26 Permanence and Evolution. 



at another, was in itself anti-scientific, a view 

 hardly reconcilable with present astronomy ; 

 for the doctrine of the secular cooling of the 

 solar system seems to imply an absolute be- 

 ginning of force, in kind differing from any- 

 thing we know to exist now. But there is 

 nothing unscientific in saying, " Here is evidence 

 of a cause not now in operation as far as we 

 know," provided we do not attempt to define 

 this cause except negatively. It is merely a 

 question of evidence. The reason why the 

 causes assigned by sixteenth century cosmo- 

 gonists for the origin, e.g., of fossils, " stellar in- 

 fluence," " a fatty matter," " a lapidifying juice," 

 were absurd, was not only or mainly because 

 they were supposed to operate formerly and not 

 now, but because they were themselves vague 

 and assumed without evidence. The cosmo- 

 gonists would not have made their case much 

 better by maintaining that the lapidifying juice 

 or the like, were making shells at the present 

 day also. 



