

CHAPTER VII. 



MORE RECENT ATTEMPTS TO EXPLAIN EVOLUTION. 



THE objections against natural selection, sketched 

 in the last chapter, are very formidable, and when 

 taken together, amount to practical proof that this 

 principle, as originally conceived, is inadequate to 

 explain the organic world as we now see it. It is 

 impossible to believe that the natural selection of 

 indefinite chance variations could have produced 

 the present species in their entirety. But indefinite 

 chance variations are all that Darwin's theory sup- 

 plies as its basis of development. Plainly, then, 

 Darwinism must be supplemented by something 

 else. We have seen in the first five chapters that, 

 since the appearance of the " Origin of Species," the 

 evidence for evolution has been growing stronger 

 and stronger, while the objections have been disap- 

 pearing. But we find also that during this same 

 period the difficulties in the way of the acceptance 

 of Darwin's explanation have increased rather than 

 diminished. His theory, which at first seemed so 

 readily to fill the need which was felt, has been 

 found lacking in so many points that it can no 

 longer be regarded as satisfactory. It must be re- 

 membered, however, that it was the followers of 



