260 DARWINIANA. 



legitimate for any one to prove, if he can, that any 

 particular thing in the natural world is so done ; and 

 it is the proper business of scientific men to push their 

 enquiries in this direction. 



It is beside the point for Dr. Hodge to object that, 

 " from the nature of the case, what concerns the ori- 

 gin of things cannot be known except by a supernat- 

 ural revelation ; " that " science has to do with the 

 facts and laws of Nature : here the question concerns 

 the origin of such facts." For the very object of the 

 evolutionists, and of Mr. Darwin in particular, is to 

 remove these subjects from the category of origina- 

 tion, and to bring them under the domain of science 

 by treating them as questions about how things go on, 

 not how they began. Whether the succession of liv- 

 ing forms on the earth is or is not among the facts and 

 laws of Nature, is the very matter in controversy. 



Moreover, adds Dr. Hodge, it has been conceded 

 that in this matter " proofs, in the proper sense of the 

 word, are not to be had ; we are beyond the region of 

 demonstration, and have only probabilities to con- 

 sider." Wherefore " Christians have a right to pro- 

 test against the arraying of probabilities against the 

 clear teachings of Scripture." The word is italicized, 

 as if to intimate that probabilities have no claims 

 which a theologian is bound to respect. As to array- 

 ing them against Scripture, there is nothing whatever 

 in the essay referred to that justifies the statement. 

 Indeed, no occasion offered ; for the writer was dis- 

 cussing evolution in its relations to theism, not to 

 Biblical theology, and probably would not be disposed 

 to intermix arguments so different in kind as those 



