The General Theory of Evolution 289 



obstructed with fears and alarms from those who feel their 

 security threatened. 



This method is not confined to ignorant men and 

 women who apply literally in their adult years what they 

 learned in childhood as poetry. Quite recently an eminent 

 scholar and religious leader seeks to demonstrate the untruth 

 and menace of evolutionism by citing, among others, (i) 

 the spread of Marxian socialism under the inspiration of 

 materialistic evolution, with dire consequences {a) in the 

 suicide of Marx's daughter and {b) in the Russian reign of 

 terror; (2) the infection of modern society with the virus 

 of animalism, egoism and perfidy; and (3) the startling 

 murder of a boy by two young college men who " had been 

 taught by their professors that scientific psychology dis- 

 penses with the soul, and that the differences between men 

 and brutes is one of degree only, and not of kind." Clearly, 

 any doctrine that will bring to the world so much sin and 

 suffering must be barred out, regardless of its attractiveness 

 to its sponsors and partizans! 



TJoe General Theory of Evolution 



As a working hypothesis with a high degree of proba- 

 bihty, the general idea that there had been modification of 

 plant and animal forms is acceptable to all who have taken 

 the pains to acquaint themselves with the pertinent facts. 

 It is the only view we have today that is in harmony with ^ 

 the established facts. As a working hypothesis it serves as 

 a very satisfactory guide to the organization and extension j 

 of research in many directions, and as a very effective means 

 of unifying facts of observation and experiment, for con-/ 

 venience in handling them, and for practical application. 

 Although evolution, in the sense of transmutation of living 

 forms, rests upon facts and logic, it remains, for most of 

 us, merely a highly probable hypothesis, since it is impossible 

 to take the skeptic to a high mountain or into the backyard 

 and show him one species being transformed into another. 



