26 EVOLUTION AND NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



at a definite epoch, with fossils in situ, and bear- 

 ing every mark of having existed from eternity, 

 is, in spite of its obvious absurdity, the only view 

 which can even partially reconcile the doctrine 

 of Special Creation with existing facts. Nor is 

 even Prochronism, although based upon Special 

 Creation, necessarily opposed to Evolution, as 

 this theory affirms that the facts of Geology are 

 to be regarded simply as phenomena ; not as 

 representing anything that ever actually ex- 

 isted, but only as showing what would have 

 existed, if the earth itself had existed for ever, 

 instead of having only been created 6,000 years 

 ago. 



Wallace, in his well-known work on Miracles 

 and Modern Spiritualism,* has pointed out that 

 the present decline of the belief in the Super- 

 natural is unprecedented in human history. It 

 has been caused partly by the progress of science, 

 and partly by the re-action against the extreme 

 credulity of the Middle Ages, and can only be 

 corrected by wider knowledge, showing us that 

 the natural and the so-called supernatural, 

 are both subject, under the control of the 



* In a note on page 22. he adopts the present writer's views regard- 

 ing the Witchmania and its results. 



