264 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
of the theory, as well as by all its opponents who reason 
logically. 
But if the doctrine be true, then the recognition of the 
animal origin and pedigree of the human race will neces- 
sarily affect more deeply than any other progress of the 
human mind the views we form of all human relations, 
and the aims of all human science. It must sooner 
or later produce a complete revolution in the conception 
entertained by man of the entire universe. I am firmly 
convinced that in future this immense advance in our know- 
ledge will be regarded as the beginning of a new period 
of the development of Mankind. It can only be com- 
pared to the discovery made by Copernicus, who was the 
first who ventured distinctly to express the opinion, that 
it was not the sun which moved round the earth, but the 
earth round the sun. Just as the geocentric conception 
of the universe—namely, the false opinion that the earth 
was the centre of the universe, and that all its other por- 
tions revolved round the earth—was overthrown by the 
system of the universe established by Copernicus and his 
followers, so the anthropocentric conception of the universe 
—the vain delusion that Man is the centre of terrestrial 
nature, and that its whole aim is merely to serve him— 
is overthrown by the application (attempted long since by 
Lamarck) of the theory of descent to Man. As Copernicus’ 
system of the universe was mechanically established by 
Newton's theory of gravitation, we see Lamarck’s theory 
of descent attain its causal establishment by Darwin’s 
theory of selection. This comparison, which is very in- 
teresting in many respects, I have discussed in detail 
elsewhere. 
