246 
science, but it is of course well known as an opinion uttered 
in the very infancy of recorded thought. The ancient anti- 
Theistic doubts were dealt with by Plato, by Cicero, and other 
renowned “ seekers after God.” A quotation from Cicero will 
serve as a sample of the Theistic argument which has come down 
to us with all the glow of twenty centuries : — “ Philosophers, 
if they are surprised at first at the sight of the universe, 
ought, when they have considered the regular, uniform, and 
immutable motions of it, to conceive that there is some being, 
that is not only an inhabiter in the celestial and divine man- 
sion, but a ruler and governor of this mighty fabric.”* 
12. But this ancient consideration, although it has brought 
conviction and rest to the most illustrious minds from the be- 
ginning, cannot be expected to satisfy the adventurous spirits 
of the present. Emboldened by conquest, they reach, like 
Alexander, the ends of the earth ; but, unlike him, they then 
have no desire for other worlds. 
13. The reason for at present urging or reiterating Theistic 
truths is found in the astounding statements to the contrary 
made by scientists in support of the evolutionary theory. 
Professor Tyndall, at Birmingham the other day, is reported to 
have said, “ It is now generally admitted that the man of to- 
day is the child and product of incalculable antecedent time. 
His physical and intellectual textures have been woven for 
him during his passage through phases of history and forms 
of existence which lead the mind back to an abysmal past.” 
And again, “ Hunger and thirst, heat and cold, pleasure and 
pain, sympathy, shame, pride, love, hate, terror, awe — such 
were the forces whose interaction and adjustment during the 
immeasurable ages of his development wove the triplex web of 
man J s physical, intellectual, and moral nature, and such arc 
the forces that will be effectual to the end.” 
14. But there has not been, and there is not, any such 
general admission of the evolutionary origin of all things. 
The assumption of it is a trick of advocacy. 
15. As a further instance of this unwarranted habit of modern 
thought, I adduce the following closing sentence of a lectui’e 
recently delivered by Professor U. C. Marsh, of Yale College, 
the president-elect of the American Association for the Pro- 
motion of Science, and a distinguished Palaeontologist : — “ In 
this long history of ancient life I have said nothing of what 
Life itself really is. And for the best of reasons, because I 
know nothing. Here at present our ignorance is dense, and 
yet we need not despair. Light, Heat, Electricity, and Mag- 
* De Nat, Deorum, book ii. 
