POST-DARWINIAN VIEWS 6i 



of species, they were not so satisfactory when consid- 

 dered as proofs of Darwinism. Attacks upon Dar- 

 win's theory began to be made from the evolutionary 

 standpoint and the terms "Darwinist" and "evolu- 

 tionist" ceased to be interchangeable.^ 



Even Thomas Huxley, vigorous champion as he 

 was of Darwinism, saw at the outset that Darwin put 

 too much emphasis upon the gradualness of evolution, 

 and was inclined to the view that species might, in 

 cases at least, be evolved suddenly by large and dis- 

 continuous variations.^ Many felt the difficulty of 

 regarding minute and fluctuating variations as afford- 

 ing a sufficient basis for the operation of natural selec- 

 tion, and geology failed to redeem its earher promise 

 of proving a sufficient antiquity of the conditions of 

 organic life to afford time for so slow an evolution of 

 species. Many specific characters, it was also noted, 

 have no utility; and utility is an essential condition of 

 natural selection, in which the survival of species is 

 determined by the value of their specific characters for 

 the struggle for existence. It is a branch of this diffi- 



1 The objections of evolutionists against Darwin's emphasis upon 

 the natural selection of slight and continuous variations are very 

 fully summarized by V. L. Kellogg, Darwinism To-day, chh. iii-v, 

 who also indicates the answers made by Darwinians, chh. vi, vii. 

 He gives many references. See also M. M. Metcalf, Organic Evo- 

 lution, pp. 31-47; J. Orr, God's Image in Man, pp. 100-107. Doubts 

 about Darwinism, by a semi-Darwinian, is a calm discussion of the 

 inadequacy of Darwinism considered as a complete explanation of 

 species, written in the interests of superphysical factors and theistic 

 teleology. 



^ Darwiniana, pp. 77, 97. 



