The Descent of Man. 59 



from being tlie case. Man is not merely an intellectual 

 animal, but he is also a free moral agent, and, as such — and 

 with the infinite future such freedom opens out before him — 

 differs from all the rest of the visible universe by a distinc- 

 tion so profound that none of those which separate other 

 visible beings is comparable with it. The gulf which lies 

 between his being as a whole, and that of the highest brute, 

 marks off vastly more than a mere kingdom of material 

 beings; and man, so considered, differs far more from an 

 elephant or a gorilla than do these from the dust of the earth 

 on which they tread. 



Thus, then, in our judgment the author of the Descent 

 of Man has utterly failed in the only part of his work which 

 is really important. Mr. Darwin's errors are mainly due to a 

 radically false metaphysical system in which he seems (hke 

 so many other physicists) to have become entangled. With- 

 out a sound philosophical basis, however, no satisfactory 

 scientific superstructure can ever be reared ; and if Mr. 

 Darwin's failure should lead to an increase of philosophic 

 culture on the part of physicists, we may therein find some 

 consolation for the injurious effects which his work is likely 

 to produce on too many of our half-educated classes. We 

 sincerely trust Mr. Darwin may yet live to furnish us with 

 another work, which, while enriching physical science, shall 

 not, with needless opposition, set at naught the first principles 

 of both philosophy and religion. 



