The Relation of Science and Religion.pdf - Online Christian Library

LIFE AND ITS DE EEL OPIMENT. 157This has been specially urged by Mr. Mivartas bearing upon the " incipient stages " of advance,and the difficulty certainly pressesheavily at that point. Natural selection mayaccount for much in the history of higher organismswhere powers of sensibility and locomotionare great, but how can we find innaturd selection an adequate explanation ofprogress jg? organisms within which these powersare at the lowest. The difficulty is to geta cause sufficient to account for the start ofa movement so vast as that which is to culminatein man. Mr. Darwin feels the forceof this difficulty, and replies thus, "as we haveno facts to guide us, speculation on the subjectis almost useless."* But this perplexitywhich is most glaring at the beginning of theupward course, clings to the theory at everystage in the combination of struggle and improvement,-descentinvolving a real ascent.Whether the organism be more or less complex,it depends upon external causes for itsimprovement, and the dependence continuesat every stage. Granting that there is everywherestruggle for existence and survival ofthe fittest, are these sufficient to account for* Origin of Species, 6th. ed. chap. iv. p. 100.