Evolutionism and Darwinism. 5 1 



for the features and appearance of the earth s 

 crust. The astronomers asserted the earth was 

 originally a cooling sphere of incandescent mat 

 ter. And we know it to-day as a solid core, 

 enveloped with air and water, here tossed into 

 corrugated mountains, and there hollowed into 

 scarped ravines or spread out in fruitful plains 

 and valleys. Between its primitive and its pres 

 ent condition there is an enormous interval, and 

 the earlier geologists had filled it up with mirac 

 ulous cataclysms and volcanic eruptions. But 

 Lyell now came forward with his proof that the 

 history of the earth was a process of slow devel 

 opment, solely through the agency of causes still 

 in operation. The colossal results were due, not 

 to the magnitude of the causes, but to their cu 

 mulative effects in the course of vast geological 

 ages, which we inadequately attempt to define by 

 millions of years. Hold to this notion of an in 

 finite past, and the phenomena of the earth, like 

 the phenomena of the universe, all find their 

 place in the process of evolution. 



Evolution in the universe, evolution in the 

 earth ; it now remained to discover evolution in the C\ 

 life of the plants and animals on the earth. And 

 it was in this biological department that Darwin 

 made his original contribution to the evolution- 



