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we want now to complete the proof is exact information how 
it existed. I extract from a recently-published work by Mr. 
Darwin, a specimen of the kind of reasoning objected to. In 
speaking of the varieties of Primula, he says: — “ We may 
freely admit that Primula veris, vulgaris, and elatior, as well 
as all other species of the genus, are descended from a common 
primordial form, yet, from the facts above given, we must con- 
clude that these three forms are now as fixed in character as 
are many others, which are universally ranked as true species. 
Consequently they have as good a right to receive distinct 
specific names as have, for instance, the ass, quagga, and 
zebra.”* 
It is always the same — facts on one side, theory on the other. 
On the ipse clixit of Darwin we may “ freely admit ” that of 
which no proof can be given, and which is the direct reverse 
of all present experience ! Such is the faith that Darwin looks 
for (and not in vain) from his followers ! 
If we extend our inquiries over past ages to search for some 
justification of evolutionist assumption, we find, as in a valu- 
able Address t just put into my hands, that “the whole 
evidence supplied by fossil plants is opposed to the hypothesis 
of genetic evolution, and especially the sudden and simul- 
taneous appearance of the most highly organized plants at 
particular stages in the past history of the globe, and the 
entire absence among fossil plants of any forms intermediate 
between existing classes or families. The facts of paleontolo- 
gical botany are opposed to evolution.” 
I shall endeavour to show that there is an order and a design, 
andanxEDNESE in nature quite irreconcilable with the essentially 
atheistic doctrine of a self-evolving and continually-changing 
universe. 
To quote the words of a Fellow of the Royal Society in 
1682 :J “To philosophize is to render the causes and ends 
of things. No man, therefore, that denieth God can do this 
truly. For the taking away of the First Cause maketh all things 
contingent. Now, of that which is contingent, although there 
may be an event, yet there can be no reason or end ; so that 
men should then study that which is not. So the causes of 
things, if they are contingent, they cannot be constant. For 
that which is the cause of this now, if it be so contingently, it 
* The Different Forms of Flowers. 1877. 
t Fossil Plants and their Testimony in Reference to the Doctrine of Evolu- 
tion. By Wm. Carrutkers, F.R.S., &c. 
X The Anatomy of Plants. By N. Grew, F.R.S., &c. 1682. 
