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| II. Question of First and Second Causes—The three stages shown here—(1) All is First Cause but man-like—(2) Distinction of first and second causes introduced—(3) Identification of these |
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| III. General and Special Providence—The same three stages shown and the same outcome—viz., identification |
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| IV. Natural and the supernatural—The same stages and the same final identification—Question of miracles |
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| V. Question of design or mind in Nature—The same three stages and the same solution shown here—Confusion in the minds of modern writers |
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| VI. Question of mode of creation—Old and new views contrasted |
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| CHAPTER VIII. |
| RELATION OF EVOLUTION TO THE IDEA OF THE CHRIST. |
| Comparison of organic with human evolution—The idea of the first is man, of the second is the Christ—Definition of the Christ as ideal man—The Christ ought to differ from us in a superhuman way—Shown by several illustrations—The Christ, as ideal man, a true object of rational worship—The ideal of organic evolution comes at the end—Ideal of human evolution must come in the course—Objection that there are many partial ideals answered—Relative vs. absolute moral ideal. |
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| CHAPTER IX. |
| THE RELATION OF EVOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. |
| The difficulty of the problem—The light on it by evolution—Evil must be based on the constitution of Nature and therefore universal—Some of its forms |
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| (1) Physical evil in animal kingdom—Condition of organic evolution is struggle with an apparently inimical environment—In its course it seems evil—Looking back from the end it is good. |
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| (2) Physical evil in relation to man—Necessary condition of social evolution is also struggle with a seeming evil environment—But looking back from the end this evil is also seen to be good—Without it man would never have emerged from animality. |
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| (3) Organic evil—Disease—This also is the necessary condition of acquisition of knowledge of organic Nature—In the course of evolution it seems evil, but from the end it is seen to be good—In the physical world, laws of Nature are beneficent in their general operation, and only evil in their specific operation through our ignorance. |
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| (4) Moral evil—Moral disease—Difference between this and other forms of evil—Can this also be transmuted into good?—This is only the highest form of evil, and therefore subject to the same laws of evolution—Here also elevation comes only through knowledge and power, and these only through struggle with apparent evil—In course it seems evil, looking back from end it is seen to be good to the race—In all, therefore, the individual is sacrificed to the race, but impossible here—A way of escape found in the nature of a moral being—In this case not only final victory for the race, but also within the power of the individual—In this case success is in proportion to honest effort in right spirit—Roots, of evil in the necessary law of evolution—It is the necessary condition of all progress—Without it a moral being is impossible—From philosophic point of view things are not good and evil, but only higher and lower—All things good in their places—Evil is discord—Good is due relation—Action and reaction of higher and lower is the necessary condition of true virtue |
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PART I.
WHAT IS EVOLUTION?
CHAPTER I.
ITS SCOPE AND DEFINITION.
A Type of Evolution.—Every one is familiar with the main facts connected with the development of an egg. We all know that it begins as a microscopic germ-cell, then grows into an egg, then organizes into a chick, and finally grows into a cock; and that the whole process follows some general, well-recognized law. Now, this process is evolution. It is more—it is the type of all evolution. It is that from which we get our idea of evolution, and without which there would be no such word. Whenever and wherever we find a process of change more or less resembling this, and following laws similar to those determining the development of an egg, we call it evolution.
Universality of Evolution.—Evolution as a process is not confined to one thing, the egg, nor as a doctrine is it confined to one department of science—biology. The process pervades the whole universe, and the doctrine concerns alike every department of science—yea, every department of human thought. It is literally one half of all science. Therefore, its truth or falseness, its acceptance or rejection, is no trifling matter, affecting only one small corner of the thought-realm. On the contrary, it affects profoundly the foundations of philosophy, and therefore the whole domain of thought. It determines the whole attitude of the mind toward Nature and God.
I have said evolution constitutes
