402 DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



On that account we shall always find differences of 

 opinion as to the value of the historical investigation 

 into the transformations of animals. There are recent 

 zoologists, for instance, who would confine their science 

 to the establishment of laws, and would reject all 

 " galleries of ancestors " as not affording any 

 explanation. 



But that is a one-sided and unjustifiable appreciation 

 of science. Even probable transformations in the 

 organic world are certainly very interesting. As long 

 as man reflects on himself, he will long to know some- 

 thing of his earlier history. Every discovery will be 

 welcomed that throws light on the obscure condition 

 of primitive man. 



In the nine preceding chapters we have made 

 simultaneous use of scientific and historical methods 

 of research. 



We have, on the one hand, investigated the common 

 features in the particular evolutions of living things, 

 and thus formulated laws. The most comprehensive 

 law that we discovered was that those organisms 

 especially survive which are best adapted in their 

 structure to their actual environment. 1 This is the 

 principle of selection. We found that it holds good 

 wherever there are living things. We next tried to 

 prove that other laws of evolution do not hold. We 



* Natural selection is a law because it presents the common element 

 in all evolutions, and it applies wherever there are organisms ; but it 

 differs from other scientific laws in not definitely presenting the common 

 element. It has to use the qualifying clauses " on the average," or 

 " as a general rule." 



