60 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



CHAPTER VI. 



SCHEME OF THE REMAINDER OF THE WORK. HISTO- 

 RICAL SKETCH OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 



I HAVE long felt that evolution must stand or fall 

 according as it is made to rest or not on principles 

 which shall give a definite purpose and direction to 

 the variations whose accumulation results in specific, 

 and ultimately in generic differences. In other words, 

 according as it is made to stand upon the ground first 

 clearly marked out for it by Dr. Erasmus Darwin and 

 afterwards adopted by Lamarck, or on that taken by 

 Mr. Charles Darwin. 



There is some reason to fear that in consequence of 

 the disfavour into which modern Darwinism is seen to 

 be falling by those who are more closely watching the 

 course of opinion upon this subject, evolution itself may 

 be for a time discredited as something inseparable from 

 the theory that it has come about mainly through " the 

 means " of natural selection. If people are shown that 

 the arguments by which a somewhat startling conclu- 

 sion has been reached will not legitimately lead to that 

 conclusion, they are very ready to assume that the con- 

 clusion must be altogether unfounded, especially when, 

 as in the present case, there is a vast mass of vested inte- 

 rests opposed to the conclusion. Few know that there 



