236 Summary 



man as if he were no more than a bipedal mammal 

 with an unusually big brain and a strong herd-in- 

 stinct. Of course, that is true, so far as it goes, but 

 how far from expressing the whole truth, even from 

 the scientific point of view ! For man at his best dis- 

 covers the secret motions of things and uses his 

 knowledge to bend nature to his purposes. He seeks 

 after the true, the beautiful, and the good. He sends 

 his tendrils to the stars. All these are facts which must 

 enter into the scientific description, which in turn 

 admits of religious interpretation. 



What is man, that thou art mindful of him? 

 And the son of man, that thou regardest him ? 



Summary. 



1. There are apt to be taxes on new knowledge, for 

 it is difficult to avoid exaggeration in the glow of dis- 

 covery, and the incorporation of large new facts and 

 new ideas into the framework of our thinking often 

 means disturbance. Thus in connection with the De- 

 scent of Man, some imagined that to say "Man 

 evolved" cleared up all difficulties, while others felt 

 that the new way of regarding Man's emergence was 

 subversive of his dignity and destructive of his value. 

 Both views are obviously misunderstandings. 



2. What Darwin proved was Man's solidarity with 

 the rest of creation. He demonstrated Man's affilia- 

 tion to an extinct stock common to him and to the 

 anthropoid apes. The evidence of this may be found 

 in the close anatomical similitude, in Man's numerous 

 vestigial structures, in Man's individual develop- 



