ons are the result of solid and
incontestable discoveries. They have disturbed men's minds, but what is
their legitimate import? Why, Newton's argument receives new force from
them. From a blind metaphysical necessity, everywhere and always the
same, said this great man, no variation could spring. The more it is
demonstrated that the universe is in course of development and
modification, the more clearly comes into view the necessity of the
supreme Power which is the cause of its modifications, and of the
Infinite intelligence which is directing them to their end. This appears
to be solid reasoning, and nevertheless atheism has endeavored to strike
its roots in the ground of modern discoveries. It does this in the
following way.

If the universe as it is, with the infinite variety of beings which
people it and the marvellous relations which connect these beings
mutually together, could be shown to have sprung all at once from
nothing, or to have emerged from chaos at a given instant, in its full
harmony, the boldest mind would not venture to regard this miracle of
intelligence as the product of chance. But modern science, it is said,
no longer admits of this simple explanation of things: "God created the
heavens and the earth." This phrase is henceforward admissible only in
the catechism. We know that all has been produced by slow degrees,
starting from weak and shapeless rudiments. This grand marvel of the
universe was not made all of one piece. Man is of recent date;
quadrupeds at a certain epoch did not exist; animals had a beginning,
and plants also. The earth was once bare. Formerly, it was perhaps only
a gaseous mass revolving in space. In course of time, matter was
condensed; in time it was organized in living cellules; in time these
cellules became shapeless animals; in time these animals were perfected.
Time appears therefore to be the "universal factor"; and for the ancient
formula, "the universe is the creation of God," we are able to
substitute this other formula, the result, most assuredly, of modern
science, "the universe is the work of time."

In all this, Gentlemen, I have invented nothing. All I have done has
been to put into form the theory, the elements of which I have met with
in various contemporary productions.[120] They bewilder us by heaping
ages upon ages, and in order to explain nature they substitute the idea
of time for the ideas of power and intelligence. They seem to suppose
that what is