Permanence and Evolution. 115 



animals and plants, special causes like generative 

 descent, natural selection, and the like, which 

 are, from their very nature, inapplicable to the 

 inorganic ; yet it is probable that such reasonings 

 as those I have quoted, in spite of their radical 

 fallacy, have done more for the spread of evolu- 

 tionism than conjectures as to the origin of the 

 fantail pigeon, or legends of the Porto Santo 

 rabbit, and that those last have much rather 

 attained their currency owing to a previous bias 

 in many minds in favour of transcendental 

 evolutionism, than vice versa. 



It is often said by evolutionists, if you do not 

 believe that species arose by evolution, how do 

 you think they did arise ? Do you think they 

 started out of the ground as they now are ? To 

 which the proper answer is- I have simply no 

 theory as to how these races, species, or ther, 

 arose ; but I think I can show negatively that it 

 was by some process we cannot at present grasp. 

 But do you think we shall ever understand it ? 



