2 EVOL UTION AND NA TURAL THEOL OGY. 



extent of the stellar universe was disclosed ; 

 then came Geology, with its disclosures of the 

 vast age of the earth, and, later, of the compara- 

 tively great antiquity of the human race ; then 

 Chemistry, with its revelations of the common 

 structure of the organic and inorganic world ; 

 and finally Biology, demonstrating the common 

 origin of all life. The physical science of the 

 ancient world never appears to have become 

 the familiar heritage of the multitude, and what 

 their wise men knew of the real system of the 

 Universe, was lost or misapprehended after the 

 decay of the ancient civilisations. Many of our 

 sciences, too, appear to be exclusively of modern 

 growth. A few generations back, and the wisest 

 man did not even dream of facts now known to 

 the humblest school-child : what then could the 

 community have known or guessed of the nature 

 of the Universe ? No wonder that with the 

 Ancients, and even more during the Middle 

 Ages, the earth was either the Universe, or at 

 least the centre and object of all things. It 

 was supposed to be a flat plain, varying in 

 size in different systems ; but in all cases 

 distant countries were regarded as unearthly 

 regions, abounding with fabulous creatures ot 



