16 
sensation, are full of wisdom, and form the universal mind, if 
there be any mind.” f. 
All this possesses the virtue of antiquity; though taught im the 
nineteenth century, it is not the product of nineteenth century 
thought ; “‘ there is nothing new under the sun;” and we have 
here but the resuscitation and adoption of a philosophy first put into 
a concrete form by /ueretius, who, living in the first century before 
the Christian era, taught that ‘Nature is seen to do all things 
spontaneously of herself without the meddling of the gods.” So 
we go back nearly 2000 years for the articles of our scientific 
faith—just as we do for those of our religious faith. Well, 
suppose it all true; is it, I ask, more easy to accept than the 
statement, ‘(In the beginning Gop created the Heaven and the 
Earth?” Does it contain less or more of mystery than that simple 
verse? We are told that this Biblical statement is improbable, or. 
that is all unknowable ; then the‘only agent to fall back upon is 
chance. ‘‘ There is no alternative” says Dr. Dallinger, “either 
chance, or mental purpose gave primal origin to all that is. 
Nothing within the reach of intellect could express the infinite 
improbability of the first suggestion. That one vast harmony, one 
perfect method, should fall out by chance, through the operation of 
uncounted millenniums of ages, is almost inexpressibly improbable ; 
but that a system of harmonies practically infinite in number and 
measureless in extent, should all be locked together im one vast 
uniting harmony, making all creation a chorus, to which all its 
parts form the centre to the margin contribute their flowing and 
concerted strains, without a discord to the unity of thought ; to say 
that that arose by chance, sprang from fortuity, fell out by accident, 
is surely to trifle with the fundamental principles of our moral 
faculties and reasoning powers.” (g.) Why all this endeavour to 
exclude a Creator? Why this disregard of all the laws of thought 
and of all the teachings of experience ? From birth onward thro’ 
the whole of our life we learn that every contrivance must have had 
a contriver, every machine a maker who understood what he 
wanted, and what he was doing ; but directly we study the contri- 
vances and machines in Nature we are told to stop, to disregard all 
experience, to draw no conclusions. Is this true Science ? 
EVOLOTION. 
Closely connected with these remarks is the theory of Evolution. 
I do not refer it its explanation as put forward by Darwin or others 
but to the simple theory itself, namely, that every living species 
has been evolved by slow and imperceptible steps, and by Natural 
(f) ‘Phe supernatural in Nature. 
(g) Fernley Lecture p. 17. 
