Creation or Evolution? A Philosophical InquiryCurtis, George Ticknor
Religion
Creation or Evolution? A Philosophical Inquiry
Curtis, George Ticknor
Creation; Evolution
[74] I have stated here, in reference to the pedigree of an
individual, a far more liberal rule of evidence than would probably be
allowed in courts of justice, where anything of value was depending
upon the establishment of a descent from a certain ancestor. But I
have purposely suggested the broadest rule that can be applied to
family or race resemblances as a means of aiding a pedigree in popular
determination or in a _judicium rusticum_. For example, suppose that
there were persons now living in this country who trace their descent
from the English husband of Pocahontas, the daughter of an Indian
chief, and from her. They bear, we will suppose, the family name of
the Englishman whom she is known to have married, and perhaps one of
them bears very strong resemblance to the Indian race in features,
complexion, and hair. In a judicial trial of this person's supposed
pedigree I do not suppose that these resemblances, if they constituted
his sole evidence, together with the name of Rolfe which he bears, and
which a certain number of his ancestors may have borne before him,
would be received as evidence of his descent from the Indian girl
whose name was Pocahontas, and who married an Englishman of the name
of Rolfe more than two centuries ago. It would be necessary to make
some proof of the whole pedigree by the kind of evidence which the law
admits in such cases, and then the resemblances of the individual to
the Indian race might possibly be received as confirmatory proof, in
aid of the proof derived from the family name of Pocahontas's English
husband, from reputation, written or oral declarations of deceased
witnesses, family documents, ancient gravestones, and the like. In
popular judgment most persons would be apt to accept the family name
of Rolfe and the apparent trace of Indian blood as sufficient proof of
the descent of the individual from the Indian girl who married John
Rolfe. But in a court of justice these facts would go for nothing
without some independent proof of the pedigree.
[75] See the table of the Darwinian pedigree of man, _ante_. Any
other mode of arranging the order of evolution that will admit of the
application of the steps of supposed development to what is known of
the animal kingdom, will equally serve to illustrate the theory.
[76] Darwin's "Descent of Man," Prof. Huxley's note, p. 199 _et seq._
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