202 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



are now seeking. Whether the divers conjectures 

 which at present obtain, regarding the method ac- 

 cording to which Evolution has acted in past time, 

 and according to which it must still act, be true or 

 false, matters little so far as Evolution itself is con- 

 cerned. The true, the all-embracing theory, which 

 is now the object of the earnest quest of so many 

 ardent investigators the world over, and which, as 

 Professor Owen believed, should constitute the chief 

 end and aim of biological research, is something 

 which we must look to the future to supply. And 

 when such a theory shall have been elaborated, as 

 every advance in science leads us to believe it will 

 be, then will it be found to be as superior in sim- 

 plicity, beauty and comprehensiveness, to all current 

 theories of Evolution, as the grand and far-reaching 

 conceptions of Copernicus and Newton are superior 

 to the almost forgotten speculations of Ptolemy and 

 Aristarchus. 



