THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



of practically all thoughtful persons. We shall accept 

 the scientific conclusions of biologists who have ex- 

 perimentally determined many remarkable relations 

 between organisms, and who have with great patience 

 and acumen elucidated possible lines of evolutionary 

 connection and descent. Not to base our arguments 

 on the sound work of biology would be to destroy the 

 value of a critical study of the subject. 



But, having accepted evolution in its broad out- 

 line, we find that biologists have attempted to find 

 the cause of evolution and the method by which varia- 

 tions take place. In the general scheme of evolution, 

 man naturally finds his place amongst other animal 

 forms, but to the scientist the problem of human 

 evolution is no more important than is the ancestry 

 of any other form of life. On the other hand, the 

 problem of human evolution is the supreme problem 

 to the student of human affairs. Since the middle 

 of the last century, the idea of progress, of an evolu- 

 tion of society and of civilization in all its aspects, 

 has been developed from an analogy with biological 

 evolution. It has been assumed that science has de- 

 termined, or at least can determine, the ancestry of 

 man and, from the character of his ancestors, may 

 deduce the characteristics of his thought and actions. 

 When this shall have been achieved we may also 

 apply the conclusions of natural selection, or of the 

 inheritance of acquired traits, so as to formulate a 

 rational polity and ethics. And lastly, after we deter- 



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