Chapter 2— THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF 



ORGANIC LIFE 



(a) — Theory of Fixity of Species or Special Creation 



The general opinion regarding the origin of plants and 

 animals up to the time of Darwin was that every species 

 came into existence by a distinct act of special creation. 

 Each type or species remained distinct and was unable to 

 vary in any of its individuals, except within very narrow 

 limits. This theory was put into definite form by Suarez 

 (1548-1617), a Spanish Jesuit, and was accepted as a doc- 

 trine of the Catholic Church. It was taken up by Milton 

 in his "Paradise Lost," and accepted by Puritanism; it was 

 accepted by Linnaeus in his classification of plants and 

 animals, and became "current intellectual coin." 



It will be noted that this theory precludes all attempts 

 to discover the origin of organic beings. Species were 

 created, and nothing more was required to be said or done. 



(b) — Theory of Evolution or Descent with 



Modification 



The evolutionary conception of the organic world was 

 held by Aristotle among the Greeks (46.9-^^ B. C), but 

 for lack of facts his views were not clear and rather enig- 

 matic. He expounded the doctrine of "a perfecting prin- 

 ciple" which struggled with "the physical material cause," 

 or matter itself, and worked out a continuous and pro- 

 gressive adaptation."! 



But little addition was made during the following 

 seven or eight centuries to the views held by Aristotle. 



In the early centuries of the Christian era Augustine 

 (353-430), influenced by Aristotle, held that creation was 

 the institution of the order of nature. 



During the Dark Ages science slept. After the Re- 

 vival of Learning and the Reformation science again re- 

 vived but men's thoughts were absorbed rather with the 

 facts of nature than with the question of the origin of 

 things. 



Then followed: (1) a group of Philosophic Evolution- 

 ists — Bacon, Descartes, Leibnitz, Hume, Schelling, Kant 

 and Hegel— who established the basis of the modern meth- 

 ods of studying the problem of evolution; and 



(1)— "Natui-e produces those things which being continuously moved 

 by a certain principle contained in themselves arrive at a cer- 

 tain end." 



