166 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION PART 



as ever. The problem of existence is not solved : 

 it is simply removed further back. The Nebular 

 Hypothesis throws no light on the origin of diffused 

 matter ; and diffused matter as much needs account- 

 ing for as concrete matter. The genesis of an atom 

 is not easier to conceive than the genesis of a planet. 

 Nay, indeed, so far from making the universe a less 

 mystery than before, it makes it a greater mystery. 

 Creation by manufacture is a much lower thing than 

 creation by Evolution. A man can put together a 

 machine ; but he cannot make a machine develop 

 itself. The ingenious artisan, able as some have 

 been so far to imitate vitality as to produce a 

 mechanical pianoforte player, may in some sort 

 conceive how, by greater skill, a complete man 

 might be artificially produced ; but he is unable to 

 conceive how such a complex organism gradually 

 arises out of a minute structureless germ. That our 

 harmonious universe once existed potentially as 

 formless diffuse matter, and has slowly grown into 

 its present organised state, is a far more astonishing 

 fact than would have been its formation after the 

 artificial method vulgarly supposed. Those who 

 hold it legitimate to argue from phenomena to 

 noumena, may rightly contend that the Nebular 

 Hypothesis implies a First Cause as much transcend- 

 ing " the mechanical God of Paley " as the latter does 

 the fetish of the savage.' 



This quotation is from an essay on the ' Nebular 

 Hypothesis/ which appeared in the Westminster 

 Review of July 1858, and which was, therefore, 

 written before the eventful date of the reading 

 of Darwin and Wallace's memorable paper before 



