Page:Carroll Lane Fenton - A History of Evolution (1922).djvu/27

 24 alism and the mechanistic conception of all life activities.

But in spite of the fact that Kant was so awed by the immensity of the problem of organic evolution that he declared it impossible of solution, he nevertheless declared himself in favor of the careful study of all evidence bearing upon it. In a most striking passage, quoted by Schultze and Osborn, he says:

"It is desirable to examine the great domain of organized beings by means of a methodical comparative anatomy, or order to discover whether we may not find in them something resembling a system, and that too in connection with their mode of generation, so that we may not be compelled to stope short with a mere consideration of forms as they are … and need not despair of gaining a full insight into this department of nature. The agreement of so many kinds of animals in a certain common plan of structure, which seems to be visible not only in their skeletons, but also in the arrangement of the other parts … gives us a ray of hope, though feeble, that here perhaps some results may be obtained by the application of the principle of the mechanism of Nature, without which, in fact, no science can exist. This analogy of forms strengthens the supposition that they have an actual blood relationship, due to derivation from a common parent; a supposition which is arrived at by observation of the graduated approximation of one class of animals to an-