PROFESSOR VIRCHOW AND EVOLUTION. 413 



went on, the planets were detached; and that our 

 present sun is the residual nucleus of the flocculent or 

 gaseous ball from which the planets were successively 

 separated. Life, as we define it, was not possible for 

 aeons subsequent to this separation. When and how 

 did it appear? I have already pressed this question, 

 but have received no answer.* If, with Professor 

 Knight, we regard the Bible account of the introduc- 

 tion of life upon the earth as a poem, not as a statement 

 of fact, where are we to seek for guidance as to the 

 fact? There does not exist a barrier possessing the 

 strength of a cobweb to oppose to the hypothesis which 

 ascribes the appearance of life to that * potency of 

 matter' which finds expression in natural evolution, f 

 This hypothesis is not without its difficulties, but they 

 vanish when compared with those which encumber its 

 rivals. There are various facts in science obviously 

 connected, and whose connections we are unable to 

 trace; but we do not think of filling the gap between 

 them by the intrusion of a separable spiritual agent, 

 In like manner though we are unable to trace the course 

 of things from the nebula, when there was no life in 

 our sense, to the present earth where life abounds, the 

 spirit and practice of science pronounce against the 

 intrusion of an anthropomorphic creator. Theologians 

 must liberate and refine their conceptions or be pre- 

 pared for the rejection of them by thoughtful minds. 

 It is they, not we, who lay claim to knowledge never 

 given to man. Our refusal of the creative hypothesis 

 is less an assertion of knowledge than a protest against 



In the 'Apology for the Belfast Address,' the question is 

 reasoned out. 



f ' We feel it an undeniable necessity.' says Professor Virchow, 

 4 not to sever the organic world from the whole, as if it were some- 

 thing disjoined from the whole.' This grave statement cnnnot he 

 weakened by the subsequent pleasantry regarding ' Carbon & Co.* 



