104 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



preserve all the results of unconscious strivings of 

 organism towards the perfect form of the species. 



Hitherto we have been dealing with biology as 

 it may be interpreted by reference to the laws of 

 organism. We have included human life without 

 reserve, no occasion appearing to draw any distinction, 

 save that which is concerned with elaborate structural 

 differentiation. Now we must introduce the out 

 standing feature of contrast appearing in rational 

 life. 



An entirely new question here emerges connected 

 with interpretation of the laws of heredity. If we 

 have touched the limits of organic development, we 

 have not included the grand characteristic of human 

 life. We have contemplated heritage as that can be 

 stated in terms of structure and its functions ; but we 

 have still to deal with a larger inheritance, the 

 possession of every member of our race. In this we 

 find a new feature, giving to individuality a place not 

 recognised at any lower stage of existence. Each 

 member of the human race has a rational life, distinct 

 from that which belongs to physical structure. This 

 is the difference intended, when we say that reason is 

 man s grandest inheritance. Granting all that has 

 been said as to continuity of germ-plasm, there appears, 

 beyond this, another continuity in conscious life. The 

 organic does not pass into this, but is discontinuous 

 with that which is persistent on a higher plane. 

 Reason belongs to the heritage of the individual, 

 and is conspicuous above all other characteristics of 

 human life. We seek, now, the new phases of heredity 

 to be recognised when this grand distinction is in 

 cluded. The question is, can we trace heredity in the 



