68 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



tions, and then became extinct. A cause for the tem- 

 porary existence of huge forms is flippantly given by 

 the illustrious scientist, yet the reasoning is that of a 

 fairy tale. Elephants would be as numerous a thou- 

 sand years hence as they ever were, if the cupidity of 

 man did not kill the animals for their tusks. It is 

 idle to talk about a lack of favorable surroundings for 

 the thrift of such large creatures. Mastodons lived 

 and died, and left their ponderous remains, and that is 

 the substance of all we know about the matter. 



An early feature of Darwinism was that the 

 transitions going on in the vegetable and animal 

 kingdoms were exceedingly slow and by almost inap- 

 preciable grades, but amendments made later pre- 

 pared the way for bridging chasms by admitting leaps 

 or the intervention of a needful saltus. 



There is no serious objection to this modification 

 of doctrine, especially as embryonic leaps are known, 

 to occur. It is merely a question of limitation in the 

 laws which govern evolution. If the elevating ten- 

 dencies are always gradual till the highest anthropoid 

 be reached, and then for the first time a leap is needed 

 to cross a chasm and land on the side of even savage 

 man, the extraordinary intervention is not admissible. 



An attempt has been made by Darwin to show 

 that the crania of the lowest barbarians closely resem- 

 ble the skulls of the higher apes. As this is a vital 

 point in the evolution theory it may be well to quote 

 fairly from the arguments employed. Huxley says, 

 "the like of the Neanderthal skull has yet to be pro- 

 duced from among the crania of existing men." Now, 

 if the illustrious naturalist means that no two skulls 

 are alike, he is safe in the statement, but if he means 

 to convey the idea that the features of that famous 



