154 DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION 



tion of human races that have come to be different in 

 certain details of structure since the human type as 

 such arose. In the first part, all men will be assumed 

 to be alike and the members of a homogeneous species 

 whose fundamental attributes are to be compared with 

 those of other animals ; only afterwards will attention 

 be directed to the differences, previously ignored, that 

 divide human beings into well-marked varieties. It 

 must be evident even at this point that the mode of 

 evolution demonstrated by the first investigation will 

 be likely to bear some close relation to the methods 

 by which human races have evolved to their present 

 diverse anatomical situations. 



The foregoing classification of the problems concerned 

 with the nature and origin of the human species renders 

 it possible to restrict the immediate inquiry to a definite 

 and precise question. It is this : does the evidence 

 relating to the physical characteristics of our species 

 prove that man is the product of a supernatural act of 

 creation, or does it show that man's place in nature has 

 been reached by a gradual process of natural evolution ? 

 In order to obtain an equally precise and definite 

 answer to this question, referring to the particular case 

 of most concern to us, it is obvious that the method to 

 be employed is the one which has given us an under- 

 standing of organic evolution as an all-inclusive natural 

 process. The data must be verified, related, and classi- 

 fied, so that their meaning may be concisely stated in 

 the form of scientific principles. What are the facts 

 of human structure, comparatively treated? How 



