430 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 



accept as a real or thinkable hypothesis, is of the same 

 nature as would be one, based on a day's observation of 

 human life, that each man and woman was specially created 

 — an hypothesis not suggested by evidence but by lack of 

 evidence — an hypothesis which formulates ignorance into a 

 semblance of knowledge. Further, we see that this hypo- 

 thesis, failing to satisfy men's intellectual need of an inter- 

 pretation, fails also to satisfy their moral sentiment. It is 

 quite inconsistent with those conceptions of the divine nature 

 which they profess to entertain. If infinite power was to be 

 demonstrated, then, either by the special creation of every 

 individual, or by the production of species by some method 

 of natural genesis, it would be better demonstrated than by 

 the use of two methods, as assumed by the hypothesis. And 

 if infinite goodness was to be demonstrated, then, not only 

 do the provisions of organic structure, if they are specially 

 devised, fail to demonstrate it, but there is an enormous 

 mass of them which imply malevolence rather than bene- 

 volence. 



Thus the hypothesis of special creations turns out to be 

 worthless by its derivation; worthless in its intrinsic in- 

 coherence; worthless as absolutely without evidence; worth- 

 less as not supplying an . intellectual need; worthless as not 

 satisfying a moral want. We must therefore consider it as 

 counting for nothing, in opposition to any other hypothesis 

 respecting the origin of organic beings. 



