work of evolution is discovered by the senses. But the divinest work of God is only to be detected by the mind and the spirit. To see the one, and not the other, is to miss the beauty of the fairest half of the universe.

"The works of God are fair for nought,
Unless our eyes, in seeing,

See hidden in the thing the thought
That animates its being.

The outward form is not the whole,
But clearly has been moulded
To image forth an inward soul,
That dimly is unfolded.

The shadow pictured in the lake
By every tree that trembles,
Is cast for more than just the sake
Of that which it resembles.

The dew falls lightly, not alone
Because the meadows need it,
But hath an errand of its own
To human souls that heed it.

The stars are lighted in the skies
Not merely for their shining,
But, like the light of loving eyes,
Have meanings worth divining.

The waves that moan along the shore,
The winds that sigh in blowing,

Are sent to teach a mystic lore

Which men are wise in knowing.

The clouds around the mountain-peak,
The rivers in their winding,

Have secrets, which to all who seek
Are precious in the finding.

Thus nature dwells within our reach; But though we stand so near her, We still interpret half her speech With ears too dull to hear her.

Whoever at the coarsest sound
Still listens for the finest,
Shall hear the noisy world go round
To music the divinest.

Whoever yearns to see aright,

Because his heart is tender, Shall catch a glimpse of heavenly light In every earthly splendour.

So since the universe began,
And till it shall be ended,
The soul of nature, soul of man,

And soul of God are blended."

77

Agnosticism.

VI.

EVOLUTION OF THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE

WE

KINGDOMS.

E are engaged in considering the knowledge of God. Now by God we mean, among other things, the Being from whom this world has come, the Being of whose mind and will nature is the expression. But it is evident that if nature is, in any sense, connected with God, our knowledge of the two must harmonise. God cannot be what nature plainly declares He is not. And though He may be a great deal more, He must be, at least, what nature plainly declares that He is. The knowledge of nature is thus one of the first steps to the knowledge of God. "That is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual." Unless we know nature which we

have seen, how can we know God whom we have not seen? The Divine Being has, perhaps, other and what may seem to us higher methods of working than those which nature suggests. But He certainly does not work by methods which nature plainly contradicts. An investigation of our knowledge of nature, therefore, is an essential preliminary to anything like an adequate discussion of our knowledge of God. What we can know of God will depend to some extent upon what we do know of nature. I admit that there are other and better ways of knowing Him than through the instrumentality of material phenomena. But the philosophic mind can only be satisfied, when it sees that the information which comes from the superior sources of knowledge, is not out. of harmony with that which is imparted by the inferior.

Ac

We have seen that there are two competing theories which profess to explain the phenomena of nature-namely, Paley's and Darwin's. cording to the first, every animal or vegetable species, every individual organism, and every portion of every organism, are supposed to have been directly and specially designed and created by God. But this theory, as I pointed out, was

completely disproved by facts, and in particular by the evidence of rudimentary and abortive organs, which, so far from answering any definite purpose, are at the best useless, and not unfrequently injurious. But these and other circumstances, with which the first theory are in flagrant contradiction, are completely accounted for by the second. The latter theory is variously termed the theory of evolution, descent, filiation, or transmutation; and is so called because it asserts that all species of animals and all species of plants, which have ever existed or which still exist on the earth, are derived from one, or a few, simple forms. This theory had been brought forward and defended, in the beginning of the present century, by several eminent naturalists, especially by Lamarck and Goethe; but it received its complete demonstration mainly through the efforts of Darwin, and is therefore called the Darwinian theory. It is now accepted to some extent by all scientific experts.

Next comes the question-In what manner has evolution been effected? What is its im

mediate physical cause? What is there in the nature of species or their surroundings which leads to their transmutation into other species ? Lamarck and the earlier apostles of evolution