Evolution in Education [pp. 233-248]

EVOLUTION IN EDUCATION.
HE writer of this article has occasionally been character ized as one of the few remaining naturalists who do not
believe in the theory of evolution. Scientific questions are not
necessarily decided, like political elections, by a majority of
votes. Still it is uncomfortable to be in a minority, and
especially in a minority supposed to be decaying and about to
disappear. It may be well, therefore, to explain that those who
believe in every kind of evolution and its application to everything are perhaps not the majority after all. On the other
hand, it is possible that in the narrower and better-defined sense
of the term every one believes in evolution of some sort. Thus
it may happen that either side may claim a majority according
to the way in which the question is put.
It is easy to believe in "push and pull" when there is a
power to push and pull and something to be pulled and pushed,
but not otherwise. It is easy to believe in "selection" when
there is a determining will to select, and diverse things existing
from which selection is to be made, but not easy when these
conditions are wanting. It is easy to believe in evolution when
there is something rolled up that is to be unrolled, otherwise
evolution becomes merely a word, not a power or even a possibility. We see in a bud a number of miniature leaves or floral
parts neatly rolled up together, and we can believe in the evolution of such a bud. We see in a seed the rudiments of root,
stem, and leaves, and we can believe in the evolution of the
seed. Even in a microscopic spore we perceive an individual
cell which is capable of evolution by cell-multiplication, and
thereby capable of the production of a plant. But all this has
no bearing on the question whether the bud, after being un