COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



of the phenomena of organic life, held by a large 

 number of biologists during the first half of the 

 present century, and of late years accepted by 

 nearly all, may be called the Doctrine of Deri- 

 vation. 



In describing the special creation hypothesis, 

 we are confronted by an initial difficulty, due 

 to the enormous change which has occurred in 

 men's habits of thinking since the mythopoeic 

 age when it first gained currency. The Hebrew 

 writer, indeed, presents us with a concrete pic- 

 ture of the creation of man, according to which 

 a homogeneous clay model of the human form 

 is, in some inconceivable way, at once trans- 

 muted into the wonderfully heterogeneous com- 

 bination of organs and tissues, with all their 

 definite and highly specialized aptitudes, of 

 which actually living man is made up. But I 

 suppose there are few scientific writers at the 

 present day who would be found willing to risk 

 their reputation for common-sense by attempt- 

 ing to defend such a conception. The few nat- 

 uralists who still make a show of upholding 

 the special creation hypothesis are very care- 

 ful to refrain from anything like a specification 

 of the physical processes which that hypothe- 

 sis may be supposed to imply. When overtly 

 challenged, they find it safest to shrink from 

 the direct encounter, taking refuge in grandilo- 

 quent phrases about " Creative Will " and the 

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