350 THE STORY OF THE EARTH AND MAN. 



fact by no means implies that it could not be made by 

 an intelligent and spiritual designer^ yet tliis assump- 

 tion tliat physical laws exclude creation and design 

 turns up in almost every page of tbe evolutionists. 

 Paley has well shown that if the watch contained 

 within itself machinery for making other watches_, this 

 would not militate against his argument. It would be 

 so if it could be proved that a piece of metal had 

 spontaneously produced an imperfect watch, and this 

 a more perfect one, and so on; but this is precisely 

 what evolutionists still require to prove with respect 

 both to the watch and to man. On the other hand 

 it is no argument for the evolution of the watch 

 that there may be different kinds of watches, some 

 more and others less perfect, and that ruder forms may 

 have preceded the more perfect. This is perfectly 

 compatible with creation and design. Evolutionists, 

 however, generally fail to make this distinction. Nor 

 would it be any proof of the evolution of the watch 

 to find that, as Spencer would say, it was in perfect 

 harmony with its environment, as, for instance, that it 

 kept time with the revolution of the earth, and 

 contained contrivances to regulate its motion under 

 different temperatures, unless it could be shown that 

 the earth^s motion and the changes of temperature had 

 been eflBcient causes of the motion and the adjustments 

 of the watch ; otherwise the argument would look 

 altogether in the direction of design. Nor would it be 

 fair to shut up the argument of design to the idea that 

 the watch must have suddenly flashed into existence 



