on the hypothesis of a Creator and
Maintainer of all things.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 33: A third explanation, that the mechanism of
inheritance is of a chemical character, is now being put
forward, and some mention of this view, which is by no means
one of general acceptance, will be found in another article in
this volume.]

[Footnote 34: An account of them will be found in _A Century of
Scientific Thought_, by the present writer, published by
Messrs. Burns & Oates.]

VII. "SPECIAL CREATION"

Professor Scott, of Princeton, has recently given to the public in his
Westbrook Lectures[35] an exceedingly impartial, convincing, and lucid
statement of the evidence for the theory of evolution or transformism.
On one point of terminology a few observations may not be amiss, since
there is a certain amount of confusion still existing in the minds of
many persons which can be and ought to be cleared up. Throughout his
book Professor Scott contrasts evolution with what he calls "special
creation." In so doing he is evidently in no way anxious to deny the
fact that there is a Creator, and that evolution may fairly be regarded
as His method of creation. In one passage he expressly states that
"acceptance of the theory of evolution by no means excludes belief in a
creative plan."

And again, when dealing with the palaeontological evidence in favour of
evolution, he points out that Cuvier and Agassiz, examining it as it was
known in their day, interpreted the facts as the carrying out of a
systematic creative plan, an interpretation which the author claims "is
not at all invalidated by the acceptance of the evolutionary theory." He
is not, we need hardly say, in any way singular in taking up this
attitude, since it was held by Darwin, by Wallace, by Huxley, and by
other sturdy defenders of the doctrine of evolution.

Yet, just as at the time that Darwin's views were first made public,
many thought that they were subversive of Christianity, so, even now,
some whose acquaintance with the problem and its history is of a
superficial character, are inclined when they see the word creation,
even with the qualifying adjective "special" prefixed to it, used in
contradistinction to evolution, to imagine that the theory of creation,
and of course of a Creator, must fall to the ground if evolution should
be proved to be the true explanation of living things and their
diversities.

It is more than a little diffi