PALAEONTOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 



boniferous flora why may we not believe the old, 

 comfortable theory in the old way*? Well so we may 

 if by belief we mean faith, the substance, the founda- 

 tion of things hoped for, the evidence of things not 

 seen. In dim outline evolution is evident enough. 

 From the facts it is a conclusion which inevitably 

 follows. But that particular and essential bit of the 

 theory of evolution which is cone er tied with the origin 

 and nature of species remains utterly mysterious. We 

 no longer feel as we used to do, that the process of 

 variation, now contemporaneously occurring, is the 

 beginning of a work which needs merely the element 

 of time for its completion; for even time cannot 

 complete that which has not yet begun." These are 

 perilous words for those who are trying to build a 

 comprehensive system of sociological and ethical 

 knowledge on the certain facts of evolution by varia- 

 tion. They have the tone of religious faith and, if they 

 are true, they knock the whole prop from under Dar- 

 winism as a logical guide to human action and 

 thought. How can we be certain that humanitarians 

 have any surer guide than did the great religious 

 teachers who, to humble men, seemed to have been 

 able to fathom human motives and conduct? If we 

 cannot find the ancestor of any of the great types of 

 life, how can we expect to foretell our descendants 

 and their needs? 



It used to be assumed that while the origins of the 

 earlier types are so remote that we should not hope to 



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