HEREDITY AND EVOLUTION LATE 
the writings of Charles Darwin. After the appearance of his books 
many people asserted that evolution denied the existence of a 
supreme being. Darwin made no such statement, and it is now - 
generally conceded that the doctrine of evolution is not opposed 
to the idea of the existence of a deity. Evolution is simply the 
orderly operation of natural law, and to say that the orderly 
operation of the law of evolution denies the existence of a su- 
preme intelligence would be equal to saying that because the 
flow of rivers, the rise and fall of tides, and the movement of 
planets all obey the law of gravity, there can be no deity. If the 
law of gravity and the law of evolution do not affirm the exist- 
ence of a supreme being, they at least do not deny it. It has 
been argued that the orderly operation of natural law is one of 
the greatest arguments for the existence of a supreme directing 
intelligence, and this argument applies equally well to gravitation 
and to evolution. Certainly the most purposeful and intelligent 
human beings are those whose actions are orderly and _ predict- 
able, while we have insane asylums for those whose thoughts 
and actions are lacking in order. 
The statement has been frequently made that, according to the 
doctrine of evolution, man is descended from the monkey. Such 
a statement is not in accord with, but is opposed to, the teachings 
of evolutionists. What evolution does teach is that both man and 
monkey had a common ancestor, and not that one was derived 
from the other. The idea that man is descended from lower forms 
of life, instead of being a discreditable and discouraging belief, is 
really one that is full of encouragement. We have ascended a long 
way, but we may have hopes of improving the race still further if 
we but use our increasing knowledge of inheritance and evolution. 
