WHAT WE OWE TO DARWIN 9 



chick within the egg-shell — and the answer to the 

 question — Whence came this individual animal 

 as a whole and in each of its parts 1 is embryology. 

 On the other hand, we may study the history of 

 the race as it is hidden in the strange graveyards 

 of the buried past, the fossil-bearing rocks, and 

 the answer to the question — Whence came this 

 race ? is palaeontology. 



The Question How have Present-day Organisms 

 come to he as they are? — There remains a fourth 

 question, also ancient, but since Darwin's day 

 asked with a new hopefulness — ^How have these 

 living creatures come to be as they are ? They have 

 had a history — a slow racial evolution — as surely 

 as they have an individual development. We 

 have got a firm grasp of the modal theory — ^that 

 the present is the child of the past, but the causal 

 theory is still being evolved. The idea of evolution 

 is the most potent thought-economising formula 

 which the world has yet known, but as to the 

 factors in evolution we are still only inquiring. 

 What are the originative and what the directive 

 factors ? How has the raw material of progress, 

 which we call variation, been made available 

 throughout the countless ages ? and how has' this 

 raw material been fashioned to shape and use 1 



Manifoldness of Darwin's Services. — Whai 

 do we owe to Darwin ? It is the meed of greatness 

 to receive manifold tribute. For how many diverse 

 reasons has Shakespeare the world's homage ! A 

 great hfe-work is Hke a great picture ; this character 

 appeals to me and that to you. So some say that 

 what we most owe to Darwin is our evolutionist out- 

 look, while others emphasise the idea of selection, 

 and others the demonstration that the problems 



