8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



there be any such, should assume and insist on this identity, and 

 thus carry over the whole accumulated evidence of evolution as 

 a demonstration of materialism, although wholly unwarranted, 

 is not so surprising ; but what shall we say of the incredible 

 folly of her friends in admitting the same identity ? 



A little reflection will explain this. There can be no doubt 

 that there is at present a strong and to many an overwhelming 

 tendency toward materialism. The amazing achievements of 

 modern science ; the absorption of intellectual energy in the in- 

 vestigation of external Nature and the laws of matter have cre- 

 ated a current in that direction so strong that of those who feel 

 its influence — of those who do not stay at home, shut up in their 

 creeds, but walk abroad in the light of modern thought — it 

 sweeps away and bears on its bosom, all but the strongest and 

 most reflective minds. Materialism has thus become a fashion 

 of thought ; and, like all fashions, must be guarded against. 

 This tendency has been created and is now guided by science. 

 Just at this time it is strongest in the department of biology, 

 and especially is evolution its stronghold. This theory is sup- 

 posed by many to be simply demonstrative of materialism. 

 Once it was the theory of gravitation which seemed demonstra- 

 tive of materialism. The sustentation of the universe by law 

 seemed to imply that Nature operates itself and needs no God. 

 That time is past. Now it is evolution and creation by law. 

 This will also pass. The theory seems to many the most mate- 

 rialistic of all scientific doctrine only because it is the last which 

 is claimed by materialism, and the absurdity of the claim is not 

 yet made clear to many. 



The truth is, there is no such necessary connection between 

 evolution and materialism as is imagined by some. There is no 

 difi:'erence in this respect between evolution and any other law 

 of Nature. In evolution, it is true, the last barrier is broken 

 down, and the whole domain of Nature is now subject to law ; 

 but it is only the last ; the march of science has been in the same 

 direction all the time. In a word, evolution is not only not 

 identical with materialism, but, to the deep thinker, it has not 

 added a feather's weight to its probability or reasonableness. 

 Evolution is one thing and materialism quite another. The one 

 is an established law of Nature, the other an unwarranted and 

 hasty inference from that law. Let no one imagine, as he is con- 

 ducted by the materialistic scientist in the paths of evolution from 

 the inorganic to the organic, from the organic to the animate, 

 from the animate to the rational and moral, until he lands, as it 

 seems to him, logically and inevitably, in universal materialism 

 — let no such one imagine that he has walked all the way in the 

 domain of science. He has stepped across the boundary into the 



