Leaving, then, these post-Darwinian questions to be dealt with subsequently, I shall now begin a systematic _résumé_ of the evidences in favour of the Darwinian theory, as this was left to the world by Darwin himself. There is a great distinction to be drawn between the fact of evolution and the manner of it, or between the evidence of evolution as having taken place somehow, and the evidence of the causes which have been concerned in the process. This most important distinction is frequently disregarded by popular writers on Darwinism; and, therefore, in order to mark it as strongly as possible, I will effect a complete separation between the evidence which we have of evolution as a fact, and the evidence which we have as to its method. In other words, not until I shall have fully considered the evidence of organic evolution as a process which somehow or another _has_ taken place, will I proceed to consider _how_ it has taken place, or the causes which Darwin and others have suggested as having probably been concerned in this process. Confining, then, our attention in the first instance to a proof of evolution considered as a fact, without any reference at all to its method, let us begin by considering the antecedent standing of the matter. * * * * * First of all we must clearly recognise that there are only two hypotheses in the field whereby it is possible so much as to suggest an explanation of the origin of species. Either all the species of plants and animals must have been supernaturally created, or else they must have been naturally evolved. There is no third hypothesis possible; for no one can rationally suggest that species have been eternal.