Part 1

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WHAT IS DARWINISM?

BY CHARLES HODGE, PRINCETON, N. J.

NEW YORK: SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG, AND COMPANY. 1874.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG, & COMPANY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

CONTENTS.

PAGE IMPORTANCE OF THE QUESTION 1

DIFFERENT THEORIES AS TO THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE, AND SPECIALLY OF VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL ORGANISMS. 1. The Scriptural Theory 3 2. The Pantheistic Theory 7 3. The Epicurean Theory 10 4. The Doctrine of Herbert Spencer 11 5. Hylozoic Theory 21 6. Unscriptural Forms of Theism 22

DARWIN'S THEORY 26

NATURAL SELECTION 31

SENSE IN WHICH DARWIN USES THE WORD NATURAL 40

THE THREE ELEMENTS OR DARWINISM 48

THE EXCLUSION OF DESIGN IN NATURE THE FORMATIVE IDEA OF DARWIN'S THEORY 49

PROOF OF DARWIN'S DENIAL OF TELEOLOGY, FROM HIS OWN WRITINGS 53

PROOF FROM THE EXPOSITIONS OF HIS THEORY BY ITS AVOWED ADVOCATES. Mr. Russell Wallace 64 Professor Huxley 72 Dr. Buechner 84 Carl Vogt 85 Prof. Haeckel 87 Strauss 147

PROOF FROM THE OBJECTIONS URGED BY THE OPPONENTS OF MR. DARWIN'S THEORY. Duke of Argyll 96 Agassiz 101 Professor Janet 105 M. Flourens 108 Rev. Walter Mitchell 111 Principal Dawson 119

RELATION OF DARWINISM TO RELIGION 125

CAUSES OF THE ANTAGONISM BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION 126

THE EVOLUTION THEORY CONTRARY TO FACTS AND TO SCRIPTURE 141

SIR WILLIAM THOMSON ON TELEOLOGY 165

DR. ASA GRAY 174

DARWINISM TANTAMOUNT TO ATHEISM 177

WHAT IS DARWINISM?

This is a question which needs an answer. Great confusion and diversity of opinion prevail as to the real views of the man whose writings have agitated the whole world, scientific and religious. If a man says he is a Darwinian, many understand him to avow himself virtually an atheist; while another understands him as saying that he adopts some harmless form of the doctrine of evolution. This is a great evil.

It is obviously useless to discuss any theory until we are agreed as to what that theory is. The question, therefore, What is Darwinism? must take precedence of all discussion of its merits.

The great fact of experience is that the universe exists. The great problem which has ever pressed upon the human mind is to account for its existence. What was its origin? To what causes are the changes we witness around us to be referred? As we are a part of the universe, these questions concern ourselves. What are the origin, nature, and destiny of man? Professor Huxley is right in saying, "The question of questions for mankind--the problem which underlies all others, and is more interesting than any other--is the ascertainment of the place which Man occupies in nature and of his relation to the universe of things. Whence our race has come, what are the limits of our power over nature, and of nature's power over us, to what goal are we tending, are the problems which present themselves anew and with undiminished interest to every man born into the world." Mr. Darwin undertakes to answer these questions. He proposes a solution of the problem which thus deeply concerns every living man. Darwinism is, therefore, a theory of the universe, at least so far as the living organisms on this earth are concerned. This being the case, it may be well to state, in few words, the other prevalent theories on this great subject, that the points of agreement and of difference between them and the views of Mr. Darwin may be the more clearly seen.

The Scriptural Solution of the Problem of the Universe.