THE DESCENT OF MAN; 



AND 



SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The nature of the following work will be best understood 

 by a brief account of how it came to be written. During 

 many years I collected notes on the origin or descent of 

 man, without any intention of publishing on the subject, 

 but rather with the determination not to publish, as I 

 thought that I should thus only add to the prejudices 

 against my views. It seemed to me sufficient to indicate, 

 in the first edition of my ^' Origin of Species,^' that by this 

 work " light would be thrown on the origin of man and his 

 history;" and this implies that man must be included with 

 other organic beings in any general conclusion respecting 

 his manner of appearance on this earth. Now the case 

 wears a wholly different aspect. When a naturalist like 

 Carl Vogt ventures to say in his address as President of the 

 National Institution of Geneva (1869), " personne, en 

 Europe au moins, n'ose plus soutenir la creation independ- 

 ante et de toutes pieces, des especes," it is manifest that at 

 least a large number of naturalists must admit that species 

 are the modified descendants of other species; and this es- 

 pecially holds good with the younger and rising naturalists. 

 The greater number accept the agency of natural selection; 

 though some urge, whether with justice the future must 

 decide, that I have greatly overrated its importance. Of 

 the older and honored chiefs in natural science, many un- 

 fortunately are still opposed te evolution in every form. 



In consequence of the views now adopted by most natu- 

 ralists, and which will ultimately, as in every other ciise, be 



