" (p. 225)
It will be observed that every step in his account of the formation of
the eye is an arbitrary assumption. We must first assume a thick layer
of tissue; then that the tissue is transparent; then that it has
cavities filled with fluid; that beneath the tissue is a nerve sensitive
to light; then that the fluid is constantly varying in density and
thickness; that its surfaces are constantly changing their contour; that
its different portions are ever shifting their relative distances; that
every favorable change is seized upon and rendered permanent,--thus
after millions of years we may get an eye as perfect as that of an
eagle. In like manner we may suppose a man to sit down to account for
the origin and contents of the Bible, assuming as his "working
hypothesis," that it is not the product of mind either human or divine,
but that it was made by a type-setting machine worked by steam, and
picking out type hap-hazard. In this way in a thousand years one
sentence might be produced, in another thousand a second, and in ten
thousand more, the two might get together in the right position. Thus in
the course of "millions of years" the Bible might have been produced,
with all its historical details, all its elevated truths, all its
devout and sublime poetry, and above all with the delineation of the
character of Christ, the [Greek: idea ton ideon], the ideal of majesty
and loveliness, before which the whole world, believing and unbelieving,
perforce bows down in reverence.
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