336 EVOLUTION OF TO-DAY. 



Another break is found, according to the opinion 

 of some, at the other end of the series. Man is by 

 them exempted wholly or in part from the general 

 law of evolution. This break is a more debatable 

 one than that at the origin of life. The close rela- 

 tion of man to other vertebrates anatomically, 

 renders it almost beyond question that so far 

 as his body is concerned, he has been subject 

 to the same law which has regulated other ani- 

 mals. But his peculiar mental powers made him 

 something different. Darwin, and many followers, 

 do not, however, look upon this as a break, but sim 

 ply a difference in degrees of the development of 

 mental powers. They claim to find the same men- 

 tal powers in animals which are found in man, and 

 would say that when the ancestors of man reached 

 a certain stage in their development, their intellect 

 began to grow. The start was due to accident, but, 

 once started, natural selection rapidly increased the 

 growth, until, in a comparatively short time, man, 

 with all of his mental powers, was the result. 

 Others would say that while this difference is only 

 one of degree, the degree of difference is enormous ; 

 too great, indeed, for Darwin's theory. While, 

 then, it is possible that man has arisen by develop- 

 ment, no sufficient cause has been discovered for 

 the sudden rapid growth of mental power in man. 

 They would say that " some unknown cause accel- 

 erated development," meaning by this unknown the 

 Creator. Others deny the possibility of man's 

 origin by development, considering his powers as 

 new in kind. They would say that at the appear- 



