MISSING FACTOR IN CURRENT THEORIES .15 



II 



THE MISSING FACTOR IN CURRENT THEORIES 



But it is not so much in ignoring Man that 

 evolutionary philosophy has gone astray ; for of 

 that error it has seriously begun to repent. What 

 we have now to charge against it, what is a main 

 object of these pages to point out, is that it has 

 misread Nature herself. In " fixing on a part " 

 whereby to " reconstruct the ultimate," it has fixed 

 upon a part which is not the most vital part, and 

 the reconstructions, therefore, have come to be 

 wholly out of focus. Fix upon the wrong " part," 

 and the instability of the fabric built upon it is 

 a foregone conclusion. Now, although reconstruc- 

 tions of the cosmos in the light of Evolution are 

 the chief feature of the science of our time, in 

 almost no case does even a hint of the true 

 scientific standpoint appear to be perceived. And 

 although it anticipates much that we should prefer 

 to leave untouched until it appears in its natural 

 setting, the gravity of the issues makes it essential 

 to summarize the whole situation now. 



The root of the error lies, indirectly rather than 

 directly, with Mr. Darwin. In 1859, through the 

 publication of the Origin of Species, he offered to 

 the world what purported to b§ th? ^X\^\ Qlue to the 



