162 MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



CHAPTER VII 



THEISTIC EVOLUTION 



Tins, in its highest sense, can be nothing less than 

 the development of the divine plan in the construc 

 tion of the universe ; and as it implies the action of 

 an infinite power behind nature, under the guidance 

 of an omniscient mind, it supplies a full and satis 

 factory ultimate explanation of phenomena, leaving 

 only for consideration the methods of the develop 

 ment as carried on in time and by such secondary 

 causes as may have been arranged by God. 



But such theistic evolution is held in many differ 

 ent ways and in many grades of connection with 

 the Darwinian and other theories. I may select here 

 as one of its latest and ablest exponents Professor 

 Joseph Le Conte, of California, a geologist of some 

 repute and a clear thinker, who aims to combine the 

 various divergent schools of evolution, whether Dar 

 winian or Lamarckian, and to reconcile the whole 

 with theistic beliefs. 1 His proofs of evolution as a 

 law of continuous development of objects and living 



1 Evolution and its Relation to Religioiis Thought, 1889. 



