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CREATION AND PROVIDENCE, WITE SPECIAL 
REFERENCE TO THE EVOLUTIONIST THEORY. 
By John Eliot Howard, F.R.S. 
T HOSE who had not the opportunity of attending the 
meeting of the British Association (that Wittenagemote 
or “ assembly of wise men/’ as the Saxons would have called 
it) might reasonably look for some consolation in the perusal 
of the President's Address. 
Such a hope is destined to disappointment. The address 
is filled with anatomical details suited only to students of 
medicine; but with the avowed design of inculcating upon 
all present a belief in the doctrines of evolution and de- 
velopment, founded on implicit faith in the statements put 
before them. Dr. Thomson directs attention to the effect 
which these theories, as advocated by Lamarck and others 
on the Continent, and by Wallace and Darwin since 1858, 
have had in unsettling the belief of many persons in the older 
doctrines, but does not seek to correct this aberration; leaving 
his hearers under the impression that “ cautious naturalists," 
or, at least, “ a large majority of them," are thus influenced. 
Creation and Providence give way to evolution and develop- 
ment. To be thus assured ex cathedra that we have been all 
wrong in our views of these most important subjects may be 
widely influential on minds disposed to bow down to autho- 
rity ; consequently, the President cannot complain if his state- 
ments are subjected to searching criticism, and shown to rest 
on no solid foundation. 
Before entering on these questions, I must, therefore, ven- 
ture some remarks on the style of reasoning of the Address 
o' 2 
