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Darwin remained to the end of his life undecided between the two views, for he allowed his original statement as to life having been breathed into one or more forms by the Creator, to pass from edition to edition of the Origin of Species. If the polyphyletic theory be adopted, it must be said that the position of the materialist is made far more difficult than it is at present.
These views, together or separately, which are characterised chiefly by the catch-words “polyphyletic descent,” “labile and stable equilibrium,” and so on, crop up together or separately in the writings of various evolutionists belonging to the opposition wing.
We may conclude from this that the stem-forms of the Primates, which we must regard as the earliest Lemurs, were evolved directly from the opossum. We must not forget, however, that the conversion of the five-toed foot into a prehensile hand is polyphyletic.
A fifth theory of evolution is held by many. It is called polyphyletic evolution, which means that God created numerous stocks, or beginnings of both plant and animal life, which were subject to change and growth, deterioration and development, according to his plan and purpose.
"But that is not enough," insisted the professor angrily. "Will one mere private detective restore my £6000 Japanese 4-1/2 per cent. bearer bonds? Is the return of my irreplaceable notes on 'Polyphyletic Bridal Customs among the mid-Pleistocene Cave Men' to depend on a solitary director? I demand that the police shall be called in as many as are available. Let Scotland Yard be set in motion.
"My dust!" gasped Draycott. "My fivers, by golly!" ejaculated the bookmaker, initiating a plunge among the spoil. "My Japanese bonds, coupons and all, and yes, even the manuscript of my work on 'Polyphyletic Bridal Customs among the mid-Pleistocene Cave Men. Hah!"
If we examine this undoubted fact from the point of view of phylogeny, in the light of the theory of descent, it follows at once that man is of a common stem with all the other Mammals, and comes from the same root as they. But the various features in which the Mammals agree and by which they are distinguished are of such a character as to make a polyphyletic hypothesis quite inadmissible.
And within the same group we find the contrasts of believers in monophyletic and believers in polyphyletic evolution, the mechanists and the half-confessed or thoroughgoing vitalists, the preformationists and the believers in epigenesis. Opinions differ even more widely in regard to the rôle of the “struggle for existence” in the production of species.
In like manner, Häckel also gives us the stem-branches of all the types, classes and orders of the organisms, and forms from them a very acceptable hypothetical pedigree; or if we prefer to suppose a polyphyletic rather than a monophyletic origin of species hypothetical pedigrees of the whole organic world.
Is it really possible that any man could bring himself to place credence in such a marvellous series of occurrences? Monophyletic or polyphyletic evolution, whichever, if either, it may have been, presents no difficulty on the creation hypothesis. The Divine plan might have embraced either method.
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