Evolution. 43 



a mere figment of the intellect." Torricelli, 

 Pascal, and Newton were distinguished by their 

 " welding of rigid logic to verifying fact." " If 

 scientific men were not accustomed to demand 

 verification . . . their science, instead of 

 being, as it is, a fortress of adamant, would be 

 a house of clay." " Newton's action in this 

 matter is the normal action of the scientific 

 mind." 1 " There is no genius so gifted as not 

 to need control and verification." * 



What then becomes of "the Abraham .of 

 scientific men " ? In the " Origin of Species " 

 Mr. Darwin tells us repeatedly, 3 that it would 

 be " fatal " to his theory if it should be found 

 that there were characters or structures which 

 could not be accounted for by " numerous, 

 successive, slight modifications"; and tnis can- 

 did admission is supplemented in the "Descent 

 of Man," * by another equally candid : 



1 " Fragments of Science." Longmans, 1871, pp. 59, 

 62. 



2 Ibid., p. ill. 



3 See especially, (First Edition,) p. 189, where, after 

 attempting to explain the origin of the eye, he says, " If 

 it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, 

 which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, 

 successive, slight modifications, my theory would abso- 

 lutely break down. 



* Murray, 1871, vol. ii. p. 387. 



