SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION. 133 



name is legion, who try foolishly to do either of these 

 things. The only thing out of place in the discussion 

 is dogmatism on either side. Fear not the Evolution 

 hypothesis. Steady yourselves, in its presence, upon 

 that faith in the ultimate triumph of truth which was 

 expressed by old Gamaliel when he said : ' If it be of 

 (rod, ye cannot overthrow it; if it be of man, it will 

 come to nought.' Under the fierce light of scientific 

 enquiry, it is sure to be dissipated if it possess not a 

 core of truth. Trust me, its existence as a hypothesis 

 is quite compatible with the simultaneous existence of 

 all those virtues to which the term ' Christian ' has 

 been applied. It does not solve it does not profess 

 to solve the ultimate mystery of this universe. It 

 leaves, in fact, that mystery untouched. For, granting 

 the nebula and its potential life, the question, whence 

 they came, would still remain to baffle and bewilder us. 

 At bottom, the hypothesis does nothing more than 

 ' transport the conception of life's origin to an indefi- 

 nitely distant past.' 



Those who hold the doctrine of Evolution are by no 

 means ignorant of the uncertainty of their data, and 

 they only yield to it a provisional assent. They regard 

 the nebular hypothesis as probable, and, in the utter 

 absence of any evidence to prove the act illegal, they 

 extend the method of nature from the present into the 

 past. Here the observed uniformity of nature is their 

 only guide. Within the long range of physical enquiry, 

 they have never discerned in nature the insertion of 

 caprice. Throughout this range, the laws of physical 

 and intellectual continuity have run side by side. 

 Having thus determined the elements of their curve in 

 a world of observation and experiment, they prolong 

 that curve into an antecedent world, and accept as 

 probable the unbroken sequence of development from 



