The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arena, by Various
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Arena
Volume 18, No. 93, August, 1897
Author: Various
Editor: John Clark Ridpath
Release Date: September 5, 2010 [EBook #33646]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARENA ***
Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Richard J. Shiffer
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net
[Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text
as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and
other inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious
error is noted at the end of this ebook.
Also, mismatched single and double quotes remain as they were in the
original.]
THE ARENA.
VOL. XVIII.
AUGUST, 1897.
NO. 93.
[Illustration: David Starr Jordan (with signature)]
EVOLUTION: WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT.[1]
BY DR. DAVID STARR JORDAN,
_President of Leland Stanford Junior University_.
[1] Address before the Starr King Fraternity of Oakland, Cal.
I. WHAT EVOLUTION IS.
This the age of evolution. The word is used by many men in many senses,
and still oftener perhaps in no sense at all. By some it is spoken with
a haunting dread as though it were another name for the downfall of
religion and of social stability. Still others speak it glibly and
joyously as though progress and freedom were secured by the mere use of
the name. "The word evolution (_Entwickelung_)," says a German writer,
"fills the vocal chords more perfectly than any other word." It explains
everything, and "puts the key to the universe into one's vest pocket."
So various has been the use of the word, so rarely is this use
associated with any definite idea, that one hesitates to call himself an
evolutionist. "Evolution" and "evolutionist" are almost ready to be cast
into that "limbo of spoiled phraseology" which Matthew Arnold has found
necessary for so many words in which other generations have delighted,
and which they have soiled or spoiled by careless usage.
But as the word evolution is not yet put away, as it is the bugbear of
|