PHILOSOPHY AND “ EVOLUTION ” : AN INQUIRY. 125 
we are not permitted to dismiss the idea as a myth ; hut are 
told to believe that it might have existed, and that in truth it 
“ must ” have existed, for otherwise the hypothesis built upon 
it would fail. Then a force, operating upon this “ homogeneous 
matter,” would, say evolutionists, produce in it varying degrees 
of condensation and thickness, whence would result the various 
chemical elements. To the objection that the differences 
among the elements are other than relative degrees of con- 
densation, e.g., that condensing hydrogen does not turn it into 
nitrogen, oxygen, chlorine, or any other element, the evolutionist 
gives no reply except the assertion that the thing did somehow ! 
so “ take place ” or “ arise.” 
How and Why certain portions of inorganic matter should 
become Organs — eyes, ears, etc., and the one part become an 
eye, whilst the other part becomes not an eye but an ear, 
the evolutionist fails to tell us ; all lie can say is that it “ took 
place,” “ it arose,” probably in some mysterious way, through 
condensations and thickenings (!)* 
W e may, however, be permitted to think that this hypothesis 
of original simple “ homogeneous matter,” rests upon an 
unstable foundation. Nature presents to us objects of great 
diversity — not of degree only but also of kind. On the 
assumption that they are all fashioned out of one homogeneous 
material, how did they acquire this diversity ? 
Diversity of effect implies diversity in the material or in the 
cause, or in both material and cause. Were one and the same 
homogeneous matter acted on by one and the same cause, then, 
even if the amount of action vary on different parts of this 
material, the differences in effect can be in degree only, not in 
hind. 
Is Transmutation of Species possible l — The supposed change 
of Species into new species was inferred from the circumstance 
that varieties can be changed into new varieties, but the hasty 
generalization is unproved. Vines testifies before the British 
Association, f that “ it cannot he said that the study of Palseo- 
botany has as yet made clear the ancestry and the descent of 
our existing flora.” Huxley candidly tells us that “ we know of 
no animal now living which in any sense is intermediate.” 
Dana, referring to the absence of geological genetic links, does 
not hesitate to declare that “ if the links ever existed, their 
* We may decline to accept subjective imaginations for objective 
facts. 
t See Nature , September 27th, 1900. 
