442 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



not the Evolution hypothesis. Steady yourselves, in its 

 presence, upon that faith in the ultimate triumph of truth 

 which was expressed by old Gamaliel when he said: " If it 

 be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; if it be of man, it will 

 come to naught." Under the fierce light of scientific 

 inquiry, it is sure to be dissipated if it possess not a core of 

 truth. Trust me, its existence as a hypothesis is quite 

 compatible with the simultaneous existence of all those 

 virtues to which the term "Christian" has been applied. 

 It does not solve it does not profess to solve the ultimate 

 mystery of this universe. It leaves, in fact, that mystery 

 untouched. For, granting the nebula and its potential 

 life, the question, whence they came, would still remain 

 to baffle and bewilder us. At bottom, the hypothesis does 

 nothing more than " transport the conception of life's 

 origin to an indefinitely distant past." 



Those who hold the doctrine of Evolution are by no 

 means ignorant of the uncertainty of their data, and they 

 only yield to it a provisional assent. They regard the 

 nebular hypothesis as probable, and, in the utter absence of 

 any evidence to prove the act illegal, they extend the 

 method of nature from the present into the past. Here 

 the observed uniformity of nature is their only guide. 

 \yithin the long range of physical inquiry, they have never 

 discerned in nature the insertion of caprice. Throughout 

 this range, the laws of physical and intellectual continuity 

 have run side by side. Having thus determined the 

 elements of their curve in a world of observation and 

 experiment, they prolong that curve into an antecedent 

 world, and accept as probable the unbroken sequence of 

 development from the nebula to the present time. You 

 never hear the really philosophical defenders of the doctrine 

 of Uniformity speaking of impossibilities in nature. They 

 never say, what they are constantly charged with saying, 

 that it is impossible for the Builder of the universe to alter 

 His work. Their business is not with the possible, but 

 the actual not with a world which might be, but with a 

 world that is. This they explore with a courage not 

 unmixed with reverence, and according to methods which, 

 like the quality of a tree, are tested by their fruits. They 

 have but one desire to know the truth. They have but 

 one fear to believe a lie. And if they know the strength 

 of science, and rely upon it with unswerving trust, they 



