COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



phatically in favour of the derivation theory. 

 That theory affords a satisfactory explanation 

 for this entire class of facts, while the special 

 creation hypothesis is incompetent to explain a 

 single one of them. They are, moreover, in 

 perfect harmony with the prominent facts of 

 morphology, of embryology, and of classifica- 

 tion — so that the evidence furnished by the 

 four classes of facts taken together becomes 

 truly overwhelming. 



When in the next chapter we come to con- 

 sider the speculations and discoveries of Mr. 

 Darwin, we shall see that the case in favour of 

 derivation is even stronger than as here pre- 

 sented ; for we shall see that certain agencies 

 are unceasingly at work, with the long continu- 

 ance of which the absolute stability of specific 

 forms is incompatible. But, as between the two 

 hypotheses of special creation and of derivation, 

 the arguments already brought forward are far 

 more than sufficient for a decisive verdict. The 

 presumption raised at the outset against the 

 Doctrine of Special Creations is even super- 

 fluously confirmed by the testimony of facts. 

 Not only is this doctrine discredited by its bar- 

 baric origin, and by the absurd or impossible 

 assumptions which it would require us to make, 

 but it utterly fails to explain a single one of 

 the phenomena of the classification, embryo- 

 logy, morphology, and distribution of extinct 

 410 



