102 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



planted upon nature." In the question of the ori- 

 gin of species, there would thus be as many or as 

 few natural species as there were primitive forms 

 created, and the creation of these first organisms, 

 so far as we may assume it, would not necessarily 

 be out of nothing, but out of pre-existent mat- 

 ter, until we would finally come back to original 

 creation in the strict sense of the word, such as 

 reason postulates. Matter cannot be self-existent, 

 philosophy teaches, nor can life be educed from 

 dead matter. Here therefore at least two strictly 

 understood creative acts are required by reason 

 itself, as also in the creation of the rational soul 

 of man. 



The natural (i.e., distinctly created) species 

 would then be differentiated, by the process of 

 evolution, into more or less systematic species, 

 whose extent it is left to natural science to de- 

 termine. "Eventually many hundreds of thou- 

 sands of systematic species may unite to form one 

 single line, one natural species." All this is un- 

 derstood to be pure, but perfectly legitimate, hy- 

 pothesis, and by species are not understood species 

 metaphysics, of logic; but species physica, of nat- 

 ural philosophy. Whatever therefore may be 

 each one's private opinion since it would be 

 rash to speak of certainty on either side every 

 believing Jew or Christian can heartily subscribe 

 to Wasmann's conclusion that whatever the fate 



