42 FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 
Darwin himself with a fullness, fairness, and clearness 
which none of his opponents has been able to reach. 
Increasing knowledge has steadily di- 
minished the apparent value of these 
objections. None of them can now be 
regarded as of any serious importance. 
Our chief questions as to the origin of species relate to 
the relative importance of the various elements which 
enter into “natural selection,” to a better definition of 
the laws of variation, and especially to the existence of 
a possible unknown factor in evolution which causes the 
transmission of the results of the efforts and experiences 
of the individual. 
Just now evolutionists are nearly equally divided on 
this great question, on which even their conventional 
beliefs have been lately rudely shaken. 
Relation of pres- Are acquired characters ever inherited, 
ent heredity to and if so, under what conditions and 
past environ- re : : 
nek limitations? Is the experience of the 
parent part of the heritage of the child? 
Does the environment of the father enter into the hered- 
ity of the son? Are the reactions which follow the 
various external conditions restricted to the individual 
alone, and is the next generation untouched by its par- 
ents’ successes or failures, as though it were a new 
creation? 
To ask these questions is not to answer them, and 
and the final solution of the relation of present heredity 
to past environment will be the work of the student of 
the twentieth century. 
Darwin’s work was addressed at first only to natural- 
ists, with no expectation that the public would pay any 
attention to it. He had confidence that 
the younger and more observant of his 
fellow workers would find in their own work confirma- 
Objections to 
the theory of 
descent. 
Darwin’s hope. 
