obstacles with which the ignorant, or the malicious, encumber, if they
cannot bar, the difficult path; but why should their souls be deeply vexed?
The majesty of Fact is on their side, and the elemental forces of Nature
are working for them. Not a star comes to the meridian at its calculated
time but testifies to the justice of their methods--their beliefs are "one
with the falling rain and with the growing corn." By doubt they are
established, and open inquiry is their bosom friend. Such men have no fear
of traditions however venerable, and no respect for them when they become
mischievous and obstructive; but they have better than mere antiquarian
business in hand, and if dogmas, which ought to be fossil but are not, are
not forced upon their notice, they are too happy to treat them as
non-existent.

* * * * *

The hypotheses respecting the origin of species which profess to stand upon
a scientific basis, and, as such, alone demand serious attention, are of
two kinds. The one, the "special creation" hypothesis, presumes every
species to have originated from one or more stocks, these not being the
result of the modification of any other form of living matter--or arising
by natural agencies--but being produced, as such, by a supernatural
creative act.

The other, the so-called "transmutation" hypothesis, considers that all
existing species are the result of the modification of pre-existing
species, and those of their predecessors, by agencies similar to those
which at the present day produce varieties and races, and therefore in an
altogether natural way; and it is a probable, though not a necessary
consequence of this hypothesis, that all living beings have arisen from a
single stock. With respect to the origin of this primitive stock, or