TH K PRESENT POSITION OF THE THEORY OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. Ill 



become more and more contracted if we did not exchange thoughts 

 with those who approach the problems of Nature from a less defined 

 or restricted point of view. We should also lose opportunities of 

 influencing some who differ from ourselves. 



These are, perhaps, the principal reasons why we have asked the 

 Professor today, so that our outlook may be widened, and that wo 

 may know what the world is thinking. One reason we feel so 

 strongly about the subject of Organic Evolution is, that looking 

 backwards for thirty or forty years, or more, we know that what 

 may briefly be called " Darwinism " has modified the outlook of 

 professing Christians to a very great degree. I do not say it ought 

 to have done so, but most certainly it has ! If we asked 100 thought- 

 ful men to-day, clergymen or laymen, whether they believed that 

 God created man in His Own image, we should not find that they 

 would all express their belief in the same terms that were generally 

 used some years ago. 



Our learned Secretary, Mr. Maunder, in his intensely interesting 

 paper on " The First Chapter of Genesis," asked the question," When 

 God beheld that which He had made, and saw that it was good, does 

 it follow that, could a man have been there to look on, there was 

 anything present that would have been apparent to his sight : any- 

 thing, that is to say, that he could have recognized as an accomplish- 

 ment of the command 1 " Mr. Maunder would suggest that, though 

 God created man in His Own image, it did not follow that if we had 

 been present on the sixth day of Creation, we should have recognized 

 man as existing in the form we know him to-day. I mention this as 

 an instance of the influence which Darwinism has had upon Christian 

 men. Whether that theory of organic evolution which we are 

 accustomed to speak of as "Darwinism" is itself founded upon 

 sufficiently strong evidence as to warrant such a changed attitude is 

 a matter of extreme interest to us all. 



At the end of the lecture, the Chairman rose to propose a very 

 hearty vote of thanks to Professor Mac-Bride for his most able and 

 interesting paper, and pointed out that the Lecturer had repeatedly 

 stated in his paper that Darwinism stood or fell on the answer to 

 this one question, " Is it possible for acquired characters to be passed 

 on from one generation to another 1 " i.e., " are variations acquired 

 in the life of any animal or plant capable of transmission to a 

 succeeding generation 1 " 



