30 THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 



might reasonably have said that it was by mere chance 

 that the one was developed before the other. But 

 when we see that there were more than two highly 

 complex combinations, all of which happened in the 

 particular order required for progress, it is evident 

 that the probabilities are in favour of this particular 

 chain of events having been brought about inten- 

 tionally, either by guidance or by pre-arrangement. 

 I see no escape from this conclusion. 



SECONDARY CAUSES 



But granted, what perhaps no one seriously disputes, 

 that evolution is due to intelligent design, the difficult 

 question arises : Has all been brought about by un- 

 alterable secondary laws, imposed on matter at the 

 creation of the universe ? Or can we recognise any 

 evidence of guidance in a particular direction, without 

 which the design would have failed ? 



When we think of the whole work that has been 

 accomplished by evolution, we are overwhelmed by its 

 vastness. The results of organic evolution, particularly, 

 are so marvellous that, to our limited intelligence, the 

 forces to which they are due seem to have been con- 

 stantly directed in their course. The human mind is 

 more disposed to accept the idea of guidance than that 

 of predetermination, as it seems to us to be the less 

 impossible of the two, and the more easy to understand. 

 We ourselves wait upon circumstances, see how things 

 are going to shape before we move, and we fancy that 

 the world must have been made, and must be carried 

 on, on the same principle. But the study of nature 

 gradually causes this belief to fade away. The more 



