154 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



evolving this or that organ, then it may be granted 

 that evolution is true. 



If, on the other hand, we may demand some plausi- 

 ble method before accepting the theory, then the 

 matter assumes a different aspect. 



When Darwin says that he can find no case of a 

 complex organ which could not possibly have been 

 formed by numerous slight changes, it would be pre- 

 sumed that he had a tolerably clear mental picture, 

 based upon known facts, of the evolution of the 

 various complex organs. 



When, however, he says that " in many cases it is 

 most difficult to conjecture by what transitions many 

 organs have arrived at their present state," the pov- 

 erty of the evidence is at once revealed. If we can- 

 not even "conjecture" "what transitions" have 

 taken place, may not the existence of the transitions 

 themselves be a matter of doubt? If imagination, 

 conforming to known facts, fails to reveal routes by 

 which evolution may probably have traveled, why 

 should we accept evolution as a fact? 



I am aware that some evolutionists declare that the 

 theory has been fully established by induction, and 

 that, accepting the theory as a fact, they have little 

 trouble in disposing of what they rather lightly refer 

 to as special objections. 



The so-called special objections, however, are just 

 as legitimate as any other kind, and the truth of the 

 theory must not be assumed in order to dispose of 

 them. 



The evolution of various complex organs in the 

 animal kingdom presents difficulties which I regard 

 as inexplicable by the theory of evolution, unless it be 

 granted that the imagination may legitimately supply 

 most of the facts. 



When we are told that all the complex organs of 



