REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSION. 423 



regarding the long-accepted view of special crea- 

 tion. It is possible, for there is nothing in it 

 intrinsically absurd ; but in the light afforded by 

 the researches and discoveries of these latter 

 days, it is the conviction of the great majority of 

 those who have studied the question with the 

 greatest care, and who are the most competent 

 to interpret the facts involved, that as between 

 the two rival theories, special creation and Evo- 

 lution, the preponderance of probability is over- 

 whelming in favor of Evolution of some kind, 

 but of just what kind only the future can deter- 

 mine. 



Evolution, then, I repeat it, is contrary neither to 

 reason nor to Scripture. And the same may be said of 

 the divers theories of Evolution which, during these 

 latter times, have had such a vogue. Whether, 

 therefore, we accept the theory of extraordinary 

 births, the saltatory Evolution of Saint-Hilaire and 

 St. George Mivart; or Darwin's theory of natural 

 selection, which takes account of only infinitesimal 

 increments; or Weismann's theory of heredity, which 

 traces specific changes to the germ-plasm, we are 

 forced to admit that the ultimate efficient Cause of 

 all the changes produced, be they slow or sudden, 

 small or great, is the Creator Himself, acting through 

 the agency of second causes, through the forces and 

 virtues which He, Himself, communicated to mat- 

 ter in the beginning. Such being the case, it is 

 obvious that Evolution does not exclude creation, 

 and that creation is not incompatible with Evolu- 

 tion. 



