494 THE CHANGING WORLD 



Darwin's, The Origin of Species. Milton's answer, couched in stately 

 poetry, was that the forms of hfe were suddenly created by divine 

 fiat out of the ''dust of the ground," without any organic predeces- 

 sors, while Darwin's plain prose presented overwhelming evidence 

 of the gradual evolution of present animals and plants from earlier 

 forms of life. 



This latter conception did not originate with Darwin. The ancient 

 Greeks, unhampered by any Biblical tradition of "creation," fore- 

 shadowed the idea of the rise of organisms by the slow operation of 

 natural laws. Centuries later, Saint Augustine of Numidia (354-430), 

 with panoramic vision, expounded the same view, and still others 

 from time to time got glimpses of the majestic canvas depicting the 

 progressive pageant of life. Among the more recent of Darwin's 

 forerunners was his own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), 

 who wrote a compendious work of rather poor poetry entitled "The 

 Botanic Garden," in which the theme of organic evolution was 

 developed. Major Leonard Darwin (1850- ), distinguished son of 

 Charles Darwin and leader in England today in developing the 

 related field of eugenics, has carried on the Darwin family tradition 

 of making evolution plain to the world. He defined evolution in his 

 book entitled The Need for Eugenic Reform as "the gradual building 

 up, in accordance with the laws of nature, of the world as we now 

 find it, from some unknown beginning." 



It is common observation that one individual arises from another. 

 Organic evolution is simply an extension of this principle to include 

 those groups of organisms called species. The evolutionary principle 

 is everywhere observable, even in other than strictly biological fields. 

 The earth, the solar system, and the far distant heavenly galaxies 

 have all been evolved. Human society, language, and customs have 

 come about by the operation of the same type of universal sequences. 

 Even our idea of God has evolved from that of the originally exclu- 

 sive individual household god, up through tribal gods, and the more 

 inclusive national gods, until finally there has been accepted the idea 

 of universal human brotherhood with one God over all. 



The idea of miraculous creation, which was quite acceptable to 

 the mystical Eastern mind centuries ago, has lost its potency with 

 the logical Western mind of today. There are everywhere observ- 

 able too many partial and imperfect adaptations and misfits to 

 represent the handiwork of an intelligent and skillful creator, if 

 miraculous creation, with the possibility of immediate perfection, 



