216 DARWIN AND PALEONTOLOGY 



tinction. Thus Darwin gave a new birth to pa- 

 leontology, as to every other branch of biology. 



The second question, what has paleontology 

 done for Darwin, calls not for one but for a series 

 of answers. In some ways it has vastly strength- 

 ened him as a natural philosopher or as the seeker 

 of natural causes; it affords more convincing 

 proof than any other branch of biology of the 

 truth of Darwin's grandest contribution to our 

 knowledge of the universe, namely, his complete 

 demonstration, which others had attempted and 

 failed to give, of the law of evolution with all its 

 consequences. In this way it has shown him to 

 be quite infalhble; in other ways it has under- 

 mined his position and shown him quite as fallible 

 as other great men. 



It seems therefore that the most important 

 part which a paleontologist can play in this dis- 

 cussion is to state exactly and clearly what pale- 

 ontology has to say for and against the special 

 hypotheses set forth by Darwin as well as what 

 it has to say that is entirely new since Darvvin's 

 time. 



SELECTION 



Darwin's own hypotheses of the causes of evo- 

 lution through Natural Selection are concentric 

 or in ever narrowing circles; they center around 

 the broad survival of the best fitted groups of 

 organisms of all degrees, of orders, famiUes, 

 genera, species, varieties, of the best fitted single 



