148 MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



with the writer of Genesis. The origin of sexes is 

 one of the acknowledged difficulties of the hypothesis, 

 and, using his method, we might surely assume, or 

 even confidently assert, the possibility that, in some 

 early stage of the development, the unfinished verte 

 bral arches of the skin-fibrous layer might have 

 produced a new individual by a process of budding 

 or gemmation. Quite as remarkable suppositions are 

 contained in some parts of his own volumes, without 

 any special divine power for rendering them practi 

 cable. Further, if only an individual man originated 

 lin the first instance, and if he were not provided with 

 !a suitable spouse, he might have intermarried with 

 the unimproved anthropoids, and the results of the 

 evolution would have been lost. Such considerations 

 should have weighed with Haeckel in inducing him 

 to speak more respectfully of Adam s rib, especially 

 in view of the fact that in dealing with the hard 

 question of human origin the author of Genesis had 

 not the benefit of the researches of Baer and Haeckel. 

 He had no doubt the advantage of a firm faith in the 

 reality of that Creative Will which the monistic 

 prophets of the nineteenth century have banished 

 from their calculations. Were Haeckel not a monist, 

 he might also be reminded of that grand doctrine of 

 the lordship and superiority of man based on the 

 fact that there was no helpmeet for him ; and the 

 foundation of the most sacred bond of human society 

 on the saying of the first man : This is now bone of 



