Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/94

82 arose by evolution; that it did so is as much beyond doubt as the fact (which still has doubters) that the world is of spherical shape. The question of time is certainly interesting, but unless it is proved, and this has never been done, that life cannot have existed long enough on the globe to permit of the evolution of present forms, it does not touch the matter at issue. The mathematicians or the geologists, or both the mathematicians and the geologists, may be wrong, but the undisputed and undisputable fact remains, that, during all geological time, the types of life underwent a gradual change, which, as Lord Salisbury admits, must have been due to evolution, or, as the only alternative, to a process of special creations that exactly mimicked evolution—the last a childish theory, for which there is no shred of evidence. The only point at issue is, as to how the evolution proceeded, by what method. Was it by the inheritance and accumulation of inborn traits, or of acquired traits, or both? Lord Salisbury merely demonstrated, with the skill of the practised debater, that the particular theory of evolution which he was discussing, and which he imagined was the only one, the theory that evolution results from the accumulation of rare abnormalities, is absurd. It certainly is conspicuously absurd, but evolution is not thereby disproved. As well might a man, after demonstrating the absurdity of this or that theory of volcanic action, imagine that he has disproved the existence of volcanoes. I give his words.

"There is the difficulty. We cannot demonstrate the process of Natural Selection in detail; we cannot even, with more or less ease, imagine it. It is purely hypothetical. No man, so far as we know, has ever seen it at work. An accidental variation may have been perpetuated by inheritance, and, in the struggle for existence, the bearer of it have replaced, by virtue of