PROOFS OF EVOLUTION. 
29 
more and more on the back-feet, leaving the arms 
and upper part of the body free for the various 
actions required. In time, adaptive changes 
would occur in the direction of an upright and 
flexible spine, and greater utility in the use of the 
arms. These changes, slight from generation to 
generation, in the aggregate would give us the 
hand of man, “ which supplies all instruments, 
and gives him universal dominion.” As Darwin 
remarks, “It accords with the principle of the 
division of physiological labor, which prevails 
throughout the animal kingdom, that, as the 
hands become perfected for prehension, the feet 
should have become perfected for support and 
locomotion.” As these early man-animals went 
in herds and could utter cries, it is probable they 
soon learned to warn one another of the approach 
of danger, and also to express to one another their 
feelings and desires, which was doubtless the 
beginning of human speech. 
There are those who, in the pride of intellect 
and reason, reject with contempt such a lowly 
origin. They prefer descent from disgraced 
perfection, rather than a steady ascent through 
all the lower forms. They accept the belief that 
