SOME POPULAR FALLACIES 



we may go, it is said, a step further and say that 

 progress is inevitable. 



But it does not follow from the fact of man s 

 simian origin that he must necessarily bceome an 

 angel. The popular logic is grossly fallacious. 

 Evolution has not shown progress to be inevitable ; 

 but it has proved the contention of a century ago 

 that progress is possible. 



At first Spencer did not see this. Brought up 

 to believe in progress, he employed that term in 

 his early essays. It was not until he saw the 

 illegitimacy of the assumption involved that he 

 introduced the non-committal word evolution. 



Properly speaking, I should here attempt to 

 define the term progress ignoring the example 

 of the thousands who use the term without any 

 nice inquiry into the meaning which they and 

 their hearers attach to it. But space fails me, and 

 I must merely protest that I will not hesitate to 

 accept the noblest definition that can be given to 

 it. I should not quarrel with a reference, in that 

 definition, to the &quot;beauty of holiness&quot; or to the 

 assertion that &quot;righteousness exalteth a nation.&quot; 



But let me at once try to show that evolution 

 makes no statement as to the inevitableness of 

 progress. Biology, to begin with, knows of species 

 whose individuals are free-swimming when young, 

 parasitic when adult. It knows of descent as well 

 as of ascent. It is familiar with species of lowly 

 form which occur unchanged in every fossil-bear 

 ing stratum of the earth s crust, and arc multitudi- 



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