24 THE OEIGIN OF MAN 



ranks of hypothesis into that of theories ; but so long 

 as the evidence adduced falls short of enforcing that 

 affirmative, so long, to our minds, the new doctrine 

 must be content to remain among the former — an ex- 

 tremely valuable, and in the highest degree probable, 

 doctrine; indeed the only extant hypothesis which is 

 worth anything in a scientific point of view ; but still A 

 hypothesis, and not a theory of species." "After 

 much consideration," he adds, " and assuredly with no 

 bias against Darwin's views, it is our clear conviction 

 that, as the evidence now stands, it is not absolutely 

 proven that a group of animals, having all the charac- 

 ters exhibited by species in nature, has ever been origi- 

 nated by selection, whether artificial or natural." 



But Darwin is absurd as well as groundless. He 

 announces two laws, which, in his judgment, explain 

 the development of man from the lowest form of ani- 

 mal life, viz., natural selection and sexual selection. 

 The latter has been abandoned by the modern believers 

 in evolution, but two illustrations, taken from Dar- 

 win's " Descent of Man," will show his unreliability as 

 a guide to the young. On page 587 of the 1874 edition, 

 he tries to explain man's superior mental strength (a 

 proposition more difficult to defend to-day than in 

 Darwin's time). His theory is that, ** the struggle be- 

 tween the males for the possession of the females" 

 helped to develop the male mind and that this superior 

 strength was transmitted by males to their male off- 

 spring. 



After having shown, to his own satisfaction, how 

 sexual selection would account for the (supposed) 



