94 



Where, then, is the evidence of the existence 

 of this great principle ? It fails us everywhere. 

 To insist on a great principle of evolution run 

 ning uninterruptedly throughout the entire 

 universe and producing all inorganic phenom 

 ena as well as all organic life, and to maintain 

 that such a principle is demonstrable from the 

 crazy-quilt patchwork of evidence in our pos 

 session, is like proving that all the great 

 bodies of water on the continent of Europe 

 are expansions of one great river which is in 

 visible except where the lakes appear. Sup 

 posing the principle of gravitation were thus 

 chromatic and elliptical ? Gravitation is dem 

 onstrable everywhere, from the dewdrop to the 

 motion of the spheres. 



"That very law that moulds a tear 



And bids it trickle from its source, 

 That law preserves our earth a sphere ; 

 And guides the planets in their course/' 



When Father Wasmann can speak thus con 

 fidently of his principle of evolution, he may 

 ask us to accept it. At present it seems as 

 though we were all expected to transfer our 



