556 ON THE RECEPTION OF 



from the propositions they profess to accept, renders it ad- 

 visable to remark that the doctrine of Evolution is neither 

 Anti-theistic nor Theistic. It simply has no more to do with 

 Theism than the first book of Euclid has. It is quite cer- 

 tain that a normal fresh-laid egg contains neither cock nor 

 hen ; and it is also as certain as any proposition in physics or 

 morals, that if such an egg is kept under proper conditions 

 for three weeks, a cock or hen chicken will be found in it. 

 It is also quite certain that if the shell were transparent we 

 should be ab]e to watch the formation of the young fowd, 

 day by day, by a process of evolution, from a microscopic 

 cellular germ to its full size and complication of structure. 

 Therefore Evolution, in the strictest sense, is actually going 

 on in this and analogous millions and millions of instances, 

 wherever living creatures exist. Therefore, to borrow an 

 argument from Butler, as that which now happens must be 

 consistent with the attributes of the Deity, if such a Being 

 exists, Evolution must be consistent with those attributes. 

 And, if so, the evolution of the universe, which is neither 

 more nor less explicable than that of a chicken, must also be 

 consistent with them. The doctrine of Evolution, therefore, 

 does not even come into contact with Theism, considered as 

 a philosophical doctrine. That with which it does collide, 

 and with which it is absolutely inconsistent, is the conception 

 of creation, which theological speculators have based upon 

 the history narrated in the opening of the book of Genesis. 



There is a great deal of talk and not a little lamentation 

 about the so-called religious difficulties which physical sci- 

 ence has created. In theological science, as a matter of fact, 

 it has created none. Not a solitary problem presents itself 

 to the philosophical Theist, at the present day, which has 

 not existed from the time that philosophers began to think 

 out the logical grounds and the logical consequences of The- 

 ism. All the real or imaginary perplexities which flow from 

 the conception of the universe as a determinate mechanism, 

 are equally involved in the assumption of an Eternal, Om- 

 nipotent and Omniscient Deity. The theological equivalent 



