law?

A large number of persons practically assume the former position to be
correct. They believe that the writer of the Pentateuch was empowered and
commissioned to teach us scientific as well as other truth, that the
account we find there of the creation of living things is simply and
literally correct, and that anything which seems to contradict it is, by
the nature of the case, false. All the phenomena which have been detailed
are, on this view, the immediate product of a creative fiat and,
consequently, are out of the domain of science altogether.

Whether this view prove ultimately to be true or false, it is, at any rate,
not at present supported by what is commonly regarded as logical proof,
even if it be capable of discussion by reason; and hence we consider
ourselves at liberty to pass it by, and to turn to those views which
profess to rest on a scientific basis only, and therefore admit of being
argued to their consequences. And we do this with the less hesitation as it
so happens that those persons who are practically conversant with the facts
of the case (plainly a considerable advantage) have always thought fit to
range themselves under the latter category.

The majority of these competent persons have up to the present time
maintained two positions--the first, that every species is, within certain
defined limits, fixed and incapable of modification; the second, that every
species was originally produced by a distinct creative act. The second
position is obviously incapable of proof or disproof, the direct operations
of the Creator not being subjects of science; and it must therefore be
regarded as a corollary from the first, the truth or falsehood of which is
a matter of evidence. Most persons imagine that the arguments in favour of
it are overwhelming; but to some few minds, and these, it must be