The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-10-20
An Anti-Dar,yinfan.

professor in Heidelberg University.
Herr Klaatsch by name has written pa
per contonding that Darwin's theory is
untenable. and that man is not descend
ed from the ape. He bases his opinion
on the construction of the bicephalous
muscle OF the upper thigh. Incidentally,
he remarks that man is not the most per-
fectly developed animal in all respects,
and that his intellect is the only quality
in which he is superior to other animals.
Twcnty-fi five years ago such paper as
this would have been hailed with delight
by most Of the orthodox publications and
anti-Darwinians in this country, as a
final argument against the theory OF evo-
luton. Today it creates scarcely ripple
on the stream of thought. This shows
with what force the Darwinian theory
has appealed to the masses Of intelligent
people as we'll as to the scientists, who
were early forced to accept 1t.
1t would be interesting to know where
Prof. Klaatsch thinks man did originate.
II not developed from an ape-like ances-
tor. The theory of direct creation is no
dox as we'll as the materialistic thinkers
of the country recognize the story Of the
creation as told in Genesis to be allesori-
cal. What, then, is supposed to be the
ancestry of primitive man? 1t is incon-
ceivable that the human race can have
existed from the beginning of time in its
present form; 1t cannot have been made
out of nothing; all evidence points to
centuries of Infinitely slow development.
by which the characteristics we now
know rs human were evolved. When the
full import of this conception is grasped
II is seen to be far more impressive and
magnificent than any merely magical
theory Of creation.
1t is quite true that man is in his physi-
cal characteristic inferior to the brute
creation, and that his intellect is the one
thing in which he surpasses his brothers
in fur. There is significance in the way
in which this intellect was probably de-
as great as that of any Interpretation Of
the story of the Garden Of Eden. In all
probability the superior brain of man was
evolved through his desperate need of a
means Of self-protection. Being the weak
est of his kind, he was constrained to be
cunning. Unable to defend himself. sing
ly, against his enemies the mammoth,
the snake, and the tiger, he was forced to
combine with his fellows, IL organize in
first the family. then the tribe. and fin
ally the nation. He evolved altruistic
laws because these were found means
OF strength. In short, he struggled slow
ly toward ideals which he knew, partly by
instinct, partly by experience. and partly
by that mysterious faculty which We call
intuition, to be conducive to physical and
moral welfare. At every step his weak
ness, his dependence. his prosecutions.
forced him to greater mental effort. and
developed the brain, which was to make
him the conquerer of the world. 1t was
true absolutely of him that when he was,
weak then he was strong. The intellect
Of the weak always rises superior, in the
long run, to the force of the strong. and
one may go one step further and declare,
with absolute conviction. that moral force
always in the end is proved superior to
that which is merely mental. There Is
nothing supernatural in this, and moth
ing which runs contrary to the course
of natural law. 1t is evolution.