THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN SOUL 195 



troubles the routine mind. Many are willing to admit that 

 it looks- as if life had developed on the earth slowly, in suc- 

 cessive stages; this they can regard as a merely curious fact 

 and of no great moment if only man can be defended as an 

 honorable exception. The fact that we have an animal body 

 may also be conceded, but surely man must have a soul and 

 a mind altogether distinct and unique from the very begin- 

 ning bestowed on him by the Creator and setting him off 

 an immeasurable distance from any mere animal. But what- 

 ever may be the religious and poetic significance of this 

 compromise it is becoming less and less tenable as a scientific 

 and historic truth. The facts indicate that man's mind is 

 quite as clearly of animal extraction as his body." {Science^ 

 July 28, 1922, p. 95— italics his.) 



This language has, at least, the merit of being unambiguous, 

 and leaves us in no uncertainty as to where the writer stands. 

 It discloses, likewise, the animus which motivates his peculiar 

 interest in transformistic theories. If evolution were incapable 

 of being exploited in behalf of materialistic philosophy, Mr. 

 Robinson, we may be sure, would soon lose interest in the 

 theory, and would once more align himself with the company, 

 which he has so inappropriately deserted, namely, ''the routine 

 minds" that regard evolution "as a merely curious fact of no 

 great moment." Be that as it may, his final appeal is to the 

 "facts," and it is to the facts, accordingly, that we shall go; 

 but they will not be the irrelevant "facts" of anatomy, physi- 

 ology, and palaeontology. Sciences such as these confine their 

 attention to the external manifestations of human life, and can 

 tell us nothing of man's inner consciousness. It does not, 

 therefore, devolve upon them to pronounce final judgment 

 upon the origin of man. For that which is the distinguishing 

 characteristic of man is not his animal nature, that he shares 

 in common with the brute, but his rational nature, which alone 

 differentiates him from "a beast that wants discourse of 

 reason." We cannot settle the question as to whether or not 

 man's mind is "of animal extraction" by comparing his body 



