THE HISTORY OF LIFE 1 79 



pendulums, oscillating, some oscillating above and some 

 below a mean. It is when a pendulum accidentally, 

 or to our minds accidentally, oscillates beyond a mean, 

 touching a stationary pendulum and thus setting it in 

 swing, that we get the development of a new species. 

 In Man the pendulum is swinging into a region of high 

 mental culture. Is he to form the host for the develop- 

 ment of a still higher organism ? We cannot know, 

 but all tends to the result, that he will alter to such 

 n high mental condition that the present mental power 

 will, in a short time, be regarded as mere barbarism. 1 



1 " We are proud of having so immensely outstripped our lower 

 .animal ancestors, and derive from it the consoling assurance that in 

 future also, mankind, as a whole, will follow the glorious career of 

 progressive development, and attain a still higher degree of mental 

 perfection. When viewed in this light the Theory of Descent, as 

 applied to man, opens up the most encouraging prospects for the 

 future, and frees us from all those anxious fears which have been the 

 scarecrows of our opponents. 



" We can even now foresee with certainty that the complete victory 

 of our Theory of Development will bear immensely rich fruits fruits 

 which have no equal in the whole history of the civilization, of man- 

 kind. Its first and most direct result the complete reform of Biology 

 will necessarily be followed by a still more important and fruitful 

 reform of Anthropology. From this new theory of man. there will 

 be developed a new philosophy, not like most of the airy systems of 

 metaphysical speculation hitherto prevalent, but one founded upon 

 the solid ground of Comparative Zoology. Just as this new 

 monistic philosophy first opens up to us a true understanding of the 

 real universe, so its application to practical human life must open up 

 a new road towards moral perfection. By its aid we shall at last 

 begin to raise ourselves out of the state of social barbarism in which, 

 notwithstanding the much-vaunted civilization of our century, we 

 .are still plunged. For, unfortunately, it is only too true, as Alfred 

 Wallace remarks with regard to this, at the end of his book of travels : 

 ' Compared with our wondrous progress in physical science and its 

 practical applications, our system of government, of administering 



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