648 Proceedings. 



in each case up to a certain limit, which hniit seems to have 

 been finally reached when man appeared on the scene, for 

 we have no evidence of any new species having appeared 

 on earth since that time. Species have varied within their 

 limits, but no new species has appeared. Artificial selection 

 has not been able to produce a new species wathin the human 

 era ; still less has natural selection. Romanes has very fully 

 stated all the different lines of evidence from morphology, 

 embryology, geographical distribution, &c., which seem to sup- 

 port the general idea of some sort of evolution of life. But the 

 theory that all the multitudinous forms of life which now exist, 

 and which have existed, all perfectly fulfilling their parts in 

 the great drama, should have been the result of forces acting 

 according to fixed laws, and so interworking as to produce 

 these results without design, but by so-called chance, seems 

 to me mathematically impossible : the chances are millions to 

 one against such results having occurred ; the failures would 

 immensely have exceeded the successes, and we have no 

 evidence of any failures. Moreover, we must account for 

 matter, forces, and the laws governing them. We are logically 

 compelled to seek for a first cause. 



And what is our ultimate experimental conception of force or 

 energy ? It is loill. All the work of man on this earth is the 

 direct result of his will-power guided by his intellect. If finite 

 wills can produce such results, what limit can we assign to an 

 infinite will guided by an infinite intellect ? 



I conceive of evolution as I do of education. B}'' education 

 all that is potentially within a human being may be brought 

 out, but by no education is it possible to produce out of a dull 

 boy a Shakespeare or a Newton. Up to his limits he can be 

 educated, but not beyond them. 



So, it seems to me, in the evolution of different kinds of life. 

 The original germ contained certain potentialities, and up to 

 those limits it was, by a suitable environment, evolved or 

 unfolded, but never beyond them. The mystery of that germ 

 remains as great as ever, and, however numerous the varieties, 

 as yet we have no certain knowledge of a real transmutation of 

 species, or of a gradual alteration of structure to suit an altered 

 environment, such as is assumed as an axiom by Mr. Eomanes. 

 Until the theory has been proved to be a fact true science sus- 

 pends its judgment and searches for the facts ; although we 

 may take the Darwinian theory of evolution, or some such 

 theory, as a convenient working hypothesis for the present. 



We may undoubtedly accept as a working hypothesis, which 

 has very strong arguments in its favour, that the remarkable 

 unity in structural design which we discern in the animate 

 world has been brought about in some way through heredity, 

 or natural descent, with variations. Such a w^orking hypothesis 



