THE HISTOET OF CEEATION. 



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CHAPTER L 



NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF 

 FILIATION, OR DESCENT-THEORY. 



General Importance and Essential Nature of tlie Theory of Descent as re. 

 formed by Darwin. — Its Special Importance to Biology (Zoology and 

 Botany). — Its Special Importance to the History of the Natural Develop- 

 ment of the Human Eace. — The Theory of Descent as the Non-Miraculous 

 History of Creation. — Idea of Creation. — Knowledge and Belief. — His- 

 tory of Creation and History of Development. — The Connection between 

 the History of Individual and Palseontological Development. — The 

 Theory of Purposelessness, or the Science of Rudimentary Organs. — 

 Useless and Superfluous Arrangements in Organisms. — Contrast between 

 the two entirely opposed Views of Nature : the Monistic (mechanical, 

 causal) and the Dualistic (teleological, vital). — Proof of the former by 

 the Theory of Descent. — Unity of Organic and Inorganic Nature, and 

 the Identity of the Active Causes in both. — The Importance of the 

 Theory of Descent to the Monistic Conception of all Nature. 



The intellectual movement to which the impulse was given, 

 thirteen years ago, by the English naturalist, Charles 

 Darwin, in his celebrated work, " On the Origin of 

 Species,"^ has, within this short period, assumed dimen- 

 sions which cannot but excite the most universal interest. It 

 is true the scientific theory set forth in that work, which is 

 commonly called briefly Darwinism, is only a small fragment 

 of a far more comprehensive doctrine — a part of the universal 



