THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION: ITS DATA, ITS PRINCIPLES, ITS SPECULATIONS, BY ALEXANDER WINCHELL, LL.D., CHANCELLOR OF SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, AUTHOR OF "SKETCHES OF CREATION," 66 AH 3550,743. 1875. April 13. Minot Fund. .80 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. THE author of the following essay regrets to give it to the public in a state so inadequately representative of the science and philosophy which have contributed to modern discussions on the subject of Evolution. Yielding, however, to the judgment of others, he hopes there may be many intelligent readers who will receive his popular exposition of the theme as gladly as those who have already become acquainted with it. . As will be at once discerned, it has not been the author's aim either to defend or attack the doctrine, under any of its forms, but rather candidly to exhibit to the inquirer its strongest defenses and its weakest points. In the method of treatment he has endeavored to think for himself, though it may be doubted whether a single position has heretofore been omitted in the amplitude of the discussions on this question. The favoring arguments, it is to be presumed, have all been met by objectors, and the objections have all been handled by the supporters of evolution. Every one must have noticed, however, that the "handling" of an adversary is not necessarily his eviction from a strong position; and so wè iterate "objections" which have been a hundred times "answered." Should the reader demand categorically whether the author holds to the doctrine of evolution or not, he replies, that this seems clearly the law of universal intelligence under which complex results are brought into existence. The existence and universality of a law operating upon materials so various, and under circumstances so diverse, but always evolving a succession of terms having the same values relatively to each other, is a fact which, to the ear of reason, proclaims intelligence more loudly than any possible array of isolated phenomena. But the diversity of the materials with which the law has to deal brings out a variety of special values for the general terms of the evolutionary series. Mechanical force acts with uniformity, symmetry, and always in one direction, producing results congeneric with itself; hence, in the world of mechanical force, the series are complete, calculable, and demonstrative. Or, if we penetrate to the rational element of all force, intelligent will, we should say that its self-imposed mode of activity in the mechanical world is one producing series which are complete, calculable, demonstrative. But obviously other modes of activity are possible and probable to intelligent will. When acting in the organic, |