34 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



experience, but which are not safer than the wings 

 of Icarus when he attempts a flight towards the 

 boundless distances of the cosmos, or poises himself 

 above the ever-rolling ocean stream of change. 



(5.) When we turn from the objects of knowledge 

 to test the instruments of observation, the grounds of 

 mistrust are multiplied. The field is narrowed by the 

 limitations of the organs of sense. On the evolution 

 theory the trustworthiness of the organs of sense is 

 extremely limited. They are products of evolution, 

 shaped in the gradual adaptation of man to his sur- 

 roundings. They are in number and range determined 

 by their utility in adjusting his organism to his en- 

 vironment. What is useful for this purpose, and 

 nothing further, has been evolved. But the elabora- 

 tion of a true system of philosophy is not a condition 

 of the continuance of the human species. The race 

 has persisted for a long period with, as the advocates 

 of evolution believe, a very incorrect conception of the 

 universe. It is not clear, then, how sense organs 

 evolved for a quite different end can be relied on 

 to give such a full and complete knowledge of the 

 phenomena as will furnish a basis for a perfect 

 cosmic theory. There may be, probably there are, 

 many modes of activity continually operating through- 

 out the universe, affecting the relations of its parts, 

 and directing its movement, which are not in relation 

 to our sensibility, and which we have no means of 

 apprehending. The senses with which we are en- 



