RATIONAL LIFE 337 



Our view of Man s Place in Nature is now com 

 pleted. Kesearch, extended over the wide field of 

 comparative biology, has accumulated a large body of 

 evidence demonstrating the impossibility of tracing 

 the origin of man s rational life to evolution from a 

 lower life. There are no physical forces discoverable 

 in Nature, sufficient to account for the appearance of 

 this life. The insufficiency of the evidence for its 

 evolution becomes increasingly obvious, as the de 

 mands are more exactly ascertained. Animal Intel 

 ligence shows no effective preparation for Kational 

 Intelligence. All the best examples of Intelligence 

 among the animals present results of human training. 

 These results testify to relations historically later than 

 those upon which a theory of Evolution can rely. 

 Nor can the characteristics of rational life be explained 

 by any possible advance in the structure of nerves 

 and brain. Neither continuance, nor repetition, nor 

 recollection of sensory impressions made upon us, can 

 explain the reflective exercise known in consciousness. 

 Throughout the preceding investigation, the object 

 has been to ascertain all facts bearing on the history 

 of life on the earth, and to seek their interpretation. 

 Pursuit of this object, has led us to remark the 

 severance of two distinct modes of inquiry, the one 

 including the whole range of external existence, the 

 other including the whole facts of personal experience. 

 The severance of these two is inevitable and insuper 

 able. External observation concerns itself with the 

 wide field of material existence, including all forms of 

 organic life; amongst these, the animal life of man 

 himself. It cannot include the functions of Mind. 

 Internal Observation deals with the complexities of 



