PRESENT STATUS OF THE QUESTION 25 



who have been the foremost pioneers in clearing the 

 way for the modern conception of evolution. 



From the quotations which have been read in the 

 foregoing part of the lecture, it will be only too evi- 

 dent that, while naturalists are all but unanimous 

 in accepting the theory of evolution as an established 

 truth, there is every possible divergence in their 

 views as to the causes of development and diversi- 

 fication. Could a census of opinions be taken among 

 the zoologists and botanists of the world, it is very 

 probable that a substantial majority of Darwinians 

 would be found. By Darwinians is to be understood 

 those who are convinced that the doctrine of natural 

 selection is the true explanation of organic evolution. 

 Whether or not a majority of all naturalists are to 

 be ranked with the Darwinians, it can hardly be 

 doubted that there are very many more who accept 

 natural selection than there are of those who have 

 adopted any alternative view. Personally, I have 

 never been satisfied that Darwin's explanation is the 

 rightful one; to one who approaches the problem 

 from the study of fossils, the doctrine of natural 

 selection does not appear to offer an adequate ex- 

 planation of the observed facts. The doctrine, in 

 its application to concrete cases, is vague, elastic, 

 unconvincing and seems to leave the whole process 

 to chance. To be sure, this difficulty is, to a great 

 extent, inherent in the nature of the problem, for 

 direct observation of the long course of evolutionary 

 development is impossible; no one ever saw the birth 



