MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



CHAPTER I 



PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE QUESTION 



THE great fabric of the Darwinian evolution may be 

 said to have attained to its completion. Its chief 

 corner-stone has been laid with shouting by its jubilant 

 adherents, and it is presented to us as a permanent 

 and finished structure, fitted to withstand all the 

 attacks of time and chance. We are even asked to 

 regard its architect as the Newton of Natural Science, 

 and to believe in the finality and completeness of the 

 structure which he has raised. 



In seeming contrast with this, we find that the 

 disciples of the great teacher are already beginning to 

 diverge widely in their beliefs, and to found new 

 schools, some of which are tending toward the old 

 and discarded theory of Lamarck, or to a modification 

 of it known as Neo-Lamarckianism, while others 

 boast that they maintain the pure Darwinian doctrine, 

 though even among these there are diverse shades of 



