MONISTIC EVOLUTION 133 



language. All the Indo-European languages are 

 believed to be descended from a common ancestral 

 tongue, and this is analogous to the descent of all 

 animals from one primitive species. But unfortunately 

 the languages in question are the expressions of the 

 voice and thought of one and the same species. The 

 individuals using them are known historically to have 

 descended by ordinary generation from a common 

 source, and the connecting links of the various dia 

 lects are unbroken. The analogy fails altogether in 

 the .case of species succeeding each other in geological 

 time, unless the very thing to be proved is taken 

 for granted in the outset. 



The actual proof that a basis exists in nature for 

 the doctrine of evolution founded on these analogies 

 might be threefold. First, there might be changes 

 of the nature of phylogenesis going on under our own 

 observation ; and even a very few of these would be 

 sufficient to give some show of probability. Elabo 

 rate attempts have been made to show that variations 

 as existing in the more variable and the domesticated 

 species lead in the direction of such changes ; but the 

 results have been unsatisfactory, and our author 

 scarcely condescends to notice this line of proof. 

 He evidently regards the time over which human 

 history has extended as too short to admit of this 

 kind of demonstration. Secondly, there might be in 

 the existing system of nature such a close connection 

 or continuous chain of species as might at least 



