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Show • VIIL WH.A.T IS DARWINISM ~ 1 (TJIE NATION, May 28, 1874.) TrrE question which Dr. Hodge asks he promptly and decisively answers: "What is Darwinism? it is atheism." ~ Leaving aside all subsidiary and incidental matters, let us consider-1. What the Darwinian doctrine is, and 2. I-Iow it is proved to be atheistic. Dr. Hodge's own statement of it cannot be very much bettered: "His [Darwin's] work on the 'Origin of Species' does not purport to be philosophical. In this aspect i~ is very different from the cognate works of Mr. Spencer. Darwm does not speculate on the origin of the universe, on the nature of matter or of force. He is simply a naturalist, a careful and laborious observer skillful in his descriptions, and singularly candid in dealino- wi~h the difficulties in the way of his peculiar doctrine. He 0 set before himself a single problem-namely, How are the fauna 1 "What is barwinism? By Charles Hodge, Princeton, N.J." New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 1874. . , "The Doctrine of Evolution. By Alexander Wmchell, LL.D., etc. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1874. "Darwi~ism and Design; or, Creation by Evolution. By George St. Clair." London: Hodder & Stoughton. 1873. "Westminstet· Sermons. By the Rev. Charles Kingsley, F. L. S., F. G. S., Canon of Westminster, etc." London and New York : Macmillan & Co. 1874. WHAT IS DARWINISM? 267 and flora of our earth to be accounted for? . • . To account for the existence of matter and life, Mr. Darwin admits a Oreator. This is done explicitly and r epeatedly. . . . He assumes the efficiency of physical causes, sAowing no disposition to resolve tAem into mind-force 01' into tAe efficiency of tAe First Cause . ... lie assumes, also, the existence of life in the form of one or more primordial germs .... How all living things on earth, including the endless variety of plants and all the diversity of animals, •.. have descendeu from the primordial animalcule, he thinks, may be accounted for by the operation of the following natural laws, viz.: First, the law of Heredity, or that by which like begets like-the offspring are like the parent. Second, the law of Variation; that is, while the offspring are in all essential characteristics like their immediate progenitor, they nevertheless vary more or less within narrow limits from their parent and from each other. Some of these variations are indifferent, some deteriorations, some improvements-that is, such as enable the plant or animal to .exercise its functions to greater ad vantage. Third, the law of Over-Production. All plants and animals tend to increase in a geometrical ratio, and therefore tend to overrun enormously the means of support. If all the se~ds of a plant, all the spawn of a fish, were.to arrive at maturity, in a very short time the world could not contain them. Hence, of necessity, arises a struggle for life. Only a few of the myriads born can possibly live. Fourth, here comes in the law of Natural Selection, or the Sur vi val of the Fittest; that is, if any individual of a given species of plant or animal happens to have a slight deviation from the normal type favorable to its success in the struggle for life, it will sm·vi ve. This variation, by the law of heredity, will be transmitted to its offspring, and by them again to theirs. Soon these favored ones gain the ascendency, and the less favored perish, and the modification becomes established in the species. Mter a time, another and another of such favorable ~ari.ations occur, with like results. Thus, very gradually, great changes of structure are introduced, and not only species, but genera, families, and orders, in the vegetable and animal world, are produced" (pp. 26-29). |