physical analysis has confessed itself baffled.

Now we have here seen that the doctrine of evolution does not allow us
to take the atheistic view of the position of Man. It is true that
modern astronomy shows us giant balls of vapour condensing into fiery
suns, cooling down into planets fit for the support of life, and at last
growing cold and rigid in death, like the moon. And there are
indications of a time when systems of dead planets shall fall in upon
their central ember that was once a sun, and the whole lifeless mass,
thus regaining heat, shall expand into a nebulous cloud like that with
which we started, that the work of condensation and evolution may begin
over again. These Titanic events must doubtless seem to our limited
vision like an endless and aimless series of cosmical changes. They
disclose no signs of purpose, or even of dramatic tendency;[18] they
seem like the weary work of Sisyphos. But on the face of our own planet,
where alone we are able to survey the process of evolution in its higher
and more complex details, we do find distinct indications of a dramatic
tendency, though doubtless not of purpose in the limited human sense.
The Darwinian theory, properly understood, replaces as much
teleology[19] as it destroys. From the first dawning of life we see all
things working together toward one mighty goal, the evolution of the
most exalted spiritual qualities which characterize Humanity. The body
is cast aside and returns to the dust of which it was made. The earth,
so marvellously wrought to man's uses, will also be cast aside. The day
is to come, no doubt, when the heavens shall vanish as a scroll, and the
elements be melted with fervent heat. So small is the value which Nature
sets upon the perishable forms of matter! The question, then, is reduced
to this: are Man's highest spiritual qualities, into the production of
which all this creative energy has gone, to disappear with the rest? Has
all this work been done for nothing? Is it all ephemeral, all a bubble
that bursts, a vision that fades? Are we to regard the Creator's work as
like that of a child, who builds houses out of blocks, just for the
pleasure of knocking them down? For aught that science can tell us, it
may be so, but I can see no good reason for believing any such thing. On
such a view the riddle of the universe becomes a riddle without a
meaning. Why, then, are we any more called upon to throw away our belief
in the permanence of th