54 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



of the same material, a kind of cosmic dust, 

 similar to, if not identical with, that which com- 

 poses the existing nebulae. No form of matter has 

 yet been discovered in any of the heavenly bod- 

 ies which is not found on the earth, and there is 

 every reason to believe that in chemical constitution 

 the visible universe is everywhere identical. And 

 should it eventually be demonstrated that all the 

 known chemical elements are only modifications of 

 one primal form of matter, and this is far from im- 

 possible, or even improbable, then will be vindi- 

 cated the old Greek theory of a primordial matter, 

 xpw-ij ukr h a theory ardently championed by St. 

 Gregory of Nyssa and his school, and defended in 

 some form or other by many of the Schoolmen. And 

 then, too, will the theory of Evolution be furnished 

 with a stronger argument than any other single one 

 that has yet been advanced in its support. 



Testimony of Biology. 



But great as was the influence of discoveries in 

 geology, paleontology, microscopy, chemistry, astron- 

 omy and stellar physics, in preparing the minds of 

 scientific men for the acceptance of the theory of or- 

 ganic Evolution, the arguments which had the great- 

 est weight, which finally enlisted in favor of Evolu- 

 tion those who, like Lyell, still hesitated about 

 giving in their adhesion to the doctrine of derivation, 

 were those which were based on data furnished by 

 the sciences of botany, zoology, physiology, and by 

 those newer sciences, embryology and comparative 

 osteology. 



