All tTie Articles of the Darwin Faith. 37 



ism can logically pretend to its author quietly infers a 

 universal law, and so sets himself to inquire in the present 

 boo 1 ! ' whether man, like every other species, is descended 

 from some pre-existing form " ! Having by this good 

 beginning accomplished more than half his work, he 

 proceeds in like manner to ' take for granted ' the high 

 antiquity assigned to man by M. Boucher de Perthes, Sir 

 Charles Lyell, Sir John Lubbock, and others, together 

 with Professor Huxley's ' conclusive ' proof that ' man 

 ' differs less from the higher apes than these do from the 

 ' lower members of the same order of primates.' Now 

 here are at least four unproved hypotheses to be accepted 

 in the dark before the new argument can see daylight. 

 Of the first Mr. Darwin himself confesses that ' of the 

 " older and honoured chiefs in natural science, many un- 

 " fortunately are still opposed to evolution in every form." 

 His greatest authority only denies the independent 

 creation of every species, though Mr. Darwin, in quoting 

 his words, enlarges them into an assertion that ' species ' 

 instead of " some species " are the modified descen- 

 dants of other species. From this universal proposition, 

 the induction is at present ludicrously scanty, while the 

 acts and reasons on the contrary side are overpowering 



