Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/37

 as to its validity even in the minds of its most learned advocates; for it is seen that if there ever were laws that evolved one genus from another, they have now ceased to act. Notwithstanding the varied condition of the earth's surface and the myriads of forms now in existence, there is not so much as one instance where a lower form brings forth a higher. Certainly there ought to be some remnant of a law once so omnipresent and so persistent through thousands of years. Though a change of surroundings and conditions may vary a species in a limited degree, of any class it may be said that the slightest tendency to produce other than its own kind is totally without evidence. If man sprang from the anthropoid apes, why do these not still give origin to human beings? Certainly they should much more readily develop human beings when surrounded by civilization to lift them up than when in primeval forests there was nothing except that upon which they could look down. But notwithstanding the advantages of surrounding art, science, and culture, even when assisted by the highest keeping and training of human ingenuity, the ape produces only its kind, and that without the slightest ascent in the grade of its being.

If the higher plants came from the lower by natural laws, what has become of those laws?