434 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



on, the planets were detached; and that our present sun 

 is the residual nucleus of the flocculent or gaseous ball 

 from which the planets were successively separated. Life, 

 as we define it, was not possible for eons subsequent to 

 this separation. When and how did it appear? I have 

 already pressed this question, but have received no an- 

 swer.' If, with Professor Knight, we regard the Bible 

 account of the introduction of life upon the earth as a 

 poem, not as a statement of fact, where are we to seek for 

 guidance as to the fact? There does not exist a barrier 

 possessing the strength of a cobweb to oppose to the hy- 

 pothesis which ascribes the appearance of life to that ** po- 

 tency of matter' ' which finds expression in natural evolu- 

 tion.' This hypothesis is not without its difficulties, but 

 they vanish when compared with those which encumber 

 its rivals. There are various facts in science obviously 

 connected, and whose connections we are unable to trace; 

 but we do not think of filling the gap between them by 

 the intrusion of a separable spiritual agent. In like man- 

 ner, though we are unable to trace the course of things 

 from the nebula, when there was no life in our sense, to 

 the present earth where life abounds, the spirit and prac- 

 tice of science pronounce against the intrusion of an an- 

 thropomorphic creator. Theologians must liberate and re- 

 fine their conceptions or be prepared for the rejection of 

 them by thoughtful minds. It is they, not we, who lay 

 claim to knowledge never given to man. Our refusal of 



^ In the "Apology for the Belfast Address" the question is reasoned out. 



' *'We feel it an undeniable necessity," says Professor Virchow, "not to 

 sever the organic world from the whole, as if it were something disjoined from 

 the whole." This grave statement cannot be weakened by the subsequent 

 pleasantry regarding "Carbon Co." 



