ON THE CREATION AND GOD. 29 



we have only Plato and Shakespeare traced sideways to 

 the sun as their first cause, instead of backwards to the 

 cosmic vapour as their source. We have only the cruder 

 materialism, which appeals for support to the conserva- 

 tion of energy, instead of the more refined materialism 

 of the evolution hypothesis, both of which will be con- 

 sidered at the proper place. But the final sentence in 

 the quotation from Professor Tyndall I confess I find it 

 difficult to refer to any system of philosophy, or even to 

 give to it any definite meaning. He says, if the evolu- 

 tion hypothesis be correct, that the unsatisfied yearning 

 to know our origin "must have come to us across the 

 ages which separate the unconscious primeval mist from 

 the consciousness of to-day." The only meaning that 

 can be given to this, and what probably is intended, is 

 that this yearning, like all very general feelings, is de- 

 rived by inheritance from the generations behind us, who 

 in like manner inherited it, till we come back finally to 

 our first animal ancestors not far removed from " the 

 unconscious primeval mist." But such a sentiment fades 

 away long before we reach the moneron, and even long 

 before we get back to the monkey, which, as far as we 

 can judge, manifests no desire to know its origin. The 

 sentiment in man is, in fact, a product of philosophical 

 reflection, and of comparatively cultured ages, which 

 scarcely exists in the savage. How, therefore, such a 

 " yearning," born long after life appeared, could " have 

 come to us across the ages " from the primeval mist, in 

 many of which ages it did not exist, is very perplexing 

 to understand, even when assisted by the extremest use 

 of the scientific imagination. 



Doubtless, every material thing, including our own 

 bodies and brains, all that has ever assumed any form of 

 matter, has come out of the original stock of matter, 



