CHAPTER III. 

 GENERAL ASPECTS OF THE EVOLUTION-HYPOTHESIS. 



116. JUST as the supposition that races of organisms 

 have been specially created, is discredited by its origin ; so, 

 conversely, the supposition that races of organisms have 

 been evolved, is credited by its origin. Instead of being 

 a conception suggested and accepted when mankind were 

 profoundly ignorant, it is a conception born in times of com 

 parative enlightenment. Moreover, the belief that all organic 

 forms have arisen in conformity with uniform laws, instead 

 of through breaches of uniform laws, is a belief that has 

 come into existence in the most-instructed class, living in 

 these better-instructed times. Not among those who have 

 paid no attention to the order of Nature, has this idea made 

 its appearance ; but among those whose pursuits have famil 

 iarized them with the order of Nature. Thus the derivation 

 of this modern hypothesis is as favourable as that of the 

 ancient hypothesis is unfavourable 



117. A kindred antithesis exists between the two fami 

 lies of beliefs, to which the beliefs we are comparing severally 

 belong. While the one family has been dying out, the 

 other family has been multiplying. Just as fast as men 

 have ceased to regard different classes of phenomena as 

 caused by special personal agents, acting irregularly ; so fast 

 have they come to regard these different classes of phe 

 nomena as caused by a general agency acting uniformly the 



