ON THE APPLICATION OF EVOLUTIONARY 

 PRINCIPLES TO ART AND LITERATURE 



IT is a common habit to speak of Darwinism and the 

 Evolutionary philosophy as though they were identical. 

 This is a mistake. Yet, when we consider the luminous 

 results and decisive impact of Darwin's discoveries, the 

 mistake is neither unnatural nor inexcusable. It has, how- 

 ever, the disadvantage of fastening our minds on biological 

 problems, as though these alone were capable of an evolu- 

 tionary solution. Other issues involved in the philosophy are 

 thrust into the background. 



Evolution implies belief in cosmic unity, in the develop- 

 ment of the universe on one consistent plan. It implies the 

 rejection of miraculous interferences, abrupt leaps and bounds 

 in Nature. The Evolutionist feels sure that if he could trace 

 the present back through all its stages to the period of 

 origins, the process whereby that incalculably distant past 

 has advanced to this present would be found a gradual 

 unbroken chain of sequences. For him, the genius of a 

 Newton or a Shakespeare is the ultimate known product of 

 elemental matter shaped by energies and forces. 



Sir Charles Lyell established geology upon evolutionary 

 principles. Charles Darwin proved that biology, the science 

 of the origins and development of life upon our earth, can 

 only be studied with sound results upon the same principles- 

 Herbert Spencer has applied the evolutionary method to 

 every branch of knowledge, including social institutions in 

 his survey. 



