THE COMING OF EVOLUTION 217 



regarded), the human mind, by an inevitable exaggera- 

 tion of the power of the new method, tends to think 

 that it is on the point of reaching a complete mechanical 

 explanation of the Universe. The Greek atomists 

 made a guess at the structure of matter which chances 

 to concord with modern views, though their evidence 

 for it from the scientific point of view was most 

 exiguous. Not content with applying their theory 

 to the inorganic world, they framed accounts and 

 explanations of life and its phenomena on the idea 

 of a " fortuitous concourse of atoms," all unconscious 

 of the vast complexity of inorganic nature, and the 

 still vaster world of new phenomena which had to be 

 explored before the problem of life, for which they 

 gave a confident solution, could even be approached. 

 Yet the atomists did good work, and did it under 

 the inspiration of a wave of materialistic philosophy. 

 But the insufficiency of their conceptions was recog- 

 nized by Plato and Aristotle, and, for equally transient 

 reasons, an idealistic spiritualism returned. 



The faith of the Middle Ages, where it depended 

 on the exercise of the human reason, was constructed 

 from argument based on doubtful premisses, and 

 fortified by a theory of divine providence adapted 

 to an undeveloped science. Hence, when the growth 

 of knowledge began afresh with the Renaissance, the 

 natural oscillations of opinion were increased. Each 

 step in advance was feared as an offence against 

 orthodoxy, and its leader was denounced as an 

 impious heretic. 



But here again we must not condemn the conserva- 

 tors of ancient creeds without some thought. They 

 had inherited a scheme of religion and philosophy, 



