weaver into a rapidly evolving web of cloth. Hence it follows that no true doctrine of evolution can pretend to account on its own principles alone for the origin of man, nor for his fall, nor for the great central epoch-making stages of his redemption. The soul of man stands in such marked contrast with all that precedes it as to be evidently a new creation, and its advent introduces a new era. Hence the facts recorded in the Scriptures as to the creation of Adam and the formation of Eve are not inconsistent with the analogy of truth, and must be recognized as historically true. The character of man sets him forth. evidently as subject to a law of entirely different grade than that which has been operating in the previous history of the world. New relations are sustained and a new order of events introduced. Henceforth no doctrine of evolution can be tenable which does not make room for a moral government and a redemptive providence, including miracles and the Incarnation of God, and the gracious operations of the Holy Ghost.

It is not intended in all that has been said to express any opinion as to the truth of evolution in any of its forms, but only to indicate the limits, on the respective sides of which christians, as such, can have no controversy, or no truce.

Dr. Van Dyke has already acquired an enviable reputation as a successful author. He is able, learned, and thoroughly sound in his philosopical and theological principles. The present work is on a subject of universal interest and of vital importance, and is the result of

very wide reading and of mature reflection. It is not intended for men of science, but for that large circle of general readers who are interested in such questions. The object is to allay unwarranted fears on the part of christians, and to warn careless speculators of the limits beyond which it is unsafe to go. The undersigned has accepted the honor of contributing this Introduction, not because he agrees with all the positions assumed by the author, but because he sympathizes with his general purpose, and believes the work adapted to be generally useful. The writer of the Introduction, as far as he differs from the author, would have preferred a more imperative affirmation of the limits beyond which science cannot rationally pass, nor pass without conflict with christianity. This however does not prevent his sincere hope that the book may be greatly blessed in its destined end of confirming true philosophy and revealed religion, and in promoting peace between the men of knowledge and the men of faith.

A. A. Hodge.

CHAPTER I.

EVOLUTION.

WHATEVER hopes or fears we may entertain in reference to the issue of the investigations now so assiduously pursued with the view of confirming the theory of evolution, and to whatever place they may ultimately succeed in assigning man,-whether in nature or above nature, there can be no question that the conclusions reached and the problems therein involved are well worthy the christian's careful study. The dispassionate discussion of subjects so momentous can only result in good. New facts will be accumulated. Laws hitherto unknown will be discovered, and will secure expression in enduring form. Truth will be eliminated from error.

It is now conceded that new species have been introduced upon the earth since the dawn of creation, especially during the long geological periods which preceded man's existence; and when once we have been induced to believe that creation has had a history we are irresistibly led to inquire after its method. In what way have new specific forms been produced? To this question varying answers have been given.

1. New species have been regarded as immediate creations. This is the view widely adopted by defenders. of the Bible. It assumes that each plant and animal was created in a primitive stock, which reproduces its like, thereby perpetuating the species; that species is

traceable backwards to a local origin and a single pair; that all species vary-some more, some less; that their variations are due, partly to the influence of altered circumstances, and partly to constitutional causes, but are limited in their extent and transitory in their nature, the species remaining substantially as originally created; that the sterility of hybrids imposes an effectual barrier against the destruction of species.

2. It has been argued that new species are results, more or less remote, of spontaneous generation. As it has not been proved that inorganic matter is capable of originating living organisms, we may be excused for questioning whether the forces of nature, acting either from within or from without, could have generated new specific forms either directly or mediately, especially such forms as are acknowledged to have originated in past geological epochs.

3. It has been assumed that the introduction of new species is a result of the operations of a powerful, unconscious cause pervading all things. This explanation may be left to share the fate of the pantheistic system in which it is embedded.

4. The successive appearances of new species are now explained, with increasing frequency, by the theory which passes under the name of "Evolution." This theory may be briefly outlined as the realization of new specific organisms which were previously potential, their realization being under such conditions as prove them the legitimate outgrowth of anterior organisms. Starting with the assertion that species are mutable, and that consequently each may develop new types, which for some unexplained reason are improved forms-that the horse, for example, may have been developed from the zebra, the dog from the wolf, the rose from the daisy,

the bird from the fish-it culminates in the assumption that man by an almost infinite number of insensible gradations has been evolved from the orang-outang, or from the gorilla, certainly from some species of the monkey-tribe. This simial father of us all, it is assumed, was developed from some lower organism, which in turn owed its origin to a still less complex form, and so backwards to the germ of organic life, the slight changes, always resulting in improvement, having succeeded each other for millions of years ere man as a gibbering savage was ushered upon the world's stage. Varieties are incipient species. Species are varieties of a larger growth and an earlier divergence from the parent form; the difference is one of degree, not of kind. Neither was created; both have descended from an ever varying series of individuals, the one being only a more extended and slightly less plastic aggregate of insensibly fine gradations accumulated during an indefinitely protracted period of time.*

Herbert Spencer, in his First Principles, defines evolution as an "integration of matter and concomitant dissi

Haeckel, whose theory of evolution is decidedly atheistic, maintains that all living organisms have been evolved through millions of years from one or more very simple ancestral forms which issued by spontaneous generation from inorganic matter. He concedes that organic life had a beginning, and asserts that monera were developed by spontaneous generation at the bottom of the sea. Assertion, however, is not proof; nor is it easy to see how the assertion can be made good by satisfactory evidence.

Sir William Thomson expresses the belief that organic life was communicated to the earth by a germ or germs conveyed in a meteor or meteors from some other planet. A simple hypothesis.

There are other evolutionists who prefer to believe that God, millions of years ago, called a primordial form, a simple cell, into being, and since that time has had no more to do with the universe than if he did not exist. The clock being once wound up was left to tell off its fated periods.

"Neither so do their witness agree."