o, and that wide amount of
divergence from what human action would be, which might be expected _a
priori_--might be expected, that is, from a Being whose nature and aims are
utterly beyond our power to imagine, however faintly, but whose truth and
goodness are the fountain and source of our own perceptions of such
qualities.

The view of evolution maintained in this work, though arrived at in
complete independence, yet seems to agree in many respects with the views
advocated by Professor Owen in the last volume of his "Anatomy of
Vertebrates," under the term "derivation." He says:[244] "Derivation holds
that every species changes in time, by virtue of inherent tendencies
thereto. 'Natural Selection' holds that no such change can take place
without the influence of altered external circumstances.[245] {239}
'Derivation' sees among the effects of the innate tendency to change
irrespective of altered circumstances, a manifestation of creative power in
the variety and beauty of the results; and, in the ultimate forthcoming of
a being susceptible of appreciating such beauty, evidence of the
pre-ordaining of such relation of power to the appreciation. 'Natural
Selection' acknowledges that if ornament or beauty, in itself, should be a
purpose in creation, it would be absolutely fatal to it as a hypothesis."

"'Natural Selection' sees grandeur in the view of life, with its several
powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or
into one. 'Derivation' sees therein a narrow invocation of a special
miracle and an unworthy limitation of creative power, the grandeur of which
is manifested daily, hourly, in calling into life many forms, by conversion
of physical and chemical into vital modes of force, under as many
diversified conditions of the requisite elements to be so combined."

The view propounded in this work allows, however, a greater and more
important part to the share of external influences, it being believed by
the Author, however, that these external influences equally with the
internal ones are the results of one harmonious action underlying the whole
of nature, organic and inorganic, cosmical, physical, chemical,
terrestrial, vital, and social.

According to this view, an internal law presides over the actions of every
part of every individual, and of every organism as a unit, and of the
entire organic world as a whole. It is believed that this conception of an
internal innate forc