EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION 21 



cussions as to the extent to which right conduct 

 requires kindness to the lower creation present further 

 testimony. And besides, there falls to be included, a 

 comparatively neglected region of inquiry, the con 

 sequences to animal life of the advance of human 

 civilisation. From the epoch of man s appearance, 

 the condition of things has been modified quite 

 beyond anything capable of being explained by study 

 of organism. It must, therefore, be recognised, as 

 Professor Huxley has said, as not only convenient, 

 but necessary, to distinguish those parts of nature in 

 which man plays the part of immediate cause, as some 

 thing apart. x The convenience experienced in this 

 respect by the scientist, springs from the actual order 

 of things in Nature. Man s place therefore becomes 

 the chief problem to which all scientific inquiry must 

 lead. 



Evolution through struggle for existence, is only one 

 item in the history of progress. Without it, we can 

 not construct any theory of things existing. We 

 readily admit with Wallace the overwhelming im 

 portance of natural selection over all other agencies 

 in the production of species. But it is needful that 

 we ponder the beginning, the continuance, the con 

 summation of this process, comprehending all within 

 a single scheme. We still need a deeper study of 

 causes and of results. Croll puts the position 

 admirably, The changes or motions in organic nature 

 which result in an organism, are not to be accounted 

 for by forces which produce the motion, but by the 

 cause or causes which direct the operation of the 



1 Struggle for existence ; Nineteenth Century, February 1888, 

 pp. 165, 166. 



