This is done expressly by
Buechner, Haeckel, Vogt, and Strauss. The opponents of Darwinism direct
their objections principally against this element of the doctrine. This,
as was stated by Rev. Dr. Peabody, was the main ground of the earnest
opposition of Agassiz to the theory. America's great botanist, Dr. Asa
Gray, avows himself an evolutionist; but he is not a Darwinian. Of that
point we have the clearest possible proof. Mr. Darwin, after explicitly
denying that the variations which have resulted in "the formation of the
most perfectly adapted animals in the world, man included, were
intentionally and specially guided," adds: "However much we may wish it,
we can hardly follow Professor Asa Gray in his belief 'that variation
has been led along certain beneficial lines' like a stream 'along
definite and useful lines of irrigation.'"[58] If Mr. Darwin does not
agree with Dr. Gray, Dr. Gray does not agree with Mr. Darwin. It is as
to the exclusion of design from the operations of nature that our
American, differs from the English, naturalist. This is the vital point.
The denial of final causes is the formative idea of Darwin's theory, and
therefore no teleologist can be a Darwinian.
Dr. Gray quotes from another writer the sentence, "It is a singular
fact, that when we can find how anything is done, our first conclusion
seems to be that God did not do it;" and then adds, "I agree with the
writer that this first conclusion is premature and unworthy; I will add,
deplorable.
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