9HMKJM - The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

EVOLUTION AND THEOLOGY. 953
was submitted for and received one of the Actonian
prizes recently awarded by the Royal Institution of
Great Britain. TTe gather that the staple of a part
of it is worked up anew from some earlier discourses
of the author upon " Genesis and Geology," " Science
and Scripture not antagonistic," etc.
In coupling with it a chapter of the second volume
of Dr. Hodge's " Systematic Theology (Part II., An-
thropology)," we call attention to a recent essay, by
an able and veteran writer, on the other side of the
question. As the two fairly enough represent the extremes
of Christian thought upon the subject, it is
convenient to review them in connection. Theolo-
gians have a short and easy, if not wholly satisfactory,
way of refuting scientific doctrines which they object
to, by pitting the authority or opinion of one savant
against another. Already, amid the currents and eddies
of modern opinion, the savants may enjoy the
same advantage at the expense of the divines—we
mean, of course, on the scientific arena; for the mutual
refutation of conflicting theologians on their own
ground is no novelty. It is not by way of offset, however,
that these divergent or contradictory views are
here referred to, but only as an illustration of the fact
that the divines are by no means all arrayed upon one
side of the question in hand.
present
And indeed, in the
transition period, until some one goes much
deeper into the heart of the subject, as respects the relations
of modern science to the foundations of relig-
ious belief, than either of these writers has done, it is
as well that the weight of opinion should be distrib-
uted, even if only according to prepossessions, rather