On a Piece of Chalk 101 



Only two suppositions seem to be open to us Either 

 each species of crocodile has been specially created, or it 

 has arisen out of some pre-existing form by the opera- 

 tion of natural causes. 



Choose your hypothesis; I have chosen mine. I can 5 

 find no warranty for believing in the distinct creation of 

 a score of successive species of crocodiles in the course of 

 countless ages of time. Science gives no countenance 

 to such a wild fancy; nor can even the perverse ingenuity 

 of a commentator pretend to discover this sense, in the 10 

 simple words in which the writer of Genesis records 

 the proceedings of the fifth and sixth days of the 

 Creation. 



On the other hand, I see no good reason for doubting 

 the necessary alternative, that all these varied species 15 

 have been evolved from pre-existing crocodilian forms, 

 by the operation of causes as completely a part of the 

 common order of nature, as those which have effected 

 the changes of the inorganic world. 



Few will venture to affirm that the reasoning which 20 

 applies to crocodiles loses its force among other animals, 

 or among plants. If one series of species has come into 

 existence by the operation of natural causes, it seems 

 folly to deny that all may have arisen in the same way. 



A small beginning has led us to a great ending. If I 25 

 were to put the bit of chalk with which we started 

 into the hot but obscure flame of burning hydrogen, it 

 would presently shine like the sun. It seems to me that 

 this physical metamorphosis is no false image of what 

 has been the result of our subjecting it to a jet of fervent, 30 

 though nowise brilliant, thought to-night. It has become 

 luminous, and its clear rays, penetrating the abyss of the 

 remote past, have brought within our ken some stages 



