304 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



that man is in possession of a nature shared by no 

 animal. With the good gift of reason/ as is here 

 said, every child is born ; to reject this good gift 

 is a man s own conscious and responsible act, not 

 occurring by force of natural law, as when the sheep 

 shows a breadth of black wool; not an effect of 

 heredity purely, even though inheritance may have 

 something to do with it; but involving deliberate, con 

 tinued, responsible action, throughout the history of 

 which, even down to the lowest degeneration, the 

 man never parts with his reason, though not infre 

 quently he parts with his hope. 



In carrying forward this argument, I have been 

 careful to introduce, from time to time, reference to 

 the animal nature of man. This is at once an obvious 

 part of the theoretic position here maintained, and is 

 quite essential for the present stage in the discussion. 

 Thus it is made increasingly obvious, that it is only 

 on recognition of two natures, two orders of life, 

 animal and rational, in man, that an adequate repre 

 sentation of degeneration and of personal responsi 

 bility can be founded, or any true reading of heredity, 

 as it appears in human life. To the bearings of here 

 dity in a life, at once animal and rational, it becomes 

 desirable now to give deliberate consideration. 



Only by keeping the physical distinct from the 

 mental in the life of man, and, at the same time, only 

 by keeping full in view the unity of the life, in 

 which these two are constituents, is a doctrine of 

 heredity in human life attainable, in such a form as 

 can be generally accepted. That there are conditions 

 other than those of animal life, appears from our ad 

 mission of responsibility. Man is so much more than 



