The Origin of Human Races and the Antiquity of Man Deduced from Natural Selection

races, and they live and exist. Very well, there is a cause; but that is beyond the limits of the theory of natural selection. It has nothing to do with Mr. Darwin’s minute, incremental process. Here is the difficulty: the crossbreeding of races is strictly confined within fixed limits. What happens beyond those limits? How do you obtain distinct types then? By mixing different breeds of dogs, you can produce various types and varieties of dogs—some beautiful, others mismatched. Mr. Darwin’s theory is excellent at explaining how races go extinct, but I do not see how it explains how new races begin. That is the crucial point.

Well, the crossbreeding of dogs will produce—what? A cow? How does a cow originate? Again, Mr. Darwin’s theory requires us to begin with an existing species before any change can occur; but how did that species originate? How did the first type appear? I argue, then, that the types outside the limits of crossbreeding arise exactly as the first types did—through the grand plan of nature.

There is a way to understand this perfectly. In a living organism, you know that various structures and parts have their own distinct organs. You know that a muscle does not develop into a nerve, and a nerve does not develop into a lung or blood vessels. Not only every muscle, but every nerve fiber has its own unique beginning. Now, consider this great globe—this cosmos in which we exist—as an organism itself, and you have the answer. By the laws of that organism, and by the plan inherent within it, the first type appeared. The next type appeared at its predetermined moment when specific cosmic influences were present. Just as bone or brain tissue only appears at a certain stage in a developing living organism, geology reveals that in the world’s organism, there are periods of slight change followed by the sudden emergence of entirely new types. You see, it is not a slow, minute sliding.

Yes, there are many simultaneous forms that show various gradations, but that is merely coexistence. You have not proven a sequential progression. This, then, is the point of contention. What produces variations beyond the boundaries of a species—"germs," if you like to call them that? What originated the very first species? I could easily discuss the variations produced in the normal course of things, but those must always stay within the race. They are not variations that cross the boundaries of a species. The variations that occur through normal reproduction only represent the growth of that species and type, for every type has a lifespan, just like an individual. The laws of life are consistent; consequently, types are born and developed through successive generations by necessity, and then they eventually die and pass away. These, then, are the points we must examine in the theory: what produces mechanical changes, what produced the first type, and what produces new types outside of the process of interbreeding?

Mr. GEORGE WITT: I truly have not understood the gentleman who has occupied so much of this meeting's time. It reminds me very much of the Scotsman’s definition of metaphysics; excuse me if I repeat it: “When the listener doesn't know what the speaker means, and the speaker doesn't know what he means himself—that is metaphysics.” original: "When the party who listens disna ken what the party who speaks means, and when the party who speaks disna ken what he means himsel—that is metaphysics." (Laughter.)