i.] DARWINISM VERIFIED. 21 



becomes desirable to inquire whether the conclusion is 

 confirmed by the most general phenomena of organic 

 life that have been observed and tabulated. There is 

 no hesitation or ambiguity in the answer. Whether 

 we consider the classificatory relationships of plants 

 and animals, their embryology, their morphology, their 

 geographical distribution, or their geological succes- 

 sion, there is not only abundance of evidence, but the 

 evidence points wholly in one direction. With entire 

 unanimity the phenomena in question testify that 

 species have arisen by descent with modifications and 

 not by disconnected acts of creation. The facts of 

 classification alone are sufficiently decisive. By the 

 older naturalists who sought to arrange animals and 

 plants in groups according to their resemblances, 

 attempts were often made to construct a linear series 

 in which each group should be intermediate between 

 those which preceded and those which followed it. All 

 such attempts proved futile, and after a half-century 

 of discussion and criticism it became evident that the 

 only possible classification which correctly represents 

 the facts is one in which organisms are arranged in 

 divergent groups and sub-groups, like the branches 

 and twigs of what is aptly termed a family tree. 

 Wherever different orders, families, or genera show 

 points of resemblance to each other, the resemblances 



