THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



hypothesis to a concrete fact. We might create an 

 imaginary succession of forms gradually developing 

 new parts and new functions, but in order that such 

 a chain may resemble the facts we must have before 

 us these links in actual fossils. And he answered the 

 query whether we have such evidence by the con- 

 fession : "Geology assuredly does not reveal any such 

 finely-graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is 

 the most obvious and serious objection which can be 

 urged against the theory [of natural selection]. The 

 explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme im- 

 perfection of the geological record."^ Huxley, also, 

 follows his master and tells us that: "In view of the 

 immense diversity of known animal and vegetable 

 forms, and the enormous lapse of time indicated by 

 the accumulation of fossiliferous strata, the only cir- 

 cumstance to be wondered at is, not that the changes 

 of life, as exhibited by positive evidence, have been so 

 great, but that they have been so small. "^ And it is 

 quite safe to say that today in spite of an immensely 

 increased collection of fossils, the positive evidence 

 of geology, considering the vastness and intricacy of 

 the problem of evolution, is as incomplete as it was 

 in the time of Darwin and Huxley. It is equally safe 

 to say that it will always be thus incomplete; that, 

 lacking this concrete presentment of the structure 

 of our ancestors, evolution must continue to be a 



1 Origin of Species, vol. II, p. 49. Authorized edition from the sixth 

 English edition. Appleton & Co. 

 ^Biological and Geological Essays, p. 297. 



