Evolution. 35 



Let " the Abraham of scientific men " speak 

 first. 



" It is interesting," he says, 1 "to contemplate 

 an entangled bank, clothed with many plants 

 of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, 

 with various insects flitting about, and with 

 worms crawling through the damp earth, and 

 to reflect that these elaborately-constructed 

 forms so different from each other, and depen- 

 dent on each other in so complex a manner, 

 have all been produced by laws acting around 

 us." "There is grandeur in this view of life, 

 with its several powers, having been originally 

 breathed into a few forms or into one." 



The grandeur^ however, is questionable. It 

 may be nothing more than a figment of the 

 imagination, a mere matter of taste, or of 

 opinion ; but even if it were matter of fact, it is 

 not a matter with which we have any concern. 

 Our enquiry as to "this view of life" is not, 

 Can it be made to look grand ? but, Can it be 

 shown to be true ? 



At present, this has not been shown. Even 

 Mr. Darwiin himself does not profess to " know," 

 he merely " believes," the truth of the doctrine 

 he propounds. " I believe," these are his words, 



1 "Origin of Species." First Edition (Murray : 1859), 

 chap. xiv. pp. 489, 490. 



