? Did He
cause the frame and mental qualities of the dog to vary in order that a
breed might be formed of indomitable ferocity with jaws fitted to pin
down the bull for man's brutal sport?"

It is obvious, however, that if we give up the principle in one
case,--if we do not admit that the variations of the primeval dog were
intentionally guided in order that the greyhound, for instance, that
perfect image of symmetry and vigor, might be formed,--no shadow of
reason can be assigned for the belief that variations similar in nature
and the result of the same general laws which have been the groundwork
through natural selection of the formation of the most perfectly adapted
animals in the world, man included, were intentionally and specially
guided. Darwin, therefore, was unable to follow the distinguished
botanist, Prof. Asa Gray, in his belief that "variation has been led
along certain beneficial lines," like a stream "along definite and
useful lines of irrigation." Darwin's conclusion was that, if we assume
that each particular variation was from the beginning of all time
preordained, then that plasticity of organization which leads to many
injurious deviations of structure, as well as the redundant power of
reproduction which inevitably leads to a struggle for existence, and, as
a consequence, to a natural selection or survival of the fittest, must
appear to us superfluous laws of nature.

V.

Next to the "Origin of Species," the volume which sets forth Darwin's
theory of the "Descent of Man" na