52 



FACTS AND FANCIES 



winism is a thing of the past, even in the mind 

 of its great author, though it has proved the 

 fruitful parent of a manifold progeny of allied 

 ideas which continue to bear its name. In this 

 respect Darwinism is itself amenable to the 

 law of evolution, and has been continually 

 changing its form under the influence of the con- 

 troversial struggles which have risen around it. 



Darwinism was not necessarily atheistic or 

 agnostic. Its author was content to assume a 

 few living beings or independent forms to begin 

 with, and did not propose to obtain them by any 

 spontaneous action of dead matter, nor to ac- 

 count for the primary origin of life, still less of 

 all material things. In this he was sufficiently 

 humble and honest; but the logical weakness 

 of his position was at once apparent. If crea- 

 tion was needed to give a few initial types, it 

 might have produced others also. The followers 

 of Darwin, therefore, more especially in Ger- 

 many, at once pushed the doctrine back into 

 Agnosticism and Monism, giving to it a greater 

 logical consistency, bu^ bringing it into violent 

 conflict with theism and with common sense. 



Darwin himself early perceived that his doc- 

 trine, if true, must apply to man — in so far, at 

 least, as his bodily frame is concerned. Man is 



