October, 1928 



EVOLUTION 



Page Three 



On the other si \e of the globe, in the South Pacific, 

 are coral islands. They are very young. And there are 

 volcanic islands that are younger still — in fact some of 

 them have been raised out of the ocean within the memory 

 of man. Where do the animals on these islands come 

 from? 



The question that I have kept asking about the oldest 

 and the youngest islands is a severe test of the evolution 

 theory. For if evolution is true, the answer must be 

 this: No plant or animal was ever created on an island, 

 but it always descended from some ancestor that migrated 

 to the island. And an evolutionist has to go further. He 

 must say that no new kind of animal could ever be found 

 on a young island. An evolutionist would even have 

 to make this bold statement: The older an island is, 

 the more will some of its animals differ from the original 

 ancestors who swam or flew to it. 



The facts bear out that statement. On a brand-new 

 volcanic island not a shred of life is present. The first 

 animals swim or fly to the island. On young islands 

 no peculiar species of plants or animals are ever dis- 

 covered. But on such ancient islands as the Galapagos 

 some of the species are remarkably altered; they are 

 peculiar to this one place, and are found nowhere else. 



None of the sights that Darwin saw in his journey 



round the world was more astounding and puzzling than 

 this difference between the animals that had not varied 

 on the young islands and the animals that had varied 

 profoundly on the old islands. Darwin was not then 

 an evolutionist. He supposed that animals had been 

 specially created in different parts of the world, and 

 that to talk about their "varying to new species" was 

 quite unscientific. But how could he account for the 

 difference between the animals of the Galapagos and the 

 animals of the young coral islands? It was clear that 

 climate had nothing to do with the difference. The only 

 solution he ever found — the only solution that all the 

 world's naturalists have found since his day — was that 

 when animals migrate to new surrondings their descen- 

 dants vary to new species in the course of thousands of 

 generations. 



Ever since Darwin's day the naturalists have been 

 mapping the geography of plant and animal life — what 

 they call the "distribution" of it. They have gathered 

 an immense body of most complicated facts about every- 

 thing from moss to grizzly bears. Without evolution 

 their knowledge would be a nightmare of contradictions. 

 When they apply evolution their knowledge can be sorted 

 into an orderly whole. So they consider the geographical 

 facts one of the proofs of evolution. 



Mind and Morals 



By Hugh F. Munro 



ALL that we know of human history, so far as it relates 

 to the development of mental or moral character- 

 istics, points to derivation from a lower animal form, 

 believed to be the common ancestor of both ape and 

 man. Tracing history backwards, we find that one 

 after another of those characteristics, upon the pos- 

 session of which we justly pride ourselves, disappears. 

 Animal instincts and propensities come forward as the 

 motive springs of action until no characteristic is left 

 that can properly be called exclusively human. We 

 have already seen that man carries in his body many 

 vestigial organs, indicating a descent from a pre-human 

 ancestor to whom such organs were useful. In his 

 mental and moral nature he still carries "vestigial" pro- 

 pensities which, normally held in abeyance by his re- 

 cently acquired intelligence, nevertheless spring up 

 occasionally with the "unreasoning fury of the beast." 



The lust, selfishness, greed, etc., which our higher 

 selves find so hard to curb or eradicate, served a useful 

 purpose in the animal economy, and by their nature 

 point to it as their origin. 



As dirt is to the chemist only matter in the wrong 



place, so qualities which were vitally useful to the ani- 



► mal are "evil" wlien they appear in man. 



• * « 



There is no doubt in the minds of scientists regarding 

 organic evolution. There is no other hypothesis which 

 can explain all of the facts, and not one fact has ever 

 been brought to light which is incompatible with it. 



There is not one of the sciences that have to do with the 



origin of man but has contributed its quota of evidence, 

 although the data furnished by any one of them would 

 be sufficient. Taken as a whole, their testimony is over- 

 whelming to such a degree that evolution is now the 

 working theory of every competent biologist. The method 

 is still under discussion, but the fact itself has been 

 fully established, never to be overthrown. 



[The Supreme Law 



By Covington Hall 



The Soul of Man is builded jrom a billion years of strife, — 

 The Iron Law of Struggle is the Supreme Law of Life; 

 Thru all, o'er all, it follows man wherever he may range. 

 The urge compelling progress and the power forcing change. 



Time never was when it was not. * * * Where atoms love and hate. 

 It sotvs the seed of destiny, begins the work of fate; 

 Before the Earth was fashioned, before the Sun began. 

 Within the warring atom host was bom the Soul of Man. 



The Universe is subject to its mandate and its will. 

 Would, but for it, be shrouded in eternal darkness still; 

 Before the Gods were dreamed of, before the Christs were born, 

 The armies of the monads were embattled in the morn. 



There never was nor will be from the strife of life surcease. 

 Within the warring Universe no universal peace; 

 A'o rest as long as motion lasts, as long as stirs a breath. 

 For peace is but Nirvana, and Nirvana is but death. 



It is the law of being, fixt, immutable and right. 



The essence of eternity, infinity and light; 



All matter, mind and spirit, all is mothered out of strife, — 



The Iron Law of Struggle is the Supreme Law of Life. 



