made vivid, which an unrivalled British doggedness
made real--visions of the web of life, of the fountain of change within
the organism, of the struggle for existence and its winnowing, and of
the spreading genealogical tree. Because, in the second place, he put
so much grit into the verification of his visions, putting them to the
proof in an argument which is of its kind--direct demonstration being
out of the question--quite unequalled. Because, in the third place,
he broke down the opposition which the most scientific had felt to
the seductive modal formula of evolution by bringing forward a more
plausible theory of the process than had been previously suggested.
Nor can one forget, since questions of this magnitude are human and not
merely academic, that he wrote so that all men could understand.

AS REGARDS THE FACTORS OF EVOLUTION.

It is admitted by all who are acquainted with the history of biology
that the general idea of organic evolution as expressed in the Doctrine
of Descent was quite familiar to Darwin's grandfather, and to others
before and after him, as we have briefly indicated. It must also be
admitted that some of these pioneers of evolutionism did more than apply
the evolution-idea as a modal formula of becoming, they began to inquire
into the factors in the process. Thus there were pre-Darwinian theories
of evolution, and to these we must now briefly refer. (See Prof. W.A.
Locy's "Biology and its Makers". New York, 1908. Part II. "The Doctrine
of Organic Evolution".)

In all biological thinking we have to work with the categories
Organism--Function--Environment, and theories of evolution may be
classified in relation to these. To some it has always seemed that the
fundamental fact is the living organism,--a creative agent, a striving
will, a changeful Proteus, selecting its environment, adjusting
itself to it, self-differentiating and self-adaptive. The necessity of
recognising the importance of the organism is admitted by all Darwinians
who start with inborn variations, but it is open to question whether the
whole truth of what we might call the Goethian position is exhausted in
the postulate of inherent variability.

To others it has always seemed that the emphasis should be laid on
Function,--on use and disuse, on doing and not doing. Practice makes
perfect; c'est a force de forger qu'on devient forgeron. This is one of
the fundamental ideas of Lamarckism; to some extent it met with Darwin's