22 THE PORTAL OF EVOLUTION 



she was given the biggest send-off ever given to any commoner 



up to that date. 



So in like manner the student of Evolution has to hunt the 

 truths of revelation out of such and more difficult corners and 

 tangled masses of superstition, bigotry and fables. But often 

 fossil remains, drawings, sculptures and antique inscriptions 

 come to his assistance and give him more reliable data than 

 early history or religious fable. As for instance in the case of 

 the Brownies under review just now, although the history of 

 that date is almost a forgotten relic of the past, yet so much 

 more reliable is the pencil than the pen, that our idea of 

 the Brownies or Mongolian inhabitants of England has been 

 kept alive faithfully by the pencil even though the existence 

 of these people in our land of England is all but forgotten, yet 

 we have not forgotten their make or shape. For when we wish 

 to depict our long-forgotten ancestors whom we have relegated 

 to the realms of fairyland we do not forget to adorn them with 

 the Chinese almond-shaped eyes, high cheek bone, squat nose 

 of the prehistoric Englishman of Mongolian descent. So also 

 Nature has in the birth of each one of us retained a drawing 

 of our previous existences, for Embryology has established 

 beyond dispute that in the early stages of our conception 

 within our mother's womb we again assume the types of 

 worms, fishes, animals, and in some cases, of plants that did 

 their part in evolving our present existence. So also in fossil 

 remains and shapes and forms, in rocks and stones God still 

 preserves some links and data that may some day help us to 

 regain the truth, and to recognize them again when we may 

 dig them out and uncover them from the mass of dead leaves 

 of superstition, fable and bigotry, etc., under which religions, 

 governments and man's craving for power, wealth, and pride 

 have so carefully buried the light of God's revelations. 



I only hope that this little treatise may, in wiser and better 

 hands than mine, do something to reveal the past, and enable 

 us the better to use such knowledge for our guidance in 

 the future, and may be the means of making many who have 

 hitherto looked upon Evolution as a science meant only for 

 learned scholars, to see that it is a branch of knowledge we can 

 all study with advantage to ourselves and our general welfare. 

 And I hope the useful key that this little treatise contains may 

 help others besides myself to unlock the door of Evolution 



