i8 4 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION PART 



prospectus was written out on the 6th January 1858, 

 and that it was the occasion of an interesting corre- 

 spondence between Mr. Spencer and his father 

 mainly in the form of questions from the latter 

 during that month. The record of these facts is of 

 some moment as evidencing that the scheme of the 

 Synthetic Philosophy took definite shape in 1857. 

 Therefore, the Theory of Evolution, dealing with 

 the universe as a whole, from gas to genius, was 

 formulated some months before the publication of 

 the Darwin- Wallace paper, in which only organic 

 evolution was discussed. The Origin of Species, 

 as the outcome of that paper, showed that the 

 action of natural selection is a sufficing cause 

 for the production of new life-forms, and thus 

 knocked the bottom out of the old belief in special 

 creation. 



The general doctrine of Evolution, however, is 

 not so vitally related to that of natural selection 

 that the two stand or fall together. The evidence 

 as to the connection between the succession of 

 past life-forms which, regard being had to the well- 

 nigh obliterated record, has been supplied by the 

 fossil-yielding rocks ; and the evidence as to the 

 unbroken development of the highest plants and 

 animals from the lowest which more and more con- 

 firms the theory of von Baer ; alike furnish a 

 body of testimony placing the doctrine of Organic 

 Evolution on a foundation that can never be 

 shaken. And, firm as that, stands the doctrine of 

 Inorganic Evolution upon the support given by 

 modern science to the speculations of Immanuel 

 Kant. 



