Transcriber’s Note: Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Those in bold are surrounded by tildes, ~like this~. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the end of the book. Obsolete and alternative spellings were not unchanged. Seven misspelled words were corrected. TEN CENT POCKET SERIES NO. 321 Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius A History of Evolution Carroll Lane Fenton HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY GIRARD, KANSAS Copyright, 1922 Haldeman-Julius Company _There is but thing greater than to search after the natural laws which govern our universe--that is to discover them._ FOREWORD Nothing can be more nearly a truism than the statement that everything in the known universe is the product of some sort of evolution. At the same time, there is hardly a doctrine in the civilized world that has aroused more enthusiasm, interest, and enmity, than the doctrine of organic evolution. And yet I have found, to my great surprise, that few of us are accustomed to thinking of that doctrine itself as a product of a long process of evolution, covering more than twenty-six centuries. We are all too apt to think of the doctrine of organic evolution as beginning with Darwin and ending with Huxley and Haeckel; as a matter of fact, it began (so far as we can tell) with Thales, and shall not end so long as human beings inhabit this planet.