Transcriber’s Notes Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. The paper's unusually extensive use of commas remains unchanged. Italics are represented thus _italic_. THE CREATOR, AND WHAT WE MAY KNOW OF THE METHOD OF CREATION. THE CREATOR, AND WHAT WE MAY KNOW OF THE METHOD OF CREATION. THE FERNLEY LECTURE OF 1887. BY W. H. DALLINGER, LL.D., F.R.S. ‘For I have learned To look on Nature, not as in the hour Of thoughtless youth.... And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things.’ WORDSWORTH. Seventh Thousand. LONDON: T. WOOLMER, 2, CASTLE STREET, CITY ROAD, E.C., AND 66, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1887. TO JAMES S. BUDGETT, ESQ., IN REMEMBRANCE OF A FRIENDSHIP WHICH HAS INFLUENCED BENEFICENTLY MUCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORK; THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. The following discourse was prepared as a lecture. With the exception of the insertion of passages which it was found necessary to omit in delivery, on account of too great length, it is printed as it was spoken. It addressed, and in its present form addresses, thoughtful and earnest minds, not concerned specially with questions of philosophy, metaphysics, and science, but alive to the advanced knowledge and thought of our times, and anxious to know, so far as in such a form it could be expressed, how the great foundation of religious belief, the existence of Deity, is affected by the splendid advance of our knowledge of nature. To have written more than the following pages contain, in answering this desire, would have necessitated what I have earnestly endeavoured to avoid, a change from a discourse into a treatise. It is hoped that, as it is presented, it may to some extent be found useful to those who sought it—not so much students, as men interested in the deeper thought of our age, but whose time is occupied with the labours and engagements of a busy life. W. H. DALLINGER.