EVORA 



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EVORA 



character, are on that account 

 favoured with longer life or more 

 successful families than their 

 neighbours, who are therefore 

 sooner or later eliminated. The 

 full title of Darwin's great work 

 should be remembered : The 

 Origin of Species by Means of 

 Natural Selection, or the Preserva- 

 tion of Favoured Races in the 

 Struggle for Existence. He stated 

 the gist of the theory, which Alfred 

 Russel Wallace had independently 

 reached, in a couple of sentences : 

 " As many more individuals of 

 each species are born than can 

 possibly survive, and as, conse- 

 quently, there is frequently recur- 

 ring struggle for existence, it 

 follows that any being, if it vary 

 however slightly in any manner 

 profitable to itself, under the com- 

 plex and sometimes varying con- 

 ditions of life, will have a better 

 chance of surviving, and thus be 

 naturally selected. From the 

 strong principle of inheritance any 

 selected variety will tend to propa- 

 gate its new and modified form." 

 Natural Selection 



There are several different modes 

 of natural selection ; thus it is use- 

 ful to distinguish between " lethal 

 selection " which works by the dis- 

 criminate elimination of the rela- 

 tively less fit, and " reproductive 

 selection," which works through 

 the increased multiplication of the 

 relatively more fit. The operation 

 of natural selection has been satis- 

 factorily demonstrated in a few 

 cases, and it is certainly a potent 

 directive factor. But it is still on 

 trial as regards its scope. Thus, if 

 reason be found for believing that 

 great steps in evolution have been 

 made by sudden mutations, we 

 must reduce our estimate of the 

 importance of natural selection ex- 

 cept as a pruning agency. To turn 

 to a less difficult point, it is impor- 

 tant to avoid the popular fallacy 

 that natural selection works out 

 the survival of the fittest in any ab- 

 solute sense ; what ensues is the 

 survival of the relatively more fit to 

 the given conditions which may 

 not imply desirability. 



On the other hand, we would re- 

 emphasise the idea that natural 

 selection operates in part in refer- 

 ence to a system of inter-relations 

 which is continually becoming more 

 complex, which is made up of many 

 stable and beautiful and intelligent 

 components that have stood the test 

 of time. Theref ore,natural selection 

 does not work capriciously ; we get 

 at least a hint of the reason for its 

 working on the whole progressively. 

 Besides selection some have recog- 

 nized isolation as a directive factor, 

 that is to say all the barriers which 

 restrict the range of intercrossing 



within a species. " I do not doubt," 

 Darwin said, " that isolation is of 

 considerable importance in the for- 

 mation of new species." 



RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 

 When we look back on the majestic 

 process by which the present sys- 

 tem of animate nature has come to 

 be, certain general impressions 

 arise in the mind. In the course of 

 the ages there has been, in the 

 animal world, a progressive evolu- 

 tion of the nervous system, an in- 

 creasing elaboration of behaviour, 

 a gradual increase of free agency, a 

 growing emancipation of mental- 

 ity. Since the beginning of life 

 there has been on the part of living 

 creatures an increasing apprecia- 

 tion and mastery of their world. To 

 Man, who is part and parcel of the 

 order of Nature, though also singu- 

 larly apart from it, there is encour- 

 agement in the fact that we know 

 of no reason for believing that the 

 evolutionary process will stop. An- 

 other general impression of great 

 interest is that while organisms are 

 ever experimenting and tentative, 

 proving all things, they are just as 

 characteristically given to holding 

 fast to that which is good. Species 

 become extinct and races perish, 

 but great organic inventions, such 

 as amoeboid movement or haemo- 

 globin or hormones, are carried on 

 by some collateral lineage. There is 

 a strong power of conservation in 

 the midst of the evolutionary flux. 

 Complexity of the Process 



As Lotze said, the process of evo- 

 lution has the unity of an onward 

 advancing melody. Retrogressions 

 and involutions there have been 

 and are, but the big fact is progress 

 to finer issues. With the growing 

 differentiation and integration (i.e. 

 complexity and control) in organ- 

 isms, there was correlated some 

 degree of external registration in 

 the system of inter-relations gradu- 

 ally established. For one result of 

 organic evolution has been the 

 weaving of a web of life whose pat- 

 tern has become more and more in- 

 tricate, as in the inter-relations be- 

 tween flowers and their insect visi- 

 tors. This complexifying of rela- 

 tions has probably been of great 

 importance in evolution, for it is in 

 reference to this externa 1 system 

 that new organic experiments are 

 tested and that selection works. 

 Thus it seems that the intensifica- 

 tion of life has been in part secured 

 and in part prompted by the grow- 

 ing complexity of the external sys- 

 tem of Nature. 



Thus living creatures contribute 

 to the evolution of their kind, not 

 only directly by exhibiting varia- 

 tions and by personally testing 

 these, but also indirectly by contri- 

 buting to the complexifying of the 



external web of life. If this be so, 

 there is for Man the hint that pro- 

 gressive evolution depends not 

 merely on the improvement of the 

 natural inheritance and intensifica- 

 tion of the individual life, but also 

 on the ennoblement of the external 

 heritage so much Man's own crea- 

 tion the treasures of literature and 

 art. the tradition of high ideals, and 

 the multitudinous linkages many 

 in need of amelioration in the 

 framework of society itself. 

 The Philosophic Conclusion 



When we try to think of facts in 

 their entirety, that is to say philo- 

 sophically, we are probably wise if 

 we hold firmly by the Aristotelian 

 conviction that there can be no- 

 thing in the end which was not also 

 present in kind in the beginning. 

 So, if Man is altogether an outcome 

 of the evolutionary process, as most 

 naturalists believe ; and if experi- 

 ence of reality to the best of man- 

 kind includes a spiritual life, i.e. 

 persistent activity towards the 

 ideals of the true, the beautiful, and 

 the good ; then we may be sure that 

 the primordium from which this 

 was evolved could not be ade- 

 quately or exhaustively formulated 

 in terms of matter and motion. 

 For by no jugglery is it possible to 

 evolve mind out of matter and 

 motion. 



Bibliography. Origin of Species, 

 C. Darwin, 1859 ; Darwinism, A. 

 R. Wallace, 1S89 ; Materials for the 

 Study of Variation, W. Bateson, 

 1894 ; The Evolution Theory, A. 

 Weismann, Eng. trans. J. A. and 

 M. R. Thomson, 1904 ; Species and 

 Varieties : their origin by mutation, 

 H. de Vries, ed. D. T. MacDougal, 

 1905 ; Experimental Zoology, T. H. 

 Morgan, 1907 ; Darwinism and Hu- 

 man Life, J. A. Thomson, 1909 ; 

 Story of Creation, a plain account of 

 evolution, E. Clodd, rev. ed. 1910 ; 

 Creative Evolution, H. Bergson, 

 Eng. trans. A. Mitchell, 1911 ; Evo- 

 lution Old and New, Samuel Butler, 

 3rd ed. 1911 ; Evolution, P. Geddes 

 and J. A. Thomson, 1911 ; Problems 

 of Genetics, W. Bateson, 1913 ; Re- 

 cent Progress in the Study of Varia- 

 tion, Heredity and Evolution, R. H. 

 Lock, rev. ed. L. Doncaster, 1916; 

 The System of Animate Nature, J. 

 A. Thomson, 1920. 



Evora. District of Portugal, in 

 the prov. of Alemtejo. It is 

 bounded on the N. by the dist. of 

 Portalegre and on the S. by the 

 dist. of Beja. The river Guadiana 

 forms its E. boundary. Hilly on 

 the N.W. and S. it slopes E. and S., 

 forming the basin of the Degebe and 

 smaller streams flowing into the 

 Guadiana. A large portion of the 

 district is barren, but there are 

 cork-oak forests. Evora is the 

 capital, and Redondo and Monte - 

 nior are other important towns. 

 Pop. 144,307 



