CREATION BY EVOLUTION 



character. Many are doubtless prejudiced against the doc- 

 trine of evolution because they feel that the foundations of 

 morality would be undermined if the conviction becomes 

 general that human beings were derived from animal ances- 

 tors. They do not sufficiently realize that the good as well 

 as the evil qualities and impulses of human nature have their 

 counterparts in the animal world. Both men and animals 

 are occupied chiefly in the work of maintaining and per- 

 petuating life. This work involves, in animals and man 

 alike, a due adjustment of efforts to promote individual 

 welfare and the welfare of others of the same species. Most 

 animals pay little heed to the needs of creatures outside their 

 own family or social group. Human beings do likewise. 

 We think little of exterminating animals to satisfy our own 

 needs, or even for mere sport; but we picture the gorilla 

 as a horrible and dangerous creature if he can be provoked 

 into making an attack upon a human being. But why should 

 a man be anything more to a gorilla than a gorilla is to a 

 man? To his own associates this commonly misrepresented 

 animal is a kindly creature having a creditable endowment 

 of domestic and social virtues. So is the man-eating tiger 

 and the prowling wolf. Toward her little group of playful 

 cubs the lioness is an indulgent and self-sacrificing parent, 

 ready to incur any danger to protect her own kind. From 

 her viewpoint man is just so much potential meat for the 

 support of herself and the offspring of her body. The lioness 

 is a beast of prey and a natural enemy of the human race 

 because the evolutionary process, or the Lord, or per- 

 haps both, made her in that particular fashion. Man 

 in turn regards the lioness as a dangerous creature — a 

 creature to be ruthlessly exterminated to insure his own 

 safety. 



After all, man's superiority to the lower animals is due 



[296} 



