80 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 



seems to be taken for granted that the burden of 

 proof rests entirely upon the evolutionary theory, 

 but this is a mistake, for there is and can be no evi- 

 dence for that of special creation. The only thing 

 which could justify us in holding that doctrine would 

 be to find that the facts could be explained in no 

 other way. 



It has been objected that the gradations between 

 the various forms of life, to which evolutionists 

 attach so much importance, is in itself no proof of a 

 genetic connection between those forms, and the 

 gradual development of human productions is ad- 

 duced as showing similar relations without any 

 genetic connections. For example, houses may be 

 traced from their earliest beginning in the rude hut 

 of the savage, through various stages to the most 

 extensive and elaborate modern dwelling, yet no one 

 would suggest that houses were evolved by descent 

 with modification. Here the relationship is ideal, 

 not material, and the development is that of a plan; 

 why should the same thing not be true of the living 

 world? In reply, it may be said that this objection 

 might have some weight, if houses naturally repro- 

 duced their kind, as all living things do, and each 

 individual structure were not the work of men's 

 hands. Then, too, in order to hold the evolutionary 

 hypothesis, it is not necessary to deny the ideal re- 

 lationships between the successive gradations of 

 living beings, or to exclude belief in a creative 

 plan, which has been worked out by the method 



