ity, from so simple
a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have
been, and are being, evolved[8].'

Compare with these suggestions the ideas embodied in the following
lines--ideas of which the crudeness cannot be concealed by all the
witchery of Milton's immortal verse:--

'The Earth obey'd, and straight,
Op'ning her fertile womb, teem'd at a birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limb'd and full grown. Out of the ground up rose
As from his lair, the wild beast, where he wons
In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den;
Among the trees they rose, they walk'd;
The cattle in the fields and meadows green:
Those rare and solitary, these in flocks
Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung.
The grassy clods now calv'd; now half appear'd
The tawny lion, pawing to get free
His hinder parts, then springs, as broke from bonds,
And rampant shakes his brinded mane[9].'

Can anyone doubt for a moment which is the grander view of
'Creation'--that embodied in Darwin's prose, or the one so strikingly
pictured in Milton's poetry?

We see then that the two ideas of the method of creation, dimly
perceived by early man, have at last found clear and definite expression
from these two authors--Milton and Darwin. It is a singular coincidence
that these two great exponents of the rival hypotheses were both
students in the same University of Cambridge and indeed resided in the
same foundation--and that not one of the largest of that
University--namely Christ's College.

CHAPTER III

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF EVOLUTION TO THE INORGANIC WORLD

We have seen in the preceding chapter that, with respect to the origin
of plants and animals--including man himself--two very distinct lines of
speculation have arisen; these two lines of thought may be expressed by
the terms 'manufacture'--literally making by hand, and 'development' or
'evolution,'--a gradual unfolding from simpler to more complex forms.
Now with respect to the _inorganic_ world two parallel hypotheses of
'creation' have arisen, like those relating to _organic_ nature; but in
the former case the determining factor in the choice of ideas has been,
not the avocations of the primitive peoples, but the nature of their
surroundings.

The dwellers in the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris could not but be
impressed by the great and destructive floods to which thos