206 THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 



-ence. So that we have no more experience of mind 

 universally distributed through matter, than we 

 have of mind distinct from matter. And the argu- 

 ment for Pantheism breaks down. 



But this is not all. The demonstration that man 

 has been derived from the lower animals has enabled 

 us, at last, to reach a monotheistic conception of the 

 universe. While it was thought that man was an 

 independent creation, and originally sinless, it was 

 necessary in order to account for the origin of sin 

 to suppose the existence of a malignant spirit. 

 But now we have a simpler solution of the problem. 

 Man himself is the author of sin. We see it in the 

 unrestrained exercise of the animal passions, which 

 he has inherited from his non-moral ancestors, and 

 which it is his duty to repress. Consequently the 

 ditheistic idea of two spiritual powers constantly at 

 war is no longer necessary, and we can substitute for 

 it a pure monotheism. 



So the proof of evolution has ushered in a new era 

 of thought, and has shewn that Theism is the true 

 philosophy of the universe. It is, indeed, this theory 

 of evolution which now forms the foundation of our 

 belief, and not the ingenious but unsatisfactory 

 speculations of Mr. Arthur J. Balfour. 



