206 EVOLUTION OF TO-DAY. 



living animals ; and it has been claimed, not many 

 centuries ago, that they did not represent animal 

 remains. It has never been proved that our fossils 

 were ever alive, and it is to-day as possible as 

 ever to claim that they were put in the rocks by the 

 Creator in order to deceive men. But the good 

 sense of the world has long since caused this claim 

 to be given up. And so in regard to the question 

 we are considering ; although the evidence is such 

 as would follow from evolution, and although all 

 classes of facts are readily explained by it, the claim 

 can still be made that the evidence is in harmony 

 with the theory, but does not prove it. It is hardly 

 possible to avoid the conclusion that the good sense 

 of the world will soon give up this claim completely, 

 as has already been almost universally done. 



It must be noticed again, that if this evidence is 

 admitted at all, it applies to the whole animal king- 

 dom. It is not possible to say that evolution ac- 

 counts for some species and not for all. The evi- 

 dence is such that it must be extended to the whole 

 organic world or rejected altogether. It is possible 

 that there might have been several points of origin 

 instead of one, but there is not the slightest evi- 

 dence that such was the case. The same argument 

 which indicates that species are descended from 

 each other, applies with equal force to the origin of 

 genera, families, orders, sub-kingdoms, and even to the 

 two kingdoms of plants and animals. If evolution be 

 admitted in one place from the evidence, we cannot 

 in honesty deny it in any case where the evidence is 

 found. It is true that a very few scientists have 



