Human Nature a Constant Throughout History

Though open to the possibility that Darwin's theory of evolution is a correct explanation of the variety of life on Earth, Chesterton is sharply critical of any notion that the theory of evolution can explain man's spiritual nature. Chesterton believes that man is a kind of animal that is fundamentally different from all other animals, even if there are some basic physical resemblances. Evolution does not, generally speaking, produce stark differences. Even the most peculiar feature of an animal is often found in some recognizable form in another; the strangely shaped snake, for example, turns out to be very similar to other reptiles and even mammals in skeletal structure. Yet, when it comes to human reason, there is no precedent in nature. Art, for example, is a behavior that is intimately bound up with reason and it is found nowhere among the other...