"The evolutionist doctrine," he says, "is itself
one of the strangest phenomena of humanity. It existed, and most
naturally, in the oldest philosophy and poetry, in connection with the
crudest and most uncritical attempts of the human mind to grasp the
system of nature; but that in our day a system destitute of any shadow
of proof, and supported merely by vague analogies and figures of speech,
and by the arbitrary and artificial coherence of its own parts, should
be accepted as philosophy, and should find able adherents to string on
its thread of hypotheses our vast and weighty stores of knowledge, is
surpassingly strange.... In many respects these speculations are
important, and worthy the attention of thinking men. They seek to
revolutionize the religious belief of the world, and if accepted would
destroy most of the existing theology and philosophy. They indicate
tendencies among scientific thinkers, which, though probably temporary,
must, before they disappear, descend to lower strata, and reproduce
themselves in grosser forms, and with most serious effects on the whole
structure of society. With one class of minds they constitute a sort of
religion, which so far satisfies the craving for truth higher than those
which relate to immediate wants and pleasures. With another and perhaps
larger class, they are accepted as affording a welcome deliverance from
all scruples of conscience and fears of a hereafter.
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