MUTATION THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 397 



of there being a steady progression from simple to more 

 complex forms, he continually afifirms that the laws which are 

 applicable to one stage of man's spiritual development may not be, 

 and usually are not, applicable to another and later stage, that 

 ^'humanity is a genus that has no proper species," and that the 

 new factor of self-consciousness in humanity is supremely im- 

 portant. Throughout the " Evolution of Religion " it is made 

 quite clear that man is not only a part of the organic world, but 

 that he has spiritual endowments which qualify him for citizenship 

 in " a kingdom that is not of this world." He is not only a de- 

 veloped animal, he is made in the image of God, and the develop- 

 ment of such a being is not to be explained by gradual accumula- 

 tions of ever fluctuating variations. 



And here in all probability is to be found the explanation of 

 that protracted and sometimes bitter controversy between science 

 and religion since the publication of the Origin of Species in 1859. 

 Few people will care to deny that the champions of the organic 

 theory of evolution have rendered invaluable service not only to 

 science but even to religion. They have challenged and laid low 

 many a doctrine that was little better than a superstition ; they 

 have forced religious men to discriminate more carefully between 

 what is metaphorically and what is literally true ; and they have 

 converted many an ignorant dogmatist into an earnest and reason- 

 able seeker after truth. But it must not be imagined that victory has 

 beenallon oneside. By no means. The evidence of poetry, history 

 philosophy, and reasoning religion is stronger than ever it was in 

 support of the essential differences between organic and human life. 

 There has been in the past and still is a strong disposition on the 

 part of many scientific men to explain away these differences, or 

 at least to discount their significance. There is more difference, 

 we are told, between the full-grown man and a new-born babe than 

 there is between a man and an ape ! It is statements such as these 

 that reveal the danger of specialising, and show how necessary it is 

 to supplement biological research with psychological study. Surely 

 it must be that the men who make such statements have allowed 

 themselves but scant time to reflect upon the mighty possibilities 

 of human nature as against mere brute nature ; the latent capacities 

 of the newly christened William Shakespeare as against the eternal 

 limitations of the most promising chimpanzee ! 



No wonder students of man's spiritual development have risen 

 in revolt against such declarations as these, which cannot but fall 

 janglingly discordant on the ears of any student who has given 

 honest and careful thought to the philosophy of Thomas Hill Green 

 or the strenuous verse of Robert Browning. For my part I have 

 but little hesitation in saying that I think there is more truth about 

 the essential quality of human nature in Green's " Political Obliga- 

 tions," or in the ringing stanzas of " Rabbi Ben Ezra " than is 

 likely to be found in the pages of any biologist who tries to explain 



