AGNOSTIC EVOLUTION 159 



is in this respect in the position of a man who, after 

 examining the machinery of a great mill, and finding 

 that the whole is moved by a shaft proceeding from 

 a brick wall, should infer that the shaft is a sufficient 

 cause for what he sees, and that there is no moving 

 power behind it. In like manner, when we consider 

 the variety and intricacy of the parts of the universe, 

 and the manner in which they are co-ordinated to 

 produce certain effects and this in a way not only 

 beyond our control but beyond our comprehension 

 we cannot refer this to mere chance, but must admit 

 contrivance and, if so, superhuman skill, and so 

 divinity. This is Paul s contention ; and it is so 

 obvious that even agnostics are sometimes inad 

 vertently found to admit it, and are obliged, in spite 

 of themselves, to speak of selection, adaptation, com 

 bination, and contrivance in nature. Nature, in 

 short, forces them to speak of divinity in her own 

 language, and not in that of their philosophy. 



Farther, since the existence of the universe goes 

 back in time beyond our powers of calculation, we 

 affirm that the power and divinity which it manifests 

 are, as Paul says, eternal ; and since this ultimate 

 power can have nothing to determine its action but 

 its own will, we conclude that we are in presence not 

 of brute force, but of what we usually call a personal, 

 but what Paul and the other Bible writers prefer to 

 call a living God. Thus Paul s short statement 

 contains no verbal inaccuracies or inconsistencies, but 



