384 NATURE AND MAN. 



XIV. 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION IN ITS RELA- 

 TIONS TO THEISM.* 



[The following Address had been in preparation, by request, as a reply to 

 one previously delivered by the then President of Sion College, before Mr. 

 Darwin's death. I purposely dwelt chiefly on the Cosmical Evolution, as a 

 matter on which scientific men are now generally agreed ; and did not attempt 

 to do more, in regard to Biological Evolution, than show that the same general 

 doctrine applied also to it.] 



The subject on which I am to address you can only be profitably 

 discussed, when the ground has been previously cleared of all 

 misconception as to the relative claims and limitations of science 

 and theology, and the boundaries of the two have been distinctly 

 marked out. Dr. Martineau has told us that the object of science 

 is to determine the order of Nature, whilst it is the function of 

 theology to determine its cause ; but this definition would not 

 be accepted by those who find in the interaction of ihe J>hysical 

 forces a sufficient account of the phenomena of Nature; and I 

 should rather define the province of scieitce as the interpretation 

 of the phenomena of Nature from the stand-point of physical 

 causation, whilst theology interprets them from the stand-point 

 of moral causation. Now, although the two conceptions we thus 

 frame differ essentially in their aspect and character, yet, as I 

 shall endeavour to show, they are perfectly consistent with each 

 other. 



The scientific conception of causation has recently undergone 

 a remarkable change, which has scarcely yet received its formal 

 recognition. Most of you, I presume, are familiar with the dis- 

 cussions by which the minds of the logicians of the last century 

 * An Address delivered at Sion College, May 15th, 1882. 



