ESSAYS 481 



constantly recurrent idea of the transformation of species into one another, that 

 he established, by his masterly analysis, as one of the dominating conceptions of 

 modern thought. 



The concept of transformism, by deepening apprehension of the continuity 

 pervading the evolution of the forms of life, has deepened apprehension of the 

 continuity running through the evolution of human thought. This continuity is 

 not the simple persistence of conceptions as they wait patiently through the 

 centuries, now receiving more favour and now less, until they are summarily 

 dismissed or received permanently into thought. The doctrine of transformism 

 was prejudiced by its early association with metamorphosis. All primitive notions 

 of facile transformations had to be cleared out of it. The various doctrines of 

 metempsychosis and transmigration of souls, deriving their schemes and systems 

 from the unorganised multitude of beliefs in metamorphosis scattered through 

 primitive thought, though they might provide a version of the fundamental notion 

 involved in the modern doctrine of the transmutation of species acceptable to 

 some ages, did not provide a version that could result in a rational, permanent 

 and dominant concept of the evolution of life. No two ages think alike : few con- 

 cepts, if any, though they retain the permanent individuality implied in the 

 continuity of life between the mature man and the infant in whom he can hardly 

 recognise himself, are the same at the beginning and end of their history. The 

 concept of the transmutation of species has been a candidate for recognition from 

 the far past until now ; but it has greatly changed its mode of candidature from its 

 earliest forms, still represented by Australian aborigines who believe that certain 

 sacred stones are transformed, when their times come, into kangaroos, to its more 

 rational claims in modern evolutionary thought. 



The corpuscle, or atom, too, has a history behind it. Dalton had a hypo- 

 thetical material particle placed at his disposal for theoretical interpretation that 

 has given science a grip over her data and a power of deductive insight almost 

 unparalleled in the history of thought. The atom has not ceased to change since 

 Dalton's day, just as it had a history before it. The minute particle of matter, an 

 ultra-microscopic dust-particle, served adequately as a mental image of the 

 Daltonian atom ; it is no longer an adequate image to represent modern physical 

 speculation on its nature. It is difficult to-day to conceive the atom in a way 

 adequate to the interpretative demands made upon it : we, who live in the midst 

 of this struggle for adequate conception, readily realise the difficulty. It is much 

 easier to forget or ignore the struggle imposed upon the human mind to secure 

 the conception which finally enabled Dalton to place the corpuscular theory of 

 matter in the position of a dominating, fertile, and marvellously effective concept. 



Science has interpreted nature with extraordinary success by applying the 

 concept embodied in the notion of the corpuscle or atom as an infinitely small 

 solid particle controlled entirely by mechanical laws. This is the core of the 

 idea : the notion used by Dalton, and even employed to-day as a working notion 

 by chemistry, though the conception of an indivisible, impenetrable solid has been 

 the stepping-off place for modern speculation rather than a permanent resting 

 stage. Success in one direction usually raises difficulties in another, and the 

 success of the mechanical concept of nature has been no exception to the rule. 

 The resolution of material bodies, their changes, their interactions — all the many 

 and varied phenomena of the outward world, so successfully into motions of 

 particles, has converted the appearance of consciousness, or even of life in its 

 unconscious phases, into an apparently insoluble mystery. The evidence gathered 

 by science since the foundation of modern chemistry by Lavoisier has steadily 



