DARWIN. 189 



acknowledged kinship is only an inference based 

 on known facts in homology. 



No two groups of animals can show homologies 

 with each other more clearly than does the man 

 with the monkey. Either these homologies show 

 kinship or else they are mere mockeries, like the 

 face we see in the pansy flower. If homologies 

 are mockeries, then indeed our science has made 

 no progress, for that was the belief of the Middle 

 Ages. 



So much for what we know. Our objections to 

 sharing our ancestry with monkeys and other 

 mammals, if we have any, rest on considerations 

 outside the domain of knowledge. Nor do they 

 rest on religious grounds. Those who think so, 

 deceive themselves. Could it be proved by abso- 

 lute demonstration, such as science can seldom 

 give, that an unbroken line of descent connects the 

 barbarous man of the past with his back-boned 

 brethren of the farther past, how could that affect 

 Christianity? The Darwinian theory concerns only 

 the question of the methods of creation, — the 

 ** secondary causes " in the providence of God. It 

 can in no way come in conflict with the teachings 

 of Christ. The mission of religion is spiritual, not 

 physical. Christianity gives no answer to our 

 questions of science. It does not rise or fall with 

 any steps in the growth of knowledge. It rests on 

 the eternal needs of the human soul. It is anchored 

 to no floating hypothesis. It builds on the '' Rock 

 of Ages." Over the door of Linnaeus' cottage at 

 Hammarby stood this motto, Innociie vivito : mimen 

 adesty — " Live blameless : God is near ! " '* This," 



