CHAPTER XIII. 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD. 



The notion of creation. Miracles. Creation of the whole universe 

 and of its various parts. Creation of substance (cosmological 

 creation). Deism : one creative day. Creation of separate 

 entities. Five forms of ontological creationism. Theory of 

 evolution. I. Monistic cosmogony. Beginning and end of the 

 world. The infinity and eternity of the universe. Space and 

 time. Universum perpetuum mobile. Entropy of the universe. 

 II. Monistic geogeny. History of the inorganic and organic 

 worlds. III. Monistic biogeny. Transformism and the theory 

 of descent. Lamarck and Darwin. IV. Monistic anthropogeny. 

 Origin of man. 



The greatest, vastest, and most difficult of all cosmic 

 problems is that of the origin and development of the 

 world — the " question of creation," in a word. Even 

 to the solution of this most difficult world-riddle the 

 nineteenth century has contributed more than all its 

 predecessors ; in a certain sense, indeed, it has found 

 the solution. We have at least attained to a clear 

 view of the fact that all the partial questions of crea- 

 tion are indivisibly connected, that they represent one 

 single, comprehensive " cosmic problem," and that 

 the key to this problem is found in the one magic 

 word — evolution. The great questions of the crea- 

 tion of man, the creation of the animals and 

 plants, the creation of the earth and the sun, etc., 

 are all parts of the general question, What is the 

 origin of the whole world ? Has it been created by 



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