44 Conception of Evolution Old. 



lution. It, too, like the hand that wrote it out, 

 Kke the brain that gave it form, has had a his 

 tory reaching far back into the dim recesses of 

 vanished and unremembered ages. Such meagre 

 records as are preserved to us of historic times 

 warrant our inclusion of the doctrine of evolution 

 within the old declaration that &quot; there is no new 

 thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof 

 it may be said, See, this is new ? It hath been 

 already of old time which was before us.&quot; As 

 names and dates are often very deceptive we 

 must here be on our guard. For the evolutionary 

 hypothesis was not begotten of any single brain ; 

 it is the offspring of that ever-growing, ever- 

 ripening human culture, at whose breasts succes 

 sive generations of thinkers are nourished with 

 the same vital substance. Foretold in the specula 

 tions of the ancient world, it was announced in the 

 philosophy, poetry, and science of modern Europe, 

 some decades before Darwin, by his spiritual 

 foster-brothers of an earlier generation ; though 

 to Darwin undoubtedly belongs the honor of 

 lifting it up to the full gaze of an astonished 

 world and fixing it there as a landmark and a 

 monument in the intellectual development of 

 mankind. 



It requires but little attention to see that the 





