laws is it, to suppose that from some
original type these various forms have gradually differentiated into
their present diversity of structure; the original typical plan, the
least variable characteristic, having maintained its individuality,
while the more plastic appendages have been swayed by incident forces.
This will logically and naturally account for the unlikeness, and yet
the resemblance.

The Darwinian theory then is, that Natural Law or Persistent Force,
acting through all time upon the universe, has evolved from certain
primitive organic forms of a very low order of existence the present
diversified races on the earth. It does not stop here. With the eye of
prescience it sees the process going on far into the ages yet to come.
What may be the result in that distant day, finite speculation may not
determine. But the laws which have swayed the world sway it still, and
will sway it forevermore. As in the past they have evolved order out of
disorder, heterogeneous beauty out of homogeneous crudity, progressive
individuality of being and thought out of chaotic vapor, so will they
continue their evolving force through all time, till the boasted
perfectness of this day of ours, perfect because it is our day, will be
as primitive to the later denizens of this globe as the barbarity of the
cave savages is to modern civilization.

A host of noble minds, each in its own peculiar province, is exploring
the vast field of knowledge. Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, Tyndal, Lyell,
Hooker, and many others, are giving their profound thought to the
elucidation of the laws which govern the vast universe of which they are
a part. Their intellects touch the scarce-seen planets; they turn over
the stony pages of earth's autobiography; they anatomize to their
ultimate atoms the structure of its organisms; they use the intelligence
evolved from their own growth to search for the law which has determined
that evolution. And they speak out their convictions manfully and
earnestly. They proclaim what is to them a revelation of truth in the
records which the past and the present offer to their understanding.
Herbert Spencer thus maintains the necessity of the expression of man's
deepest convictions, in a passage instinct with nobleness of thought and
dignity of utterance:--

"Whoever hesitates to utter that which he thinks the highest truth, lest
it should be too much in advance of the time, may reassure himself by
looking at his acts fro