

208 MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



has provided for us a Saviour from all the sins and 

 evils that afflict humanity. 



Regarding man, then, as a part of nature, we must 

 hold to his entering into the grand unity of the 

 natural system, and must not set up imaginary anta 

 gonisms between man and nature, as if he were out 

 side of it. An instance of this appears in TynctelPs 

 celebrated Belfast address, where he says, in explana 

 tion of the errors of certain of the older philosophers, 

 that the experiences which formed the weft and 

 woof of their theories were chosen not from the study 

 of nature, but from that which lay much nearer to 

 them the observation of Man ; a statement this 

 which would make man a supernatural or at least a 

 preternatural being. i Again, it does not follow that 

 because man is a partxH nature that he must be pre 

 cisely on a level with its other parts. There are in 

 nature many planes of existence, and man is no doubt 

 on one of its higher planes and possesses distinguish 

 ing powers and properties of his own. Nature, like a 

 perfect organism, is not all eye or all hand, but in 

 cludes various organs, and, so far as we sec it in our 

 planet, man is its head, though we can easily conceive 

 that there may be higher beings in other parts of the 

 universe beyond our ken.X* 



r 



!jjhe view which we may take of man s position 

 relatively to the beings which are nearest to him, 

 namely, the lower animals, will depend on our point 

 of sight whether that of mere anatomy and physio- 



