ON EVOLUTION, 301 
and Upholder of whatsoever is subject to these conditions—an original and 
fundamental Cause, whose effects are at once the revelation of a Mind and 
the operation of a Will. 
My philosophy, therefore, is no development of the speculations of 
Plato, except in so far as they approximate to a worthy conception of 
that eternal essence of goodness and truth towards which his mental 
energy was assiduously directed, but which it had not been given him 
truly to apprehend. It is simply, as I believe, the Biblical philosophy, 
although in my exposition of it I may have been giving evidence of habits 
of mind determined in some measure by familiarity with thoughts which 
owe their stamp and currency to his deep and fertile intellect. A reference 
to paragraph 10 will make it apparent that I hold matter to be a creation ; 
for, as will be seen, I contrast man, in respect to the subordination of his 
will and to his inability to originate in any sense—except in the use of 
material already provided for him—with that Being to whom I ascribe an 
absolute power and an ideal freedom of origination. 
If the title I have given to my paper should seem to need a more explicit 
apology than will be found in the foregoing remarks, I would request atten- 
‘tion to the meaning of the word “ Evolution.” To evolve is to roll out or 
unfold ; and therefore, as it seems to me, the disclosure of an idea, plan, 
or purpose, may with strict propriety be termed an evolution. In choosing 
this word, I was determined by the consideration that the universe, 
regarded as a creation, should be conceived as not merely emanating, that 
is tosay flowing forth, from the source of all finite existence, but opening out 
a scheme latent in the mind of Him with whom (James i. 17, R. v.) 
can be no variation, nor shadow that is cast by turning. 
