72 DISCRIMINATIONS CHAP. 



incentive to inquiry, since human 

 thought began. But there never has 

 been any doubt, or any failure, on the 

 part of man to grasp the universal fact 

 that there is a natural sequence among 

 all things, leading from what has been 

 to what is, and to what is to be 

 Whether he could apprehend or not the 

 processes out of which these changes 

 arise, he has always recognised the 

 existence of such processes as a fact. 



One might almost suppose from much 

 of the talk we have had during the last 

 thirty years about development, that no- 

 body had ever known or dwelt upon this 

 universal fact until Lamarck and Darwin 

 had discovered it. But this is far from 

 being true. The recognition of the fact 

 has been an element in all philosophies 

 since philosophy began. All the new 

 theories, and, indeed, all possible theories 

 which may supplant or supplement them, 



