44 THE OEIGIN OF MAK 



gradually, with many fluctuations, become weaker. 

 But then arises the doubt: Can the mind of man, 

 which has, as I fully believe, been developed from a 

 mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animals, be 

 trusted when it draws such grand conclusions ? 



" I cannot pretend to throw the least light on such 

 abstruse problems. The mystery of the beginning of 

 all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be 

 content to remain an Agnostic." 



A careful reading of the above discloses the gradual 

 transition wrought in Darwin himself by the unsup- 

 ported hypothesis which he launched upon the world, 

 or which he endorsed with such earnestness and indus- 

 try as to impress his name upon it He was regarded 

 as ''orthodox'^ when he was young; he was even 

 laughed at for quoting the Bible '' as an unanswerable 

 authority on some point of morality." In the begin- 

 ning he regarded himself as a Theist and felt com- 

 pelled " to look to a First Cause, having an intelligent 

 mind in some degree analogous to that of man." 



This conclusion, he says, was strong in his mind 

 when he wrote " The Origin of Species," but he ob- 

 serves that since that time this conclusion very gradu- 

 ally became weaker, and then he unconsciously brings 

 a telling indictment against his own hypothesis. He 

 says, ''Can the mind of man (which, according to his 

 belief, has been developed from a mind as low as that 

 possessed by the lowest animals) be trusted when it 

 draws such grand conclusions f " He first links man 

 with the animals, and then, because of this supposed 

 connection, estimates man's mind by brute standards. 



