18 THE HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY OF 



from the water and the earth, we must not imagine 

 that we have here any scientific definition of the 

 idea of species. This idea, which Aristotle calls 

 the etSos, was the offspring, many centuries later, 

 of a definite system of philosophy, and much later 

 still arose the scientific idea of species, which is 

 so closely interwoven with the theory of permanence, 

 and which was evolved by Ray, Linnaeus and 

 Cuvier in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 



If, therefore, modern science shows us that we 

 probably ought to group the systematic varieties 

 of the present and of the past together, so as to 

 form genealogical pedigrees, we, as philosophers, 

 may describe such pedigrees as natural species. 

 But we must not read this idea of species into the 

 biblical account of the creation, as if it really occurred 

 there. We can only say that, if this idea of kind is 

 confirmed, it will be additional testimony to prove 

 that the biblical account of the creation does not 

 contradict the facts ascertained by science. 



Personally I am firmly convinced that the doctrine 

 of evolution, considered as a scientific hypothesis 

 and theory, is not at variance with the Christian 

 theory of life, although the contrary is often asserted. 



We have just mentioned the natural kinds, 

 which are identical with the sequences in evolution 

 or the pedigrees of the theory of descent. 1 



1 See further Modern Biology, p. 303 et seq. The misconceptions there 

 refuted reappeared in the course of the evening discussion, in the speech 

 made by Professor Plate, my chief opponent. 



