The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-08-21


moment to moment writes the great
story of life.'
What is "Darwinism ?"
The word evolution is also applied
to the theory of the origin of organs
and of species by divergence and de-
velopment, the theory that all forms
of life have sprung from common
stock, which has undergone change
as result of forces and influences
knoSn as factors of organic evolu-
tion." This is Darwinism, and DR..
Jordan SAYS that this hypothesis is
as we'll attested as the theory of gravi-
tation, while its elements are open to
less doubt.
In still another sense the word is
applied to method of investigation
the study of present conditions in
the light of the past.
Finally, the word evolution has
been applied to the philosophical
conceptions to which the theory of
evolution gives rise.
What Evolution is Not.
President Jordan then turns his at
tention to "some things which evolu-
ton is not:"
Evolution is not a theory that
man is developed monkey The
question of the immediate origin of
man is not the central or overshadow-
ing question of evolution. This ques-
tion offers no special difficulties in
theory. although the materials for
exact knowledge are in many direc-
tions incomplete. Homologies more
perfect than those connecting man
with the great group of monkeys
could not exist. These imply the
blood-relationship of the human race
with the great host of apes and
monkeys. AS to this there can be
no shadow of a doubt And as
similar homologies connect man with
all members of the group of man.
mails, blood relationship must exist
And homologies, less close but equally
unmistakable. connect all back boned
animals one with another: and the
lowest backboned types are closely
Joined to worm-like forms not usually
classed as vertebrates.
at is perfectly true that, with the
higher or anthropoid apes, the rela-
tions with man are extremely init
mate. But man is not simply "a de-
veloped ape Apes and men have
diverged from the same primitive
stock ape-like, man-like, but not ex-
actly the one or the other. No apes
or monkeys now extant could appar-
emily have been ancestors of primi-
tive man. None can ever develop
into man. AS man changes and and
diverges, race from race, so do they.
The influence of effort, the influence
of surroundings, the influence of the
sitting process of natural selection,
acts upon them as it acts upon man."
Spontaneous Generation.
Evolution is often confused with
the theory of spontaneous genera
ton, but DIR. Jordan insists that there
is no necessary connection between
the two, as has been so often as.
sumed, both by scientists and by the
laity.
''lf spontaneous generation exists,
it is factor in evolution. If it is a
factor, our explanation of the mean
ing and nature of homology must be
fundamentally changed. But it may
be that it should be changed. We
cannot show that spontaneous gen
Grafton does not exist All we know
is that we have no means of recog-
nizing it.
Evolution Not Religion.
DIR. Jordan declines to accept evo.
luton as new religion.
"There are many definitions to re-
ligion but evolution does not fit any
of them. 1t is no more a religion
than gravitation is. One NAV i'm
agine that some enthusiastic follower
of Newton may, for the first time.
have seen the majestic order of the
solar system, may have felt how fu-
tile was the old notion of guiding
angels, one for each planet to hold Il
up in space. He may have received
his first clear vision of the simple
relations of the planets, each forever
falling toward the sun and toward
each other, each one by the same
force forever preserved from collision.
Such man might have exclaimed,
Great is gravitation; it is the new
religion of the futurep In such
manner, men trained in dead ira
ditions. once brought to a clear in
sight of the noble simplicity and ad-
equacy Of the theory of evolution,
may have exclaimed, Great is evolu-
ton; it is the new religion, the re-
ligion of the futurep"
There is Woman's Christian Tenn.
perance Union woman in Chicago who