88 



FACTS AND FANCIES 



may still leave out of the question the pro- 

 cesses by which the Author of the world has 

 produced the changes of which palasontology 

 presents the picture." In like manner, the 

 Count de Saporta in his World of Plants 

 closes his summary of the periods of vegeta- 

 tion with the words : " But if we ascend from 

 one phenomenon to another, beyond the sphere 

 of contingent and changeable appearance, we 

 find ourselves arrested by a Being unchange- 

 able and supreme, the first expression ^nd 

 absolute cause of all existence, in whom diver- 

 sity unites with unity, an eternal problem, in- 

 soluble to science, but ever present to the 

 human consciousness. Here we reach the 

 true source of the idea of religion, and there 

 presents itself distinctly to the mind that con- 

 ception to which we apply instinctively the 

 name of God." 



Thus these evolutionists, like many others 

 in this country and in England, find a modus 

 vivendi between evolution and theism. They 

 have committed themselves to an interpreta- 

 tion of nature which may prove fanciful and 

 evanescent, and which certainly up to this 

 time remains an hypothesis, ingenious and 

 captivating, but not fortified by the' evidence 



