4 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



swer was "God." Men formed their simple concep- 

 tion at that time of how He did it. As the centuries 

 rolled by and the children of men have learned from 

 creation the story of its origin a riper and richer 

 knowledge has given them a broader and finer con- 

 ception. No less does the reverent student believe 

 that God created the earth, but he no longer thinks of 

 God as working, as man works. He no longer feels 

 that it is impious to attempt to read God's plan in His 

 work ; to see how this work has arisen, to see, if may 

 be, what there is ahead. 



This is one of the tasks to which science is now 

 giving itself. The answer is uncertain and halting. 

 A few things seem clear; others seem to be nearly 

 certain; of still others we can only say that for the 

 present we must be content with the knowledge we 

 have. But if we take the best we have and work 

 over it thoughtfully and carefully, the better will 

 slowly come, and in time we shall know far more than 

 we now suspect. Meanwhile, it is the attempt of this 

 book to give to people whose training is other than 

 scientific some conception of this great story of cre- 

 ation. Without dogmatic certainty but without inde- 

 cision it tries to tell what modern science thinks as to 

 the great problems of life. It tries to describe the 

 possible origin of animals and plants, their slow ad- 

 vance, the length of their steady uplift, the forces that 



