Permanence and Evolution. 103 



gous formations, but commutable modifications 

 of one primitive crystal, as the metals were 

 actually supposed to be manifestations of one 

 metal, and the salts (so far as they were then 

 known) of one salt. This supposed notion as 

 to crystals, the nearest approach to organism 

 in the inorganic world, would have been strictly 

 analogous to the hypothesis of evolution as now 

 maintained with regard to organised beings. It 

 is no doubt true, as Darwin says, that it is hardly 

 possible to state the facts of homology without 

 using evolutionist language. But one of the 

 most common sources of mythology has been 

 the taking literally the necessary metaphors of 

 language. 



Very instructive in this context are the re- 

 marks of the late G. Lewes on evolution in 

 " The Physical Basis of Mind," pp. 1 1 1, et seq. 

 He was himself an evolutionist, yet his line 

 of argument seems largely to sap the deepest 

 foundations of the evolution hypothesis. He 



