CHAPTER III 



THE DEVELOPMENT OP THE IDEA OF EVOLUTION TO 



THE INORGANIC WORLD 



WE have seen in the preceding chapter that, with 

 respect to the origin of plants and animals including 

 man himself two very distinct lines of speculation 

 have arisen ; these two lines of thought may be 

 expressed by the terms 'manufacture' literally 

 making by hand, and ' development ' or 'evolution,' 

 a gradual unfolding from simpler to more complex 

 forms. Now with respect to the inorganic world two 

 parallel hypotheses of * creation' have arisen, like 

 those relating to organic nature ; but in the former 

 case the determining factor in the choice of ideas has 

 been, not the avocations of the primitive peoples, but 

 the nature of their surroundings. 



The dwellers in the valleys of the Euphrates and 

 Tigris could not but be impressed by the great and 

 destructive floods to which those regions were subject ; 

 and the inhabitants of the shores and islands of the 

 Aegean Sea, and of the Italian peninsula, were equally 



