74 



FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



Newton may, for the first time, have seen the majestic 



order of the solar system, may have felt how futile was 



the old notion of guiding angels, one for each planet to 



hold it up in space. He may have re- 

 Evolution not a -jv/^^i •■ r^i- 1 



,. . ceived his first clear vision of the simple 



religion. ^ 



relations of the planets, each forever 

 falling toward the sun and toward one another, each one 

 by the same force forever preserved from collision. 

 Such a man might havfe exclaimed, " Great is gravita- 

 tion ; it is the new religion, the religion of the future ! " 

 In such manner, men trained in dead traditions, once 

 brought to a clear insight of the noble simplicity and 

 adequacy of the theory of evolution, may have exclaimed, 

 " Great is evolution ; it is the new religion, the religion 

 of the future ! " 



But evolution is religion in the same sense that every 

 truth of the physical universe must be religion. That 

 which is true is the truest thing in the world, and the 

 recognition of the infinite soundness at the heart of the 

 universe is an inseparable part of any worthy religion. 



But, whether religion or not, the truths of evolution 

 must be their own witness. They can be neither 



strengthened nor controverted by any 



Science its own i.i -^ l- i. i • ^.u 



authority which may speak in the name 

 witness. , , ., , ; , , f 



of philosophy or of theology or of re- 

 ligion or of reason. ^'^ Roma locuta est ; causa finita est" 

 is not a dictum which science can regard. Her causes 

 are never finished. No power on earth can give before- 

 hand the answer to her questions. Her only court of 

 appeal is the experience of man. 



