MISSING FACTOR IN CURRENT THEORIES 47 



By new machinery in counterpart, 



The moral qualities of Man— how else ?— 



To make him love in turn, and be beloved, 



Creative and self-sacrificing too, 



And thus eventually Godlike."* 



Ill 



WHY WAS EVOLUTION THE METHOD CHOSEN? 



One seldom-raised yet not merely curious ques- 

 tion of Evolution is, why the process should be an 

 evolution at all ? If Evolution is simply a method 

 of Creation, why was this very extraordinary method 

 chosen? Creation tout d'un coup might have pro- 

 duced the same result ; an instantaneous act or an 

 age-long process would both have given us the 

 world as it is? The answer of modern natural 

 theology has been that the evolutionary method is 

 the infinitely nobler scheme. A spectacular act, it 

 is said, savours of the magician. As a mere ex- 

 hibition of power it appeals to the lower nature ; 

 but a process of growth suggests to the reason the 

 work of an intelligent Mind. No doubt this intel- 

 lectual gain is real. While a catastrophe puts the 

 universe to confusion at the start, a gradual rise 

 makes the beginning of Nature harmonious with 

 its end. How the surpassing grandeur of the new 

 * The Ring and the Book—Tht Pope, 1375. 



