322 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



dained. He must have contemplated an adequate efficiency 

 for the inauguration of the present order. In admitting 

 the conception and possibility of a different order he at 

 least implies the conception of a power superior to the 

 present order adequate to begin, and therefore to end, 

 its existence. The second quotation means clearly that 

 the evolution hypothesis may be established, and yet leave 

 every person free to satisfy himself in reference to both 

 the efficient and the final cause of evolution. It means 

 that the theist may posit a Creator at the beginning, 

 and the scientist has no evidence to array against the 

 position. This is clearly indicated by the nature of the 

 change in phraseology introduced by the author in the 

 revised edition. This quotation interpreted in its impli- 

 cations means, we think, even more. If natural history 

 cannot reveal the nature of causal efficiency at the begin- 

 ning of the series, it can no more reveal the nature of 

 the efficiency which manifests itself at eveiy term of the 

 series; that is, the hypothesis of evolution authorizes the 

 believer in immanent divine power to posit such a power 

 in every term of the evolution. If the lecturer recog- 

 nized such legitimate inferences from his language, it is 

 greatly to be regretted that he was not more explicit. 

 It would, indeed, have been a departure from strictly 

 scientific method (in distinction from philosophical), but 

 it would have been a courtesy appreciated, if not de- 

 served, by the religious public. If, however, a scientist 

 chooses to disguise his opinions on a theological question, 

 or to refrain from forming any, it is probably his right 

 to do so. There may be, nevertheless, a degree of re- 

 serve amounting to an affectation. The "science "of com- 

 parative religion teaches us that religious beliefs are part 



