Permanence and Evolution. 101 



we have any good reason to think that common 

 descent is the cause of this pervading likeness. 

 And here I think we come upon the real gist 

 of the evolution hypothesis, upon that which 

 gives it, to so many minds, both an imaginative 

 charm and an appearance of scientific verisimili- 

 tude, and which causes such very doubtful and 

 exceptionable evidence to be eagerly accepted 

 if it only appears to support it. Yet, however 

 seductive this tendency is, however much it 

 takes hold of eminent scientific minds, I think 

 it may be shown to belong to the sphere of 

 mythology rather than of science. It is a 

 common, mythological fallacy to suppose that 

 where we see, or think we see, a similarity 

 between two objects, there we may suppose 

 community of origin. It is a portion of the 

 larger fallacy of supposing that things which are 

 associated together in our imagination, are there- 

 fore, associated in nature. One of the grossest 

 instances of this is to be found in the numerous 



