THE CONCEPT OF EVOLUTION 367 



tions established by genuine agents do not spell new organi- 

 sation. This view reduces human history to the level of 

 a puppet-show; in short, it is a false simplicity, a ^materi- 

 alism '. 



What biology seems justified in holding firm to is, that 

 there has been a frequent epigenesis or new formation, a 

 frequent outcrop of genuine novelties. Without insisting 

 on the epigenetic character of the emergence of feeling 

 and other forms of consciousness, we mean, in concrete lan- 

 guage, that there was a time when there were no insects; 

 they came into being, and they were new ideas. There was 

 a time when there were no birds ; they came into being, and 

 they were new ideas. It may be very naive on the biolo- 

 gist's part, but it does not appear likely that any argument 

 that being is a fixed quantity will affect his belief that in- 

 sects and birds were downright novelties. Evolution is 

 racial epigenesis — the making actual of what was only poten- 

 tial; but it is more, it is a series of great inventions, — in 

 a way, a succession of new worlds. 



§ 6. The Logical Validity of the Evolution Formula. 



The evolution formula is not demonstrable like that of 

 gravitation. It is a way of looking at things that fits, that 

 is luminous, that meets with no contradiction, that serves 

 as an organon of discovery. It is the only known scientific 

 way of answering the question: How has the present-day 

 system of Animate Nature come into being? 



All the facts of botany and zoology may be used as evi 

 deuces of evolution if we know enough about them, and yet 

 their cumulative weight cannot be called strictly demonstra- 

 tive. This much may be said, however, that both past and 

 present become uncomfortably magical unless the evolution- 



