CONTINUITY OF LIFE. 41 



also likely to be reproached as a heretic because he re- 

 fuses to bow down to the phantom called the tendency 

 of modern thought. But unreasoning credulity is not 

 peculiar to old beliefs, neither is persecution. If the 

 bigot of former days set physics at defiance, does not 

 many a modern philosopher unquestionably attribute 

 to physics phenomena which are altogether beyond the 

 range of merely physical law ? It is even doubtful if 

 the unreasoning faith of the skilled scientific does not 

 sometimes exceed the vulgar belief of the poor igno- 

 rant bigot. If" the bigot is to be accused of believing 

 in spite of reason, the sceptic of modern times some- 

 times exposes himself to the charge of justifying his 

 disbelief by argument which has been proved to be 

 false, as well as by advancing as a fact what is really 

 but an assertion in a fact form. If the bigot may be 

 laughed at for his belief in the unseen and unknowable, 

 how is the modern enthusiastic believer in the omni- 

 potence of the material to escape ridicule ? 



However absurd, and against all the accumulated 

 evidence of observation, it may be to believe in the 

 immediate creation of any particular species of com- 

 plex plant or animal, it is at any rate equally absurd, 

 and also quite contrary to any evidence yet obtained, 

 to maintain that living forms result from the direct 

 combination of particles of inanimate matter. And 

 whatever may be said in favour of the uninterrupted 

 continuity of life, and of the gradual alteration of liv- 

 ing forms from age to age all that has been proved 



