THE DESCENT OE MAN; 



AND ON 



SELECTION IN BELATION TO SEX. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The nature of the following work will be best under- 

 stood by a brief account of how it came to be written. 

 During many years I collected notes on the origin or 

 descent of man, without any intention of publishing on 

 the subject, but rather with the determination not to 

 publish, as I thought that I should thus only add to 

 the prejudices against my views. It seemed to me suffi- 

 cient to indicate, in the first edition of my ' Origin of 

 Species,' that by this work " light would be thrown on 

 " the origin of man and his history ;" and this implies 

 that man must be included with other organic beings in 

 anv general conclusion respecting his manner of appear- 

 ance on this earth. Now the case wears a wholly dif- 

 ferent aspect. When a naturalist like Carl Vogt ven- 

 tures to say in his address as President of the National 

 Institution of Geneva (1869), " personne, en Europe 

 " au moins, n'ose plus soutenir la creation independante 

 " et de toutes pieces, des especes," it is manifest that at 

 least a large number of naturalists must admit that 

 species are the modified descendants of other species ; 



VOL. I. B 



