In answer to this objection, he says: "It has been said, that I speak of
natural selection as a power or deity; but who objects to an author
speaking of the attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the
planet?" He admits that in the literal sense of the words, natural
selection is a false term; but "who ever objected to chemists, speaking
of the elective affinities of various elements?--and yet an acid cannot
strictly be said to elect the base with which it in preference
combines." (p. 93) We have here an affirmation and a negation. It is
affirmed that natural selection is the operation of natural laws,
analogous to the action of gravitation and of chemical affinities. It is
denied that it is a process originally designed, or guided by
intelligence, such as the activity which foresees an end and consciously
selects and controls the means of its accomplishment. Artificial
selection, then, is an intelligent process; natural selection is not.
There are in the animal and vegetable worlds innumerable instances of at
least apparent contrivance, which have excited the admiration of men in
all ages. There are three ways of accounting for them. The first is the
Scriptural doctrine, namely, that God is a Spirit, a personal,
self-conscious, intelligent agent; that He is infinite, eternal, and
unchangeable in his being and perfections; that He is ever present; that
this presence is a presence of knowledge and power.
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