28 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



changed.&quot; Referring, therefore, to those who 

 wholly deny every form of real evolution and 

 cling to the immutability of species a position 

 which Darwin thus claims cannot be shaken by 

 any final demonstration he adds these significant 

 words : &quot;I for one can conscientiously declare that 

 I never feel surprised at any one sticking to the 

 belief in immutability. ... I remember too well 

 my endless oscillations of doubt and difficulty.&quot; 



&quot;After long and careful investigation,&quot; wrote 

 the zoologist Professor Fleischmann of Erlangen, 

 in his well-known book, &quot;Die Descendenztheorle&quot; 

 &quot;I have come to the conclusion that the doctrine 

 of descent has not been substantiated.&quot; 



These passages are rather different from the 

 brazenness, either of ignorance or wilful decep 

 tion, that would claim with dictatorial assurance 

 the certainty of the whole range of evolution, 

 from moneron to man. Even that ardent apostle 

 of materialistic evolution, Professor Vernon L. 

 Kellogg, who makes of the purely mechanical con 

 ception even of life itself, a scientific creed, and 

 rejects as inadmissible all conclusions that conflict 

 with its infallible contentions, plainly states that 

 there is no evidence in nature for the evolutionary 

 theory of descent, but that the only &quot;evidence&quot; we 

 can possess exists solely in the mind of the scien 

 tist. This is the meaning of his words when he 



3 &quot;The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin,&quot; edited by his son, 

 Francis Darwin, I, p. 210. 

 * Ibid., p. 211. 



