258 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



ity, for generations yet unborn — these high qualities 

 are so different from anything that we find in the 

 brutes, that it is impossible for me to believe that 

 they could have been evolved by natural processes. 



If it could even be shown that the physical man 

 has been evolved from some lower form of animal, 

 still this fact could not remove the difficulty of evolv- 

 ing man's mind from the few and feeble powers of 

 brutes. 



We may speak, if we please, of the continuity in 

 the chain of natural processes, which is indeed well 

 so far as we can show it to be true, but when we come 

 to the creation of the mind of man, I believe that 

 there was a break in the chain, and that it required 

 the special act of the Supreme Intelligence. I can 

 the more readily believe this when I see that it is the 

 prerogative of mind to interfere with the works of 

 nature and produce results that could never have 

 taken place if it had not been for mind. " Will 

 counts for something." The mind of man moving 

 his body has modified the earth in infinite ways that 

 never could have been, if they had not been pro- 

 duced by intelligence. The building of a locomotive 

 is an interference in numerous ways with the course 

 of events and with the arrangement of things as they 

 would have been if it were not for the control of 

 mind. And yet we are well aware that in constructing 

 a locomotive no law of nature is interfered with. On 

 the other hand, we know that in order to build it the 

 laws of nature must be strictly complied with. Man 

 produces his results by the intelligent use of his own 

 body and by guiding the forces of nature so as to ac- 

 complish his purposes. He avails himself of chem- 

 ical and mechanical laws — he uses some forces as in- 

 struments with which to overcome others — he, by his 

 intelligence, produces conflicts between materials and 



