88 THE ADVAXCE OF SCIENCE. 



evolution, is part of the same tendency 

 of increasing knowledge to unify itself, 

 which has led to the doctrine of the con- 

 servation of energy. And this tendency, 

 again, is mainly a product of the in- 

 creasing strength conferred by physical 

 investigation on the belief in the univer- 

 sal validity of that orderly relation of 

 facts, which we express by the so-called 

 ' Laws of Nature.' 



The growth of a plant from its seed, of 

 an animal from its egg, the apparent ori- 

 gin of innumerable living things from 

 mud, or from the putrefying remains of 

 former organisms, had furnished the ear- 

 lier scientific thinkers with abundant anal- 

 ogies suggestive of the conception of a 

 corresponding method of cosmic evolu- 

 tion from a formless ' chaos ' to an ordered 

 world which might either continue for ever 

 Early or undergo dissolution into its elements 

 SfhL before starting on a new course of evolu- 

 theory. t i on j|- j s therefore no wonder that, 



