they have appeared. The interest of investigators has shifted to problems of variation and heredity, as exemplified by the rise of the science of genetics.
As a result of this situation there has been much discussion among scientists regarding the adequacy of what is often referred to as the Darwinian theory, meaning natural selection. In condemning selection as an inadequate explanation of the problem, biologists have often seemed to condemn evolution itself. It is not strange that the layman, for whom Darwinism and evolution are synonymous terms, believes that evolution has been rejected when he hears that belief in Darwinism is on the wane. He does not understand that what is thus meant by Darwinism is not the historic fact of evolution, but the proposed cause of evolution—natural selection. This point may not seem vital, but those interested in biological science frequently find the situation used to support claims that the entire concept of organic evolution has fallen into disrepute. There are many, even today, who rejoice at anything that appears to weaken this major generalization of biology.
Such then is the more strictly scientific status of the doctrine of evolution as a whole. The origin, by evolution, of the heavenly bodies and of our earth is evidenced by facts of astronomy and geology, as set forth in any elementary treatise on these sciences. Inorganic evolution, or the modification of nonliving matter, is thus supported by science and does not find serious opposition in the public mind. Organic evolution, or the origin of animal and plant life, receives a similiar support from the facts of biology. If the origin of man were not involved, there would be presumably little serious opposition from nonscientific sources of the present day.
Human Evolution.
But with the evolution of all other living things, both animal and plant, overwhelmingly attested by the facts, it is not only impossible, but puerile to separate man from the general course of events. Moreover, the evidence for man's origin is becoming clearer year by year. Comparative anatomy, embryology, classification, physiology, geographical distribution, fossils and the existing races of mankind tell the same story for man as for the rest of the animal world.
Huxley's essay, entitled "Man's Place in Nature," presents in a masterful manner the anatomical evidence for our kinship with the four species of tailless apes—the gibbon, gorilla, orang and chimpanzee—and his most significant conclusions are even more strongly established at the present day. If creation occurred at 9:00 a.m. on October 23rd of the year 4,004 B. C., as part of the divine plan, it is amazing that such success should have dogged the steps of the students of human skeletal and cultural remains during the last half Century. The skeletons, in part or in whole, are known for a number of subhuman races and a vast array of implements and other remains, all showing a progressive advancement. By another fifty years it seems safe to expect that much more of the story will be unveiled. It is further amazing that investigations in Egypt show the existence of a flourishing civilization in the Nile valley as early as 5,000 B.C, and back of this a gradual development from the barbarism of the stone age.
On man's intellectual side, psychology is making increasingly evident the essential animal foundation of human intelligence. Man's claim to importance in the universe, revealed by science, lies not in the pretense that this planet was created for his convenience, but in the claim that he transcends the material universe in so far as he comprehends it. And the method of such comprehension that dominates modern thought is the method of science, not that of theology.
The question of human beginnings is one that is open to investigation, like any other historic or prehistoric event. In this connection a quotation from a famous essay by Herbert Spencer, published in 1852, is appro-
