100 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



with the theological idea of finality, but does not, as 

 does the latter, assume a final cause. It takes a pecul- 

 iar idealistic form of brain to adopt the Bergson 

 philosophy. Most people can better understand the 

 inductions of the senses, rather than the intuitions of 

 metaphysics. It is not likely that many men will ever 

 be able to transcend intellect. What is beyond the 

 reach of that, could not perhaps be useful to human 

 requirements. Is it not therefore better to remain 

 within the reasonable domain of our senses, than to try 

 to cultivate mere imagination? 



MENDELISM. Numerous theories of variation have 

 been advanced from time to time. Weissman advo- 

 cated what he called amphimixis. This is the com- 

 mingling of protoplasms from different parents having 

 different hereditary tendencies. The crossing of two 

 individuals, as far removed from each other in char- 

 acteristics, as is possible, but not too far, to insure their 

 hybridization, or breeding, would naturally result, one 

 would think, in producing the most variation. Ex- 

 periments have proved that, "in and in" breeding re- 

 sults in lack of variation in the offspring, except in 

 the form of degeneration. It either degrades, or fixes 

 a type similar to the parents. 



In 1866 Gregor Johann Mendel, a naturalist, and an 

 Austrian priest, published an account of his experi- 

 ments in breeding garden peas. He crossed two races 

 or varieties, to find what the result would be in several 

 generations, in the distribution of the characters of the 

 parents, to the offspring. He was evidently very care- 

 ful, and able in his experiments. "He found that the 

 cross bred plants raised from these seeds manifested 

 only one of the characteristics, which he calls the 

 dominant, to the total, or almost total, exclusion of the 



