THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 9 



go on for ever as it is now ; an endless succession of 

 similar years and of nearly similar plants and animals. 

 It was not even necessary to suppose with Democritus 

 that the Universe was the result of a fortuitous con- 

 course of atoms ; for there was no beginning. The 

 Universe had always been here, and here it would 

 remain. Life, men thought, had always been on the 

 earth, and where life was there also was mind. And 

 just as one form of matter, or one form of energy, 

 passed into another, so life kept renewing itself 

 constant decay and death with constant rejuvenescence. 

 If matter was indestructible, so also was mind. All was 

 eternal. All was made to go on for ever. ISTo controller 

 was necessary. The Universe and its maker were one. 



Thus the conclusions of science seemed to prove 

 that mind pervades all matter ; and this belief was 

 more acceptable to our reason than the opposite one, 

 that mind can exist outside of matter; for of the 

 latter we have no experience. Thus a pantheistic, or 

 monistic, 1 view of the Universe became prevalent, 

 especially in Germany. As the study of palaeontology 

 advanced, the succession of life on the earth became 

 a difficulty, and Darwin's theory of organic develop- 

 ment, by means of natural selection, was hailed with 

 delight as the explanation so long hoped for. But, 

 in truth, the pantheistic argument was completely 

 destroyed by the establishment of the theory of 

 evolution, which shewed that the Universe was not 

 eternal, and that progress, not repetition, was the law 

 under which it existed. 



The change thus brought about was sudden and 

 perplexing, and some very able men could not see 



1 Monism is a materialistic pantheism which denies volition. 



