IS DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS SUFFICIENT f 89 



In his third lecture he brings forward what he regards as a demon- 

 stration. In the case of Equus, embracing our horse, ass, and zebra 

 he is able, by means of the specimens gathered in the West by Prof. 

 Marsh, to discover the succession of horse-like forms which the hy- 

 pothesis of evolution supplies. He goes back from the living horse 

 through the like animals of the post-Tertiary in the Pliocene, middle 

 and earlier on to the older Eocene formation, where he finds the oro- 

 hippus. " There you have four toes on the front-limb complete, three 

 toes on the hind-limb, a complete and well-developed ulna getting 

 forward an equality of size with the radius, a complete and well-de- 

 veloped fibula apparently, though it is not quite certain, and then teeth 

 with their simple fangs. So that you are now able, thanks to these 

 researches, to show that, so far as our present knowledge extends, the 

 history of the horse-type is exactly and precisely that which could 

 have been predicted from a knowledge of the principles of evolu- 

 tion, and the knowledge we now possess justifies us completely in 

 the anticipation that, when the still older Eocene deposits and those 

 which belong to the Cretaceous epoch have yielded up their remains 

 of equine animals, we shall find first an equine creature with four toes 

 in front and a rudiment of the thumb, then probably a rudiment of 

 the fifth behind, and so, by gradual steps, until we come to that five- 

 toed animal in which most assuredly the whole series took its origin. 

 That is what I mean, ladies and gentlemen, by demonstrative evidence 

 of evolution." 



Suppose that we admit all that the lecturer claims on this subject : 

 what then ? Have we thereby set aside any doctrine of philosophy 

 or religion? The Christian, even the Christian theologian, may say 

 wisely: "Let naturalists dispute as they may about the derivation of 

 plants and of the lower animals; their hypotheses, arguments, and 

 conclusions, do not interfere with our belief that God is to be seen 

 everywhere in his works and rules over all." It appears to me that the 

 whole doctrine of vegetable and animal species needs to be reviewed 

 and readjusted and religion need not fear the result. I have been 

 convinced of this ever since I learned, when I was ardently studying 

 botany, that the number of species of plants had risen to two mill- 

 ions ! I was sure that all these are works of God ; but I was not 

 sure that each was a special creation. 



When a new truth is discovered, especially when it is a reaction 

 against an old theory, it is apt to bulk so largely in the view of those 

 who hold it that they carry it to extreme lengths, and it requires time 

 and discussion to confine it to its own place. Thus, in old time, 

 Thales perceiving how much water could do, and' Anaximenes how 

 much air could accomplish, and Pythagoras how much numbers and 

 forms could account for, hastened to the conclusion that the whole 

 operations of Nature could be derived from them and explained by 

 them. I am old enough to remember that the brilliant discoveries of 



