BY HEBER A. LONGMAN 17 



A^'e find that the facts of evolution are far wider than 

 rthe theories. Such writers as Windle indirectly discredit 

 scientific work when they gibe at discrepancies in theories. 

 Windle quotes, for instance, six different views as to the 

 evolution of vertebrates.* But instead of stultifying the 

 doctrine of evolution, these theories, in so far as they are 

 entitled to serious consideration, provide new data for it. 

 This may be illustrated by taking W. Patten's book on the 

 evolution of vertebrates, f Whether one accepts the main 

 contention or not. ^\■e must recognise the value of many 

 enumerated facts. The book demonstrates the relationships 

 of organisms, and shows how the impress of common 

 descent has })een woven into the web of many groups now 

 •divergent. 



In conclusion, I venture to break somewhat away 

 from the subject matter to claim that man — modern man — 

 cannot be placed in the category of organic things as a 

 servile subject of environmental forces. It is probably 

 true, as J. Barrell points out,t that changes in climate 

 causing disappearance of jungles may have influenced the 

 evolution of bipedal man from arboreal anthropoids. But 

 man to-day has power largely to make and control his 

 environment. In his wonderful epic-drama, " The 

 Dynasts,"' Thomas Hardy has depicted man as a puppet 

 in the thrall of circumstance. But man as a social and 

 ;a reasoning animal refuses to be bound Ixion-like to the 

 wheel of circumstances. He deliberately attempts to 

 mould nature to suit his needs : nay, more, he attempts 

 to control and mould himself. In his remarkable Romanes 

 Lecture on Evolution and Ethics, Huxley claimed thai 

 the progress of society depended upon man's combat with 

 the " cosmic process" ; man had long since emerged from 

 the heroic childhood of our race, and he was now able to 

 influence and modify the cosmic process, the dwarf 

 bending the Titan to his will. Although there may be no 

 millenium ahead, we are grown men and must play the 

 man. ? 



*B. Windle: " Facts and Theories," 1912, p. 121. 

 tVV. Patten: "The Evolution of the Vertebrates and their Kin " 

 1912. 



JJ. Barrell: Scientific Monthly, Jan., 1917. 

 §Huxley : Evolution and Ethics, 1895. 

 B 



