344 



THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE CHAP. 



the field ; and the evidences of it are all the facts which 

 it illumines. The idea of evolution has also justified 

 itself by the light which it has cast not only on biological, 

 but on physical, psychological, and sociological facts. 

 There has never been a more germinal idea ; it has become 

 organic in all our thinking. 



To those who feel a repugnance to the doctrine of 

 descent, we suggest two considerations :- 



Just as we do not think a tree less stately because we 

 know the tiny seed from which it grew, nor any man less 

 noble because he was once a little child, so we ought 



FIG. 114.- ANTLERS OF DEER (1-5) IN SUCCESSIVE YEARS : BUT THE 

 FIGURE MIGHT ALMOST REPRESENT AT THE SAME TIME THE DEGREE 

 OF EVOLUTION EXHIBITED BY THE ANTLERS OF DEER IN SUCCESSIVE 

 AGES. 



(From Chambers's Encyclop.) 



not to look on the world of life with eyes less full of wonder 

 or reverence, even if we feel that w r e know something of 

 its humble origins. 



Moreover, we should be careful to distinguish between 

 the doctrine of natural descent, which, to most naturalists, 

 seems a fact, and the theories of evolution which explain 

 how the progressive descent was brought about. For in 

 regard to the causal, as distinguished from the modal 

 explanation of the world, we are still very uncertain. 



As to the beginning of the whole process the origin 

 of organisms upon the earth, we know nothing, but hold 

 various opinions. It is no dogma, nor yet a ' law 

 of Biogenesis," but a fact of experience, to which no excep- 



