50 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



the chief agents in heredity, they are the one 

 constant element in the bodily history of humanity, 

 whilst the individual comes into existence and passes 

 away. But biology has considered the question 

 from its point of view in only one, and that a material, 

 aspect. The other, i.e. spiritual, aspect of the same 

 problem falls outside its scope, and the results of 

 biological investigation do not touch the existence 

 in man of a soul created by God, and destined, after 

 the death of the body, to return to God. 



Similar remarks will apply to the hypothetical 

 history of the human race. It may on its material 

 side originate in the dust of the earth, it may 

 during its whole course of existence be inseparable 

 from the dust of the earth, and it may finally return 

 to the dust of the earth and yet in all this there 

 is nothing derogatory to the dignity which man 

 possesses as God's likeness, in virtue of his spiritual 

 soul, there is nothing at variance with his being 

 originally of divine creation, and with his being 

 destined ultimately for a divine goal. 



Every atom in the human body had its primary 

 origin in a creative act of God at the first formation 

 of matter, although millions of years of cosmic 

 development were to elapse, before it became a 

 living part of a human body ; and, in just the same 

 way, we might imagine a hypothetical history of 

 humanity, governed by the laws of natural develop- 

 ment, which God impressed upon the first cells at 

 the moment when life originated. 



