THE MECHANICAL CONCEPTION OF NATUEE. 245 



HDcl T thiiok that wLatevev niUli may be iu it, its real inwaidticss 

 is still a secret, yet I regard it as unwarrantable to make the 

 defence of Christianity rest on the assumption that the theory of 

 evolution is wrong, as we find some do. Anybody is welcome to 

 disprove that theory if he can ; but declamation will not disprove 

 it; and the arguments from facts in favour of some kind of 

 evolution appear to me to be gaining in force. To make the 

 argument for theism rest on an arraignment of evolution is, in my 

 opinion, an illegitimate setting up of one's pi'ivate judgment 

 against Avhat is nearly the consensus of men conversant with the 

 subject, and only injures the cause one is trying to defend. 



