5 6 Scientific Sophisms. 



tually be proved to be. true," he makes the im- 

 portant statement that the only way in which it 

 can be demonstrated will be " by observation 

 and experiment upon the existing forms of life." 1 

 But demonstration of this kind is non-existent. 

 Abundantly and incessantly as it has been at- 

 tempted, it has never yet been achieved. Tried 

 by this test of " observation and experiment 

 upon the existing forms of life," neither Organic 

 Evolution in general nor Mr. Darwin's " Origin 

 of Species " in particular, has any actual place 

 in rerum naturd. 



On the second part of the question that 

 of the transmutation of species Mr. Huxley 

 writes : 



"After much consideration, and with assuredly 

 no bias against Mr. Darwin's views, it is our 

 clear conviction that, as the evidence stands, it 

 is not absolutely proven that a group of animals, 

 having all the characters exhibited by species 

 in nature, has ever been originated by selection, 

 whether artificial or natural." 2 And again : 



" Our acceptance of the Darwinian hypothesis 

 must be provisional so long as one link in the 

 chain of evidence is wanting ; and so long as all 

 the animals and plants certainly produced by 



1 " Lay Sermons," p. 226. 

 * Ibid., p. 295. " 



