ring repeat the features of the parents, aided by the principle of
_sexual selection_, have been the origin and cause of all the species we
see in the world.

Thus we have an unbroken series--certain substances condensing out of
cosmic vapour, some of them combining to form the variety of rocks,
soils, metals, &c., and others giving rise to protoplasm which grows'
and develops into a thousand shapes and hues, of insect, fish, reptile,
bird, and beast.

And then it is, that charmed with the completeness and symmetry of such
a theory, and overlooking the difficulties that crop up here and
here--demanding some Power from without to bridge them over--certain
extreme theorists have rushed to the conclusion that in all this there
is no need of any external Creator or Providence--nothing but what we
call secondary causes, ordinary causes which we see at work around us
all day and every day.

How inconceivable, they add, is the truth of the Book of Genesis, which
asserts the successive creation of fully-formed animals by sudden acts
of command; and all accomplished in a few days at the beginning of the
world's human history!

This I believe to be a fair outline, though of course a very rough and
general one, of the Theory of Evolution as regards the forms of matter
and living organisms. Now it will at once strike the candid reader, that
even granted the whole of the scheme as stated, there is _nothing_ in it
that has any answer to the objection,--But may I not believe that a wise
Creator conceived and established the whole plan--first creating MATTER
and FORCE, then superadding LIFE at a certain stage, and then drawing
out the type and design according to which everything was to grow and
develop? Is not such a production and such a design the true essence of
Creation? Can all these things happen _without_ such aid? Let us then
look more closely at some of the steps in the evolution just described.
And let us stop at the very beginning--the first term of the series.

We may agree (in the absence of anything leading to a contrary
conclusion) that matter may first have appeared as a cosmic gas, or
incandescent vapour in space. It is probable, if not certain, that our
earth is a mass that has only cooled down on the surface, the centre
being still hot and to some extent, at any rate, molten; and in the sun
we have the case of an enormous globe surrounded with a _photosphere_,
as it is called--a blaze of incandescent substances