MAN: WHENCE AND WHITHER? 



THE fables of the creation of nature and man by various fantastic and 

 ridiculous means, which have, for thousands of years, found favour with 

 the unthinking multitudes inhabiting the earth, and which even now are, 

 one or other, firmly believed by the large majority of both the Eastern 

 and Western populations, must, ere long, gradually give way to the 

 truer and grander theory of Evolution, resulting from the study of the 

 natural sciences. Priests, monks, and other interested people, backed 

 up by the enormous wealth which has accumulated to the various 

 religious creeds during the past centuries of darkness, ignorance, and 

 gross credulity, will, no doubt, oppose all their tremendous forces 

 against the new philosophy, thus, for a while, delaying the inevitable 

 result. But this condition of things cannot last long. Education is 

 doing, and will continue to do, its work, until, at length, falsehood and 

 slavery will give place to truth and liberty. 



In order to discover the origin of man, it is necessary to carry the 

 mind back to a very remote period, and observe the mode of develop- 

 ment of our planetary system ; for, according to the theory of Evolution, 

 there were no starting points for particular forms in nature, the whole 

 universe consisting of one continuous unfolding of phenomena. 



The modern theory of the mode of development of our earth, as 

 also of all other planets and suns, is the one known as the " Nebular 

 Hypothesis," which is the prelude to the great theory of Evolution, and 

 which teaches us that the earth, the sun, the moon, the planets, and 

 all the heavenly host are the effects or results of the condensation of a 

 nebulous vapour, which took place many millions of years ago, after 

 having been diffused for an incalculable period of time throughout the 

 illimitable expanse of space. The cause of this nebulous vapour, or 

 attenuated matter, is unknown to us, and will probably ever remain 

 enshrouded in the profound mystery which at present envelopes it. 



