12 Darwin, and after Darwin. 



has supplanted ; and while it usually incorporates the 

 main elements of Darwin's teaching, it still more 

 usually comprises gross perversions of their conse- 

 quences. All this I shall have occasion more fully 

 to show in subsequent parts of the present work ; and 

 allusion is made to the matter here merely for the 

 sake of observing that in future I shall not pay 

 attention to unsupported expressions of opinion from 

 any quarter : I shall consider only such as are accom- 

 panied with some statement of the grounds upon 

 which the opinion is held. And, even as thus limited, 

 I do not think it will be found that the following 

 exposition devotes any disproportional amount of 

 attention to the contemporary movements of Dar- 

 winian thought, seeing, as we shall see, how active 

 scientific speculation has been in the field of Dar- 

 winism since the death of Mr. Darwin. 



Leaving, then, these post-Darwinian questions to 

 be dealt with subsequently, I shall now begin a 

 systematic rfcumt of the evidences in favour of the 

 Darwinian theory, as this was left to the world by 

 Darwin himself. 



There is a great distinction to be drawn between 

 the fact of evolution and the manner of it, or between 

 the evidence of evolution as having taken place some- 

 how, and the evidence of the causes which have been 

 concerned in the process. This most important 

 distinction is frequently disregarded by popular 

 writers on Darwinism ; and, therefore, in order to 

 mark it as strongly as possible, I will effect a com- 

 plete separation between the evidence which we have 

 of evolution as a fact, and the evidence which we have 



