142 POPULAR ERRORS. 



were so convincing, and showed so clearly many of 

 the ways in which gradual changes in the characters 

 of living beings took place, that its conclusions for 

 the most part were accepted almost immediately by 

 the greater part of the scientific world. No other 

 one idea has ever done so much to stimulate in- 

 vestigation in all departments of natural science as 

 this doctrine of evolution. Although there was so 

 little hesitation on the part of the leading scientfic 

 men at the time to adopt the essential features of 

 the new theory, the theory itself was so important, 

 and opened up so many new questions for considera- 

 tion, that a large library would be required to con- 

 tain all that has been written upon the subject 

 since Darwin's book was published. The religious 

 aspect of the question, which at first created alarm 

 in the minds of many, was soon lost sight of by 

 most of those engaged in scientific work, and now, 

 thirty years later, it has practically ceased to be a 

 topic of interest in the religious world, and the 

 leading religious teachers have come to agree with 

 the author of the book in question, that there is 

 nothing in the idea of evolution, or the gradual 

 development of higher from lower forms of life, to 

 interfere with the properly interpreted teachings of 

 the Bible. 



Under the new idea of species these groups 

 come to represent, not fixed and definite ideas, but 



