EVOLUTION IN NATURAL SCIENCE 5 



The facts furnish us with no evidence proving 

 that modifications -of the species extend beyond 

 the limits of those genera, and we are not justified 

 in speaking of any evolution of species from one 

 another, nor of any stock as common to the species 

 now existing or to those that existed formerly. 



The theory of evolution, on the contrary, leads 

 its supporters to declare that the fauna and flora 

 of the present day ought to be regarded as the final 

 outcome of a previous evolution, and to some extent 

 as the final function of a long differential and 

 integral calculus of nature. Thus the question 

 may be worded as follows : Has an evolution of 

 the organic species from the original stock taken 

 place, or not ? 



It will be easily seen that we have no right to 

 say that this theory of evolution is the product 

 of Atheism. The question whether there is a , 

 probable historical connection between the present 

 and the fossil forms of animals and plants, is a 

 purely scientific one, arising logically from the 

 researches made by zoologists, botanists, and 

 palaeontologists. I wish therefore to lay emphasis 



of modern zoology and botany (see Modern Biology, pp. 261, 303, 315, 

 etc.). As examples of systematic species I may mention the lion, the 

 tiger, and the jaguar within the genus fdis. The characteristics distin 

 guishing the species are essential only in the empiric and not in the 

 philosophical sense. For this reason some scientists subsequently intro 

 duced the idea of natural species, comprising groups, varying in size, of 

 systematic species. This theory of permanence, if compared with the 

 historical theory of the permanence of the systematic species, is, however, 

 already a restricted theory of evolution (cf. ibid. p. 294). 



