Method of Origin of New Species and Structures 405 



the series; from fossils, those relics of ancient plants converted to 

 stone and preserved in the rocks, which show that the earliest 

 plants to flourish in the earth's history were the simpler kinds, 

 while those which came later were progressively more complex, 

 and the very highest of all appeared last; from geographical dis- 

 tribution, which is such that in general the kinds of plants most 

 closely related are found nearest together, while those which are 

 farthest apart are most distantly connected; from the existence of 

 rudimentary structures, such as the imperfect stamens in irregular 

 flowers, or the appendix in man, which are useless to their present 

 possessors, but are useful to the near relatives, and hence pre- 

 sumably to the ancestors, of the kinds; from embryology, or the 

 course of development of the individual from the egg, which 

 often exhibits some temporary stages quite useless to the develop- 

 ing individual but useful in those ancestors which the form must 

 have had if evolution is a fact ; and from yet other sources which 

 need not here be particularized. In all of these directions the 

 phenomena are perfectly explained by evolution, but present well- 

 nigh insuperable logical difficulties to an explanation by special 

 creation. Or, the case can be stated in this way, if evolution be 

 assumed, then the facts are intelligible, but if special creation be as- 

 sumed, then they are enshrouded with inconsistency and mystery. 



I may venture at this point to remind the reader, though 

 probably the caution is needless, that the question as to whether 

 evolution is or is not a fact is a purely scientific one, to be judged 

 by purely scientific evidence, tested by inexorable scientific logic. 

 It is fatal to a correct judgment upon such a subject to approach 

 it with preconceptions or prejudices of any kind, metaphysical, 

 personal, or religious; for the mind of man is so organized that 

 whenever it seeks evidence for some favorite belief, it has no 

 trouble at all to find it. To him who puts on colored glasses, all 

 things look of that color; but evolution is something to be viewed 

 only in the purest white light of the truth. 



But while evolution is accepted as a fact by the concensus of 



