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Show i Epoch-Making ! BOOKS By Thomas Bragg , I CorvrihClfl21 fNew Tork Eri-nln World), by PrM Publlahln Co. TWO RECENT BOOKS. "God or Gorilla," by Alfred W. Mc-Cann: Mc-Cann: Thin book will doubtless lonf b quoted by these, who denounce evolution. evolu-tion. A hero of 207 libel aults. theaa- thor runs amuck, "rippln tht. heart out of things." He accuses (page 16 the venerable Haeckel of putting a human hu-man head on an ape embryo of cuttlnc off tha tall of a macacu monkey, and, of photographing the mutilated exhl-tj bits aa proof of evolution. Naturally,, we don't believe It. Like Don Quixote, and his phantoms, Mr. McCann assail th theory that mankind descended from gorillas theory no student of mankind has ever maintained. For tha gorilla is as far removed from the par ental primates as man himself. Why contend so violently that man waa I formed out of slime (p. 141), when evolutionists evo-lutionists agree that life originated In protoplasm, which u one kind of slime? On page 157, he says: "Haeckel, off guard, describes 'living human rarea who still live In trees.'" Haeckel waa ' not off hla guard, for I have myself seen a tribe of low-down Indiana, tha Wauraus, living in primitive ubodea built high up in the trees. These he Ings have spaly toes, the big toe being shorter than tha others and turning inward, like an ape's. Whoever wills wade through a Jungle about six miles Inland from the little mud village of Fadernalea, on tha Orinoco Delta, may also see the Waurau tree town. Mr. McCann notes "a tendency to return re-turn to the chronology of the Hilda, according to which the Jews reckon that S.62 years have elapsed 1 1921 1, since the creation of Adam." although on panes 245-t he speak of the ostrich' of birds that, used to fly millions of yeare ago." Among many very startling statements state-ments he declares "that out of tha Catholic church Itaetf came tha Meart .- - -evolution." Yet they prfnted 340 pagea of auch atatementa. "Tha Orowth of the Soil," by Knut Hamsun: Thla book might well be entitled "Tha Kvolution of a Home." It la that, beautifully. Into a wilderness of no man'a land comes a man with a pack on his bark: he builds a hut and clearer a patch of ground. Then Into the hut comes a woman. Together the man anil tha woman atruggle to exist, but tha struggling atrengthena and ennoble them. Before the atory enda we think of these two toilers of the soil aa of . characters In the Bible. Children appear ap-pear upon tha scene and the hot room after mom. Into a great wilder, ness home. Meanwhile the aoata hava S multiplied Into a herd, sheds hava grown Into barns, scythes have been supplanted by mow Ins; machines, and horses now carry tha burdens. Torn wavlne on the moorland where naught but horsetail grew ba-fore. ba-fore. bluebells nodding in the fella anl yellow sunlight blaring on tha lad-ysllpprr lad-ysllpprr flowers outside the house And human beings, living there move and talk and think and are there with heaven hea-ven and eanh. Here stands tha first of them all. tha first man In tha wllda. Ha cam that way, knre-deep In marsh growth and he.ther. found a iun'y slop and settled there. Othera cam. after him. thev trod a Ph Tc 'Z 7h. n."llnn""f: 'h""" '. "! ther. now. rd: Clr" drl The son of every settler, the child of eery man and woman who helped aw.lv. a hometh. uni, of clety can understand evolut'oa aa taught by Knut Hamsun. |