INTRODUCTION. 



THE doctrine of evolution may be denned as the 

 teaching which holds that creation has been and 

 is accomplished by the agency of the energies which 

 are intrinsic in the evolving matter, and without the 

 interference of agencies which are external to it. It 

 holds this to be true of the combinations and forms of 

 inorganic nature, and of those of organic nature as 

 well. Whether the intrinsic energies which accom- 

 plish evolution be forms of radiant or other energy 

 only, acting inversely as the square of the distance, 

 and without consciousness, or whether they be ener- 

 gies whose direction is affected by the presence of con 

 sciousness, the energy is a property of the physical 

 basis of tridimensional matter, and is not outside of it, 

 according to the doctrine we are about to consider. 



As a view of nature from an especial standpoint, 

 evolution takes its place as a distinct science. The 

 science of evolution is the science of creation, and is 

 as such to be distinguished broadly from the sciences 

 which consider the other operations of nature, or the 

 functioning of nature, which are not processes of crea- 

 tion, but processes of destruction. This contrast is \ 

 especially obvious in organic evolution, where the two 

 processes go on side by side, and are often closely in- 



