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method by which that result has been brought about. Mr.
Huxley believes that Organic Evolution has been proved,
while at the same time he hesitates to accept any of the
theories which explain the method by which the process
has been brought about. He says :—
“ An inductive hypothesis is said to be demonstrated when the
facts are shown to be in entire accordance with it. If that is not
scientific proof, there are no merely inductive conclusions which can
be said to be proved, and the doctrine of evolution, at the present
time, rests upon exactly as secure a foundation as the Copernican
theory of the motions of the heavenly bodies did at the time of its
promulgation. Its logical basis is precisely of the same character—
the coincidence of the observed facts with theoretical requirements.”
—(American Addresses, p. go.)
“ On the evidence of palaeontology, the evolution of many existing
forms of animal life from their predecessors is no longer an hy
pothesis, but an historical fact ; it is only the nature of the physio
logical factors to which that evolution is due, which is still open to
discussion.”—(.Encyclopaedia Britannien.)
And again he says :—
“ I can testify from personal experience that it is possible to have a
complete faith in the general doctrine of evolution and yet to hesitate
in accepting the nebular, or the uniformitarian, or the Darwinian
theory in all their integrity and fulness.”—(.Proceedings of the Royal
Institute, vol. v., p. гуд.)
Mr. Wallace, on the other hand, seems to think that
Organic Evolution, even by Natural Selection, is not so
certainly a fact as the transmutation of species by Natural
Selection.
“The point here insisted upon is, that the origin of all organisms,
living and extinct, by ‘descent with modification,’is not necessarily
the same thing, and is not included in ‘the origin of species by means
of Natural Selection.’ The latter we not only know has occurred,
but we can follow the process, step by step, by means of known facts
and known laws ; the former, w>e are almost equally certain, has
occurred, but we cannot trace its steps, and there may have been
facts and laws involved of which w'e have no certain knowledge.”—
{Nineteenth Century, vol. vii., p. gy.)