NA TURE AND SCOPE OF E VOL UTION. 21 



in its relation to religion and dogma, for one to 

 weigh fairly and dispassionately the arguments and 

 objections of evolutionists, and to divest one's self 

 of all bias that may proceed from prejudice or early 

 education, to consider the question on its merits, and 

 not to let one's mind be swayed by preconceived, or 

 it may be, by erroneous notions. Let the value of 

 the evidence adduced be estimated by the rules of 

 logic and in the light of reason. This is essential. 

 In the discussion of the subject during the past 

 thirty and odd years much has been said in the heat 

 of controversy, and on both sides, that had no 

 foundation in fact. There have been much exagger- 

 ation and misrepresentation, which have given rise to 

 difficulties and complications that might easily have 

 been avoided if the disputants on both sides had 

 always been governed by a love of truth, and the 

 strict rules of dialectics, rather than by passion and 

 the spirit of party. Misguided zeal and ignorance 

 of the true teachings of the Church, always betray 

 one into making statements which have no founda- 

 tion in fact, but, in the discussions to which the sub- 

 ject of Evolution has given rise, there has often been 

 exhibited, by both the defendants and the opponents 

 of the theory, a lack of fairness and a bitterness of 

 feeling that are certainly not characteristic of those 

 whose sole desire is the attainment of truth. Such 

 polemics have injured both parties, and have delayed 

 a mutual understanding that should have, and would 

 have, been reached years ago if the ordinary rules of 

 honest controversy had always been inviolably 

 observed. 



