able attitude of present-day natural science towards Dar- 

 winism? A discussion of this question by a Darwinian 

 cannot but be of interest to us, and indeed is an important 

 contribution to the problem. With Goette, Professor von 

 Wagner admits that the objections, which are raised 

 against Darwinism to-day, are the very same which were 

 raised from thirty to forty years ago. But when he then 

 proceeds to assert that this is not to be explained on the 

 assumption that the pristine enthusiasm for selection was 

 due to a serious over-estimation of that theory, he fails to 

 furnish even a shred of evidence in support of his assertion. 



Anyone can readily point out that Darwinism explains 

 the totality of the world of organisms by interlinking them, 

 but has generally failed to account for the individual case, 

 Wagner admits this as far as the "actual" is concerned, for 

 it is quite impossible to trace with any certainty the action, 

 in any particular case, of natural selection in the process 

 which results in the production of a new species. At the 

 outset it was reasonable to hope, that with the progress 

 of science this difficulty would be solved or at least lessened; 

 but this expectation has not been realized. * * *" It is 

 wholly unintelligible how a naturalist can make this state- 

 ment five hundred years after Bacon of Verulam, without 

 drawing therefrom the proper conclusion. This lack of 

 logic reminds me strongly of the assertion recently made 

 by an eminent authority, that the principal cause of the 

 difficulties of many naturalists in matters of religion is their 

 deficient philosophical training. 



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