58 LECTURES ON EVOLUTION m 



may have been actuated by malice. It has con- 

 stantly happened that even an accurate man has 

 declared that a thing has happened in this, that, 

 or the other way, when a careful analysis of the 

 circumstantial evidence has shown that it did not 

 happen in that way, but in some other way. 



We may now consider the evidence in favour of 

 or against the three hypotheses. Let me first 

 direct your attention to what is to be said about 

 the hypothesis of the eternity of the state of 

 things in which we now live. What will first 

 strike you is, that it is a hypothesis which, 

 whether true or false, is not capable of verifica- 

 tion by any evidence. For, in order to obtain 

 either circumstantial or testimonial evidence suffi- 

 cient to prove the eternity of duration of the 

 present state of nature, you must have an eternity 

 of witnesses or an infinity of circumstances, and 

 neither of these is attainable. It is utterly im- 

 possible that such evidence should be carried 

 beyond a certain point of time ; and all that 

 could be said, at most, would be, that so far 

 as the evidence could be traced, there was nothing 

 to contradict the hypothesis. But when you look, 

 not to the testimonial evidence which, consider- 

 ing the relative insignificance of the antiquity of 

 human records, might not be good for much in 

 this case but to the circumstantial evidence, 

 then you find that this hypothesis is absolutely 

 incompatible with such evidence as we have ; 



