The first words in the Mosaic account are:[20] "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."[21] It is seen, then, that the so-called revelation points to a beginning. The beginning referred to is an absolute beginning, for we find: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."[22] * * * "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made."[23] Science points also to a beginning. Geology points to a time when man did not inhabit the earth; when for him there was a beginning. So, too, for lower organisms; so, too, for the rocky minerals; so, too, for the round world itself. But the beginning that science points to is not an absolute beginning. Science has to start from some point, and that point must have a scientific foundation--the foundation of science is matter, which is inseparable from form and force. Natural science teaches that matter is eternal and imperishable; for experience has never shown us that even the smallest particle of matter has come into existence or passed away. "A naturalist," says Haeckel, "can no more imagine the coming into existence of matter than he can imagine its disappearance, and he therefore looks upon the existing quantity of matter in the universe as a given fact." "The creation of matter, if, indeed," says Haeckel,[24] "it ever took place, is completely beyond human comprehension, and can therefore never become a subject of scientific inquiry. We can as little imagine a _first beginning_ of the eternal phenomena of the motion of the universe as of its final end."[25] It is evident, then, that the absolute beginning of the universe and its absolute end are not questions of science, and can be known only as revealed by faith. Paul says: "By faith we understand that the world was framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which appeared."[26] [Illustration: FIG. I.--Represents Tailed Apes (Menocerca). Proboscis Monkey (Presbytes larvatus). (Mammalia.)--_Louis Figuier._ The natives of Borneo pretend that these monkeys, or, as sometimes called, Kahan, are men who have retired to the woods to avoid paying taxes; and they entertain the greatest respect for a being who has found such ready means of evading the responsibilities of society.--_Figuier._] [Illustration: GIBBON. ORANG. CHIMPANZEE. GORILLA. MAN. FIG. I.--Photographically reduced from diagrams of the natural size (except that of the Gibbon, which was twice as large as nature), drawn by _Waterhouse Hawkins_, from specimens in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. (_Huxley's_ "Man's Place in Nature.")]