34 Scientific Sophisms. 



of species, they may all be referred to three 

 species : the theistic, the atheistic, and the 

 agnostic. 



Evolutionists of the first class admit, while 

 those of the second deny, the existence of a 

 Divine Creator. By those of the third class, 

 that existence, while not by any means admitted, 

 is yet not explicitly denied. It is simply 

 ignored. They " have no need of the hypothesis 

 of God." Foremost among the leaders of this 

 latter class are Mr. Spencer and Professors 

 Huxley, Tyndall, and Bain. Less cautious or 

 more candid are Carl Vogt, Ernst Haeckel, and 

 Buchner, as representatives of atheistic develop- 

 ment ; while the theistic, its antithesis, is vindi- 

 cated by names of no less note than those 

 of Sir John Herschel, Sir William Thomson, 

 Professors Owen, Dawson, Gray, Dr. Carpenter, 

 and, at least in his earlier writings, Mr. Charles 

 Darwin himself. 



The existence of these varieties is a fact at 

 once significant and instructive. Our present 

 concern, however, is not with these, except so 

 far as they serve to illustrate or demonstrate 

 the nature of the base which they have in 

 common. That doctrine of Development which 

 they all affirm : what is it ? What are its pre- 

 tensions ? Where are its proofs ? 



