214 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



a clear and tenable position : the agnostic is hopelessly 

 at fault. If the evolutionist is compelled to have 

 recourse to the unknowable, conditioned otherwise 

 than in physical action, to explain the origin of con- 

 sciousness, what has come of his boasted all-embracing 

 principle ? his unbroken operation of dynamic law ? 

 The continuous redistribution of matter and motion 

 has been proceeding with unceasing flow : a point 

 is reached where consciousness comes into view of 

 thought. It emerges as a direct emanation from the 

 unknowable power <; otherwise conditioned." It is not, 

 then, the outcome of that power as conditioned in phy- 

 sical action. The universality of the dynamic principle 

 is denied ; and the evolution hypothesis falls with it. 



Consciousness in every intellection testifies against 

 the proposal to constitute of the knowable one organ- 

 ized system cohering by physical bonds. Self, con- 

 scious of itself, stands apart ; in the physical universe, 

 but not of it. The chasm cannot be bridged over. 

 It is impossible to embrace all experience in one 

 coherent process of evolution. Mr. Spencer states, 

 with great force, the contrast between the two realms. 

 "There lies," he says, "a class of facts absolutely 

 without any perceptible or conceivable community 

 of nature with the facts that have occupied us. The 

 truths here to be set down are truths of which the 

 very elements are unknown to physical science."* 



* Psychology, Vol. I, 41. 



