92 HEREDITY AND EVOLUTION IN PLANTS 



creation was arrived at independently by Darwin, but was 

 not new with him. As we have just seen, it was proposed 

 by Lamarck. Greek philosophers 2,000 years previously 

 had suggested the idea; but it had never won the general 

 acceptance of the educated world, partly because it was 

 feared to be anti-religious, partly because it was never 

 substantiated by sufficiently convincing evidence, and 

 partly because of the antagonism of a few men of great 

 influence in the world of intellect. Men preferred to fol- 

 low a leader, more or less blindly, rather than take the 

 pains to examine the voluminous evidence for themselves, 

 and accept the logical conclusion without prejudice or 

 fear, wherever it might lead them, or however much it 

 might contradict all their prejudice and preconceived 

 notions. But truth will always, in the end, command 

 recognition and acceptance, and there is now almost no 

 scientific man who does not regard evolution as axiomatic. 

 It is one of the most basic of all conceptions, not only in 

 the natural and the physical sciences, but also in history, 

 sociology, philosophy, and religion; it has, indeed com- 

 pletely revolutionized every department of human 

 thought. 



77. Darwinism. It is the second of the above men- 

 tioned theories, i.e., natural selection, that constitutes the 

 essence of Darwinism. The theory is based upon five 

 fundamental facts, which are matters of observation, and 

 may be verified by anyone, as follows: 



i. Inheritance. Characteristics possessed by parents 

 tend to reappear in the next or in succeeding generations. 

 We are all familiar with the fact that children commonly 

 resemble one or both parents, or a grandparent or great 

 grandparent, in some characteristic. From this we infer 



