OF EVOLUTION. 



it will be well to understand what is meant by the 

 term " evolution" as applied to organic beings. 

 There is much misconception on this point, arising 

 primarily from an erroneous interpretation of the 

 relations which the different animal and vegetable 

 organisms hold to one another. Evolution, in its 

 more common acceptation in the sense I propose 

 treating of it to-night signifies merely the evolving 

 or production of new organic forms from forms 

 more or less unlike themselves ; it recognizes as the 

 result of its action that all the varied animal and 

 vegetable forms now inhabiting or covering the 

 earth's surface are the descendants, through a long 

 series of modifications or transformations, of a lim- 

 ited number of ancient types whose ancestry lies 

 buried deep in the history of the world. As a 

 corollary of this, which might be termed material 

 evolution, we have an accompanying evolution of 

 the mind, habit, and consciousness, but these 

 important factors in sociology do not concern us 

 this evening. 



One of the most popular fallacies connected with 



