THE
PFITFJRITEI VoL . III .
FEBRUARY,
1
881 .
No . 18.
EVOLUTION : A REJOINDER. EJOICING, as I do, that the days are come or coming
R when truth can be sought after for its own sake, without
reference to that which is of no value except in so far as it is founded upon it, that the time is not distant when even the shadow of persecution will have passed away, and all genuine efforts after real knowledge be looked upon with deserved favour,— in such a spirit as this I wish to join my friendly opponent, your nameless correspondent, in the common object of eliciting simply what is true with regard to the now almost engrossing subject of Evolution : so far, that is, as this object can be supposed to be served by two short and simple essays on a subject of such magnitude. There are, as Bacon says, an unsatisfactory class of persons who strive rather "to know what may be said than what should be thought " : to do this and go no further is mere word-fighting. But still, no doubt, one cannot go further without going as far. Truth, in fact, is best served by being looked at from both sides ; for one cannot be said truly to know what ought to be said in favour of any position, until one knows what may be said against it. There are then, I think, reasons good, and capable of reasonable compression, why one may justly hesitate to accept as certainly proved the conclusions which the last article on the above subject so positively laid down, as it seemed to me, in a somewhat axiomatic spirit ; though I carefully avoid the assertion that they are positively disproved, or perhaps ever will be . These reasons I am now to point out as well as my narrow