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EEV. G. F. WHIDBORNE, W .A._, F.G.S., ON 



suffered grievous loss from the inscrutable veneration, that 

 has been so frequently bestowed upon it as a mentally- 

 graven image. In the darkness of its shrine it has been 

 v^orshipped with a liturgical jargon of scientific terms ; and 

 stranger and more impossible miracles have been attributed 

 to its mystic oracle, than all the priests of all the false gods- 

 of heathendom have invented or produced for the furtherance 

 of their material mysteries. And, when brought out into the 

 light, what does the idol prove to be ? Nothing ; an instru- 

 ment, not a god ; a process, not an intrinsic potency ; not an 

 originating cause. 



Let there be no mistake in our meaning here. We are not 

 at present raising the question of the validity of " evolution " 

 as an explanation of the history of nature. Whether it be a. 

 fact or not, whether it be or be not true in its extremest form, 

 does not affect our present argument in the slightest. All that 

 is now demanded is that, whatever it is, it be rightly used, that 

 it be not superstitiously regarded, that it be not venerated 

 as men revere an idol, ascribing to it properties and powers 

 which it cannot in its nature possess, attiibuting results to it 

 which, even if they come through it, could not originate in it, 

 degrading it from a scientific question into a superstitious 

 cult. 



The same treatment may be demanded with regard to what 

 are called the knvs of nature." No sane man would dream 

 of denying those laws. They are generally, and for the most 

 part in detail, evidenced by superabundant proof. Discoveries, 

 perchance, like the mystery of radium, may ever and anon 

 seem to challenge the validity of some accepted law. There 

 may be, doubtless, here and there laws, asserted by philosophers, 

 which are not really found in the statute-book of Nature. But 

 that is not the question. Grant to the full the existence, the 

 supremacy of the laws, what is required is to treat them as 

 what they are, and not as what they are not. They are laws 

 governing Nature, not laws ordained by Nature. Ask Nature 

 " where are her laws ? " and she reveals them upon every hand. 

 But ask Nature "where is the law-giver?" and the only 

 answer Nature can return is : " Not in me. I obey the laws ; 

 I do not originate them. 1 am their servant, not their 

 mistress." And yet no law can exist without a law-giver. 



3. natural facts indicative of effects. 

 Having thus dealt with these preliminary cautions, having 

 thus attempted to clear away the idol-shrines that block the 



