We are told in effect that every thing goes by itself--that given some
first cause, about which we know, and can know, nothing, directly
primordial matter appears on the scene, and the laws of sequence and
action which observed experience has formulated and is progressively
formulating are given, then nothing else is required; no governance, no
control, and no special design. So that in principle a Creator and
Providence are baseless fancies; and this is further borne out by the
fact, that when the Christian faith ventures on details as to the mode
of Creation it is certainly and demonstrably wrong. If these
propositions are to be controverted, it must be in the light of a
knowledge which a large body of candid and earnest believers do not
possess.

Fortunately, however, the labours of many competent to judge have placed
within the reach of the unscientific but careful student, the means of
knowing what the conclusions of Science really are, as far as they
affect the questions we have to consider. At least, any inquirer can,
with a little care and patient study, put himself in a position to know
where the difficulty or difficulties lie, and what means there are of
getting over them. His want of technical knowledge will not be in his
way, so far as his just appreciation of the position is concerned.
Without pretending to take up ground which has already been occupied by
capable writers whose books can easily be consulted, I may usefully
recapitulate in a simple form, and grouped in a suitable order, some of
the points best worth noting.

The theory of cosmical evolution is not, in its general idea, a new
thing. The sort of evolution, however, that was obscurely shadowed forth
by the early sages of India (much as it is the fashion now to allude to