CHAPTER II. 



EVOLUTION. 



IT stumbles at starting. Of Evolution as al- 

 leged, there are several varieties ; and the theory 

 is at fault among them. A choice must be made, 

 and the choice is not easy. Natural Selection, 

 if it were not merely the nominal designation 

 of an unreal entity, might here render important 

 service; but as it is, is useless. And to spon- 

 taneous selection the choice is encumbered with 

 difficulties. Of these difficulties it is not the 

 least that, by the theory, spontaneous selection 

 is impossible : spontaneity is non-existent, save 

 in imagination. Since this little difficulty is 

 not (by the theory) to be surmounted, it must 

 be evaded ; and when it has been evaded the 

 labour of selection begins. 



The varieties from which the selection must 

 be made may be classed in three main divisions ; 

 or, in other words, notwithstanding the protests 

 of those Darwinians who deny the existence 



