LECTURES. 



LECTURE I. 



THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION IN GENERAL, AND 

 MR. DARWIN'S DOCTRINE OF 'NATURAL SELEC- 

 TION' IN PARTICULAR. 



SUMMARY. 



Like the Philosophy of Epicurus, the theory of Evolution excludes 

 all idea of a personal First Cause, p. 3. The doctrine of Evo- 

 lution rests mainly on conceit and assumption, and is unsanctioned 

 by science, p. 4. Alleged origin of man and animals by successive 

 evolution throughout a long period of time from some simple 

 living being which had itself been spontaneously generated by the 

 assumed operation of natural physico-chemical laws, p. 4. Evo- 

 lution a very ancient idea, and one which has often been repro- 

 duced in a more or less modified form, p. 4. Lamarck's scheme 

 of Evolution published in France between seventy and eighty years 

 ago, p. 5. Mr. Charles Darwin's objection to Lamarck's scheme 

 as affording no explanation in respect to the mode in which the 

 alleged process of evolution took place, p. 6. Evolution in its very 

 first principles is a reproduction of the old Epicurean doctrine 

 as recited by Lucretius in his poem, ' De Rerum Natura,' p. 6. 

 True Evolutionists agree with Lucretius and Descartes in deny- 

 ing design in Nature, p. 7. Mr. Charles Darwin's doctrine of 

 ' Natural Selection ' in explanation of the mode in which the 

 alleged evolution of higher from lower grades of organisation has 

 taken place, p. 7. Such a doctrine is fundamentally no more than 

 what Epicurus taught in Athens, and Lucretius after him sang in 



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