1 6 EVOLUTION OF TO-DAY. 



were it not true that these laws and properties were 

 such that certain results could come from the intro- 

 duction of matter and force, no evolution would be 

 possible. In this sense, then, evolution cannot ex- 

 ceed involution. Evolution does not, in any form, 

 attempt to deal with the question of the origin of 

 matter, law, and force, but simply to show that, 

 assuming the universe to have been such-and-such 

 at the start, its subsequent history has been one of 

 continuous growth. Once given matter and force 

 and the laws regulating their interaction, and evo- 

 lution claims that it is unnecessary to assume the 

 addition of any thing more to explain the existing 

 order of nature. To pretend that such a view is op- 

 posed to the better conception of theology is absurd. 

 Evolution, if accepted, does remove many miracles 

 from nature. But this is not to be regretted. To 

 think of God as working by law is a conception 

 vastly superior to the thought of his working by 

 miracle. Even the most extreme evolutionist finds 

 it necessary to assume the existence of something 

 behind matter and force as its foundation, and a 

 belief in evolution is only the conception of this 

 power acting constantly and in an orderly manner. 

 Some people would seem to think that evolution 

 either denies the existence of God, or assumes that 

 His only direct contact with the world was at the 

 creation, and perhaps again at the appearance of 

 life ; and, except at these two periods, he has left 

 his creatures to themselves. But while it is true that 

 some evolutionists deny the existence of a God, it 

 is also true that the latter view is seldom conceived 



