s that all races of
beings, man inclusive, may in process of time have been evolved from the
simplest monad, a ludicrous one, is not to be wondered at. But for the
physiologist, who knows that every individual being _is_ so evolved--who
knows, further, that in their earliest condition the germs of all plants
and animals whatever are so similar, "that there is no appreciable
distinction amongst them, which would enable it to be determined whether
a particular molecule is the germ of a Conferva or of an Oak, of a
Zoophyte or of a Man;"[1]--for him to make a difficulty of the matter is
inexcusable. Surely if a single cell may, when subjected to certain
influences, become a man in the space of twenty years; there is nothing
absurd in the hypothesis that under certain other influences, a cell
may, in the course of millions of years, give origin to the human race.

We have, indeed, in the part taken by many scientific men in this
controversy of "Law _versus_ Miracle," a good illustration of the
tenacious vitality of superstitions. Ask one of our leading geologists
or physiologists whether he believes in the Mosaic account of the
creation, and he will take the question as next to an insult. Either he
rejects the narrative entirely, or understands it in some vague
nonnatural sense. Yet one part of it he unconsciously adopts; and that,
too, literally. For whence has he got this notion of "special
creations," which he thinks so reasonable, and fights for so vigorously?
Evidently he can trace it back to no other source than this myth which
he repudiates. He has not a single fact in nature to cite in proof of
it; nor is he prepared with any chain of reasoning by which it may be
established. Catechize him, and he will be forced to confess that the
notion was put into his mind in childhood as part of a story which he
now thinks absurd. And why, after rejecting all the rest of the story,
he should strenuously defend this last remnant of it, as though he had
received it on valid authority, he would be puzzled to say.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 1: Carpenter, _Principles of Comparative Physiology_, p. 474.]

PROGRESS: ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

[_First published in_ The Westminster Review _for April,_ 1857.
_Though the ideas and illustrations contained in this essay were
eventually incorporated in_ First Principles, _yet I think it well
here to reproduce it as exhibiting the form under which the General
Doctrine of Evo