OBJECTIONS AGAINST EVOLUTION, 193 



otherwise they would be confronted with what 

 they have always challenged their opponents to pro- 

 duce a tangible instance of the transmutation of 

 species. Here, then, we have another illustration 

 of the impossibility of satisfying those who, in 

 spite of all evidence to the contrary, persist in af- 

 firming specific immutability. They group organ- 

 isms into species and genera, in accordance with 

 their preconceived notions of species and genus, but 

 when it is shown that these organisms are genetic- 

 ally related to one another, they hasten to proclaim 

 that such forms of life are all only varieties of the 

 same species. Such being the case, it is obviously 

 impossible to give an experimental proof of Evolu- 

 tion, for just the moment that organisms, however 

 widely divergent they may appear, are proved to 

 be connected by filiation, they are forthwith pro- 

 nounced to be but simple varieties, no matter what 

 views taxonomists may have previously held regard- 

 ing them. Phantom-like, the proof desired vanishes, 

 just at the moment it is thought to be established. 

 And such, doubtless, will continue to be the case, 

 until naturalists shall discover some infallible 

 method of distinguishing species, a highly improba- 

 ble event, or until they shall be willing to agree that 

 species, as ordinarily understood that is, something 

 permanently immutable has, in nature, no real 

 existence. 



Factors of Evolution. 



In this and the preceding chapters I have con- 

 sidered the arguments for and against Evolution in 



F..-I3 



