THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



such transformations are brought about, must be 

 added to the general idea of change. As Professor 

 Adam Sedgwick once admirably expressed it, every- 

 body admits development as a fact, this is mere com- 

 mon observation and common sense, but the question 

 really is: how did it come about? 



From our earliest historical records and from the 

 present state of various savage tribes, everybody ad- 

 mits that civilization has slowly changed from very 

 simple beginnings. Evidence, also, shows conclusive- 

 ly that, at a very distant past, many of our domesti- 

 cated animals and plants had already been modified 

 from their wild state. Those primitive peoples must, 

 then, have recognized that variation occurs from gen- 

 eration to generation, and they must have practised 

 selective breeding with animals and plants in order 

 to establish and to intensify new and desirable traits. 

 Indeed, the fact that the child is different from its 

 parents is so obvious that there is no need to deter- 

 mine when it became known. 



The question really is, when did the belief arise 

 that variations become progressively greater and 

 greater so as to link together all the existing flora and 

 fauna in one common remote ancestry? Did the 

 Greeks or, in fact, did anyone have the germ of such 

 an idea of evolution before the latter part of the 

 eighteenth century when biology was established as 

 a science? 



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