THEISM AND EVOLUTION. 319 



because the definition of the term, not the facts 

 of nature, demanded it. Logical and metaphysical 

 species were confounded with physiological, or real 

 species. For this reason, as is apparent, the founda- 

 tion of the rival theory of Evolution, special crea- 

 tion, rests on an assumption ; an assumption which, 

 in turn, is based on a misconception of terms, on 

 what, in the last resort, is a verbal fallacy pure 

 and simple. Indeed, the history of the word " spe- 

 cies " is but another of the countless illustrations of 

 the sage observation of Coleridge, that " errors in 

 nomenclature are apt to avenge themselves by gen- 

 erating errors of idea; " errors which, in turn, gener- 

 ate other errors and retard progress in a way that 

 cannot be estimated. 



The scholastic teaching respecting species does 

 not, then, as is so often erroneously imagined, com- 

 mit us to the doctrine of the immutability of species. 

 Far from it. The question of the mutability or per- 

 manence of physiological species, the question of 

 organic Evolution, therefore, is, as just stated, one to 

 be settled by empirical science, by observation and 

 experiment, and not by metaphysics. 



