MONISTIC EVOLUTION 129 



assumed. Adaptation has usually been supposed to 

 mean the fitting of animals for their place in nature, 

 however that came about. As used by Haeckel, it 

 imports the power of the individual animal to adapt 

 itself to changed conditions, and to transmit these 

 changes to its offspring. Thus in this philosophy 

 the rule is made the exception, and the exception the 

 rule, by a skilful use of familiar terms in new senses ; 

 and heredity and adaptation are constantly paraded 

 as if they were two potent divinities employed in 

 constantly changing and improving the face of nature. 



It is scarcely too much to say that the conclusions 

 of the book are reached almost solely by the applica 

 tion of the above-mentioned peculiar modes of rea 

 soning to the vast store of facts at command of the 

 author, and that the reader who would test these 

 conclusions by the ordinary methods of judgment 

 must be constantly on his guard. Still, it is not 

 necessary to believe that Haeckel is an intentional 

 deceiver. Such fallacies are those which are espe 

 cially fitted to mislead enthusiastic specialists, to be 

 identified by them with proved results of science, and 

 to be held in an intolerant and dogmatic spirit. 



Having thus noticed Haeckel s assumptions and 

 his methods, we may next shortly consider the 

 manner in which he proceeds to work out the phylo- 

 geny of man. Here he pursues a purely physio 

 logical method, only occasionally and slightly refer 

 ring to geological facts. He takes as a first principle 



I 



