href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@46834@[email protected]#Page_3" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">3

Definition of evolution—I. Progressive change—Shown in the animal body, or the Ontogenic series—In the animal scale, or the Taxonomic series—In the geological, or Phylogenic series—The three series similar, though not identical 8 II. Change according to certain laws—Three laws of succession of organic forms 11 (a) Law of differentiation—Early forms are generalized; afterwards separated into specialized forms—Illustrated by fishes, by birds—Whole process of differentiation illustrated by growth and branching of a tree 11 (b) Law of progress of the whole—Mistake of confounding evolution with upward progress—How far true, and how far false—Illustrated by branching tree—Examples of this mistake in the popular mind—In the scientific mind 13 (c) Law of cyclical movement—Shown in geological history—Age of mollusks, fishes, reptiles, mammals, man—Illustrated again by a branching tree—Increasing complexity as well as height—Illustrated by diagram 16 The above three laws are laws of evolution—Differentiation—Shown in the development of an egg, the type of evolution 19 Progress of the whole—Not progress of all parts—Shown in the development of an egg 22 Cyclical movement—Less fundamental than other two—Shown in Ontogeny of body, of mind—Increasing complexity—Necessity of continued advance—Otherwise deterioration—All these laws shown in progress of society—-Differentiation shown—Progress of the whole but not of all parts shown—Cyclical movement shown—In social evolution, however, there is another element, viz., conscious voluntary progress—-This kind of evolution contrasted with the other 22 III. Change by means of resident forces—This is the point of dispute—Sense in which we use term resident forces—Does not touch question of origin of natural forces 27 The two views of the origin of organic forms briefly contrasted—As to whether natural or supernatural—As to variability, definite or indefinite—As to change from one species to another by transmutation or substitution—As to universality of law of continuity 29 CHAPTER II. THE RELATION OF LOUIS AGASSIZ TO THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. General misunderstanding on this subject—Necessary to give sketch of history of the idea—Greeks, Lucretius, Swedenborg, and Kant—First scientific presentation by Lamarck—General character of Lamarck’s views—Failed, and rightly so—Next, Chambers’s “Vestiges of Creation”—Its general character—Failed, and rightly so—Some think this unfortunate—Why not so—An obstacle must be removed and a basis laid 32 The obstacle removed—Old views in regard to forces—Correlation of forces established—But vital force considered exception—Therefore living forms also supposed exception to mode of origin of other forms—Then vital forces also correlated—Therefore, a priori probable that living forms also correlated with other forms as to mode of origin—Thus obstacle removed 35 The basis laid—Agassiz laid inductive basis of evolution, although he refused to build—He established the laws of evolution and perfected the method of comparison—Importance of method discussed—The method of notation—The method of experiment—The difficulty of applying these to life phenomena—Method of comparison shown—(1) In Taxonomic series—(2) In Ontogenic series—(3) In Phylogenic series—Cuvier the great worker by comparison in the Taxonomic series—Agassiz in the Ontogenic and Phylogenic—Agassiz also established the three laws of evolution given in previous chapter—Thus he laid foundation—Why he did not build—Supposed identity of evolution and materialism—The obstacle being removed and the basis laid, when evolution again brought forward it was universally accepted, because the world was prepared—Place of Agassiz and Darwin compared—Formal science vs. physical science—Illustrated by relation of Kepler to Newton—Relation of Agassiz to time cosmos similar to that of Kepler to space cosmos—So Darwin to Newton—Some reflections on the above—Gravitation is the law of space cosmos—Evolution of time cosmos—Of the divine spheral music gravitation is the chordal harmony and evolution the melody 37 PART II. EVIDENCES OF THE TRUTH OF EVOLUTION. CHAPTER I. GENERAL EVIDENCES OF EVOLUTION AS A UNIVERSAL LAW.