THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' 203 



Evolution, in the strictest sense, is actually going on in this 

 and analogous millions and millions of instances, wherever 

 living creatures exist. Therefore, to borrow an argument 

 from Butler, as that which now happens must be consistent 

 with the attributes of the Deity, if such a Being exists, 

 Evolution must be consistent with those attributes. And, if 

 so, the evolution of the universe, which is neither more nor less 

 explicable than that of a chicken, must also be consistent 

 with them. The doctrine of Evolution, therefore, does not 

 even come into contact with Theism, considered as a philo- 

 sophical doctrine. That with which it does collide, and with 

 which it is absolutely inconsistent, is the conception of 

 creation, which theological speculators have based upon the 

 history narrated in the opening of the book of Genesis. 



There is a greal deal of talk and not a little lamentation 

 about the so-called religious difficulties which physical science 

 has created. In theological science, as a matter of fact, it 

 has created none. Not a solitary problem presents itself to 

 the philosophical Theist, at the present day, which has not 

 existed from the time that philosophers began to think out 

 the logical grounds and the logical consequences of Theism. 

 All the real or imaginary perplexities which flow from the 

 conception of the universe as a determinate mechanism, are 

 equally involved in the assumption of an Eternal, Omnipotent 

 and Omniscient Deity. The theological equivalent of the 

 scientific conception of order is Providence ; and the doctrine 

 of determinism follows as surely from the attributes of fore- 

 knowledge assumed by the theologian, as from the universality 

 of natural causation assumed by the man of science. The 

 angels in ' Paradise Lost ' would have found the task of en- 

 lightening Adam upon the mysteries of " Fate, Foreknow- 

 ledge, and Free-will," not a whit more difficult, if their pupil 

 had been educated in a " Real-schule " and trained in every 

 laboratory of a modern university. In respect of the great 

 problems of Philosophy, the post-Darwinian generation is, 



