EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



then, let us first concentrate our attention on one 

 point, the controversy incorrectly and unjustly 

 named, as I have shown between Darwiriism and 

 Lamarckism. The only possible excuse for these 

 terms is their focussing the attention on two great 

 names; but, as I say, they do an injustice to the 

 younger thinker, if not the older too. Every one 

 knows that Professor Auguste Weismann, now 

 happily enjoying his eighth decade, has taken up 

 the cudgels for a " Darwinism" which is more than 

 ultra-Darwinian; and his school is a great and 

 flourishing one. Weismann denies in toto the 

 possibility that any character acquired by the 

 parent can be transmitted to the child. To Dar- 

 win's "natural selection" he attributes far more 

 than did Darwin himself; and the pupil's pupils 

 have even outrun him. Here again time has vin- 

 dicated Spencer so that one begins to understand 

 Grant Allen's remark, "the twenty-fifth century 

 will appreciate him." The echoes of his contro- 

 versy with Weismann have died down and the 

 inner ring of the non-scientific public is becoming 

 familiar with the dogma of non-transmissibility 

 of acquired characters, but Weismann himself has 

 made the most significant concessions, and biolo- 

 gists are now well aware that the dogma can be no 

 longer maintained. Choose your own instances 

 and you may make anything ridiculous to those 

 who have not discrimination enough to appraise 

 your method. If the belief of Lamarck, amplified 

 and upheld by Spencer for decades against an 



