; there must be more in nature than what
we see; and, amongst the things unseen, there must be an intelligent
designing Author."

The scientific writer has to remember that whilst he may explain many
things, his work is a torso unless and until he has either accepted the
Creator as the first Cause, which he is too often disinclined to do, or
has supplied an equally satisfactory explanation, which he is
permanently unable to do. On the other hand, at least some defenders of
Theism in the past might well have borne in mind that, whilst we are
assured of the fact of Creation, we know absolutely nothing of its
mechanism save that it came about by the command of God. There is
nothing in which clear thinking and clear writing are more necessary
than in discussions of this kind; and too many of them are vitiated by
an obvious lack of philosophical training on the part of the
participants. Even in this carefully written book there are instances of
this kind of thing to which we must allude before considering its main
arguments.

"We know, for example, that there has existed a more or less complete
chain of beings from monad to man, that the one-toed horse had a
four-toed ancestor, that man has descended from an unknown ape-like form
somewhere in the Tertiary." "We _know_"--that is exactly the opposite of
the truth. We _know_ a thing when it is susceptible of proof according
to the rigid rules of formal logic; when, to doubt it, would be to give
rise to a suspicion as to our sanity; then we _know_ a thing, but not
until then. Now, as to the sentence quoted, we may allow the first part
to pass unchallenged with some possible demur at the use of the word
"chain." The second so-called piece of knowledge was doubted by no less
an authority than the late Adam Sedgwick. The third assertion plainly
and distinctly is not the case; for Science _knows_ nothing whatsoever
about the origin of man's body. In 1901 Branco, a distinguished
palaeontologist, with no Theistic leanings as far as we know, told the
world that man appears on our planet as "a genuine _homo novus_," and
that palaeontology "knows no ancestors of man." Nor has any discovery
since that date necessitated the modification of that opinion. What the
writer means by saying "_We_ know" is "_I_ am convinced"; but, with the
deepest respect for his undoubted position, the two things are not quite
identical. "Biology, like theology, has its dogmas. Leaders have their
disciples and