its origin in a miraculously created pair in no way differing from representatives of the human race of the present day. That the man was the result of a separate act of creation, and the woman the outcome of a miracle. That fable has had its day, and those who still profess or say that they believe it are either simply hypocrites or are as crassly ignorant as a native Hottentot.
In my opinion it is not at all necessary to enter further upon this question, the discussion of which savors so much of an argument advanced to prove that the earth is not flat, as the author of the Eden story undoubtedly believed it to be. As we shall soon see in a later chapter, there is no doubt as to the existence of vast differences that distinguish in many ways the various races of men now peopling the earth, yet this truth is no better established than is the fact that the entire family of mankind has in common with all other existing mammals descended from a common progenitor, and that at the present time the genus Homo and the various genera of the higher simians are all members of the same group.
