ZOOLOGY, AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTIOIV 1 33 



divinity in the stone itself; "which, if with reason we may do, 

 then let our hammers rise up and boast they have built our 

 houses, and our pens receive the honour of our writings."^ But 

 everything must be determinate, says the pious evolutionist, or 

 what would become of the fixed order of nature ? Among the 

 things that occupy the biologist are such aspects of nature as life, 

 and consciousness, and volition, and reason, and right and wrong. 

 Whatever these things mean, they are part of nature, and the 

 zoologist cannot push them out of sight, if others may. He does 

 not know what their places in the system of nature are, but he 

 would like to find out ; and he knows no way to find out except 

 to discover. 



When they who worship at the shrine of evolution tell him 

 there can be no spontaneity in nature, because the order of nature 

 is fixed and unchangeable, he asks what reason there is for think- 

 ing that proof that everything in nature is mechanical, and no 

 more than might have been expected, would show that anything 

 is fixed, or predetermined, or necessary. 



Science has nothing to do with the notion of "necessity," and 

 is quite content to leave it in the hands of its originators, the 

 metaphysicians and theologians and "philosophers," who alone are 

 responsible for all the mental confusion it has brought about. 



What the man of science asserts is that he will not admit 

 that anything is "arbitrary." "It was the ignorance of man's 

 reason that begat this very name, and by a careless term mis- 

 called the Providence of God ; for there is no liberty for causes 

 to operate in a loose and straggling way."i 



Belief that everything in nature is mechanical is neither more 

 nor less than belief that everything in nature is orderly and what 

 might have been expected ; and if any one thinks that discovery 

 that things do take place in order is any reason why they should, 

 his distrust of science is only reasonable ; for science is not for 

 such minds as his. 



It is in my mind to ask a question. Will any amount of 

 knowledge of matter and motion tell the evolutionist whether I 

 shall ask it, or pass it by and go on to another subject.' If he 

 answer Yes, I ask my question : How does he know ? If he 



1 " Religio Medici." 



