EVOLUTION THE KEY TO NATURE 7 



ligible scheme. It was like looking down upon a 

 hilly region in the early morning, when the summits 

 of the hills stand out, far from each other, but a mist 

 lies on the valleys and conceals the connections. 

 Then the sun rises, and the entire panorama of hill 

 and dale becomes a connected whole before your eyes. 

 Merely recognizing the fact that nature had been 

 evolved had that effect upon man's mental picture 

 of it, or his "science" of it. 



It is important to understand this clearly. The 

 mind of man leaped forward, all the culture of the 

 world advanced rapidly, when the fact of evolution 

 was seen. But the fact of evolution is a different 

 thing from the methods or agencies of evolution. Even 

 if we knew nothing of the agencies which brought 

 about evolution, the fact would remain a most 

 important and permanent gain to every branch of 

 knowledge. No scientific man in the world now 

 doubts it, or has done so for several decades past. 

 He would as soon think of doubting the existence 

 of the sun. All the controversies which puzzle the 

 reader of larger works on evolution relate to the 

 agencies or machinery of evolution, not to the fact. 

 To say that things "grow" is, of course, only a 

 childish expression. When a geranium is "growing" 

 in a pot there is a most wonderful machinery in it 

 developing the stems and leaves and flowers. For 

 the whole of nature the machinery is colossal, and it 

 may be a long time before it is really known. I will 



