656 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
lution on a grand and imposing scale. The truth of the nebular theory has of 
late years received a most remarkable confirmation from the revelations of the 
spectroscope. When Galileo pointed his telescope to the planet Jupiter, and 
beheld his four moons revolving round their central world, the Copernican theory 
received a confirmation which its opponents could not withstand. In like man- 
ner, when the spectroscope was brought to the aid of astronomy, the theory of 
cosmic evolution received a confirmation which almost commands acceptance. 
Far off nebulz yield a spectra which prove them to be incandescertt gas in differ- 
ent stages of evolution,—embryo worlds which are now passing through the same 
successive phases of development as was once the case with our own system. 
Geological evolution is mainly distinguished from astronomical by the fact 
that it is chiefly due to the disturbing influence of radiation from foreign bodies, 
principally the sun. The facts of geology go to prove that the earth was once a 
reservoir of intense heat, which produced a repulsion among its elements, so that 
it ‘‘was without form and void,” or, in scientific language, a structureless mass 
with no definite arrangement and dependence among its parts. While this high 
temperature lasted, it must have been atime of universal tropics, so that there 
could have been no spring, summer, autumn and winter. Variety among the 
seasons arose from the loss of heat, so that the earth’s ‘‘ external temperature 
began to depend chiefly upon the supply of solar radiance.” Thus the continual 
loss of heat producing integration, and the heat retained in the central mass pro- 
ducing differentiation in structure gradually developed the earth into its present 
variety and ‘dependence of parts. ‘Thus arose its internal structure, and also 
those systems of moving equilibrium in its water and atmosphere upon which 
depend its different climates and seasons. The facts and principles which now 
form the beautiful and imposing edifice of geology were a mere mass of materials 
without method or order until they found their logical relations and explanations 
in the guiding principles of evolution. 
With regard to the application of evolution to organic phenomena, space will 
allow only a few brief statements. We make these more especially for the pur- 
pose of pointing out some of the misunderstandings which continually beset this 
aspect of the subject. Organic evolution is often spoken of by its opponents as 
though it were intended to set aside the idea of a Creator. Nothing can be 
farther from the truth. Evolution raises no question as to the ultimate origin of 
the world; admitting this with all its forces, physical and vital, to have sprung 
from a divine Creator, the question it has raised is one solely concerning the 
method of the divine procedure in the production of the wondrous forms of matter 
and life as we know them. Hence, the whole issue in organic evolution, as raised 
by Darwin, is one about the origin of existing species, whether these are super- 
natural creations by direct fia¢s, or have been developed from pre-existing species 
by the workings of natural causes. The prime object in his work on the ‘‘ Origin 
of Species,” as he himself states, was ‘‘to show that species had not been sepa- 
rately created.” 
