EVOLUTION. 



ET us investigate the nature of the problem and un- 

 derstand what constitutes the distinctive feature of 

 man and in what way the humanity of man made its first 

 appearance on earth. 



The distinguishing characteristic between man and 

 the brute is reason ; and reason, the faculty that sees the 

 general rule in a special example, enables man to foresee 

 the possible or probable course of events, to make plans, 

 to avoid danger, and to sow the seed in summer with the 

 expectation of reaping the harvest in the fall. All other 

 creatures must adapt themselves to surroundings ; man 

 alone can adapt the surroundings as well as all other con- 

 ditions to his wants. 



The question is, whence did the faculty of reason 

 come ? Was it innate within the germs of the physio- 

 logical ancestors of man or did it come to him from with- 

 out? 



We must remind the reader here of the fact that the 

 term " evolution" is really a wrong word. When a com- 

 mon origin of all life on earth was first advocated by nat- 

 uralists, which was done in the middle of the eighteenth 

 century by Kaspar Friedrich Wolf (1733-1794) , and later 

 on by Haller (1708-1777) , Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus 

 (1776-1837), Lamarck (1774-1829), Geoffrey Saint- 

 Hilaire (1772-1844), Goethe (1749-1832), Von Baer 

 (1792-1876), and others, there were two theories offered 

 in explanation : one was called "evolution," or in German 



