4 DEVELOPMENT AND CREATION. 



domestication as the races of domestic animals and 

 cultivated plants through artificial choice of breeds ; 

 and the natural varieties of animals and plants in 

 their wild state by natural choice of breeds : in the 

 first case, the will of man effects the selection to suit 

 a purpose ; in the second, it is effected in a purposeless 

 way by the " struggle for existence." In both cases 

 the transformation of the organic forms takes place 

 through the reciprocal action of the laws of inheritance 

 and of adaptation ; in both cases it depends on the 

 survival or selection of the better-qualified minority. 

 This theory of elimination was first clearly recognised 

 and appreciated in its full significance by Charles 

 Darwin in 1859, and the selection-hypothesis which 

 he founded on it is Darwinism properly so called. 



The relation that these three great theories, which 

 are frequently confounded, bear to one another may, 

 according to the present position of science, be simply 

 defined as follows : I. Monism, the universal theory 

 of development, or the monistic progenesis-hypothesis, 

 is the one only scientific theory which affords a 

 rational interpretation of the whole universe and 

 satisfies the craving of our human reason for causality, 

 by bringing all natural phenomena into a mechanical 

 causal-connection as parts of a great uniform process 

 of evolution. II. The theory of transmutation, or 

 descent, is an essential and indispensable element in 



