CHAPTER III 

 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 



§1. The Tax on New Knowledge. 



IT seems that we have often a tax to pay on our 

 advances in knowledge. This is partly because a 

 new conclusion is apt to bulk disproportionately 

 large in our intellectual firmament. It is a new star, 

 whose brilliance we exaggerate, and we have after- 

 wards to pay for our exaggeration. To change the 

 metaphor, there is trouble because we are so insistent 

 that our goose is a swan. The moral is to accept con- 

 clusions with critical calm. 



The other tax is one that cannot be evaded. The 

 new conclusion has to be fitted into our thought sys- 

 tem, sometimes like a steel girder into a stone and 

 lime house, and the new adjustment involves archi- 

 tectural risks. Sometimes we are afraid that our whole 

 house will come tumbling about our ears. To vary 

 the metaphor, the new wine sometimes bursts the old 

 bottles. 



The tax on new ideas is well illustrated by what 

 followed or follows the acceptance of the Darwinian 

 doctrine of the Descent of Man. Some minds give it 

 overhearty welcome, exaggerating its value. Man a 

 product of evolution — why, that clears up all our 

 difficulties ! 



Others receive it without effusive hospitality, as a 

 guest accepted for the Truth's sake, out of a sense 

 of duty, rather than with joy. There is friction 



