144 THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 



this hypothesis is sure to be dissipated if 

 it possess not a core of truth. Trust me, its 

 existence as an hypothesis in the mind 

 is quite compatible with the simultaneous 

 existence of all those virtues to which 

 the term Christian has been applied. It 

 does not solve it does not profess to 

 solve the ultimate mystery of this uni- 

 verse. It leaves, in fact, that mystery 

 untouched. For granting the nebula and 

 its potential life, the question whence came 

 they? would still remain to baffle and 

 bewilder us. At bottom the hypothesis 

 does nothing more than < transport the 

 conception of life's origin to an inde- 

 finitely distant past.' " * 



With the exception of " granting the 

 potential life of the nebula," most cultured 

 Christians would agree with the extract 

 given above. But this claim for the 

 nebula possessing " potential life " is even 

 stronger than Mr. Darwin's "if." It 

 contains the whole gist of the difference 



* Use and Limit of the Imagination in Science, p. 49. 



