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THE CHINA MAIL, OCTOBER 5, 1937.
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the mindless strivings of the first microscopic globules of liv
matter. "Let those who one of them is reputed to have said, "seek their ancestors THIRST QUENCHING publication should be addressed to
in the Zoo; I prefer to find mine in Paradise.” This opposition the Editor, and be accompanied by has quietened. It is seen, for instance, that while evolution re- the Writer's Name and Address,reals the process of creation it cannot explain its beginning. The biologist has not yet discovered the bridge between matter and life, and if he finds it this will not mean that the key to the mystery of creation has been founds Thus man is left with this great picture of evolving life, and he cannot but ask how lit affects him here and
What is his immediate future, and can he be certain that the path of his race lies ever up ward? Catastrophes have occurr
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Hong Kong, Tuesday, October 5, 1937. ed in plenty during his earlier
MAN
AND
EVOLUTION
The history of evolutionary
•
progress. In the short time he has been civilised twenty. civilisations have fallen and their sad remains have been as- sembled in the museums of their successorS.
war
is
thought, which has held an im- It is a fallacy that Natural ani portant place in the discussions Selection will always make of the British Association, was organism fitter in its struggle the subject of Sir Edward Poul-with the environment. When a ton's presidential address at Not-species is densely spread the re-. tingham. The theory of evoln-sults of competition may be blo- tion, which changed so violently logically advantageous to the man's knowledge of himself and individual but ultimately disas of his place in the universe, has trous for the species. The fight not had an easy path to general to survive has been animals de- acceptance, though scientists velop enormous horns, and for themselves have not been its that species this has been the chief opponents. Indeed, Sir prelude to extinction. This has Edward declared that he had peculiar significance for West- only heard one attack on evolu-jern civilisation to-day. In 1858 tion itself at the annual meet-Sir Richard Owen expressed to ings of the Association since the the Association. a hope that the telegraph and first one he attended in 1881. trans-atlantic - It was Charles Darwin who first other applications of pure science formulated in a full and scienti-would tend to abolish wars over fic way the theory that the liv-the whole earth, and this year's ing beings of the present have president looks again to the descended from widely differing time "which shall prove that the living beings in the past, and visions of the young and the... that man himself is: no excepureams of the old were prophetic tion to this law. If the fact of of a glorious reality." Is the evolution is now incontrovertible, wish for the abolition of it can be seen from Sir Edward's nearer fulfilment to day, or history that a battle has raged the world on the verge of seeing from Darwin's day to this round its twenty-first civilisation jom its causes. The theory of Na-the others in the dark backward- tural Selection states that more of time? An eminent historian individuals are born than can of civilisations has expressed a at possibly survive, and there is belief that each civilisation therefore a constant struggle for its peak is faced with a challenge existence among these individ-to make a great leap forward, a uals. ing, if it vary however slightly which demands solution. in any manner profitable to it-in the history of man no one of self
will have a better them has faced its challenge or chance of surviving." "Any sel-solved its problem, and after ected variety will tend to pro-the failure night has closed pagate its new and modified about it. It would not be idle to form." Thus living forms have suggest that our particular pro- developed from their earliest blem is war and our challenge stages by an ever-growing, ever the call to abolish it. Is West- subtler adaptation to the world ern man to pass from the stage in which they move. Neverthe-of evolving life because he lacks less, this theory will not explain the courage to rid himself of an the actual steps by which in-jevil which he has recognised? dividuals come to differ from There is no fear that evolution - their parents. The incidence of itself will cease with the va these variations, as they are call-ishing of all that we hold impor ed, provides biologists with a tant in life. Nature will go on, great and mystifying field for with or without us, as we choose. research: Human history is a The sands are running out, but minute part of the evolution of the power to choose has not yet life, but how greatly it has been been taken away. affected because men differ war, advance or extinction Islightly from one another. Did which way is it to be?
"It follows that any be-problem, arising from its B
Peace or
J