88 SELECTED ESSAYS FROM LAY SERMONS 



species of crocodiles to be accounted for? Only two sup- 

 positions seem to be open to us — Either each species of croc- 

 odile has been specially created, or it has arisen out of some 

 pre-existing form by the operation of natural causes. Choose 

 your hypothesis; I have chosen mine. I can find no war- 

 ranty for believing in the distinct creation of a score of suc- 

 cessive species of crocodiles in the course of countless ages of 

 time. Science gives no countenance to such a wild fancy; 

 nor can even the perverse ingenuity of a commentator pre- 

 tend to discover this sense, in the simple words in which the 

 writer of Genesis records the proceedings of the fifth and 

 sixth days of the Creation. 



On the other hand, I see no good reason for doubting the 

 necessary alternative, that all these varied species have been 

 evolved from pre-existing crocodilian forms, by the oper- 

 ation of causes as completely a part of the common order 

 of nature as those which have effected the changes of the 

 inorganic world. Few will venture to affirm that the reason- 

 ing which applies to crocodiles loses its force among other 

 animals, or among plants. If one series of species has 

 come into existence by the operation of natural causes, 

 it seems folly to deny that all may have arisen in the 

 same way. 



A small beginning has led us to a great ending. If I were 

 to put the bit of chalk with which we started into the hot 

 but obscure flame of burning hydrogen, it would presently 

 shine like the sun. It seems to me that this physical met- 

 amorphosis is no false image of what has been the result of 

 our subjecting it to a jet of fervent, though nowise brilliant, 

 thought to-night. It has become luminous, and its clear 

 rays, penetrating the abyss of the remote past, have brought 

 within our ken some stages of the evolution of the earth. 



