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CHAPTER XVI. 



CONCLUSION. 



IF the Darwinian theory is based on inference 

 unsupported by substantial evidence the 

 conclusion at which we have arrived in the 

 preceding chapters it may well be asked 

 why it was so readily accepted by men of 

 science. 



Some explanation of the anomaly may be 

 found in the predisposition among educated 

 men, at the time when the theory was first 

 announced, to accept a theory such as 

 Darwin advanced. 



The then recent demonstration by geol- 

 ogists that the world, as we see it, had 

 been gradually evolved in the course of 

 ages, had convinced all unprejudiced minds 

 that the Mosaic cosmogony, as interpreted, 

 was not in accordance with the facts ; and 

 this triumph of science over theological dog- 

 matism naturally predisposed the scientific 

 world to believe that Darwin had done for 



