HOPKINS: EVOLUTION 131 



A study of the scolytid beetles 10 determine their relation to 

 forest trees and other plants, to each other, and to nature in gen- 

 eral, has suggested some lines of thought and interpretation which 

 have led to the consideration of some of the problems of evolution 

 from a viewpoint somewhat to the reverse of the usual. 



It seems to me that there is a higher, more powerful, more 



dominating, and universal principle of evolution than has yet 



been recognized; a principle which is manifested to a greater or 



ess extent in all progressive changes in inorganic and organic 



forms and activities. 



That there is a universal law of progressive adjustment towards 

 an equilibrium between opposing elements and manifestations 

 in matter and consciousness and a dominant law of progressive 

 and parallel development and modification of structural and 

 physical elements towards ultimate and definite forms, and that 

 these laws are fundamental in all evolutionary processes. 



That evolution from a primitive source has been by the pro- 

 cess of accession, combination, and progressive modifications of 

 structural and physical elements rather than by that of reduction 

 and loss of elements. That a specific element once acquired is 

 never entirely lost. 



That among organisms natural selection and heredity, Mendel's 

 law and the mutations of DeVries exert their greatest influence 

 on the minor characters and characteristics of the individual, the 

 variety, and the local section of the species, rather than on the 

 characters and characteristics of the species as a whole, the genus, 

 or the major division of the greater systems of so-called natural 

 affinities. 



That the independent origin and development of the same kinds 

 of animals and plants in different parts of the world under con- 

 tinued similar environments is no more remarkable or improbable 

 than the independent origin and development of the same kind 

 of crystal, elemental metal, or chemical element. 



That the development of the same kind of appendages in dif- 

 ferent classes and orders of animals could not have been due to 

 phylogenetic descent from a common ancestor with similar appen- 

 dages unless we admit special creation. Therefore, the origin 



