from a common progenitor _to diverge_ in character."[BE] This short passage in personal history may considerably aid others in their study of the theory. This letter may with advantage be supplemented by one or two brief extracts from _The Origin of Species_. In one of his most recent editions, our author says,--"It may be metaphorically said, that natural selection is daily; and hourly scrutinizing throughout the world the slightest variations, rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life." Such a metaphorical representation attributing to nature different processes, such as scrutinizing, rejecting, preserving, and working, considerably aids us by pointing to the _intellectual_ conditions involved in the acceptance of the theory of evolution. To this it may suffice if there be added the closing passage in our author's work on species, indicating his view of the relation of all to the supernatural. It is in these words--"Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving,[BF] namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."[BG] On this passage, Schmidt has remarked--"In this concession, Darwin has certainly been untrue to himself; and it satisfies neither those who believe in the continuous work of creation by a personal God, nor the partisans of natural evolution." In this criticism we have a good example of the manner in which an impression of conflict is fostered. The rejoinder to Schmidt is obvious. Those who value religion seek no concessions, but desire to banish from scientific and philosophic writing all thought tending in this direction. If, however, needless complications are to be avoided, we must have exact statements of the relative positions. The sentence just quoted involves a misrepresentation equally of religion and science. Belief in the supernatural does not imply belief in _a continuous work of creation_, and therefore does not carry any thing inherently antagonistic to the conception of evolution under natural law. On the other hand, belief in evolution of species under the action of natural law does not decide the question, concerning _the origin of life_, just as a science of nature can decide nothing concerning the supernatural.