Evolutionism and Darwinism. 45 



problems underlying evolution are as old as 

 human reflection. From the dawn of specula 

 tion the world and all that therein is has been to 

 man an object of wonder and mystery, suggest 

 ing to him those undying questions on the origin 

 of the cosmos, the source of life and conscious 

 ness, the course and tendency of the universe, the 

 origin, nature, and destiny of man. But these 

 are the problems with which our current theory 

 of evolution has to wrestle. And though the 

 modern evolutionist is able, owing to the enor 

 mous growth of physical science, to supply a 

 fuller and more detailed treatment of the subject, 

 the fundamental conceptions of his theory meet us 

 in the most ancient cosmogonies. Thus the cardi 

 nal point of modern evolutionism that nothing 

 is, but everything is in a state of becoming, that 

 nothing is fixed and immutable, but everything 

 may be transformed into something else you 

 may read alike in the early speculations of a philo 

 sophical people, like the Greeks or Hindoos, and 

 in those weird legends of our Algonquin Indians, 

 which have been preserved from oblivion by the 

 piety and devotion of Rand and Leland. This 

 idea of metamorphosis, of change of one being 

 into another, is not the only element of antique 

 origin to be found in the modern theory of evo- 



