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EVOLUTION AND CREATION 145

creationism appears necessary. But as we are only
beginning to know the scope and efficacy of the
factors of evolution, and are not without hope of
discovering other factors, this dualism seems pre-
mature,

Evolution and Creation.—But while the Evolution-
Doctrine is now admitted as a valid and useful genetic
formula, it was far otherwise when Spencer was
writing his Principles of Biology (1864-6). Then the
doctrine of descent was struggling for existence
against principalities and powers both temporal and
spiritual, and then it was still relevant to pit it against
the theory of special creations. Yet for a younger
generation it is difficult to appreciate the warmth
of Spencer's chapter on the Special-Creation hypothesis
(§ 109—§ 115 of vol. L of the original edition of The
Principles of Biology).

<* The belief in special creations of organisms is a belief that
arose among men during the era of profoundest darkness;
and it belongs to a family of beliefs which have nearly all
died out as enlightenment has increased. It is without a
solitary established fact on which to stand; and when the
attempt is made to put it into definite shape in the mind,
it turns out to be only a pseud-idea. This mere verbal
hypothesis, which men idly accept as a real or thinkable
hypothesis, is of the same nature as would be one, based on
a day's observation of human life, that each man and woman
was specially created—an hypothesis not suggested by
evidence, but by lack of evidence—an hypothesis which
formulates absolute ignorance into a semblance of positive
knowledge." . . .

"Thus, however regarded, the hypothesis of special
creations turns out to be worthless—worthless by its deriva-
tion ; worthless in its intrinsic incoherence; worthless as
absolutely without evidence; worthless as not supplying an
intellectual need; worthless as not satisfying a moral want.
K



	EVOLUTION AND CREATION 145 creationism appears necessary. But as we are only beginning to know the scope and efficacy of the factors of evolution, and are not without hope of discovering other factors, this dualism seems pre- mature, Evolution and Creation.—But while the Evolution- Doctrine is now admitted as a valid and useful genetic formula, it was far otherwise when Spencer was writing his Principles of Biology (1864-6). Then the doctrine of descent was struggling for existence against principalities and powers both temporal and spiritual, and then it was still relevant to pit it against the theory of special creations. Yet for a younger generation it is difficult to appreciate the warmth of Spencer's chapter on the Special-Creation hypothesis (§ 109—§ 115 of vol. L of the original edition of The Principles of Biology). <* The belief in special creations of organisms is a belief that arose among men during the era of profoundest darkness; and it belongs to a family of beliefs which have nearly all died out as enlightenment has increased. It is without a solitary established fact on which to stand; and when the attempt is made to put it into definite shape in the mind, it turns out to be only a pseud-idea. This mere verbal hypothesis, which men idly accept as a real or thinkable hypothesis, is of the same nature as would be one, based on a day's observation of human life, that each man and woman was specially created—an hypothesis not suggested by evidence, but by lack of evidence—an hypothesis which formulates absolute ignorance into a semblance of positive knowledge." . . . "Thus, however regarded, the hypothesis of special creations turns out to be worthless—worthless by its deriva- tion ; worthless in its intrinsic incoherence; worthless as absolutely without evidence; worthless as not supplying an intellectual need; worthless as not satisfying a moral want. K