(3) Both of the above effects seem to me of high, perhaps the very
highest, importance to faith and to thought. But, under the third
head, I name two which are more directly traceable to the personal
work of Darwin, and more definitely characteristic of the age in which
his influence was paramount: viz. the influence of the two conceptions
of evolution and natural selection upon the doctrine of creation and
of design respectively.
It is impossible here, though it is necessary for a complete sketch of
the matter, to distinguish the different elements and channels of this
Darwinian influence; in Darwin's own writings, in the vigourous
polemic of Huxley, and strangely enough, but very actually for popular
thought, in the teaching of the definitely anti-Darwinian evolutionist
Spencer.
Under the head of the directly and purely Darwinian elements I should
class as preeminent the work of Wallace and of Bates; for no two sets
of facts have done more to fix in ordinary intelligent minds a belief
in organic evolution and in natural selection as its guiding factor
than the facts of geographical distribution and of protective colour
and mimicry. The facts of geology were difficult to grasp and the
public and theologians heard more often of the imperfection than of
the extent of the geological record. The witness of embryology,
depending to a great extent upon microscopic work, was and is beyond
the appreciation of persons occupied in fields of work other than
biology.
III
From the influence in religion of scientific modes of thought we pass
to the influence of particular biological conceptions. The former
effect comes by way of analogy, example, encouragement and challenge;
inspiring or provoking kindred or similar modes of thought in the
field of theology; the latter by a collision of opinions upon matters
of fact or conjecture which seem to concern both science and religion.
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