82 How Theories are Manufactured 



offered has, by further inquiry, been discredited. The 

 Natural Selection theory of the origin of things has 

 lately been described, and so far as I am aware, with- 

 out contradiction, as being no less extinct than the 

 Dodo. An eminent man of science 1 stigmatized the pro- 

 position that Natural Selection has originated species as 

 "the most absurd of all absurd propositions." More 

 than this, the case seems to be allowed to go by default 

 against the theory, through the silence of its friends. 

 A few years back, when, on occasion of the twenty-first 

 anniversary of the publication of Mr. Darwin's book, a 

 celebration was held to commemorate the coming of age 

 of Darwinism, it was remarked as significant that not a 

 word was said about Natural Selection. It would, in 

 fact, appear that this theory is considered as a mere 

 scaffolding, useful in running up the building, which may 

 be quietly removed when that is completed. But so far 

 as Mr. Darwin's contribution to science is concerned, 

 and, moreover, so far as scientific explanation of evolu- 

 tion is concerned, it is not a scaffolding, but the central 

 pillar upon which all the superstructure rests; and to 

 talk of the system remaining unshaken aloft, though 

 this has crumbled beneath, is like expecting the ball 

 at the top of the Monument to hang suspended in 

 the air should the shaft subside into a heap of broken 

 stones. 



But there is another point with which at present I am 

 more directly concerned. While the Natural Selection 

 theory is subject to attacks which its champions do not 

 care to meet, it is still by a host of writers presented to 

 the public as if in undisputed possession of the field. 

 Those who deal only with what is known as popular 

 science, will probably be surprised to hear any doubt 

 cast on the sacred dogma, or on those romantic histories 

 which are constantly written to glorify its cult. While 

 scientific men of the first rank, who do not care to 

 repudiate Natural Selection, are content to let it dis- 

 creetly alone, there are many of a lower grade who 

 1 Mr. St George Mivart in The Tablet, June 2, 1888. 



