THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 



controlling the development of life by studying 

 them directly. We may be content to watch the 

 finished work of those laws, the uninterrupted 

 chain from amoeba to man. 



If there is one who does not care to go so far 

 with us, he will at least emphasize that all our 

 theories of the nature of these laws must neces- 

 sarily be loose, changeable and capable of im- 

 provement in view of the present state of our 

 knowledge. It is true that this is frequently 

 overlooked. We often hear it said that Darwin- 

 ism is on the decline. It is claimed that Dar- 

 winism is dissolving and disintegrating into a 

 wild confusion of different opinions among the 

 experts, and that not a stone of the original build- 

 ing of the principle of Darwinism will remain in 

 the near future. But this is sheer nonsense, so 

 far as that line of facts is concerned, which we 

 have presented in this work, that line which con- 

 nects all living beings by one common descent 

 and locates man himself on this genealogical tree. 

 These facts are daily becoming more impregnable 

 and firm, and we may calmly spread them among 

 the people as a secure acquirement of scientific 

 research. But it is true, and not at all a matter 

 for surprise from the standpoint of the theory 

 of evolution, that there Is a great difference of 



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