1 1 8 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



the beginning with the total at any succeeding point 

 in time : both terms in the comparison are beyond the 

 capacity of intelligence, and comparison fails. 



Yet the entire chain of reasoning by which it is 

 proposed to establish the evolution doctrine proceeds 

 on this fixedness of quantity. The matter in the 

 universe remains by hypothesis undiminished and un- 

 increased ; " the quantity of motion is fixed ; " the force 

 " remains unchanged in amount throughout all time." 

 If this assumption be rejected, the whole system goes 

 to pieces. But this assumption has no scientific value ; 

 for even if it were true it is unprovable. The new 

 cosmic philosophy, the unification of all knowledge, is 

 not only in its initial step, but throughout the whole 

 course of its interpretation of nature, necessitated to 

 employ a postulate involving affirmations regarding 

 matters of fact in the world of concrete reality, as to 

 the truth of which experience can tell us nothing. Yet 

 the whole process is, at every step throughout, depen- 

 dent on the truth of this assumption : if it be rejected 

 every link in the chain of reasoning is broken. 



Has the total sum of manifested force remained 

 equal throughout the ages ? Who can answer ? Not 

 the evolutionist, for he has no knowledge beyond that 

 furnished through the senses : not the experientialist, 

 for he cannot survey the entire universe of being: 

 there is no evidence furnished by the mind itself; 

 for in mind there is nothing, according to the evo- 

 lution hypothesis, except what individual or race 



