The Washington times., 1901-07-31
VIII Man sprout wings.

There has been a discussion on evo-
luton in the columns of a New York
paper. which is rather significant as
showing. first, that the theory is real
" accepted by the average person, and
second, that while he accepts II, his
ideas Of it are not always as clear as
they might be. The discussion turns
upon the question whether man will
ever develop wings. one citizen of the
metropolis declares that the advocates
of evolution must be wrong when they
say that specific organs are developed
through desire to have them, because
for thousands of years man has been
wanting TO fly. and has grown no wings.
Another essays to answer this argu-
ment as follows:
Man has never. universally. had desire TO
fy; the thought has been, and is whimsical. He
has never had profound. impeiling, deep-rooted
desire to live in the air, the expression OF which
has been needed TO conserve the in the
struggle for existence.
''Is r. NJ c. sure that our arms were not
once wings. and that the evolution from wings
to arms was not brought about by the persist
ence in consciousness OF the fact that life on
terra frna was not 80 precarious as life in the
air. Is he sure that the starry universe
intclligencas? Man walks on the earth because
lac has found it advantageous to do so. He will
hy when he finds that that is the only possible
way survive in the struggle for existence. II Is
not more wonderful 10 evolve wings than II IS TO
lose a tail.
And what is there absurd in the idea of fly
ing elephantsg Has familiarity dulled your cor
respondent to the wonder Of walking elephant
one is not less wonderful than the other The
law which holds elephant to the ground is as
inefably mysterious as the law that sends an
eagle into the air. And the elephant will hy
and the eagle will walk when nature Ends the
change necessary to subsere her ends.
The miracle Of the caterpillar and butterfly
goes on incesantly directly under the eyes OF our
Gradgrinds. Things do take wings under our
very noses. Suppose II took ten millions of
wears TO perfect the metamorphoss 2f the cater
pillar into the butterfiy-what are ten million
years to eternity? Grant the World-spirt
eternity, ininity endless DESIRE and endless
change and the conception of winged men be-
comes almost commonplace.
One can imagine the hair of Prof.
Huxley or Prof HaeckeI becoming
erect at this spirited and loyal, but
very unscientific defence of evolution; !;
but, after all, this correspondents con-
dition of mind is more hopeful than
that of his adversary. He is willing to
believe; he is open-even little too
open-to conviction. This free and joy
Gus readiness to accept anything that
is labeled progress" is an American
characteristic. which it is usually hard
for the foreigner to understand. Equally
hard is 1t for him to see how a man
can argue SO fluently and with such
assurance on a subject of which he
knows next to nothing, but there is no
question that some OF us do.
IT is not necessary, however, to be a
profound student of science to see the
difficulty over which these two gentle
men are laboring. Neither of them has
exactly the right conception of evolu-
ton and its processes. The theory that
specific organs are developed by the
desire and the need for them does not
mean that they can be developed al
ways and in all circumstances through
this agency. A species. like an individ-
ual, has it's stage of plastic growth, in
which its characteristics can be easily
changed; when il is fully developed it
is no longer possible to make radical
change in its character. For example,