256 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



exclusively to the forms of life assured to us on historic 

 evidence as precursors of this event. Here the records 

 of Palaeontology supply our only available testimony. 

 When these determine our conclusions, it is impossible 

 to find in the horse and dog progenitors of our race. 

 Our best examples of animal intelligence are thus 

 withdrawn from the circle of evidence available for 

 Evolution. For historic accuracy our lines of thought 

 must be in large measure reversed. In accordance 

 with the conclusion to which all evidence is certainly 

 leading, we need a greatly extended view of man s 

 place in Nature. For it is true, as has been admirably 

 said by Sir Robert Ball, that the advent of intelligent 

 beings on the globe has certainly introduced a factor 

 into evolution, the full import of which we are not at 

 present able to appreciate. 1 



1 Fortnightly Review, April 1892. 



