WHAT WE OWE TO DARWIN 9 



chick within the egg-shell and the answer to the 

 question Whence came this individual animal 

 as a whole and in each of its parts ? is embryology. 

 On the other hand, we may study the history of 

 the race as it is hidden in the strange graveyards 

 of the buried past, the fossil-bearing rocks, and 

 the answer to the question Whence came this 

 race ? is palaeontology. 



The Question How have Present-day Organisms 

 come to le as they are? There remains a fourth 

 question, also ancient, but since Darwin's day 

 asked with a new hopefulness How have these 

 living creatures come to be as they are ? They have 

 had a history a slow racial evolution as surely 

 as they have an individual development. We 

 have got a firm grasp of the modal theory that 

 the present is the child of the past, but the causal 

 theory is still being evolved. The idea of evolution 

 is the most potent thought-economising formula 

 which the world has yet known, but as to the 

 factors in evolution we are still only inquiring. 

 What are the originative and what the directive 

 factors ? How has the raw material of progress, 

 which we call variation, been made available 

 throughout the countless ages ? and how has this 

 raw material been fashioned to shape and use ? 



MANIFOLDNESS OF DARWIN'S SERVICES. What 

 do we owe to Darwin ? It is the meed of greatness 

 to receive manifold tribute. For how many diverse 

 reasons has Shakespeare the world's homage ! A 

 great life-work is like a great picture ; this character 

 appeals to me and that to you. So some say that 

 what we most owe to Darwin is our evolutionist out- 

 look, while others emphasise the idea of selection, 

 and others the demonstration that the problems 



