Chapter I

NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF FILIATION,
OR DESCENT-THEORY.
PAGE
General Importance and Essential Nature of the Theory of
Descent as reformed by Darwin.—Its Special Importance to
Biology (Zoology and Botany).—Its Special Importance to
the History of the Natural Development of the Human
Race.—The Theory of Descent as the Non-Miraculous History
of Creation.—Idea of Creation.—Knowledge and
Belief.—History of Creation and History of
Development.—The Connection between the History of
Individual and Palæontological Development.—The Theory of
Purposelessness, or the Science of Rudimentary
Organs.—Useless and Superfluous Arrangements in
Organisms.—Contrast between the two entirely Opposed
Views of Nature: the Monistic (mechanical, causal) and the
Dualistic (teleological, vital).—Proof of the former by
the Theory of Descent.—Unity of Organic and Inorganic
Nature, and the Identity of the Active Causes in
both.—The Importance of the Theory of Descent to the
Monistic Conception of all Nature 1