361 THE STORY OP THE EARTH AND MAN. 



This isolated position of man throughout the whole 

 period of his history, grows in importance the more 

 that it is studied, and can scarcely be the result of 

 any accident of defective preservation of intermediate 

 forms. In the meantime, when taken in connection 

 with, the fact previously stated, that man is equally 

 isolated when he first appears on the stage, it deprives 

 evolution, as applied to our species, of any precise 

 scientific basis, whether zoological or geological. 



I do not attach any importance whatever, in this 

 connection, to the likeness in type or plan between 

 man and other mammals. Evolutionists are in the 

 habit of taking for granted that this implies derivation, 

 and of reasoning as if the fact that the human skeleton 

 is constructed on the same principles as that of an 

 ape or a dog, must have some connection with a 

 common ancestry of these animals. This is, however, 

 as is usual with them, begging the question. Creation, 

 as well as evolution, admits of similai'ity of plan. 

 When Stephenson constructed a locomotive, he availed 

 himself of the principles and of many of the con- 

 trivances of previous engines ; but this does not imply 

 that he took a mine-engine, or a marine-engine, and 

 converted it into a railroad-engine. Type or plan, 

 whether in nature or art, may imply merely a mental 

 evolution of ideas in the maker, not a derivation of 

 one object from another. 



But while man is related in his type of structure to 

 the higher animals, his contemporaries, it is unde- 

 niable that there are certain points in which he con- 



