CiiAP. XXI. GENERAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 385 



LI B R AR 

 CHAPTER XXL V^^V ^^"^ 



\^///" N 



General Summary and Conclusion. ^v,*^ # ' 



Main conclusion that man is descended from some lower form — 

 Manner of development — Genealogy of man — Intellectual and 

 moral faculties — Sexual selection — Concluding remarks. 



A BRIEF summary will here be sufficient to recall to the 

 reader's mind the more salient points in this work. 

 Many of the views which have been advanced are highly 

 speculative, and some no doubt will prove erroneous ; 

 but I have in everv case siven the reasons which have 

 led me to one view rather than to another. It seemed 

 worth while to try how far the principle of evolution 

 would throw light on some of the more complex pro- 

 blems in the natural history of man. False facts are 

 highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often 

 long endure ; but false views, if supported by some 

 evidence, do little harm, as every one takes a salutary 

 pleasure in proving their falseness; and when this is 

 done, one path towards error is closed and the road to 

 truth is often at the same time opened. 



The main conclusion arrived at in this work, and now 

 held by many naturalists who are well competent to 

 form a sound judgment, is that man is descended from 

 some less highly organised form. The grounds upon 

 which this conclusion rests will never be shaken, for the 

 close similarity between man and the low^er animals in 

 embryonic development, as well as in innumerable 

 points of structure and constitution, both of high and 

 of the most trifling importance, — the rudiments which 



VOL. IL 2 c 



