42 All the Articles of the Darwin Faith. 



from whom we ought to inherit, but among creatures so 

 remote in physical structure as the dog, the elephant, and 

 the bee. 



Amid all this irrelevant gossip, Mr. Darwin notices, with 

 the feeblest attempt at refutation, the crucial arguments 

 that man alone is capable of progressive improvement, and 

 that man alone fashions implements for a special purpose. 

 To the first he can only answer that in the hunting 

 countries foxes are more wary than in districts where they 

 are not disturbed ; and, to the second, that the chimpanzee 

 cracks nuts with a stone, and other apes build temporary 

 platforms (as birds build nests), which 'might readily 

 1 grow into a voluntary and conscious act." Might ! But 

 does it ? A.nd could it, unless we admit intellectual 

 evolution, and so once more beg the question ? It is 

 astonishing how persistently this artifice is resorted to 

 throughout. It pervades every part of the book, till, by 

 dint of repetition and incessant assumption, often veiled 

 in the most subtle implications, the reader is led to think a 

 point demonstrated for which not a shadow of evidence has 

 been presented. Of the course of things, when reason, 

 language, and religion have been once "acquired," Mr. 

 Darwin writes as coolly as if such " acquisitions " were of 



