EVOLUTION AND RELIGION 



upon them in their early and plastic state. But we 

 have no proof that any of the human stocks has not 

 the innate ability to become more or less civilized un- 

 der constraint. Even the African Negroes have quick- 

 ly assumed the external forms of our most complex 

 civilization and no one can predict how far they may 

 be able to go while directed and aided by the initia- 

 tive of others. 



While we have not been able to discover any gen- 

 eral laws of evolution, either of environment or of a 

 subjective nature, which will explain why some stocks 

 become civilized and others do not, yet there is an 

 almost startling fact to be noticed from which we can 

 draw an important conclusion. The legends and his- 

 tory of the stagnant peoples have brought down to 

 us hardly the name of a single individual, of such a 

 race, who was distinguished by creative ability in art, 

 literature, religion, science, or government. We can 

 recall but a few names, and these not for work of 

 great distinction, of all those millions of people dur- 

 ing thousands of years, except it be for personal brav- 

 ery or leadership in war. 



On the other hand those stocks which developed a 

 true social civilization have preserved for us the 

 names and accomplishments of a long line of especial- 

 ly gifted individuals. These became the leaders and 

 teachers of their contemporaries and descendants. 

 And the advance of any people which has continued 

 to progress has been accompanied by the frequency 



C 371 3 



