ing between them. In substance, if not in
words, their position as regards the relation of spirit and matter is:
'What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.'

You have been thus led to the outer rim of speculative science, for
beyond the nebulae scientific thought has never hitherto ventured. I
have tried to state that which I considered ought, in fairness, to be
outspoken. I neither think this Evolution hypothesis is to be flouted
away contemptuously, nor that it ought to be denounced as wicked. It
is to be brought before the bar of disciplined reason, and there
justified or condemned. Let us hearken to those who wisely support
it, and to those who wisely oppose it; and let us tolerate those,
whose name is legion, who try foolishly to do either of these things.
The only thing out of place in the discussion is dogmatism on either
side. Fear not the Evolution hypothesis. Steady yourselves, in its
presence, upon that faith in the ultimate triumph of truth which was
expressed by old Gamaliel when he said: 'If it be of God, ye cannot
overthrow it; if it be of man, it will come to nought.' Under the
fierce light of scientific enquiry, it is sure to be dissipated if it
possess not a core of truth. Trust me, its existence as a hypothesis
is quite compatible with the simultaneous existence of all those
virtues to which the term 'Christian' has been applied. It does not
solve--it does not profess to solve--the ultimate mystery of this
universe. It leaves, in fact, that mystery untouched. For, granting
the nebula and its potential life, the question, whence they came,
would still remain to baffle and bewilder us. At bottom, the
hypothesis does nothing more than 'transport the conception of life's
origin to an indefinitely distant past.'

Those who hold the doctrine of Evolution are by no means ignorant of
the uncertainty of their data, and they only yield to it a provisional
assent. They regard the nebular hypothesis as probable, and, in the
utter absence of any evidence to prove the act illegal, they extend
the method of nature from the present into the past. Here the observed
uniformity of nature is their only guide. Within the long range of
physical enquiry, they have never discerned in nature the insertion of
caprice. Throughout this range, the laws of physical and intellectual
continuity have run side by side. Having thus determined the elements
of their curve in a world of observation and exper