, is a great achievement.

Darwin was as far from being as sure of the truth of Darwinism as many
of his disciples were, and still are. He said in 1860, in a letter to
one of his American correspondents, "I have never for a moment doubted
that, though I cannot see my errors, much of my book ["The Origin of
Species"] will be proved erroneous." Again he said, in 1862, "I look
at it as absolutely certain that very much in the 'Origin' will be
proved rubbish; but I expect and hope that the framework will stand."

Its framework is the theory of Evolution, which is very sure to stand.
In its inception his theory is half-miracle and half-fact. He assumes
that in the beginning (as if there ever was or could be a "beginning,"
in that sense) God created a few forms, animal and vegetable, and then
left it to the gods of Evolution, the chief of which is Natural
Selection, to do the rest. While Darwin would not admit any
predetermining factors in Evolution, or that any innate tendency to
progressive development existed, he said he could not look upon the
world of living things as the result of chance. Yet in fortuitous, or
chance, variation he saw one of the chief factors of Evolution.

The world of Chance into which Darwinism delivers us--what can the
thoughtful mind make of it?

That life with all its myriad forms is the result of chance is,
according to Professor Osborn, a biological dogma. He everywhere uses
the word "chance" as opposed to law, or to the sequence of cause and
effect. This, it seems to me, is a misuse of the term. Is law, in this
sense, ever suspended or annulled? If one chances to fall off his
horse or his house, is it not gravity that pulls him down? Are not the
laws of energy everywhere operative in all movements of matter in the
material world? Chance is not opposed to law, but to design. Anything
that befalls us that was not designed is a matter of chance. The
fortuitous enters largely into all human life. If I carelessly toss a
stone across the road, it is a matter of chance just where it will
fall, but its course is not lawless. Does not gravity act upon it?
does not the resistance of the air act upon it? does not the muscular
force of my arm act upon it? and does not this complex of physical
forces determine the precise spot where the stone shall fall? If, in
its fall, it were to hit a bird or a mouse or a flower, that would be
a matter of chance, so far as my will was concerned. Is not a meteoric
sto