12 EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION LECT. 



poses that from matter and force, the entire world and 

 the life it contains their past, present, and future 

 have been, are, and will be evolved by a natural 

 process, without any special interference of the 

 Creator, whose existence seems to me necessarily 

 assumed. 



To quote again Professor Huxley : l " The hypo- 

 thesis of evolution supposes that in all this vast 

 progression there would be no breach of continuity- 

 no point at which we could say, 'This is a natural 

 process/ and ' This is not a natural process,' but that 

 the whole might be compared to that wonderful 

 process of development which may be seen going on 

 every day under our eyes, in virtue of which there 

 arises, out of the semi-fluid, comparatively homo- 

 geneous substance which we call an egg, the com- 

 plicated organization of one of the higher animals." 



Excluding the first hypothesis, which explains 

 nothing, and merely ignores the problem to be 

 solved, the whole discussion is between the second 

 and third. And we cannot wonder at the rivalry 

 displayed on both sides we cannot wonder at the 

 passionate fighting which has been carried on at 

 each discussion of the matter, when we consider that 

 in fact the question is not merely zoological, but 

 metaphysical and speculative, and that the real 



1 American Addresses. Three Lectures on Evolution, pp. 10, n. 



