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[Sommella N. <out...@vi...>]

S the more theological one which it has supplanted; and while it usually
incorporates the main elements of Darwin's teaching, it still more
usually comprises gross perversions of their consequences. All this I
shall have occasion more fully to show in subsequent parts of the
present work; and allusion is made to the matter here merely for the
sake of observing that in future I shall not pay attention to
unsupported expressions of opinion from any quarter: I shall consider
only such as are accompanied with some statement of the grounds upon
which the opinion is held. And, even as thus limited, I do not think it
will be found that the following exposition devotes any disproportional
amount of attention to the contemporary movements of Darwinian thought,
seeing, as we shall see, how active scientific speculation has been in
the field of Darwinism since the death of Mr. Darwin. * * * * * Leaving,
then, these post-Darwinian questions to be dealt with subsequently, I
shall now begin a systematic _resume_ of the evidences in favour of the
Darwinian theory, as this was left to the world by Darwin himself. There
is a great distinction to be drawn between the fact of evolution and the
manner of it, or between the evidence of evolution as having taken place
somehow, and the evidence of the causes which have been concerned in the
process. This most important distinction is frequently disregarded by
popular writers on Darwinism; and, therefore, in order to mark it as
strongly as possible, I will effect a complete separation between the
evidence which we have of evolution as a fact, and the evidence which we
have as to its method. In other words, not until I shall have fully
considered the evidence of organic evolution as a process which somehow
or another _has_ taken place, will I proceed to consider _how_ it has
taken place, or the causes which Darwin and others have suggested as
having probably been concerned in this process. Confining, then, our
attention in the first instance to a proof of evolution considered as a
fact, without any reference at all to its method, let us begin by
considering the antecedent standing o