The ballad - Index of

The Ballad
is
cepted principles indicated, with curious
appropriateness to our problems, in the following
passage from a work by a contemporary biological
agnostic, where he is referring to the
doctrine of the origin of species
:
" The many converging lines of evidence
point so clearly to the central fact of the origin
of the forms of life
by an evolutionary process
that we are compelled to accept this deduction
;
but as to almost all the essential features,
whether of cause or mode, by which
specific diversity has become what we perceive
it to be, we have to confess an ignorance nearly
total. The transformation of masses of population
by imperceptible steps, guided by selection,
is, as most of us now see, so inapplicable
to the facts, whether of variation or specificity,
that we can only marvel both at the want of
penetration displayed by the advocates of such
a proposition, and at the forensic skill
by which
it was made to appear acceptable even for a
time." 1
We have but to substitute for " life " and
"population" in the foregoing passage "poetry"
and " verse " to see a prophecy of possible developments
and subversions.
My immediate function, however, as I conceive
it, is to review the theories which have been
1 Problems of Genetic^ by Prof. W. Bateson.
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