So much for fallacies and misconceptions touching Darwin's theory, which are but too frequently met with in the writings of its supporters. We must now pass on to mention some of the still greater fallacies and misconceptions which are prevalent in the writings of its opponents. And, in order to do this thoroughly, I shall begin by devoting the remainder of the present chapter to a consideration of the antecedent standing of the two theories of natural selection and supernatural design. This having been done, in the succeeding chapters I shall deal with the evidences for, and the objections against, the former theory. * * * * * Beginning, then, with the antecedent standing of these alternative theories, the first thing to be noticed is, that they are both concerned with the same subject-matter, which it is their common object to explain. Moreover, this subject-matter is clearly and sharply divisible into two great classes of facts in organic nature--namely, those of Adaptation and those of Beauty. Darwin's theory of descent explains the former by his doctrine of natural selection, and the latter by his doctrine of sexual selection. In the first instance, therefore, I shall have to deal only with the facts of adaptation, leaving for subsequent consideration the facts of beauty. Innumerable cases of the adaptation of organisms to their surroundings being the facts which now stand before us to be explained either by natural selection or by supernatural intention, we may first consider a statement which is frequently met with--namely, that even if all such cases of adaptation were proved to be fully explicable by the theory of descent, this would constitute no disproof of the theory of design: all the cases of adaptation, it is argued, might still be due to design, even though they admit of being hypothetically accounted for by the theory of descent. I have heard an eminent Professor tell his class that the many instances of mechanical adaptation discovered and described by Darwin as occurring in orchids, seemed to him to furnish better proof of supernatural contrivance than of natural causes; and another eminent Professor has informed me that, although he had read the _Origin of Species_ with care, he could see in it no evidence of natural selection which might not equally well have been adduced in favour of intelligent design. But here we meet with a radical misconception of the whole logical attitude of science. For, be it observed, this exception _in limine_ to the evidence which we are about to consider does not question that natural selection _may_ be able to do all that Darwin ascribes to it. The objection is urged against his interpretation of the facts merely on the ground that these facts might _equally well_ be ascribed to intelligent design. And so undoubtedly they might, if we were all simple enough to adopt a supernatural explanation whenever a natural one