Thus I do not see clearly in what way I can be said to have changed my opinion, except in the way of intensifying it, when in consequence of the accumulation of similar evidence since 1870, I recently spoke of the denial of evolution as not worth serious consideration.

[7] Writers of this stamp are fond of talking about the Baconian
method.  I beg them therefore to lay to heart these two weighty
sayings of the herald of Modern Science:—­

“Syllogismus ex propositionibus constat, propositiones ex verbis, verba notionum tesserae sunt.  Itaque si notiones ipsae (id quod basis rei est) confusae sint et temere a rebus abstractae, nihil in iis quae superstruuntur est firmitudinis.”—­“Novum Organon,” ii. 14.

“Huic autem vanitati nonnulli ex modernis summa levitate ita indulserunt, ut in primo capitulo Geneseos et in libro Job et aliis scripturis sacris, philosophiam naturalem fundare conati sint; inter vivos quaerentes mortua.”—­Ibid., 65.