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hypothesis on another and assuming the edifice 

 thus raised to be a solid structure, whereas it 

 is merely a castle in the air without any foun 

 dation whatever. Yet the whole literature of 

 evolution teems with this species of reasoning, 

 and the fallacy vitiates every argument and 

 every conclusion of the entire school. It is a 

 monstrous form of deception against which an 

 effective protest should be made, though often 

 the deception is wholly unconscious, and for 

 the most part dupes even its own authors. It 

 is manifest, however, that outside the school of 

 evolution/ any writer who had the interests of 

 truth in mind would state plainly and candidly 

 the wholly conditional aspect of the argument ; 

 and in such a case Father Wasmann's argu 

 ment would run somewhat in this fashion : Fos 

 sil remains of the whalebone-whale have been 

 found in the tertiary deposits, but in no earlier 

 ones ; and for this reason it is supposed that 

 this species of whale did not exist earlier. 

 Toothed whales, however, have been found in 

 earlier strata, and consequently it is surmised 

 that the whalebone-whale may be descended 

 from the toothed whale. If this supposition 



