592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



power and demonstration, a philosophy that will place the belief in 

 God upon unassailable ground, not only will he encounter no opposi- 

 tion from evolutionists, but he will, we undertake to say, receive their 

 hearty thanks for removing out of the way a question which, though 

 not properly belonging to their field of thought and labor, has too 

 often been made use of, maliciously or ignorantly, for their annoy- 

 ance. It is needless, we hope, to say that the demonstration would in 

 no way affect the practical work of scientific investigation. The con- 

 stancy of natural law is the one essential condition of scientific prog- 

 ress ; and, that datum remaining, men would still seek to know what 

 is in the present and what has been in the past ; and would still re- 

 gard the world as Wolff regarded it, as " a series of changing objects 

 which exist conjointly and successively, but which are so connected 

 together that one ever contains the ground of the other." * Dr. Por- 

 ter does not himself seem to be of a very different opinion, for (page 

 31) he sees no objection to " connecting the scientist with the original 

 star-dust," so long as we consent to do so through " the progressive 

 complications of a slowly developed thought of the living and loving 

 God." If Dr. Porter really understands how the progressive compli- 

 cations of a thought could facilitate the conversion of star-dust into 

 a scientist, he stands on a proud intellectual eminence ; and it is no 

 wonder if he feels that he could school the whole evolutionist tribe, 

 from Darwin and Spencer down. It is, however, going a long way 

 with the evolutionist to believe that, by the aid of a few thought- 

 complications, the star-dust could be brought to take so improved a 

 form ; and the evolutionist will not quarrel with him for his proviso. 

 The evolutionist does object, however, when he is told that certain 

 " artificial lines of progressive evolution may become luminous with 

 thought when projected against the bright background of the living 

 God." He says : " No ; things do not become luminous when placed 

 against a bright background ; they become dark." f 



Had we space we might notice some, no doubt unintentional, mis- 

 representations of Mr. Spencer's philosophical position, particularly in 

 regard to his alleged demand for " faith." We must leave this un- 

 done, however, in order to make a few concluding remarks. Dr. 

 Porter, we are sure, can not but feel that the present time is a critical 

 one. The numerous attacks that have lately been made upon the 

 theory of evolution, and generally upon the rationalism of the age, show 

 that the defenders of ancient opinions feel that something must be 



* Schwegler, translated by Seelye. 



f The evolutionist is also driven to wonder what can be the state of English composi- 

 tion at Yale when the ex-presidcnt, in what was meant to be the most impressive part of 

 his lecture, writes as follows : " Why, then, may he [man] not be worthy of the constant 

 care and fatherly love of Him who has had him in His thoughts from the beginning till 

 now, and toward whom His plans and movements have ever been tending ? " (Lecture, 

 p. 32.) 



