The human mind was, indeed, helpless to conceive such a First Cause in any form and lay prostrate before the Unknown, yet she herself was an enthusiastic delver into scientific hypothesis and the teachings of Darwin, Spencer, Haeckel had satisfied her intellect if they had failed to content her soul.

The theory of evolution as applied to life on her own little planet appealed strongly to her because it accounted plausibly for the presence of man on earth.

The process through which we had passed could be understood by every intelligence.

The blazing satellite, violently detached from the parent sun starting on its circumscribed orbit--that was the first stage, the gradual subsidence of the flames and the cooling of the crust--the second stage: the gases mingling and forming water which covered the earth--the third stage; the retreating of the waters and the appearance of the land--the fourth stage; the appearance of vegetation and animal life--the fifth stage; then, after a long interval and through constant evolution and change the appearance of man, which was the sixth stage.

What stages still to come, who knows?
This simple account given by science was, after all, practically identical with the biblical legend! It was when Shirley was face to face with Nature in her wildest and most primitive aspects that this deep rooted religious feeling moved her most strongly.