18]

So much for writers of early and mediaeval times. As to the present day, the
Author can confidently affirm that there are many as well versed in
theology as Mr. Darwin is in his own department of natural knowledge, who
would not be disturbed by the thorough demonstration of his theory. Nay,
they would not even be in the least painfully affected at witnessing the
generation of animals of complex organization by the skilful artificial
arrangement of natural forces, and the production, in the future, of a
fish, by means analogous to those by which we now produce urea.

And this because they know that the possibility of such phenomena, though
by no means actually foreseen, has yet been fully provided for in the old
philosophy centuries before Darwin, or even before Bacon, and that their
place in the system can be at once assigned them without even disturbing
its order or marring its harmony.

Moreover, the old tradition in this respect has never been abandoned,
however much it may have been ignored or neglected by some modern writers.
In proof of this it may be observed that perhaps no post-mediaeval
theologian has a wider reception amongst Christians throughout the world
than Suarez, who has a separate section[13] in opposition to those who
maintain the distinct creation of the various kinds--or substantial
forms--of organic life.

But the consideration of this matter must be deferred for the present, and
the question of evolution, whether Darwinian or other, be first gone into.
It is proposed, after that has been done, to return to this subject (here
merely alluded to), and to consider at some length the bearing of
"Evolution," whether Darwinian or non-Darwinian, upon "Creation and
Theism."

Now we will revert simply to the consideration of the theory of "Natural
Selection" itself.

{19}
Whatever may have hitherto been the amount of acceptance that this theory
has met with, all, I think, anticipated that the appearance of Mr. Darwin's
large and careful work on "Animals and Plants under Domestication" could
but further increase that acceptance. It is, however, somewhat
problematical how far such anticipations will be realized. The newer book
seems to add after all but little in support of the theory, and to leave
most, if not all, its difficulties exactly where they were. It is a
question, also, whether the hypothesis of "Pangenesis"[14] may