FOREWORD 



The literature on the subject of evolution has already at- 

 tained such vast dimensions that any attempt to add to it has 

 the appearance of being both superfluous and presumptuous. 

 It is, however, in the fact that the generality of modern works 

 are frankly partisan in their treatment of this theme that 

 the publication of the present work finds justification. 



For the philosophers and scientists of the day evolution is 

 evidently something which admits of no debate and which 

 must be maintained at all costs. These thinkers are too 

 intent upon making out a plausible case for the theory 

 to take anything more than the mildest interest in the facts 

 opposed to it. If they advert to them at all, it is always to 

 minimize, and never to accentuate, their antagonistic force. 

 For the moment, at any rate, the minds of scientific writers 

 are closed to unfavorable, and open only to favorable, evi- 

 dence, so that one must look elsewhere than in their pages 

 for adequate presentation of the case against evolution. 



The present work aims at setting forth the side of the 

 question which it is now the fashion to suppress. It refuses 

 to be bound by the convention which prescribes that evolu- 

 tion shall be leniently criticized. It proceeds, in fact, upon 

 the opposite assumption, namely, that a genuinely scientific 

 theory ought not to stand in need of indulgence, but should 

 be able, on the contrary, to endure the acid test of merciless 

 criticism. 



Evolution has been termed a "necessary hypothesis." We 

 have no quarrel with the phrase, provided it really means 

 evolution as an hypothesis, and not evolution as a dogma. 

 For, obviously, the problem of a gradual differentiation of 



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