6o CHAPTERS ON EVOLUTION. 



But beyond such questions lies the biological surety that to under- 

 stand the way of the becoming of both animal and plant is to deny any 

 independence of creation, and to assert that unless the phenomena 

 of life be without meaning, all nature testifies to continuous develop- 

 ment as the main feature of the living constitution. To collate the 

 evidence which widely different branches of inquiry supply in favour 

 of this view, is the chief aim of the succeeding chapters. But Mr. 

 Spencer's words may be once again quoted by way of showing 

 succinctly and plainly the general conclusion of the present study. 

 " The general truths of morphology," says Spencer, " thus coincide 

 in their implications. Unity of type maintained under extreme 

 dissimilarities of form and mode of life, is explicable as resulting from 

 descent with modification ; but is otherwise inexplicable. The like- 

 ness disguised by unlikenesses, which the comparative anatomist 

 discovers between various organs in the same organism, are worse 

 than meaningless if it be supposed that organisms were severally 

 framed as we now see them ; but they fit in quite harmoniously with 

 the belief that each kind of organism is a product of accumulated 

 modifications upon modifications." 



