I should
personally be inclined to think that we have indications that carnivora,
ungulates, and birds are final forms; that no evolution will ever modify
a bird further into anything that is not a bird; that no transition
between the ungulates and the carnivora is possible; that the
_proboscideae_ are not a final but a transitory type, dying out
gradually--our elephants and similar forms will disappear as the
mastodon did.
But I admit this is all mere speculation, in which I ask no one to
follow me.
On one important point only is there a difference; and if the text is
ever proved wrong on that, it must be given up. But it is here that all
scientific knowledge fails, in _any way whatever,_ to touch the sacred
text. There _is_ an unique and exceptional account of one "special
creation." A man "Adam" is described as having been actually created,
not born as an ultimately modified descendant of ancestors originally
far removed from himself. That is not to be denied; not only was his
bodily form specially created (conformably to the _type_ created in
Genesis i. 26), but a special spiritual and higher life was
imparted--for I believe that no one disputes this as the meaning of the
expression, "breathed into his nostrils the _breath of lives,_ and man
became a living soul."
It must be noted again--although I have before alluded to this in some
detail--that it is not impossible that, pursuant to the general command
"Let us make man," there _may_ have been other human creations, perhaps
not endowed with the higher life of Adam.
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