INTRODUCTION 



If we call to mind the innumerable attempts to re- 

 generate civilization by new formulae, the conserva- 

 tism of society towards change is not altogether to 

 be condemned. There is much justification for the 

 feeling that known evils can be endured more easily 

 than uncertain benefits. 



If one will read carefully the acrimonious discus- 

 sions which broke out with the appearance of Dar- 

 win's Origin of Species in 1859, one will find there 

 are few references to the scientific problems involved 

 in the theory of natural selection. The attacks cen- 

 tred on this obvious fact; — if man is but a phenom- 

 enon of the physical world, then his thoughts and in- 

 stincts, with all that comprises his consciousness and 

 personality, are essentially the same as the physical 

 and chemical forces which diversify and move mat- 

 ter. There could be but one conclusion, his dearest 

 possession (call it illusion if you will) that he was 

 in some unknown manner immortal and a special cre- 

 ation of the Divine Will, was shattered. Thus Adam 

 Sedgwick, Woodwardian Professor of Geology in 

 the University of Cambridge, immediately wrote to 

 Darwin: "This view of nature you have stated ad- 

 mirably, though admitted by all naturalists and de- 

 nied by no one of common sense. We all admit de- 

 velopment as a fact of history: but how came it 

 about? Here, in language, and still more in logic, we 

 are point blank at issue. There is a moral or meta- 



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