LECTURES ON EVOLUTION 

 II 



THE HYPOTHESIS OF EVOLUTION. THE NEUTRAL 

 AND THE FAVOURABLE EVIDENCE. 



IN the preceding lecture I pointed out that there 

 are three hypotheses which may be entertained, 

 and which have been entertained, respecting the 

 past history of life upon the globe. According to 

 the first of these hypotheses, living beings, such as 

 now exist, have existed from all eternity upon this 

 earth. We tested that hypothesis by the circum- 

 stantial evidence, as I called it, which is furnished 

 by the fossil remains contained in the earth's crust, 

 and we found that it was obviously untenable. I 

 then proceeded to consider the second hypothesis, 

 which I termed the Miltonic hypothesis, not be- 

 cause it is of any particular consequence whether 

 John Milton seriously entertained it or not, but 

 because it is stated in a clear and unmistakable 

 manner in his great poem. I pointed out to you 

 that the evidence at our command as completely 

 and fully negatives that hypothesis as it did the 



