460 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



in kind are brouglit about. The result of the increasing size and com- 

 j)lexity of the human brain, and the corresponding vai'iety in human 

 life, was that human beings could no longer be born in possession of 

 full adult faculties. Infancy thus supervened as an accompaniment 

 of increasing intellectuality. During infancy and youth the child 

 learns what inheritance has not yet incorporated in its organization. 

 Infancy, however, as a stage in individual life, is not confined to the 

 human si^ecies. The man-like apes of Africa begin life as helpless 

 babies, and are unable to walk, to feed themselves, or to grasp objects 

 with precision until they are two or three months old. The difference 

 between these and man is that the latter has a much increased cerebral 

 surface, while the infancy of his progeny is corresjjondingly prolonged. 

 Our earliest human ancestors lived, during an entire geologic oeon, " a 

 fierce and squalid existence." Yet even during that time was there 

 j)rogress ; cerebral surface was increasing and babyhood was lengthen- 

 ing. " The process of evolution is excessively slow, and its ends are 

 achieved at the cost of enormous waste of life " ; still, for innumer- 

 able ages its direction has been toward the enriching, the diversifying, 

 and the ennobling of human existence. 



Discussing " the origins of society and morality," the exponent of 

 the Darwinian theory tells us that "the psychical development of hu- 

 manity since its earlier stages has been largely due to the reaction of 

 individuals upon one another, in those various relations which we char- 

 acterize as social," Infancy created the family, and the family, by 

 taming, in a measure, individual selfishness, founded morality. The in- 

 dividual once brought under the law of the family, must begin to judge 

 of his conduct by some standard outside of himself ; "hence the germs 

 of conscience and of the idea of duty." Society has thus led to a great 

 improvement in the quality of individual life ; it has made it possible 

 for the world to have a Shakespeare, the difference between whose brain, 

 taking creasing into account, and that of an Australian savage, " Would 

 doubtless be fifty times greater than the difference between the Aus- 

 traliaju's brain and that of an orang-outang." Such is the measure of 

 our intellectual progress. On the moral side humanity can boast such 

 leaders as Howard and Garrison. Yet the psychical development of man 

 is not at an end. It is destined to go on, making not only intelligence 

 greater, but sympathy stronger and more profound. It is true that 

 the eliminating of strife " has gone on with the extreme slowness that 

 marks all the world of evolution." Still, such a process is in opera- 

 tion, and upon it we build our hopes for the perfection of humanity. 



So far the expounder of science. It will be observed that the state- 

 ments he makes are either indisputable, or rest upon grounds of much 

 apparent solidity. In connection with everything that he advances, 

 there is an implicit appeal to verification. " If these things are not so," 

 he seems to say, " then what are the facts ? " It will be observed, also, 

 that we are presented with no strained conclusions, with no glosses on 



