The Relation of Science and Religion.pdf - Online Christian Library

LIFE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT. 149quence of the want of scientific investigationsfitted to guide the public mind. So far as ageneral conclusion has gained assent, menshow no reluctance to accept the clear logicalinferences following from the investigation ofnature.Among these results is rejection of Jxednessof speci2s as implying impossibility of deviationfrom a single normal type of structure. Thepossibility of adaptive changes being granted,the absolute fixedness of species in the rigidsense formerly ackiiowledgcd is abandoned.How great the modification of view must be,is much more difficult to decide, and hardlyadmits- of exact statement. There is certainlyno denial of distinction of species, nor can suchdenial ever find acceptance, whatever be theadvance of theory, for the distinctions are sobroad as to render this impossible. But thewhole work of classification of the differentorders of animal life, exceedingly difficult inany case, has been rendered much more perplexingin consequence of the accumulationof evidence favoring the doctrine of evolution.What can properly'be regarded as the originof a new species, and what as a mere nzodificationor advance in a species already recog-