REV. G. F. WHIDBORNE, ON QUESTIONS IN EVOLUTION. 167 
(8) The occurrence of characteristic fossils. 
(9) The rareness of evidence of centripetal action. 
(10) The “unknown quantity ” of growth in embryology. 
(11) The complexity of the embryonic cell. 
(12) The presence of parents in embryology. 
6. Extreme Evolution impossible as the unaided cause of tlie present 
cosmos. 
(1) It cannot explain the origin of primeval protoplasm. 
(2) It cannot explain its potency to evolve. 
(3) It cannot explain the influence of environment. 
(4) It is mathematically incompetent to explain the present 
cosmos. 
. Therefore it must be governed by an outside Creative and 
Directing Power, and thus would actually be an argument for 
Theism. 
8. Theism being therefore regarded as its basis, the question becomes 
one of pure scientific research ; the weight and scope of evidence 
to it. 
9. The bearing on it of the tendency in the human mind to seek after 
unity in the essence of things. 
10. The risk of mistaking mere similitude for relationship. 
11. The question of the evolution of the material organism may after all 
be dominated by higher attributes of life which it cannot itself 
reach, 
-I 
ile Gs the present state of scientific thought it may be 
deemed heretical to raise any demur to Evolution. 
The great theorem is now so generally regarded as a proved 
fact, so widely assumed to be incontrovertible, that even to 
discuss its validity sounds almost like rebellion against the 
scientific dogmatism of the twentieth century. If this be so, I 
am content to be ranked as unscientific. For, admitting 
to the full the true force of the crowding arguments and 
innumerable facts adduced in its favour, I cannot shut my eyes 
to difficulties not yet, I think, explained away, and liable, I 
fancy, to gather strength as days go by, and scientific 
knowledge is still more increased. 
2. The doctrine of Evolution (considered only as applied to 
life) can be held in many various degrees of strength. The 
full and extreme view would trace all living things, including 
man, to some simple cell-mass or protoplasm,* some primordial 
vitality, of which little can be predicated, except (1) that it 
was living matter, (2) that it had somehow the potentiality 
* The term Protoplasm is only used in this paper in the general 
sense, and not in rivalry or contradistinction to Bioplasm. 
