44 EVOLUTION. 



The First Cause, 



But does Evolution solve all the mystery of life ? 

 No one pretends that it does. It only traces back 

 the workings of natural law to the simplest and 

 earliest combination of matter and force ; the primary 

 cause still eludes discovery. But beginning with the 

 primeval ether or gas it accounts for all existing 

 forms, by the action of the laws of nature that we 

 now see in operation. The origin of matter and 

 force and why they vary in their productions lie still 

 in the region of the unknown, but we will not say 

 " unknowable," for who shall prescribe limits to the 

 future investigations of man ! 



Neither does Evolution necessarily question the 

 existence of God. It only concerns itself as to the 

 manner in which the Supreme Power works, and 

 claims that it acts through Natural Law and not 

 through miracle. 



Truly, as Darwin says, *' there is grandeur in this 

 view of life"; and there is also a simplicity in it that 

 is welcome to the perplexed mind that has pondered 

 with dismay on the incomprehensible idea of a 

 separate act of creation for every divergent form 

 of life. We may now see the method through 

 which the Infinite Power works out in orderly 

 sequence the development of the universe. Man, its 

 highest product, is brought into unison and sympathy 

 with all nature, and is stimulated by the evidence of 

 past progress to aspire tpyvard futqr^' possibility. 



< V> '' ' 





