iS2 THE DARWINIAN THEORY 



Darwin simply sought to determine the truth, and 

 was always ready to discuss and consider in detail 

 even the most trivial arid thoughtless objections. 



Missing Links. 



The most popular objection, and in many ways 

 the most famous, is that of the so-called Missing 

 Links. If the present existing animals are de- 

 scended from ancestors which were unlike them in 

 former geological times, and if all animals are really 

 akin or cousins, where are the intermediate forms, 

 the missing links ? These must on the theory of 

 Evolution have existed. Can we produce them ? or 

 if not, can we give any reasonable explanation of 

 our failure ? We must at once admit that the 

 demand is absolutely fair, and one which must be 

 met. This question, although dealt with incidentally 

 in former lectures, it is well to reconsider more 

 directly. We have really two distinct problems to 

 deal with, two kinds of links to be sought for — viz., 

 (i) Links between existing animals, which must occur 

 if the animals are /akin to one another ; (2) Links 

 between existing and extinct animals. Let us con- 

 sider these separately. 



Links between the several kinds of existing animals. 

 — Failure to find these has often resulted from mis- 

 directed efforts, from looking in the wrong direction. 

 A straight line being the shortest distance between 

 two points, it is commonly and not unnaturally 

 assumed that the link must lie in the line connecting 

 the two forms directly. True links are, however, not 

 directly intermediate, the real relation being that of 



