Summary of Contents xiii 



material of progress furnished by variations and mutations 

 De Vries's Evening Primroses "Modifications" do not 

 count for much as far as the race is concerned The 

 directive factors are included in the terms Selection and 

 Isolation A common error as to fortuitousness The 

 preciousness of individuality The importance of struggle 

 and endeavor Struggle is more than competitive Ethical 

 aspect of organic evolution Attempt at a correction of the 

 ultra-Darwinian picture The struggle for existence is 

 often an endeavor after well-being, an endeavor for others 

 as well as self Darwin on the emotional value of the 

 evolutionary conception. 



V. MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE 



Man's zoological position and his distinctive peculiarities 

 Closely allied anatomically to the Primates, but dis- 

 tinctive from heel to chin, from big toe to forehead, above 

 all in his big brain His real distinctiveness depends not 

 on anatomical peculiarities, but on his powers, especially 

 on his powers of rational discourse, of building up general 

 ideas, of guiding his conduct by ideals Does "the all- 

 pervading similitude of structure" between Man and the 

 Primate stock imply affiliation? The scientific answer is 

 Yes, Man and the Anthropoid apes must have had a com- 

 mon ancestor What other interpretations are in the field ? 

 That man is "the Great Exception" to natural evolution, 

 that while his body was naturally evolved he received a 

 specific "spiritual influx" Summary of the facts used by 

 Darwin and others in support of the evolutionist inter- 

 pretation As in other cases, these are not demonstrative, 

 but they have a cumulative convincingness The difficulty 

 of the problem of the Ascent of Man We do not know 

 how he arose, or whence he came, or when he began, or 

 where it was His antiquity is certain, but little else Man 



