20 EVOLUTION OF TO-DAY. 



do not form part of the theory which scientists hold 

 and claim to have approximately demonstrated. 

 For this reason, then, we find various verdicts upon 

 the question from students of mental science ; 

 though here, too, there is a growing tendency tow- 

 ard a belief in some sort of evolution. 



Among theologians, while there are still some 

 who oppose evolution on the ground that it is con- 

 trary to revelation, the number of those who con- 

 cede it to be a purely scientific theory is a growing 

 one. The willingness to accept the conclusions of 

 science upon this question of fact is becoming more 

 and more prevalent. 



While, then, there is some unanimity as to the fact 

 of an evolution, the unanimity goes no farther. 

 When the attempt is made to explain the theory, or 

 to discover the laws regulating it, or to discover its 

 limits, if such exist, or when the theory is applied 

 to mental or moral science, all agreement disappears. 

 Each thinker has his own view. Darwin explained 

 evolution by natural selection, while others deny to 

 this explanation more than a secondary position. 

 Some would say that there has been a continual 

 slow progress; others, that there have been alternat- 

 ing periods of rest and rapid progress ; some would 

 say that new species may arise in the course of a 

 single generation, or, at most, a few generations; 

 while others make the production of a new species a 

 matter of many centuries ; some find the regulating 

 factors in the organism ; others in the conditions 

 surrounding it. Some confine the law to the lower 

 animals, and say that it does not apply to man; 



