204 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



ulty, or such portion as was responsible for this 

 circular, is willing to have its alumni take science 

 upon faith, Catholics will still continue to take it 

 upon proof alone. 



Even the private revelation, however, on which 

 alone anyone could state that: "Evolution has 

 moved on from the lowest form of life to the high- 

 est, from amoeba to man," by a purely material- 

 istic process, would demand a faith not merely 

 without reason, but even against reason. We have 

 seen clearly enough that by no unaided natural 

 process can life evolve from dead matter, or in- 

 telligence from mere animal instinct. But this is 

 not all the Princeton circular asks the alumni to 

 take on faith. The document in question, which 

 we quote because it is so very typical of modern 

 non-Christian university methods, and not because 

 it stands as an isolated example, continues : 



About half a million years ago the immediate progenitors of 

 man appeared on the earth. The earliest man-like fossil so far 

 discovered is the Ape-man, Pithecanthropus erectus, of Java. 

 About 100,000 years ago the Neanderthal man appeared, a mem- 

 ber of .the genus Homo but an extinct species, neanderthalensis, 

 Then came, about 25,000 years ago, certain races of the existing 

 species, Homo sapiens, such as the Cro-Magnon and the Gri- 

 maldi races. 6 



It would be difficult to group together more 

 gratuitous statements than are to be found here, 

 each cathedratically pronounced with an air of 

 assurance that implies absolute and unquestioned 



* Princeton Lectures, Number One, Professor E. G. Conklin. 



