ut the
beginning that science points to is not an absolute beginning. Science
has to start from some point, and that point must have a scientific
foundation--the foundation of science is matter, which is inseparable
from form and force. Natural science teaches that matter is eternal and
imperishable; for experience has never shown us that even the smallest
particle of matter has come into existence or passed away. "A
naturalist," says Haeckel, "can no more imagine the coming into
existence of matter than he can imagine its disappearance, and he
therefore looks upon the existing quantity of matter in the universe as
a given fact." "The creation of matter, if, indeed," says Haeckel,[24]
"it ever took place, is completely beyond human comprehension, and can
therefore never become a subject of scientific inquiry. We can as little
imagine a _first beginning_ of the eternal phenomena of the motion of
the universe as of its final end."[25] It is evident, then, that the
absolute beginning of the universe and its absolute end are not
questions of science, and can be known only as revealed by faith. Paul
says: "By faith we understand that the world was framed by the word of
God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which
appeared."[26]

[Illustration: FIG. I.--Represents Tailed Apes (Menocerca). Proboscis
Monkey (Presbytes larvatus). (Mammalia.)--_Louis Figuier._

The natives of Borneo pretend that these monkeys, or, as sometimes
called, Kahan, are men who have retired to the woods to avoid paying
taxes; and they entertain the greatest respect for a being who has found
such ready means of evading the responsibilities of society.--_Figuier._]

[Illustration: GIBBON. ORANG. CHIMPANZEE. GORILLA. MAN.

FIG. I.--Photographically reduced from diagrams of the natural size
(except that of the Gibbon, which was twice as large as nature), drawn
by _Waterhouse Hawkins_, from specimens in the museum of the Royal
College of Surgeons. (_Huxley's_ "Man's Place in Nature.")]

If, therefore, science makes the "history of creation" its highest and
most difficult and most comprehensible problem, it must deal with "_the
coming into being of the form_ of natural bodies." Let us look for a
minute at Kant's Cosmogony, or, as Haeckel says,[27] Kant's Cosmological
Gas Theory: "This wonderful theory," says Haeckel, "harmonizes with all
the general series of phenomena at present known to us, and stands in no
irreconcilable contr