et Imbecillitate Darwiniana. 79 



of geology, gratuitously and dogmatically 

 denying, in the teeth of his own evidence, 

 the possibility of direct modification, he 

 sought to explain the origin of animal and 

 other forms by the roundabout and impos- 

 sible accumulation of infinitesimal increments 

 under conditions similar to those now obtain- 

 ing. But we live in relatively cold and un- 

 generative conditions. The hints that we 

 gather from our own time justify us in 

 ascribing the appearance of new forms to 

 the self-acting organic power of Nature re- 

 sponding to conditions constantly changing, 

 by what we might call, though not quite 

 adequately, Atmospheric Evolution. Since 

 the beginning, there has been, for there 

 must have been, going on, a continuous, 

 never ceasing atmospheric change, a chemical 

 alteration of the medium of life/ consisting 

 essentially in purification, rarefaction, sic- 

 cification, frigidification, segregation, differ- 



