THE VERDICT, OF HISTORY. 121 
vestigated tribe or specimen, living or dead, would appear 
to be, the greater was the value set on the discovery, be- 
cause the nearer science was supposed to have come to the 
missing link, the transition from brute to man. Of 
course, the missing link will never be discovered, be- 
cause it never existed. There is no transition from brute 
to man, and never was. But if there were a species of 
beings which might be classed either with man or with 
brutes, a transitional species, even that would not neces- 
sarily represent a transition in the direction from brute 
to man. We do not say that a transition from man to 
brute is possible; for it is not; but we do say that the 
evolutionist who sees in Bushmen and. other savages 
specimens of humanity representing the earlier stages of 
development, through which the more highly developed 
species had long since passed on the way from the primi- 
tive state of man to their present state, makes a great, 
fundamental mistake, the same mistake which one would 
make in supposing that the pale and decrepit inmates of 
a city hospital or a country poorhouse represented the 
lower stage of development from which the strong and 
healthy men and women in the surrounding country had 
been evolved. Our evolutionists are in yery much the 
same plight with Mark Twain and his friend, who, hav- 
ing slept all day, rushed from the hotel in scanty clothing, 
climbed the observatory and to the amusement of the 
guests loudly admired what they took to be the famous 
Rigi sunrise, while in fact they were vociferating and 
gesticulating at the setting sun. But while our tourists 
had soon found out their mistake, our evolutionists have 
not; which does not make it any less a mistake. St. Paul 
has drawn a vivid picture of the degenerating influence 
of sin upon the nations under the righteous wrath of 
God, * and the course which the Greek nation and the 
* Rom. 1, 18-32. 
