42 THE NEW KNOWLEDGE. 



business of our book to seek and find the sufficient evidence 

 of the evolution of the atoms. 



So far as we have gone, our conclusions do not rest on 

 positive or absolutely demonstrative evidence. It is pre- 

 sumptive evidence, the simple fact being that, with these 

 two foregoing conclusions taken as assumptions, things are 

 explained ; not taken as assumptions, nothing is or can be 

 explained. 



