Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-21
Science and Civilization


hypothesis that had seemed to him like
hard facts. His visions were much too
vivid to be visions at all. To him inf
mite space was not a paradox, but a
platitude. II the followers Of Einstein
maintain that space is finite, 1t is they
who will appear to this old-fashioned
nationalist to be irrational 1t would
certainly be the notion of a limited
cosmos that would be more likely to
brains upon the wall Of the world. He
did not suffer from the vertigo of the
INFINITE in the universe Of Tyndall. He
is much more likely to suffer from
claustrophobia in the universe Of Elm
stein.
Our Victorian evolutionist, risen from
the grave, would not only miss his
atom, and miss his infinite space, and
miss his conservation of energy. He
would actually miss his missing link.
That is, he would have the imaginative
power adequate to a most mystical
achievement. He would miss something
which not only did not exist, but which
was so called because 1t did not exist.
Question Of Missing Link.
But the evolutionist seems to know
everything about the missing link ex-
cept the fact that he is missing. He
has a sort of picture of him in his
mind; and the picture Is not merely the
newest and sketchiest of his scientific
diagrams: it is rather the oldest and
most authoritative of his family por-
traits. He sees the monster as hairy
as II the hairs of its head were all
numbered. though nobody has seen a
hair of its head. He imagines it with
wild and melancholy eyes: as If we
could possibly know whether 1t would
enjoy its existence; or rather, enjoy its
non-existence. He imagines the exact
angle and attitude at which it can stand
on two legs, though in logic it has not
a leg to stand on. For to say that a
missing link Is sad and hairy and
stands on its hind legs Is. in logic, ex-
actly like saying. II met contradiction
in terms in the street and It had horns
and broad grin. showing two rows of
teeth" or There Is distributed mid
die living In Surbuton, and 1t Is a
bright orange with green spots"
A missing link is simply gap in an
argument; and a gap has no hair. But
I only mention the missing link here
10 illustrate the general attitude of the
old popular science in the nineteenth
century toward its creations. Many
scientists seem now to suggest that man
was not evolved from the anthropoid
ape, thus familiar to our vision, but
from some much smaller creature, like
a lemur. But the resurrected Victorian
would feel shade Of disappointment
In being, offered a furry little thing
looking like squirrel in place of the
old shaggy magnificent giant of the
forest-the anthropoid ape become a
little more anthropoid and a little less
apish. To him the ape was not Sc
much a long-lost brother as a long
lost father. without his ape he feels
like an orphan.
How Was Man Evolved?
However man was evolved. 1t Is in
creasingly certain that he was not
evolved by the exact formula of Darwin
That truth can be read between the
lines of all the writings of Darwinians
But since there still are Darwinians, il
may still be considered disputed point
and am not concerned to dispute il
here. I leave 1t on one side because
my subject Is only the general change
or rather revolution and reversal. that
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