ig8 



Contemporary Evolution. 



extend the sphere of our observations. It is concealed 

 most completely when the inanimate creation is alone 

 considered. It seems to assume a pantheistic form 

 when we rise no higher than the brute creation. If 

 man alone occupies our attention, a narrow anthropo- 

 morphic deism may be the result ; but from a sympa- 

 thetic study of the whole universe the mineral, vegetable, 

 animal, and human creations, including intellect, morality, 

 and will, the conception of Almighty God becomes fully 

 revealed to the human intellect. 



The process of evolution, as carried through the ma- 

 terial world, shows us the evolution from potentiality into 

 actuality of successively new forms. We cannot imagine 

 how they are produced ; we simply recognise that they 

 are. In passing to the vegetable world from the mineral 

 kingdom, we behold, for the first time manifested, a 

 vital form. In passing to the animal world from the 

 vegetable kingdom, we behold, for the first time mani- 

 fested, a sentient form. In passing to the human world 

 from the kingdom of brute animals, we behold, for the 

 first time manifested, a rational form. 



With our entrance on the world of self-conscious rea- 

 son and free volition, we impinge upon another order of 

 being from that revealed to us by all below it an order 

 of being which the cosmical universe, as it were, inter- 

 sects, as the different lines of cleavage and stratification 

 may intersect in the same rock. 



