EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



Let me recommend to the reader, as an interest- 

 ing exercise, the application of this criterion to his 

 own beliefs. So one may discover the very grave 

 significance of that phrase, " The highest certainty." 

 Thus judged, your belief in, let us say, the law of 

 gravitation, is at once seen not to be possessed of 

 the highest validity. You can conceive the nega- 

 tion of the Newtonian law. Our belief in universal 

 gravitation is no more than a matter of faith. De- 

 spite the common antithesis, there is such a thing 

 as rational faith as distinguished from the ir- 

 rational, or extrarational, or, as some will main- 

 tain, suprarational, kind. But Spencer has shown 

 that our belief in the law of the conservation of 

 energy is of quite another order. You cannot 

 conceive of the creation of a new iota of energy, 

 out of nothing, nor of the annihilation of an iota 

 of energy, any more than you can conceive of the 

 creation of the universe out of nothing. You can, 

 indeed, imagine both, but that merely by cozening 

 yourself with a pseudo-conception the elements of 

 which you cannot combine. This any one may ob- 

 serve for himself by attempting to conceive of 

 creation not remaining content - to accept words 

 without translating them into the ideas for which 

 they stand. The special - creation theory is, in- 

 deed, a mere formulation of ignorance into the 

 semblance of knowledge. 



Now, if a proposition the negation of which 

 cannot be rationally conceived is possessed of 

 the highest certainty, what measure of certainty 

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