14 TEE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



and the best of the more than 900,000 which perish. 

 The very slightest favorable variation may make all the 

 difference between life and sure death. And yet these 

 indefinitely slight variations continued and aggregated 

 through ages would foot up an immense total diver- 

 gence. The chalk cliffs of England have been built up 

 of microscopic shells. 



I have tried to give you very briefly a sketch of the 

 essential points of Mr. Darwin's theory of evolution. 

 But you should all read that marvel of patience, indus- 

 try, clear insight, close reasoning, and grand honesty, 

 the " Origin of Species." I have no time to give the 

 arguments in its favor or to attempt to meet the ob- 

 jections which may arise in your minds. I ask you to 

 believe only this much ; that the theory is accepted 

 with practical unanimity by scientific men because it, 

 and it alone, furnishes an explanation for the facts 

 which they discover in their daily work. And this is 

 the strongest proof of the truth of any accepted theory. 



Inasmuch as it is accepted by aU scientists and 

 largely by the public, it is certainly worth your while 

 to know whether it has any bearing on the great moral 

 and religious questions which you are considering. 

 And in these lectures I shall take for granted, what 

 some scientists still doubt, "that man also is a product 

 of evolution. For the weight of evidence in favor of 

 this view is constantly increasing, and seems already 

 to strongly preponderate. Also I wish in these lect- 

 ures to grant all that the most ardent evolutionist can 

 possibly claim. Not that I would lower man's posi- 

 tion, but I have a continually increasing respect for 

 the so-called "lower animals." 



Now if the theory of evolution be true, and really 



