The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1899-01-21
EVOLUTION.

and OF natures God are constant
and continuous. That is to say
God is not a capricious God. His
methods aud His operations are the
same yesterday, today and forever
Evolution is not thing of the past
J. operates today. 1t will no doubt
continue to operate while time lasts.
Let us say, too, that it is not 9
fancy born OF speculation, not a
possible way in which nature
''might" work, but the way in
which nature is actually observed to
work In speaking of evolution,
therefore, we are not wandering in
the regions Of unconditional pos
sibility.
In the process of evolution one OF
the chief agencies is natural
selection" That is, nature seizes
and enhances those qualities in "a
specie which are best calculated to
promote its welfare. 1t is asked Of
those who hold to the evolution
theory whether, il natural selection
has produced man, the same agency
may not in time bring forth yet
higher creature on the earth. An
answer to this question is to be
found in the fact that in the case OF
man the direction in which natural
selection works has been changed.
Far back in the ages before there
was any animal on the earth which
could be considered distinctively
human, there came that wonderful
moment in the history of creation
when psychical variations became
more profitable to the brute ancestor
of man than variations in the physi-
cal organism Henceforth in man
o process of psychological change
was to take the place of geological
change. Man became the most
crafty among the brutes. He sub
juyated the animal world to his
sway So far as man is concerned
the future history of evolution will
be the history Of the progress Of
civilization.
There is perhaps no fact in nature
more striking than the exceedingly
great psychical difference between
man and the ape as compared with
their notably slight physical diff
ference. 1t is a common error into
which people have fallen of suppos-
ing that this great psychical diff
ference between them prccludes the
possibility OF the ones having de-
velopcd from the other. When we
think Of man we commonly think OF
civilized man just as we find him in
our everyday life with his powerful
intellect and his highly developed
moral nature. We do not think OF
slch creature as the savage who
roams in the wilds Of Australia or
finds congenial home among the
far islands of the sea. Can we deny
rat these creatures are human be-
ings? Yet we are told by men who
should know that there is fifty times
as much difference between the mind
Of Shakespeare and that of an
Australian savage as between the
mind of this savage and that of the
most highly developed ape. II this
is true, and if we admit that the
modern peoples OF Europe have de-
rived their origin from the primitive
races of mankind, how much more
reasonable is it to suppose that
these primitive races can trace their
lineage to the ape, the next lowest
order of intelligence in the animal
world
Thus it is seen that the evolution
theory gives not only rational but
a highly probable explanation of
mans origin. In the scientific
world man S consequently with the
lower orders of animal life is no
longer a disputed fact. 1t is en-
dorsed in the theological world. 1t
is taught in the more progressive Of
our public schools. This because it
does not conflict with our religious
beliefs. 1t does not disparage the
s :riptural account OF man S origin
that God created man out OF the
dust of the earth, that he brcathed
into man the breath Of life. Truly,
God created man out OF the dust of
the earth, for the commonly ac-
ccpted theory of the earth origin
makes it impossible that life should
always have existed upon its sur
face. Where then scan the physical
organism Of man have come from il