ON THE CREATION AND GOD. 49 



power. What is this new phenomenon, the fact of vision, 

 which opens out a new world, which one day or one 

 moment came, having been non-existent just before ? 

 Is this new thing not something like creation ? It is 

 the product of the atoms, the effect of molecular changes, 

 says the materialist. Then the atoms are literally crea- 

 tive they have produced from nothing a most won- 

 derful thing ; they have evolved or evoked this unique 

 power from no pre-existing materials ; for the fact of 

 vision is wholly different from the material particles 

 which compose the organ it is a thing not made up of 

 them, nor of anything but itself, which one moment 

 was not and the next moment was ; and this is creation, 

 call it evolution, if you please. It is creation, and, 

 moreover, it is very like creation ex nihilo, pronounced 

 so absurd only that the blind atoms have accomplished 

 the miracle, according to the materialist. 



In short, we say to the materialist : you believe in 

 creation after all, under the name of evolution ; only it 

 was matter which effected the creation ; and you believe 

 in the miracle of creation from nothing, only that the 

 atoms, acting without intention or concert, accomplished 

 the miracle. You believe in a creation by the atoms, 

 only that the atoms did not know what they were about 

 to do or what was about to happen. They had no 

 intention of producing the result nor could have had 

 any ; and the creation or evolution, first of life, then of 

 the senses, then of consciousness, and last of the human 

 reason, was the result of a long series of fortunate 

 accidents. This is the real and most important issue 

 raised to-day by Darwin, as in ancient times by Demo- 

 critus whether chance or purpose governs the world; 

 and it is the issue raised by the thoughtful Evolution 

 philosophy of Herbert Spencer as well as by the cruder 



E 



