that spontaneous generation does not exist. All we know is
that we have no means of recognizing it. If there is now spontaneous
generation of protoplasm, it cannot take the form of any creature we
know. An organism fresh from the mint of creation would be too small for
us to see with any microscope. It would be too simple for us to trace by
any instrumentality now in our possession. It could contain but a few
molecules, and a molecule in a drop of water is as small as an orange
beside the sun. Our race of creatures, spontaneously generated, without
concessions to environment, would grow hoary with the centuries before
it came to our notice. Its descendants would have belonged for ages to
the unnumbered hosts of microbes before we should be aware of its
creation.

Evolution is not a creed or a body of doctrine to be believed on
authority. There is no saving grace in being an evolutionist. There are
many who take this name and have no interest in finding out what it
means or in making any application of its principles to the affairs of
life. For one who cares not to master its ideas, there is no power in
the word. Evolution is not a panacea or a medicine to be applied to
social or personal ills. It is simply an expression of the teaching of
enlightened common sense as to the order of changes in life. If its
principles are mastered a knowledge of evolution is an aid in the
conduct of life, as knowledge of gravitation is essential in the
building of machinery.

There is nothing "occult" in the science of evolution. It is not the
product of philosophic meditation or of speculative philosophy. It is
based on hard facts, and with hard facts it must deal.

It seems to me that it is not true that "Evolution is a new religion,
the religion of the future." There are many definitions to religion, but
evolution does not fit any of them. It is no more a religion than
gravitation is. One may imagine that some enthusiastic follower of
Newton may, for the first time, have seen the majestic order of the
solar system, may have felt how futile was the old notion of guiding
angels, one for each planet to hold it up in space. He may have received
his first clear vision of the simple relations of the planets, each
forever falling toward the sun and toward each other, each one by the
same force forever preserved from collision. Such a man might have
exclaimed, "Great is gravitation; it is the new religion, the religion
of the future!" In su