THE LIMITS OF EVOLUTION 53 



with surprise, then, at seeing official teachers of 

 the Christian ReHgion so strangely oblivious of real 

 bearings as to accept — yes, sometimes proclaim — 

 an evolution unlimited with respect to man as con- 

 sistent with their faith. Plain in the doctrinal fir- 

 mament of every Christian, clear like the sun in 

 the sky, should shine the warning : Unless there 

 is a real man miderived from Nature^ luiless there 

 is a spiritual or rational man independent of the 

 natural man and legislatively sovereign over entire 

 Nature, then the Eternal is not a person, there is no 

 God, and our faith is vain. 



Doubtless, as I have already said, planting the 

 contrast between Christianity and evolutional phi- 

 losophy in this firm way, in itself settles nothing as 

 to which of the two is true. Indeed, responding to 

 the impression so strongly made by later science, 

 one might well say that the onus probandi had been 

 shifted, and that the true form of the pressing 

 question should be, Is Christianity consistent with 

 evolution ? But the truth can never be settled 

 until issues are rigorously defined. And if our 

 inquiry in this essay has a solid result, it estab- 

 lishes the fact that evolution cannot have the uni- 

 versal sweep essential to a sufficient principle of 

 philosophy. The professed Philosophy of Evolution 

 is not an adult philosophy, but rather a philosophy 

 that in the course of growth has suffered an arrest of 



