CHAPTER III. 

 "A PUERILE HYPOTHESIS" 



THIS, then, is Evolution: "baldest of all the 

 philosophies which have sprung up in our 

 world." The evolution which solves the pro- 

 blem of human origin by the assumption that 

 human nature exists potentially in mere inor- 

 ganic matter ; and the assertion that man, with 

 all his powers, and all their products, is the 

 necessary result, by spontaneous derivation, of 

 the interaction of incandescent molecules. 



But is this evolution scientific ? Is it demon- 

 strable ? Is it true ? Before this question its 

 assumptions cannot save it, however large ; its 

 assertions cannot prove it, however loud. The 

 question lies deeper. Has it received the neces- 

 sary "verification ?" The "verification" without 

 which, however ingenious as a theoretic con- 

 ception, it must ever remain " a mere figment of 

 the intellect?" 1 



1 Prof. TyndalPs " Fragments of Science," p. 469. 



