294 WALKS AND TALKS. 



1*1. THK NlE/THOD OR CRKATION. 



THE QUESTION OF EVOLUTION. 



LET us suppose Matter, Energy, and Law in existence. 

 This stupendous system of things which we have been contem- 

 plating implies the reality of some substance which is the un- 

 derlying ground of its being. It is a system of things, not of 

 names. It implies the exercise of power, or force ; for out of 

 matter, something has been formed, and the forms of matter 

 have been changed. It implies the existence of method ; for 

 forms exist in certain fixed relations to each other, and 

 changes occur in some regular order of succession ; and an 

 ordained and established correlation of forms or order of suc- 

 cession is a law. Matter, energy, and method (law) came 

 into existence somehow ; let us grant that but we need not 

 here inquire how they came to exist. It is only the nature of 

 ilie method or law, in accordance with which energy shapes 

 matter and determines successions of forms and events, that 

 we are to consider. What is Nature's fundamental method? 



Allow me first to enunciate the method. I will then pro- 

 ceed to cite facts which will both illustrate and establish the 

 proposition. Nature's fundamental meifiod is a procedure, through 

 continuity, from Hie general to the particular. Do not be alarmed 

 at the form of the phrase which conciseness and accuracy of 

 statement necessitate. The idea is very simple, and you will 

 soon perceive it so. By "continuity,"! mean that Nature 

 retains Hie same matter in bringing into existence many modi- 

 fications in succession ; she does not drop and abandon the 

 matter of one conformation when she proceeds to another; 

 but she retains the same matter, and modifies it into the new 

 conformation. The frog, for instance, is the tadpole modified. 

 An apple is a full-grown element which existed in the flown-, 

 and in the bud. By proceeding "from the general to the 

 particular," I mean that each modification of matter, in a 

 series of modifications, contains some added features, together 

 with a clearer exhibition of the older features. As when a 

 house is to be built, the rough frame is fir.st constructed 



