ENVIRONMENT. I3 



made up of many different parts which have been 

 added one by one along the ages, we can take up 

 this history as we should a bit of biological research ; 

 consider the idea as living and still growing, and 

 seek the first stages of each of its parts. These 

 we will find in the earliest guesses as to the origin 

 of life from matter; in conjectures about develop- 

 ment and reproduction ; in early observed evidences 

 of heredity, degeneration, variation, and of the 

 affiliation between organisms ; in the first apprecia- 

 tion of environment and its influences, of internal 

 changes in the body and their influences, of adapta- 

 tion or fitness, of the survival of the fittest organ- 

 isms, and finally of the survival of the fittest organs. 

 As each part of every organism has begun as a 

 rudiment and followed its own independent history, 

 so each of these subsidiary ideas rose in a crude 

 form, and became increasingly clear and definite. 



We have then three objects in view: first, to 

 follow the broad idea of Evolution as a natural 

 law ; second, to trace back the birth and develop- 

 ment of each of its parts ; third, to keep constantly 

 in mind the changing environment of knowledge 

 and prejudice. The uncongenial influences were by 

 no means confined to those mentioned above; the 

 introduction and long persistence of scientific falla- 

 cies, such as Abiogenesis, the uncertain methods of 

 scientific thinking, the limited knowledge of Nature, 

 and especially of animal and plant life, are all to be 

 considered. As these were cleared away, the envi- 



