ief that evolution has been poly--and not
mono--phyletic. Such is the view which has been enunciated by Father
Wasmann, S.J., whose authority on a point of this kind is paramount. It
has also been upheld by Professor Bateson, a man widely separated from
the Jesuit in all but attachment to science. Professor Bateson summed up
his belief in the text which he placed on the title-page of his first
great work on _Variation_: the text which proclaims that there is a
flesh of men, another of beasts, another of birds, another of fishes.

Darwin remained to the end of his life undecided between the two views,
for he allowed his original statement as to life having been breathed
into one or more forms by the Creator, to pass from edition to edition
of the _Origin of Species_. If the polyphyletic theory be adopted, it
must be said that the position of the materialist is made far more
difficult than it is at present. Let us see what it means. On the
materialistic hypothesis, and the same may be said of the pantheistic or
any other hypothesis not theistic in nature, a certain cell came by
chance to acquire the attributes of life. From this descended plants and
animals of all kinds in divergent series till the edifice was crowned by
man. I have elsewhere endeavoured to point out all that is involved in
this assumption, which, it must be confessed, is a very large mouthful
to swallow.

Let us now consider what the polyphyletic hypothesis involves. According
to this view one cell accidentally developed the attributes of vegetable
life; a further accident leads another cell to initiate the line of
invertebrates; another that of fishes, let us say; another of mammals:
the number varying according to the views of the theorist on phylogeny.
Let us not forget that the cell or cells which accidentally acquired the
attributes of life, had accidentally to shape themselves from dead
materials into something of a character wholly unknown in the inorganic
world. If one seriously considers the matter it is--so it seems to
me--utterly impossible to subscribe to the accidental theory of which
the immanent god--the blind god of Bergson--is a mere variant. One must
agree with the late Lord Kelvin that "science positively affirms
creative power ... which (she) compels us to accept as an article of
belief." But what are we to say with regard to the series of repeated
accidents which the polyphyletic hypothesis would seem to demand? Is it
really possibl