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 

 any 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 Yogt ven- 

 tures to say Jn 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 



