result of the brilliant researches of Mr. Darwin, to the involved processes of 

 living organisms. More recently still, we have been attempting to unravel 

 the varied and mysterious abnormal processes, which are at times exhibited 

 by animals and plants, in accordance with this same Universal Law. 



As an explanation of the mode of development of animal and \cgetable 

 life, and especially of the former, whether in the case of the individual or in 

 that of the tribe, of the origin of man, and of his language and social 

 customs, the hypothesis of evolution has been of incalculable benefit in the 

 past ; and it is also of the greatest possible advantage in moulding our 

 methods of research to-day. 



Marvellously important however as this belief is, it must be emphatically 

 stated that evolution can only be regarded as a method of procedure. 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer insists that phenomena indicate, or are the expressions 

 of an ' Infinite and Eternal Energy ' ; and it is clear that the result of the 

 deepest reflection can only be to carry us much further in the direction of 

 positive belief. That gradual but definite progress of living organisms from 

 simpler to more perfect forms, manifestly points to some "Power who ordains 

 this state of things, this wonderful co-ordination of the intricate processes 

 going on around us. Indeed it may be said, that those who attempt to 

 remove in thought the controlling agency, the guiding Power, cannot 

 refrain from admitting the efficiency of Blind Chance to take the helm. It 

 is obviously quite impossible, completely to explain the causation of 

 phenomena, however simple. The initiation and maturation of new organs 

 and new structures, the phenomena of bodily and psychical development, 

 all indicate the existence of something far higher and greater than we can 

 conceive of, some grand reality of wdiich we only see the superficial 

 manifestations. 



It is important to remember that when we have assumed the complete 

 idea of connected and continuous causation, which is called the Evolution 

 Theory, w^e have by no means eliminated the necessity of belief in a Great 

 First Cause. 



It is one thing to recognise a necessary and inevitable connection of 

 sequence between those simple forms of matter, the nebulae on the one 

 hand, and the most complex forms of material seen in other portions of the 

 universe on the other ; and it is another to believe that herein has been 

 reached a fully satisfactory solution of all things and all mysteries. All that 

 man can ever claim to have done, is that he has substituted the idea of one 

 great Power, unknown and unknowable, for the innumerable spirits and 

 influences which the savage supposed to be the causes of the occurrence of 

 phenomena. Instead of looking upon the great mysteries of life, the 

 unknown factors which have resulted in our presence here as innumerable 

 and indefinite, w^e now consider them all as expressions of a Great Reality, 

 which we cannot fathom. 



Of this ultimate conception, which all men frame for themselves, 

 consciously or unconsciously, it is impossible to rid ourselves, try as we will. 

 In all creeds and in all beliefs, this idea, more or less pronounced, is present: 



