INTRODUCTION. 



T$ itev yap cdjjBcl iravra awatiei ra vrrdpxovra, 

 TO Si -tyevSel TO.XV Siafyuvtl rafaflii. ARISTOTLE. 



"For with the truth all things that exist are 

 in harmony, but with the false the true at 

 once disagrees." 



THE present work is devoted chiefly to the dis- 

 cussion of three topics which, although in a 

 measure independent one of the other, are, never- 

 theless, so closely allied that they may be viewed as 

 parts of one and the same subject. The first of these 

 topics embraces a brief sketch of the evolutionary 

 theory from its earliest beginnings to the present 

 time ; the second takes up the pros and the cons of the 

 theory as it now stands ; while the third deals with 

 the reciprocal and little-understood relations be- 

 tween Evolution and Christian faith. 



It is often supposed by those who should know 

 better, that the Evolution theory is something which 

 is of very recent origin ; something about which little 

 or nothing was known before the publication of 

 Charles Darwin's celebrated work, "The Origin of 

 Species." Frequently, too, it is confounded with 

 Darwinism, or some other modern attempt to ex- 

 plain the action of Evolution, or determine the fac- 

 tors which have been operative in the development 

 of the higher from the lower forms of life. The 



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