50 



FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



more clearly than the members of the highest order of 

 mammals. Either these homologies are real and thus 

 show the existence of a real bond of union, or else they 

 are mere mockeries like the face in the pansy flower. 

 If homologies are mockeries, then indeed our science 

 has made no progress, for this was the belief of the 

 middle ages. 



So much for what we know. Our objections to rec- 

 ognising our kinship with the lower forms — if we have 

 any such objections — rest on considerations outside the 

 domain of knowledge. They do not rest on religious 

 grounds. Those who think so deceive themselves. 

 " Secondary causes," as the phrase is used, belong to 

 the province of science. They are outside the domain 

 of religion. " Theology and science," says Darwin 

 " should each run its own course. ... I am not respon 

 sible if their meeting point should still be far off." 



This is not a question of preference one way o 

 another. Personal preference has no place in science 

 Man was not present at the foundation of the world- 

 It is not a question to be decided one way or another 

 by a majority vote. Truth cares nothing for majorities, 

 and the majority of one age may be the wonder or the 

 shame of the next. 



The only question is this : Is it true ? And if it be 

 the truth, nothing in the universe can be truer. " Ex- 

 tinguished theologians," Huxley tells us, 



ecaying ,, j^^ about the cradle of every science 



scientific beliefs. ■' 



as the strangled snakes beside that of 



the infant Hercules." Looking along the history of 

 human thought, we see the attempt to fasten to Chris- 

 tianity each decaying belief in science. Every failing 

 scientific notion has claimed orthodoxy for itself. That 

 the earth is round, that it moves about the sun, that it is 

 old, that granite ever'was melted — all these beliefs, now 



