i 3 2 CLUES AND SUGGESTIONS CHAP. 



conception of creation, and the concep- 

 tion of evolution as merely one of the 

 creative methods. But Mr. Spencer 

 must make further concessions. It is not 

 the element of time, however long, nor 

 is it the mere idea of a process, however 

 purely physical, which we object to 

 we who have never been able to accept 

 any of the recent theories of evolution 

 as giving a true or adequate explanation 

 of the facts of organic life. The two 

 elements in all those theories which we 

 reject as essentially erroneous, are the 

 elements of mere fortuity on the one 

 hand, and of mere mechanical necessity 

 on the other. If the processes of 

 ordinary generation have never been 

 reinvigorated by a repetition of that 

 other process whatever it may have 

 been in which ordinary generation was 

 first started on its wonderful and 

 mysterious course, then all the more 



