Civilisation : Its Cause aud Cure 



What then is it ? For the moment we are 

 baffled. 



So with the doctrine of Evolution as applied 

 to the whole organic kingdom up to man. Like 

 the doctrine of leaf-metamorphosis it obliterates 

 distinctions. Geoffroy St. Hilaire proposed to 

 show the French Academy that a Cephalopod 

 could be assimilated to a Vertebrate by supposing 

 the latter bent backwards and walking on its 

 hands and feet. There is a continuous variation 

 from the mollusc to the man — all the lines of 

 distinction run and waver — classes and species 

 cease to exist — and Science, instead of many, sees 

 only one thing. What then is that one thing ? 

 Is it a mollusc, or is it a man, or what is it } Are 

 we to say that man may be looked upon as a varia- 

 tion of a mollusc or an amoeba, or that the amoeba 

 may be looked on as a variation of man } Here 

 are two directions of thought ; which shall we 

 choose } But the plain truth is, the Intellect can 

 give no satisfactory answer. Whichever, or 

 whatever, it chooses, the choice is quite arbitrary 

 — just as much so as the choice of the "leaf" 

 in the other case. There is no answer to be given. 

 And thus it is that the appearance of the doctrine 

 oj Evolution is the signal of the destruction of Science 

 (in the ordinary acceptation of the word). For 

 Evolution is the successive obliteration of the 

 arbitrary distinctions and landmarks which by 

 their existence constitute Science, and as soon 

 as Evolution covers the whole ground of Nature 

 inorganic and organic (as before long it will do) 



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