28o ( 66 ) 



Two views, then, offer themselves to us. Life was 

 present potentially in matter when in the nebulous form, 

 and was unfolded from it by the way of natural develop- 

 ment, or it is a principle inserted into matter at a later 

 date. With regard to the question of time, the views of 

 men have changed remarkably in our day and genera- 

 tion j and I must say as regards courage also, and a 

 manful willingness to engage in open contest, with fair 

 .weapons, a great change has also occurred. 



The clergy of England at all events the clergy of 

 London have nerve enough to listen to the strongest 

 views which any one amongst us would care to utter ; 

 and they invite, if they do not challenge, men of the 

 most decided opinions to state and stand by those opin- 

 ions in open court. No theory upsets them. Let the 

 most destructive hypothesis be stated only in the lan- 

 guage current among gentlemen, and they look it in the 

 face. They forego alike the thunders of heaven and the 

 terrors of the other place, smiting the theory, if they do 

 not like it, with honest secular strength. In fact, the 

 greatest cowards of the present day are not to be found 

 among the clergy, but within the pale of science itself. 



Two or three years ago in an ancient London college 

 a clerical institution I heard a very remarkable lec- 

 ture by a very remarkable man. Three or four hundred 

 clergymen were present at the lecture. The orator 

 began with the civilization of Egypt in the time of 

 Joseph ; pointing out that the very perfect organization 

 of the kingdom, and the possession of chariots, in one 

 of which Joseph rode, indicated a long antecedent 

 period of civilization. He then passed on to the mud 

 of the Nile, its rate of augmentation, its present thick- 

 ness, and the remains of human handiwork found therein; 



