Evolutionism and Darwinism. 47 



which afterwards shaped themselves into the parts 

 and organs of animals and of men. Here was 

 an infinite chaos of heads, hands, legs, arms, 

 eyes, and other bodily members. Under the rule 

 of chance they formed at first all kinds of strange 

 and monstrous combinations, which of course 

 proved unstable ; until, after a long series of 

 unions and dissolutions, they at last, as if from 

 exhaustion of all other modes, accidentally hit 

 upon a happy marriage of suitable organs and 

 members, and set up the surprise of animal or 

 ganisms and self-conscious men. This is surely 

 a Darwin-out-Darwining theory of natural se 

 lection. But we have not yet reached the last 

 element of our evolutionary hypothesis which 

 was anticipated by the Greeks. For, in the 

 fourth place, the general conception of system 

 atic growth, advance, or orderly progression, 

 from matter to life, from the polyp to man, from 

 the atom to the cosmos, was as familiar to Greek 

 thought as to modern evolutionary science. The 

 Greek natural philosophers held that the course 

 of the world consisted in a gradual transition 

 from the indeterminate to the determinate, so 

 that higher and more complex forms of existence 

 follow and depend on the lower and simpler 

 forms. Thus the catholic genius of Aristotle 



