THE EVOLUTION HYPOTHESIS. 



CHAPTER I. 

 INTRODUCTORY. 



THE Evolution Hypothesis has stamped its impress 

 on the thought of our time. It claims to 

 dominate the whole field of experience, and to direct 

 all inquiry. As a theory of universal truth, it lies 

 open to the criticism of every student of philo- 

 sophy. How far in certain groups of physical 

 phenomena it expresses justly the law of change, I do 

 not discuss. Examination in detail, over the whole 

 extent of the knowable, can be effectively conducted 

 only by division of labour among many workers, 

 each handling some part of the question, which he 

 has made the subject of special study. In this way 

 the measure of truth contained in the hypothesis 

 must ultimately be defined. My purpose is to deal 

 with the theory as it undertakes to formulate the 

 entire cosmic movement within the knowable as it 

 aims at the unification of all knowledge. 



The following criticism takes the form of an ex- 



