is EVOLUTIOM in 



ofN constant, and that the chain of natural 



causation is never broken. 



In tact, n<> belief which we entertain has so com- 

 plete a logical l>asis as that to which I have just 

 rred. It tacitly underlies every process of 

 reasoning; it is the foundation of every act of the 

 will. It is based upon the broadest induction, 

 and it is verified by the most constant, regular, 

 and universal of deductive processes. But we 

 must recollect that any human belief, however 

 broad its basis, however defensible it may seem, is, 

 after all, only a probable belief, and thai our 

 widest and safest generalisations are simply state- 

 ments of the highest degree of probability. 

 Though we are quite clear about the constancy of 

 the order of Nature, at the present time, and in 

 the ] resent state of things, it by no means 

 i ly follows that we are justified in exp; 1 1 id i n^- 

 this generalisation into the infinite past, and in 

 denying, absolutely, that there may have been a 

 time when Nature did not follow a fixed order. 

 when the relations of cause and effect were not 

 definite, and when extra-natural agencies interfered 

 with the general course of Nature. Cautious men 

 will allow that a universe so different from that 

 which we know may have existed ; just as a very 

 candid thinker may admit that a world in which 

 aii 1 two do not make four, and in which two 

 _dit lines do inclose a space, may exist. But 

 i" caution which forces the admission of 



