SPECIAL CREATION OR DERIVATION? 



and living organisms. While, on the other 

 hand, the Doctrine of Derivation is not only 

 accredited by its scientific origin, and by its 

 appealing to none but verifiable processes and 

 agencies, but it affords an explanation for each 

 and all of the above-mentioned phenomena. 



I think we may, therefore, without further 

 ado, consign the special creation hypothesis to 

 that limbo where hover the ghosts of the slaugh- 

 tered theories that were born of man's untutored 

 intelligence in early times. There we may let 

 it abide, along with the vagaries of the astrolo- 

 gists, the doctrine of signatures, the arch<eus of 

 Paracelsus, the elixir vita of the alchemists, and 

 the theory of perpetual motion. The space 

 which we have here devoted to it is justified by 

 the vividness with which the discussion has 

 brought before us the contrast between mytho- 

 logy and science, between Anthropomorphism 

 and Cosmism. But in the chapters which are 

 to follow, the question of its merits or demerits 

 will no longer concern us. 



END OF VOLUME II. 



