46 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [ft. ii. 



gotten that the really important fact, so far as tlie inquiry into 

 the origin of species goes, is that there are such things in 

 nature as groups of animals and of plants, whose members are 

 incapable of fertile union with those of other groups ; and 

 that there are such things as hybrids, which are absolutely 

 sterile when crossed with other hybrids. For if such 

 phenomena as these were exhibited by only two of those 

 assemblages of living objects, to which the name of species 

 ... is given, it would have to be accounted for by any theory 

 of the origin of species, and every theory which could not 

 account for it would be, so far, imperfect." ^ 



We have now reached a point at which we may pause for 

 a moment to contemplate the theory of natural selection in 

 its logical aspect, and to mark its character as a scientific 

 hypothesis. A moment's inspection will reveal the absurdity 

 of the thoughtless remark — sometimes heard from theologians 

 and penny-a-liners — that the Darwinian theory rests upon 

 purely gratuitous assumptions and can never be submitted to 

 verification. On the contrary, the theory of natural selection, 

 when analyzed, will be found to consist of eleven propositions, 

 of which nine are demonstrated truths, the tenth is a corollary 

 from its nine predecessors, and the eleventh is a perfectly legi- 

 timate postulate. Let us enumerate these propositions :— 



1. More organisms perish than survive; 



2. No two individuals are exactly alike ; 



3. Individual peculiarities are transmissible to offspring ; 



4. Individuals whose peculiarities bring them into closest 

 adaptation with their environment, are those which survive 

 and transmit their peculiar organizations ; 



5. The survival of the fittest thus tends to maintain an 

 equilibrium between organisms and their environments j 



« subsidiary hypothesis, with the possible inadequacy of which Mr. Darwin'l 

 main theory is iu no way concerned. 

 * Huiley, Lay Sermons, p. SJ03. 



