554 ON HEREDITY. 



requiring one knows not how many hundreds or thousands of years to 

 produce a race which could adapt itself to its new environment. 



It may perhaps be thought that in selecting the subject of Heredity 

 for my address, and in treating it as T have to a large extent in its gen- 

 eral biological aspects, I have infringed upon the province of Section D 

 (that of Biology). But I am not prepared to admit that any such en 

 croachment has been made. Man is a living organism with a physical 

 structure which discharges a variety of functions, and both structure 

 and functions correspond in many respects (though with characteristic 

 differences) with those which are found in animals. The study of his 

 physical frame cannot therefore be separated from that of other living 

 beings; and the processes which take place in the one must also be 

 investigated in the other. 



The physical aspect of the question, although of vast importance and 

 interest, yet by no means covers the whole ground of man's nature, for in 

 him we recognize the presence of an element beyond and above his ani- 

 mal framework. Man is also endowed with a spiritual nature. He pos- 

 sesses a conscious responsibility which enables him to control his animal 

 nature, to exercise a discriminating power over his actions, and which 

 places him on a far higher and altogether different platform than that 

 occupied by the beasts which perish. The kind of evolution which we 

 are to hope and strive for in him is the perfecting of this spiritual nature, 

 so that the standard of the whole human race may be elevated and 

 brought into more harmonious relation with that which is holy and 

 divine. 



