Taking firm hold of the facts of development and variation,
the extreme evolutionist is carried away with the idea of having the
same principle throughout: he is impatient of any line or any check; he
is therefore prepared to ignore all difficulties, to hope
against hope for the discovery of to him necessary--but, alas,
non-existent--intermediate forms, till at last he comes to deny, not
only his God, but his own soul, as a spiritual and supra-physical
entity.[1]
[Footnote 1: Those who want a specimen of the way in which extreme
evolutionists will _romance_ (it can be called nothing else) will do
well to read Dr. Haeckel's "History of Creation," only they must be on
their guard at every step. The author constantly states as facts (or,
perhaps, with an impatient "must have been") the existence of purely
hypothetical forms, of which there is _no kind_ of evidence. To such
ends does the love of completeness lead!]
Such extremes are no part of true science, and have neither helped the
progress of knowledge, nor advanced the condition of mankind. But, on
the other hand, let us hear no more of a sweeping condemnation of the
theory of Evolution as a whole; let us beware of any insistence
on, or assumption of, the supposed fact that God created
separately--ready-made and complete--all known animal forms, bringing
them up from the ground, like the armed men in the Greek legend, from
the dragon's teeth.
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