8o Scientific Sophisms. 



still be true, on Professor Tyndall's showing, 

 that Evolution as above defined has not been 

 " verified " " by observation and experiment ; " 

 and that " without verification a theoretic con- 

 ception is a mere figment of the intellect" * 

 "Those who hold the doctrine of evolution," 

 he tells us, " are by no means ignorant of the 

 uncertainty of their data, and they only yield 

 to it a provisional assent They regard the ne- 

 bular hypothesis as probable, . . . and accept 

 as probable the unbroken sequence of develop- 

 ment from the nebula to the present time." * 



"Probable," "provisional," "uncertain," and 

 therefore " unscientific ; " this, on the highest 

 authority, is thus admitted to be the actual 

 character of " the doctrine of Evolution." But 

 of what kind is this probability ? When ex- 

 amined, it appears that even the alleged prob- 

 ability itself is at best a mere " supposition," " a 

 theoretic conception," a probability hypothet- 

 ical only, nothing more. 



For example : Mr. Herbert Spencer tells us 

 that "there is reason to suspect that there is 

 but one ultimate form of Matter, out of which 

 the successively more complex forms of Matter 



1 " Fragments of Science," p. 469. 



* u Scientific Use of the Imagination," p. 456. 



