But no cautious thinker can treat such a subject with the
ease of ordinary demonstration. The investigator may even be
excused if he stands dumb with awe before the creation of his own
intellect. Our accurate records of the operations of nature extend
through only two or three centuries, and do not reach a
satisfactory standard until within a single century. The
experience of the individual is limited to a few years, and beyond
this period he must depend upon the records of his ancestors. All
his knowledge of the laws of nature is derived from this very
limited experience. How can he essay to describe what may have
been going on hundreds of millions of years in the past? Can he
dare to say that nature was the same then as now?
It is a fundamental principle of the theory of evolution, as
developed by its greatest recent expounder, that matter itself is
eternal, and that all the changes which have taken place in the
universe, so far as made up of matter, are in the nature of
transformations of this eternal substance. But we doubt whether
any physical philosopher of the present day would be satisfied to
accept any demonstration of the eternity of matter. All he would
admit is that, so far as his observation goes, no change in the
quantity of matter can be produced by the action of any known
cause.
Pages:
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98