332 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



that the causes of variations are almost totally un- 

 known. 



This being true, the most that could be claimed for 

 natural selection is that it preserves certain forms at 

 the expense of others. 



Mr. Darwin assumes that life was " originally 

 breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into 

 one." This admission opens the way for other mira- 

 cles. 



He denies that in nature there is any " innate ten- 

 dency toward perfectibility or progressive develop- 

 ment." If this is true, then I think that the evolu- 

 tion of man would have been impossible, involving 

 as it would the preservation in "all cases of the most 

 perfect forms of an. infinite series. 



It has been seen that Mr. Darwin's argument has 

 been founded mostly on facts derived from the study 

 of animals under domestication, involving the selects 

 ive agency of man, while in nature there is no such 

 agent to separate and propagate new varieties. 



Even under domestication, his argument proves, at 

 most, that new varieties which freely mingle and pro- 

 pagate the species can be produced, whereas, the 

 theory demands the production of separate species 

 which are cross-sterile. I have endeavored to show 

 the impossibility of the formation of such species in 

 a state of nature, and have called special attention to 

 the weakness of the assumption that varieties are 

 born, the individuals of which are fertile with each 

 other but sterile with the parent form — all the known 

 facts being opposed to this view. The necessity for 

 such an assumption shows that the theory is very 

 " hardly pressed." 



I have called attention to the fact that the number 

 of instances of cross-sterility between parent and 

 offspring would, according to the theory of slight 



