at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, of which he was president: "One word characterizes the most strenuous of the efforts for the advancement of science that I have made perseveringly for fifty-five years. That word is failure. I know no more of electric and magnetic force, or of the relation between ether, electricity and ponderable matter, or of chemical affinity, than I knew and tried to teach to my students of natural philosophy fifty years ago in my first session as professor."

Haeckel himself, the greatest living evolutionist, admits: "We grant at once that the innermost character of nature is just as little understood by us as it was by Anaximander and Empedocles 2,400 years ago.... We grant that the essence of substance becomes more mysterious and enigmatic the more deeply we penetrate into the knowledge of its attributes." (Riddle of the Universe.)

3. Evolution fails to account for the orderly movements of the heavenly bodies which have the accuracy of a chronometer, aye, which are the standards by which all chronometers are regulated, so that the astronomer can calculate to a second when the heavenly bodies shall pass any particular point of view or form their many conjunctions. There is no collision, no noise. "There is no speech nor language, their voice is not heard."

Our Solar System is unique in the heavens. Prof. See tells us there is no other like it in the regularity of its orbits, and in its distant position from the powerful attractions of the mighty systems of the heavens. The earth, too, is the only world so far known to be advanced enough for the production of life. Its situation is far enough from the sun to be beyond its powerful heat and electric energy and yet near enough to preserve and continue all life. The arrangement of its surface into land and water proportions gives the requisite amount of moisture over the land areas. The atmosphere is mixed of gases in just the right proportions for life. All this speaks as loudly as any mechanism can speak, of intention and benevolence and control and careful adjustment; far from that haphazard effect which comes from the undirected working of "resident forces."

Evolution declares the universe began with a nebulous mass, which Tyndall says was "fire-mist," and contracted as it became cold; but Spencer says it was a cold cloud which became heated as it contracted. We are left to the perplexity of deciding for ourselves which theory we will accept. This is only one of many such contradictions we shall meet. But however, or whatever it was, it organized itself into the wonderful universe of stars by a rotary motion which the contraction produced, and this threw off portions as a carriage wheel throws off mud, each portion taking up a similar motion and cooling in a similar fashion until it became cool enough for living things.

Proof for all this is supposed to be seen in a nebula which is seen in the constellation Orion, which has a spiral form and is supposed to be a world in the making.

But in February, 1901, a new star appeared surrounded by a nebula and this in rapid motion from the center. This sudden appearance of a world in a nebulous state seems like the reversing of the evolutionary process or indeed like a world being destroyed and reduced to its first estate. Other facts are also contradictory, such as the motion or revolution of some of the satelites in a reverse order from that demanded by the theory.

Indeed the whole nebular theory is now being called in question.

Prof. George Frederick Wright of Oberlin University, thus writes of it:

"The nebular hypothesis, which all forms of evolution now assume for a beginning, involves the supposition that the molecules of matter composing the solar system were originally diffused through space like the particles of mist in a vast fogbank, and that then, under the action of gravitation, they began to approach each other and to collect in masses, which began to revolve about their axes and to move in orbits around the center of attraction. Every step in this supposition involves an added mystery. The existence of the molecules in their original diffused state is but the beginning of the mystery, though that is utterly incomprehensible.

"The power of gravitation which compels the separated particles to approach each other is an utter mystery, which has completely baffled all efforts at explanation by scientific men. The revolution of the various masses of the solar system on their axes and in their orbits is another mystery for which there is no solution.

"Thus is the thorough-going evolutionist at every point confronted with an insoluble mystery, and he deceives himself if he fancies that he has discovered anything which will take the place of the Christian's conception of God as the creator, sustainer and ruler of all things." (Record-Herald, Chicago, Dec. 24, 1902.)

Other facts are even more perplexing to this theory. The moon is moving from her place at an increasing rate and astronomy cannot account for it. The earth's axis of revolution has varied from time to time. Only one star in a thousand has ever been catalogued. Of only about a hundred is the calculation of the parallax possible, so distant are they.

As to our earth, a well-known writer says: "No one of standing in the scientific world of to-day is willing to go on record as having a theory of his own regarding the internal fires of this planet or attempting to account for their origin."

In view of this state of uncertainty, it seems to the non-scientific mind hazardous to project across these vast ages a guess as to what the conditions were and how the universe originated. And above all to found on this guess a vast philosophy of the universe affecting all we hold precious for this life and that to come. Well may we hesitate before such demands.

4. The origin of life is a problem Evolution has sought in vain to solve or account for by its natural or resident forces.

Prof. Le Conte labors hard to show that it might have come from the union of the four gases, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, under some peculiar circumstances. If he had said under the direct act of the Creator we could assent cheerfully. For these do enter into the substance which forms the bodies of living things. But the claim of Evolution is that all came by "resident forces," self-operating. Once admit the direct act of the Creator, and, as Haeckel says, they might as well admit it along the whole process, for the argument for a single instance is valid for the whole. So they will have none of it.

Prof. Le Conte labors to show that protoplasm might be self-originating, but Prof. Conn says, "Protoplasm is not a chemical compound but a mechanism.... Unorganized protoplasm does not exist.... It could never have been produced by chemical process. Chemistry has produced starches, fats, albumens, but not protoplasm." (Method of Evolution.)

Lord Kelvin, in writing to the London Times, said:

"Forty years ago I asked Liebig, walking somewhere in the country, if he believed that the grass and flowers which we saw around us grew by mere chemical forces. He answered, 'No, no more than I could believe that a book of botany describing them could grow by mere chemical forces.'"

Tyndall, after laborious experiments during eight months, thus candidly states the result, in an address before the Royal Institute, London: "From the beginning to the end of the inquiry, there is not, as you have seen, a shadow of evidence in favor of the doctrine of spontaneous generation.... In the lowest, as in the highest of organized