4 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER F MAN 



tical immutability of species. Each one of these lives 

 its little span of time, for species are usually compara- 

 tively short-lived, grows possibly a very little better 

 or worse, and dies. Its progress has added nothing to 

 the total of life ; its degeneration harmed no one, 

 hardly even itself ; it was doomed from the start. 

 Progress there has been, in a sense. The Creator has 

 placed ever higher forms on the globe. But all the 

 progress lies in the gaps and distances between succes- 

 sive forms, not in any advance made, or victory won, by 

 the species or individual. The most " aspiring ape," 

 if ever there was such a being, remains but an ape. 

 He must comfort himself with the thought that, while 

 he and his descendants can never gain an inch, the gap 

 between himself ^ and the next higher form shall be 

 far greater than that between himself and the lowest 

 monkey. 



And if this has been the history of thousands of 

 other species, why should it not be true of man also ? 

 Who can wonder that many who accept this theory 

 doubt whether the world is growing any better, or 

 whether even man will ever be higher and better than 

 he now is ? Would it not be contrary to the whole 

 course of past history, if you can properly call such a 

 record a history, if he could advance at all ? Now I 

 have no wish to misrepresent this or any honestly ac- 

 cepted theory, but it appears to me essentially hope- 

 less, a record not of the progress of life on the globe, 

 but of a succession of stagnations, of deaths. I can 

 never understand why some very good and intelligent 

 people still think that the theory of the immediate 

 creation of each species does more honor to the Crea- 

 tor and his creation than the theory of evolution. Evo- 



