48 Wisconsm Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



same truth. We prove a proposition by determining the steps 

 hy which it was educed from a more generic statement. Science 

 must proceed in the same manner, for science only discovers 

 the track of mind — it does not make the track, it only follows 

 it. If then we find the chain of evolution broken at any 

 point, science must either stop there, or assume the wanting 

 term in the series. We have the right to interpolate these 

 missing terms, for we must assume that the thoughts of God 

 communicated to us in material forms constitute a continuous 

 revelation, beginning with Himself, the final generalization, 

 and ending with man the highest individualization. These 

 limits are fixed — the one by the nature of God, and the other 

 by the nature of man. Between these two extremes we must 

 find a series of intermediate terms. Any other conception of 

 their relation than that of a determinate series is impossible 

 and irrational ; and a series, so far as it means anything, means 

 evolution of some sort. Finding the relation between these 

 terms — distinguishing the same which reproduces itself, and 

 the different which introduces a new term — that is, determin- 

 ing the law of apparent evolution — is the problem presented 

 to science. 



The astronomer found Bode's law to all appearance violated 

 by the omission of a planet between Mars and Jupiter. He 

 could see no reason for the law, but if the planets had been 

 placed by an intelligent Creator, some order of arrangement 

 must be discoverable according to which their position was de- 

 termined. The Creator being intelligent, it is impossible 

 to conceive them placed fortuitously. There must then be a 

 link between Mars and Jupiter, because the law once estab- 

 lished cannot be broken. The same law may be observed in 

 the arrangement of leaves around the axis of a plant. If in- 

 telligence arranged them they must be arranged in some order, 

 for intelligence never performs the least act without a purpose. 

 Each leaf or pair of leaves is not a mere duplication of the 

 previous leaf or pair of leaves. The relation which subsists 



