74 FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 
Newton may, for the first time, have seen the majestic 
order of the solar system, may have felt how futile was 
the old notion of guiding angels, one for each planet to 
hold it up in space. He may have re- 
ceived his first clear vision of the simple 
relations of the planets, each forever 
falling toward the sun and toward one another, each one 
by the same force forever preserved from collision. 
Such a man might have exclaimed, “ Great is gravita- 
tion; it is the new religion, the religion of the future!” 
In such manner, men trained in dead traditions, once 
brought to a clear insight of the noble simplicity and 
adequacy of the theory of evolution, may have exclaimed, 
“Great is evolution; it is the new religion, the religion 
of the future!” 
But evolution is religion in the same sense that every 
truth of the physical universe must be religion. That 
which is true is the truest thing in the world, and the 
recognition of the infinite soundness at the heart of the 
universe is an inseparable part of any worthy religion. 
But, whether religion or not, the truths of evolution 
must be their own witness. They can be neither 
strengthened nor controverted by any 
authority which may speak in the name 
of philosophy or of theology or of re- 
ligion or of reason. “ Roma locuta est ; causa finita est” 
is not a dictum which science can regard. Her causes 
are never finished. No power on earth can give before- 
hand the answer to her questions. Her only court of 
appeal is the experience of man. 
Evolution not a 
religion, 
Science its own 
witness. 
