Proofs of Evolution. 311 



Geology describes the Evolution of the Earth from a 

 formless void to wrinkled age. Entombed within the leaves 

 of rock are found in nice gradation all forms of upward- 

 tending life, no sharp lines between the types, but insensible 

 shading from first to last. As a writer happily puts it: 

 "It is as if Nature wrote her own autobiography, using 

 for an alphabet the hieroglyphics of life." 



Embryology testifies as to the method of animal evolution. 

 It is a brief summary of the story of the race in the life of 

 the individual, a rehearsing of the sublime drama of all 

 time. Is this all a meaningless phenomenon, a senseless 

 panorama ? Is this " epitome and brief chronicle " of the 

 ages only a whimsical incantation of some occult power ? 

 Is it not rather, on the contrary, a demonstration of Nature's 

 method of Evolution ? 



Metamorphosis makes this assurance doubly sure ; for we 

 can see the evolving forms before our very eyes. Nature 

 is an unsolvable riddle only to the sightless and thoughtless. 



Rudimentary organs are among the strongest proofs of 

 descent, and are present throughout the animal and vege- 

 table kingdoms. To the biologist, man is a curiosity shop, 

 the whale a traveling museum. Was Man created in the 

 image of his Maker ? Why, he isn't half made yet. The 

 chips of the shop are still on him. He needs yet the emery- 

 stone of time. But he is in the hands of a tireless Master,, 

 deft fashioner of form and function — Evolution. 



Artificial Breeding is proof of the method of Nature's 

 workings. Man can accelerate the process of Nature. He 

 has given us better stock and better food-stuffs. Darwin 

 in twenty years accomplished what it would have taken 

 Natural Selection thousands of years to do. By following 

 the method of Nature man has become the originator of 

 higher forms — a conscious factor of Evolution. 



Reversion says that the two kingdoms of life are full of 

 antagonisms — that ebb and flow are in the heart of all 

 things — that strong and stubborn Heredity has a master — 

 environment. Heredity never originates. It merely holds 

 and perpetuates. If the surroundings are more favorable 

 for return to the parent form than to the maintenance of 

 the derived form, the organism will go back to the former. 

 Life-forms may go onward or backward according to the 

 demands of adaptation. But the final result is progress — 

 it is Evolution. 



