CHAPTER IV 



CHANGE IS NORMAL 



After the idea is adopted that all time is available, a 

 belief in evolution may be regarded as depending more upon 

 the question whether any change is possible, than upon the 

 later questions as to the effects of change. If the student can 

 observe, first, that infinitesimal change does occur ; and next, 

 that such changes can accumulate, for many generations as 

 easily as for two; then evolution may become clear to him. 

 A study of any recent science books can convince one of 

 these facts. It may be briefly noted that changes, to become 

 fixed (as far as anything is ever fixed), must be long per- 

 sistent, and that fixed or established characters are slow or 

 quick to change, according as they are long ago, or recently, 

 acquired. And further it follows that nothing is stable 

 absolutely, but that it is only a question of new need, 

 whether new change shall be adopted. Now the occurrence 

 of change is an observable fact. Investigators differ as to 

 how the changes arise, whether by mere accidental varia- 

 tion or whether by response of the creature to the demands 

 of environment, but it is generally agreed, and undoubtedly 

 true, that among the changes so begun, those which persist, 

 and which therefore now concern us, are those which enable 

 a creature by increased ability, to maintain life; sometimes 



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