Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/50

 wrought by insensible gradations on a preexisting kind of being: and this holds as fully of the supposed commencement of organic life as of all subsequent development of organic life."

On the one hand our author assumes, by asserting the eternity of matter, what he is in the effort to prove. On the other hand he frankly denies the beginning of organic life, and then proceeds to explain its origin as accomplished by insensible gradations on a "preëxisting kind of being." The explanation is simply put one step farther back, and we are no farther advanced in understanding until the "preëxisting kind of being" is accounted for and explained.

The particulars of the origin of organic matter according to Evolution, are well set forth in the following. "That organic matter was not produced all at once, but was reached through steps, we are well warranted in believing by the experiences of chemists. Organic matters are produced in the laboratory by what we may literally call artificial Evolution. Chemists