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But this is not all. Besides this imaginary "series of forms," the theory requires further a process of "graduating insensibly." And of this process there is not only no proof, but the evidence, such as it is, points in the direction of disproof. It is Mr. Darwin himself who says, "Breaks incessantly occur in all parts of the series, some being wide, sharp, and defined, others less so in various degrees; as between the orang and its nearest allies-between the Tarsius and the other Lemurida." The "intellectual figment" is in evil case when it postulates a process of graduation so gradual as to be imperceptible, yet so abrupt as to exhibit "breaks" which "incessantly occur in all parts of the series," not excluding even "breaks" which are "wide, sharp, and defined." And yet, across these "breaks," Mr. Darwin's theory, by Mr. Darwin's ingenuity, is made to swing its ponderous bulk with an adroit dexterity that might have been envied, in the depths of his African forest, by the ancestral Gorilla himself:

"All these breaks depend merely on the number of related forms that have become

extinct." 1 Could anything be more simple ? The "breaks" are there indeed: but they are 1 "Descent of Man," vol. i. pp. 200, 201.

there only in the absence of the "related forms" "graduating insensibly." You have only to imagine the "forms" and the "breaks" will disappear.

And yet, of these same "forms" it is all the while most certain that they cannot be described; they are not known to have existed; they are not known to have been "related"; they are not known to "have become extinct." Nor are the "breaks" more real. They are breaks only on the assumption of the hypothesis not otherwise. And the second assumption has no power to confer validity on the first.

20. From this tissue of assumptions we revert to the facts. No less a writer than Mr. Wallace, "the independent originator and by far the best expounder of the theory of Natural Selection," differs toto cælo from Mr. Darwin on the question of the Origin of Man. For the creation of man, as he is, Mr. Wallace postulates the necessity of the intervention of an external Will. He observes that even the lowest types of savages are in possession of capacities far beyond any use to which they can apply them in their present condition, and therefore they could not have been evolved from the mere necessities

of their environment.

These capacities have respect to future possibilities of culture. But prolepsis, anticipation, involves intention and a will.

He contends further, that even as to his body, Man is a clear and palpable and positive exception to the theory of Evolution. Το produce the human frame required, he says, the intervention of some special agency. He adverts to the peculiar disposition of the hair on man, especially that nakedness of the back which is common to all races of men, and to the peculiar construction of the hand and foot. "The hand of man," he tells us, " contains latent capacities and powers which are unused by savages, and must have been even less used by palæolithic man and his still ruder predecessors. It has all the appearance of an organ prepared for the use of civilized man, and one which was required to render civilization possible."

Again speaking of the "wonderful power, range, flexibility, and sweetness of the musical sounds producible by the human larynx," he adds, "the habits of savages give no indication of how this faculty could have been developed." "The singing of savages is a more or less monotonous howling, and the females 1 "Natural Selection," pp. 332-360.

seldom sing at all." "It seems as if the organ had been prepared in anticipation of the future progress of man, since it contains latent capacities which are useless to him in his earlier condition." 1

Mr. Wallace is in perfect agreement also with christian theism in the value he attaches to man's "capacity to form ideal conceptions of space and time, of eternity and infinity—the capacity for intense artistic feelings of pleasure, in form, colour, and composition-and those abstract notions of form and number which render geometry possible," as well as with respect to the non-bestial origin of moral perception."

"2

And beyond all this, he considers Man as not only placed "apart, as the head and culminating point of the grand series of organic nature, but as in some degree a new and distinct order of being." "When the first rude spear was formed to assist in the chase; when fire was first used to cook his food; when the first

1 On this subject, indeed, even Mr. Darwin himself admits that "neither the enjoyment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are faculties of the least direct use to man in reference to his ordinary habits of life; they must be ranked amongst the most mysterious with which he is endowed."-Descent of Man, vol. ii. p. 333. 2 "Natural Selection," pp. 351, 352.

seed was sown or shoot planted, a grand revolution was effected in nature, a revolution which in all the previous ages of the earth's history has had no parallel, for a being had arisen who was no longer necessarily subject to change with the changing universe, a being who was in some degree superior to nature, inasmuch as he knew how to control and regulate her action, and could keep himself in harmony with her, not by a change in body, but by an advance in mind.”

Against facts like these, of what avail are Mr. Darwin's ingenious speculations? The answer may be given in the words of Professor Mivart. It is the same high authority that pronounced Mr. Darwin's "Origin of Species " to be "a puerile hypothesis," and its distinctive characteristic, "a conception utterly irrational; " who now adds,

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"Thus, then, in our judgment the author of theDescent of Man' has UTTERLY FAILED in the only part of his work which is really important: and if Mr. Darwin's failure should lead to an increase of philosophic culture on the part of physicists, we may therein find some consolation for the injurious effects which his work is likely to produce on too many of our half-educated classes." 2

1 "Lessons from Nature,” p. 300.

2 Ibid., p. 184.

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