12 TRANSLATORS PREFACE 



The circumstance that the work proceeds on a totally 

 different principle of interpretation than others that I 

 have recently introduced to English readers gave me a 

 certain gratification. It is important to make clear that 

 the superb procession of organic forms across the stage 

 of our planet, which we sum up in the phrase, " the 

 evolution of life," may be presented either in the terms 

 of the older Darwinian theories or of the new ones 

 associated with the great name of Weismann. The 

 fact of evolution now stands solid and towering above 

 all the clash of theories. Even the machinery of natural 

 selection continues its vast work — if it does not increase 

 it — whether or no we accept the transmission of acquired 

 characteristics. It has seemed most expedient to put 

 before the general reader a simple and untechnical 

 interpretation of evolution from the Weismannic point 

 of view (within limits) ; and it would be difficult to 

 find a more suitable and attractive one than Professor 

 Guenther's Darwinism. 



JOSEPH McCABE. 



London, October, 1905. 



