338 A Century of Science 



rialistic thought adopted 1 by the English school 

 of evolutionists. Yet when Mr. Cook quotes 

 Professor Tyndall's remark, he does it in this wise : 

 " It is notorious that even Tyndall concedes" etc., 

 etc. 



By proceeding in this way, Mr. Cook finds it 

 easy to make out a formidable array of what he 

 calls " the concessions of evolutionists." He first 

 gives the audience a crude impression of some sort 

 of theory of evolution, such as no scientific thinker 

 ever dreamed of ; or, to speak more accurately, 

 he plays upon the crude impression already half 

 formed in the average mind of his audience, and 

 which he evidently shares himself. The average 

 notion of the doctrine of evolution, possessed in 

 common by an audience big enough to fill Tre- 

 mont Temple, would no doubt seem to Darwin or 

 to Spencer something quite fearful and wonderful. 

 Playing with this sort of crude material, Mr. Cook 

 puts together a series of numbered propositions, 

 which remind one of those interminable auction 

 catalogues of Walt Whitman, which some of our 

 British cousins, more ardent than discriminating, 

 mistake for a truly American species of inspired 

 verse. In this long catena of statements, almost 



1 In spite of an occasional slip of the pen which may seem to 

 imply the contrary. See above, pp. 58-60. 



