430 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



be worthy to be noted with the distinctive name 

 of creation, and at what point of the ascent man 

 could first be justly said to exhibit the image of 

 God." 



But the derivation of man from the ape, we are 

 told, degrades man. Not at all. It would be truer 

 to say that such derivation ennobles the ape. Sen- 

 timent aside, it is quite unimportant to the Chris- 

 tian "whether he is to trace back his pedigree 

 directly or indirectly to the dust." St. Francis of 

 Assisi, as we learn from his life, " called the birds 

 his brothers." Whether he was correct, either theo- 

 logically or zoologically, he was plainly free from 

 that fear of being mistaken for an ape which haunts 

 so many in these modern times. Perfectly sure 

 that he, himself, was a spiritual being, he thought 

 it at least possible that birds might be spiritual 

 beings, likewise incarnate like himself in mortal 

 flesh; and saw no degradation to the dignity of 

 human nature in claiming kindred lovingly with 

 creatures so beautiful, so wonderful, who, as he fan- 

 cied, "praised God in the forest, even as angels did 

 in heaven." 1 



1 Kingsley, " Prose Idylls," pp. 24 et seq. Ruskin in refer- 

 ring to the matter in his "Aratra Pentelici," expresses himself 

 with characteristic force and originality. " Whether," he says, 

 " your Creator shaped you with fingers or tools, as a sculptor 

 would a lump of clay, or gradually raised you to manhood 

 through a series of inferior forms, is only of moment to you in 

 this respect, that, in the one case, you cannot expect your 

 children to be nobler creatures than yourselves ; in the other, 

 every act and thought of your present life may be hastening the 

 advent of a race which will look back to you, their fathers and 

 you ought, at least, to have retained the dignity of desiring that 

 it may be so with incredulous disdain." 



