48 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



ever, only the beginnings of a similar process have as 

 yet come to pass. 



Further, we must distinguish clearly between the 

 different ways in which progress may be operative in 

 man. In the first place it can appear, as we have 

 just pointed out, in the organization of the com- 

 munities to which he belongs and on which natural 

 selection seems mainly to act. Secondly, it can ap- 

 pear as a raising of the average of certain qualities 

 among the individuals composing those communi- 

 ties. And thirdly, it can appear as a raising of the 

 upper level of attainment in those qualities, in the 

 appearance of individuals biologically higher than 

 any that have previously existed. 



This last point may be first dealt with. It has 

 often been urged as an argument against the doctrine 

 of progress that we can trace no advance in the ca- 

 pabilities of the individual man throughout history, 

 and it has even been asserted that no such advance 

 has occurred during pre-history. To this latter criti- 

 cism there is the obvious reply that at some period 

 there was an origin of human from non-human or- 

 ganisms, and that during the period of transition at 

 least (and probably for a considerable time after- 

 ward) there naturally must have been a raising of 

 the upper level of attainments, and still more of pos- 

 sibility. The main point at issue, however, is not to 

 be gainsaid. It appears ^^ that comparatively early 

 in the evolution of man, there appeared, in some 



13 See Carr-Saunders, '22. 



