Evolutionism and Darwinism. 73 



fear and dread of science, I shall not pretend to 

 determine ; but if it exists, it is certainly an an 

 achronism. For the scientist is the veritable ruler 

 of the modern world. And, for my own part, I 

 can understand no feeling but that of admiration 

 and loyalty towards the man who, from no other 

 motive than the simple love of truth, gives his 

 days and nights for weary years to spelling out 



(that mystic language which God has illuminated 

 by the central fires of the world, traced in the 

 orbits of planets, graven upon the strata of the 

 earth s crust, and sent echoing round the great 

 globe in the rhythmic pulse-beat of all organic life. 

 Such men were Kepler, Faraday, Agassiz, and 

 l Darwin. Thanks to these, and such as these, we 

 I can to-day read a little in nature s book of infinite 

 s secrecy. The gradual development of all organic 

 ,)and inorganic existence they seem already to have 

 Completely spelled out. How that development 

 was effected in the domain of life is still a mys 

 tery ; but for argument s sake, I repeat, we are 

 ready to let Darwin s hypothesis of &quot; Natural Se 

 lection&quot; stand for the yet undeciphered hiero 

 glyphic. 



