The Part played by Infancy 103 



feeling that it was not so, at the same time one 

 could not exactly say why. One could not then 

 find any scientific argument for objections to that 

 point of view. But with the further development 

 of the question the whole subject began gradually 

 to wear a different appearance ; and I am going to 

 give you a little bit of autobiography, because I 

 think it may be of some interest in this connection. 

 I am going to mention two or three of the succes 

 sive stages which the whole question took in my 

 own mind as one thing came up after another, and 

 how from time to time it began to dawn upon me 

 that I had up to that point been looking at the 

 problem from not exactly the right point of view. 



When Darwin s &quot; Descent of Man &quot; was published 

 in 1871, it was of course a book characterized by 

 all his immense learning, his wonderful fairness of 

 spirit and fertility of suggestion. Still, one could 

 not but feel that it did not solve the question of 

 the origin of man. There was one great contrast 

 between that book and his &quot; Origin of Species.&quot; 

 In the earlier treatise he undertook to point out a 

 vera causa of the origin of species, and he did it. 

 In his &quot; Descent of Man &quot; he brought together a 

 great many minor generalizations which facilitated 

 the understanding of man s origin. But he did 

 not come at all near to solving the central pro- 



