WHAT IS CREATION? 219 



facts. Until the discovery of the four moons of 

 Uranus, it was believed that all the satellites of 

 planets in our system revolved around their primaries 

 from west to east. An explanation of this might 

 have been furnished which should have had all the 

 force and authority of what is usually called a law 

 of nature, but such an explanation would have 

 utterly broken down when it was ascertained that 

 the satellites of Uranus revolved from east to west. 

 Theories of Creation, no matter under what 

 favourable auspices they may have been advanced, 

 or by how high authorities they are advocated, 

 may yet be destined to perish under the stress of 

 accumulating facts ; unless, indeed, it can be de- 

 monstrated that no facts ever could occur which 

 should be inconsistent with them. In many cases 

 it is to be feared that the remarkable words of 

 Goethe are only too accurate an explanation of the 

 way in which hypotheses are begotten and pro- 

 pagated: " Good, intellectual, and courageous heads 

 adorn their minds with such an idea for the sake of 

 its popularity ; they gather followers and pupils, 

 and thus form a literary power ; their idea is finally 

 worked out, exaggerated, and with a passionate 

 impulse is forced upon society." Such theories, how- 

 ever, do not live. They may survive the criticism 

 of a generation or two for want of a full comprehen- 

 sion of their meaning, from a desire to court the 

 influential, or on account of the diffidence of earnest 

 seekers after truth, who forbear to attack what 

 is urged by men of deserved respect until they have 

 tested it in every possible way. But no theory can 



