Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/39

 hypothetical laws, corroborated by hypothetical facts, and supported by a hypothetical application of the hypothetical law to the hypothetical facts.

In this connection it may be asked, Are not the laws by which so many varieties of pigeons are obtained from common parents, and by which so many varieties of fruits are cultivated out of a wild type, and by which barbarous people become civilized, laws of Evolution? Are not such things, as has been so elaborately argued, confirmatory of the theory of Evolution? Not at all. They are instances of the laws of development, which, were there such a thing as Evolution, would be entirely distinct from it. The laws of development are constant, natural, comprehensible, and explicable. The laws of development now exist, but the laws of Evolution are nonexistent, and hence impossible in the very nature of things, as will presently be shown.

The development of varieties of species is possible because a combination of elements enters in to make the character of the common or undeveloped type. This is exemplified by the various