12 



Huxley, and above all, to the philosophico- 

 scientific treatment of the subject by Herbert 

 Spencer who, it may be remarked in passing, 

 as a summist surpassed even Darwin himself 

 had long familiarized us with the leading argu 

 ments at least, in favor of evolution, and if not 

 always with all the facts themselves, at least with 

 the classes of fact upon which these arguments 

 were supposed to be based. An acquaintance 

 of more than a quarter of a century with all the 

 strength and all the weakness of the theory, and 

 an occasional battle with the advocates of the 

 doctrine over the somewhat brusque claims made 

 in its behalf, made us somewhat curious to learn 

 what Father Wasmann, the Jesuit, had found 

 in the arguments of Darwin or his followers to 

 make him also a disciple. We had, besides, 

 some slight acquaintance with the theories of 

 the Catholic evolutionists. We had read their 

 claims and noted their inconsistencies, and we 

 confess to a slight curiosity to know whether 

 Father Wasmann's evolution was not also char 

 acterized by the constitutional weakness and 

 inconsistency with which we had long been 

 familiar in evolutionists of this class. For these 



