180 LESSONS FROM NATUEE. [CHAP. VI. 



man s hairlessness by the help of &quot;sexual selection.&quot; He 

 also, however, speculates as to the possibility of his having 

 lost it through heat of climate, saying : &quot; Elephants and 

 rhinoceroses are almost hairless; and as certain extinct 

 species which formerly lived under an arctic climate were 

 covered with long wool or hair, it would almost appear as 

 if the existing species of both genera had lost their hairy 

 covering from exposure to heat&quot; (vol. i. p. 148). 



This affords us a good example of hasty and inconclusive 

 speculation. Surely it would be quite as rational to suppose 

 that the arctic species had gained their coats as that the 

 tropical species had lost theirs. But hasty conclusions are 

 but too frequent in Mr. Darwin s speculations as to man s 

 genealogy which he calls his &quot; descent&quot; though &quot; ascent &quot; 

 would be a far more appropriate term. 



In fact, Mr. Darwin s power of reasoning seems to be 

 in an inverse ratio to his power of observation. On the 

 whole, we are convinced that, by his Descent of Man/ the 

 cause of &quot; Natural Selection &quot; has been rather injured than 

 promoted ; and I must confess to a feeling of surprise that 

 the case put before us is not stronger, since we had anticipated 

 some telling and significant facts from Mr. Darwin s biolo 

 gical treasure-house. 



A great part of the work may be dismissed as beside the 

 point as a mere elaborate and profuse statement of the 

 obvious fact, which no one denies, that man is an animal, 

 and has all the essential properties of a highly organised 

 one. Along with this truth, however, we find the assump 

 tion that he is no more than an animal an assumption 

 which is necessarily implied in Mr. Darwin s distinct asser 

 tion that there is no difference of kind, but merely one of 

 degree, between man s mental faculties and those of brutes. 



I have endeavoured to show that this is distinctly untrue ; 

 that not only we are not compelled, but that it is our 

 duty, not to abandon the received position that man is an 

 animal indeed, but the only rational one known to us, and 

 that this is a distinction in kind, and fundamental. The 



