CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 32.'i 



dence. Geology reveals the fact that there was once a 

 long age in which there was no life, vegetable or animal, 

 upon the earth. After this was passed life was created 

 that is, by creative power there were given to portions 

 of matter properties which matter of itself can never orig- 

 inate. In fact, every new species was an independent 

 creation. To assert, as some have done, that there never 

 was any creative power exerted, and that all we see is 

 the result of the fortuitous concourse of atoms, is a folly 

 which does not merit a moment's notice. 



440. Development Theory. There is a class of un- 

 founded theories that have been broached from time to 

 time in regard to the origin of species, all of them bear- 

 ing essentially the same character. Among these, one 

 recently brought out by Darwin, called the development 

 theory, is just now attracting much notice. He supposes 

 that, at the outset, there was " a breathing of life into a 

 few forms, or one form," and that all the living forms 

 which we see were evolved from this beginning by what 

 he calls " natural selection in the struggle for existence." 

 He admits, therefore, a divine creation of life at the first, 

 but claims^that the development of all living forms after 

 this was directed by chance and Nature. All species, in 

 his view, came from mere varieties that were started in 

 this " struggle." In evolving thus one species from an- 

 other, it is supposed that there were intermediate forms, 

 and that much time was required for the passage through 

 the gradations. Unfortunately for this part of the the- 

 ory, geology steps in with a most complete refutation 

 from its life-record in the rocks. Not a single interme- 

 diate form has been found in all this record. If they 

 had ever existed they must have been found, and that 

 abundantly in the midst of the multitude of species that 

 appear. The changes demanded by this theory in con- 

 verting one species into another are great changes. The 

 matter is well stated by Page thus : " Given the scales, 

 fins, and gills of a fish what the conditions, and what 



