GERM DOCTRINE OF BONNET. 25? 



There is " natural evolution," the most unnatural negation of 

 evolution ; "progress" that discloses nothing but a succession 

 of preformed hierarchies; a "law of continuity" that vanishes 

 in the mist of fine grades, without any bond of connection 

 whatever; a "metamorphosis" that conceals one preformation 

 under another; a "palingenesis" that denies all genesis, and 

 agrees with modern palingenesis only in etymology; a "gene- 

 alogy" of contemporaneous beings; "heredity" that transmits 

 nothing ; "births," " evolutions," and "revolutions" that bring 

 nothing new, and so on through all the negations that a fertile 

 genius could invent against the intrusion of epigenesis. 



Perhaps you are puzzled to understand how a sane mind 

 could ever have been led to devise such a scheme and accept it 

 as a partial solution of the great mystery of life. If so, you 

 will not be less puzzled to understand how any one, who has 

 reflected upon the subject, could ever assert, either that Bon- 

 net advanced to our standpoint, or that we are returning to 

 his. 



Reason for Rejecting Epigenesis. 



Unaccountable as it may seem, Bonnet had better reasons 

 for his conclusions than we have for confusing them with pres- 

 ent conceptions. Bonnet accepted preformation only to escape 

 what seemed to him a greater miracle. To suppose that men 

 and other organisms are forming anew every day, that such 

 marvels of structure and purposeful adaptations can suddenly 

 come into existence of themselves, seemed to him not only to 

 contradict Revelation but also to be incompatible with sound 

 philosophy. The mechanical explanations offered by the epi- 

 genesists were so obviously absurd that there seemed to be no 

 refuge except in the dogma of creation. Bonnet never claimed 

 that his own theory was satisfactory ; but only that it was less 

 unsatisfactory than epigenesis appeared to be. Towards the 

 end of the third chapter of his early writing (Corps Organ., p. 20), 

 he says, "All that I have said upon generation may be taken 

 for a romance if you like. I am myself strongly disposed to 

 regard it from the same point of view. I feel that I have only 

 imperfectly satisfied the phenomena. But I will ask if other 



