NATURAL SELECTION 73 



The forms that have been most successful in the 

 struggle for existence through the long geological 

 ages, snch as the lingula and certain protozoa, are 

 simple in their structure, while the most complex 

 beings, and those in which the brain is most highly 

 developed, such as the highest species of vertebrates, 

 have had but a brief existence. There is nothing in 

 the laws of nature to insure beyond doubt, at all 

 times, the preservation of the higher forms instead 

 of the lower, for the latter may be better adapted to 

 compete for existence under the particular circum- 

 stances. 



"Survival of the fittest" does not necessarily 

 mean survival of the highest. This is shown to be 

 true by the very recent disappearance of man's im- 

 mediate ancestors, if he was produced by evolution. 



Between man and the anthropomorphous apes, 

 which are regarded as being substantially like the re- 

 mote ancestors of man, there existed the immediate 

 progenitors of man, all of which have perished ; yet 

 they must have been vastly more intelligent than the 

 apes which have survived. 



Without dwelling further upon this, I will say that 

 the fact that man was created, either by a fiat or by 

 evolution, can only be explained by assuming the ex- 

 istence of an Intelligent Creator. 



The theory of evolution would imply a no less 

 wonderful Intelligence than that of fiat, involving as 

 it does long ages and au infinite number of vicissi- 

 tudes and varying circumstances. 



Mr. Darwin seems to imply an Intelligent Creator 

 when he says: " The birth of the species and of the 

 individual are equally parts of that grand sequence of 

 events which our minds refuse to accept as the result 

 of blind chance."* 



* Descent of Man, Vol. 2, p. 378. 



