Thiselton Dyer, Professor Ray
Lankester, or Mr. Romanes, insist on their pound of flesh in the
matter of irrefragable demonstration. They complain of us for not
bringing forward some one who has been able to detect the movement
of the hour-hand of a watch during a second of time, and when we
fail to do so, declare triumphantly that we have no evidence that
there is any connection between the beating of a second and the
movement of the hour-hand. When we say that rain comes from the
condensation of moisture in the atmosphere, they demand of us a
rain-drop from moisture not yet condensed. If they stickle for
proof and cavil on the ninth part of a hair, as they do when we
bring forward what we deem excellent instances of the transmission
of an acquired characteristic, why may not we, too, demand at any
rate some evidence that the unmodified beetles actually did always,
or nearly always, get blown out to sea, during the reduction above
referred to, and that it is to this fact, and not to the masterly
inactivity of their fathers and mothers, that the Madeira beetles
owe their winglessness? If we began stickling for proof in this
way, our opponents would not be long in letting us know that
absolute proof is unattainable on any subject, that reasonable
presumption is our highest certainty, and that crying out for too
much evidence is as bad as accepting too little.
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