124 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



hypothesis. Hence, even if we accept the principle of trans- 

 formism, there will always be scope for the principle of per- 

 manence. The extraordinary tenacity of type manifested 

 by persistent genera and species is a phenomenon deserving of 

 far more careful study and investigation than the evolution- 

 ally-minded scientist of to-day deigns to bestow upon it. To 

 the latter it may seem of little consequence, but, to the genuine 

 scientist, the actual persistence of types should be of no less 

 interest than their possible variability. 



With these reflections, our criticism of the palaeontological 

 argument terminates. The enumeration of its various defi- 

 ciencies was not intended as a refutation. To disprove the 

 theory of organic evolution is a feat beyond our power to 

 accomplish. We can only adduce negative evidence, whose 

 scope is to show that the various evolutionary arguments are 

 inconsequential or inconclusive. We cannot rob the theory of 

 its intrinsic possibility, and sheer justice compels us to con- 

 fess that certain facts, like those of symbiotic preadaptation, 

 lend themselves more readily to a transformistic, than to a 

 fixistic, interpretation. On the other hand, nothing is gained 

 by ignoring flaws so obvious and glaring as those which mar 

 the cogency of palaeontological ''evidence." The man who 

 would gloss them over is no true friend either of Science or 

 of the scientific theory of Evolution ! They represent so many 

 real problems to be frankly faced and fully solved, before the 

 palseontological argument can become a genuine demonstration. 

 But until such time as a demonstration of this sort is forth- 

 coming, the evolutionist must not presume to cram his un- 

 substantiated theory down our reasonably reluctant throats. 

 To accept as certain what remains unproved, is to compromise 

 our intellectual sincerity. True certainty, which rests on the 

 recognition of objective necessity, will never be attainable so 

 long as difficulties that sap the very base of evolutionary ar- 

 gumentation are left unanswered; and, as for those who, in 

 the teeth of discordant factual evidence, profess, nevertheless, 

 to have certainty regarding the "fact" of evolution, we can 



