302 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



improbable, the explanation of the condition then, 

 may be as the explanation of the condition now. 

 Let us, then, next turn to our modern civilisation. 

 What have we to say of this ? Our author has strong 

 testimony to give. Are all the inventions and 

 figments of human superstition and folly, the self- 

 inflicted torturing of mind, the reiterated substitution 

 of wrong for right, and of falsehood for truth, which 

 disfigure our modern civilisation, are these evidences 

 of progress ? In such respects we have at least reason 

 to fear that we may be degenerate. 1 This passage, 

 strong as it is, does not seem too strong, in view of 

 the facts to be found in the midst of our modern 

 civilisation. But, this granted, two things seem in 

 volved, that progress of the race fights against heavy 

 odds even in our modern civilisation; and that, 

 as degeneration appears under natural law, the 

 hypothesis that some portion of our race has escaped, 

 appears highly improbable. 



Our main question, however, is quite aside from 

 historic hypothesis. We look at the facts of de 

 generation as these lie open to observation. They 

 point clearly to two distinct phases of degeneracy, in 

 accordance with the distinction between animal and 

 man, and also with the distinction between animal 

 and mind, in man himself. It does not seem needful 

 to travel wider than the testimony supplied above. 

 Professor Lankester does not propose to deal with 

 degeneration in animals otherwise than as a fact 

 to be admitted as inevitable under natural law. But 

 he reasons with his fellow-countrymen, warning them 

 of a danger to be dreaded and avoided. This aptly 



1 Advancement of Science, p. 48. 



