lO FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



And so, without affirming or denying these views of 

 Agassiz, scientific men have not been satisfied to rest 

 with them. 



Admitting that each species has been created, the 



question of method is still pertinent. What is creation ? 



How is it performed ? What do we 



What is special , i u i< • i 



. ,^ mean, for example, by " special crea- 



creation? . ,, . r ^ j r 



tion m opposition to the production of 

 species through variations due to natural causes? What 

 knowledge have we of the origin of species as distin- 

 guished from the birth point of one of the individuals 

 of this species ? If each of the million species of ani- 

 mals and plants which now live, and each of the mil- 

 lions of kinds which have become extinct, has been the 

 object of a " special creation," then " special creation " 

 is but a name to cover our ignorance of the law by 

 which species are produced. What has been done so 

 many times must be done in some uniform way. All 

 our experience in the universe tells us that everything 

 is done in its way and in no other. We no longer pic- 

 ture the Creator as forming dogs and horses and men 

 out of clay and then breathing into them the breath of 

 life. We no longer, with Milton, " imagine " the new 

 created lion as pawing the earth " to free his hinder 

 parts." That is not the way we find lions made. The 

 lion develops from the unborn lion kitten, and this un- 

 born kitten, through heredity typifies its cat-like ances- 

 tors. They were cat-like before they became lion-like. 



♦* All life comes from life," is a maxim of the early 

 naturalists. We understand in some measure the method 



of birth, the method by which individuals 

 All life from , ,,,, , , ' , . , 



.., are created, why should we think that 



the creation of species, special series of 



individuals, has come about in any way other than this, 



when we know of no other ? 



