184 LESSONS FROM NATURE. [CHAP. VI. 



an ideal of absolute goodness. But this is not so. Man is not 

 merely an intellectual animal, but he is a free moral agent, 

 and, as such and with the infinite future such freedom opens 

 out before him differs from all the rest of the visible universe 

 by a distinction so profound that no one of those which separate 

 other visible beings is comparable with it. The gulf which 

 lies between his being as a whole, and that of the highest 

 brute, marks off vastly more than a mere kingdom of material 

 beings, and man, so considered, differs far more from an 

 elephant or a gorilla than do these from the dust of the earth 

 on which they tread. 



Thus, then, in our judgment the author of the Descent of 

 Man has utterly failed in the only part of his work which 

 is really important. Mr. Darwin s errors are mainly due to 

 a radically false metaphysical system in -which he seems (like 

 so many other physicists) to have become entangled. With 

 out a sound philosophical basis, however, no satisfactory 

 scientific superstructure can ever be reared; and if Mr. 

 Darwin s failure should lead to an increase of philosophic 

 culture on the part of physicists, we may therein find some 

 consolation for the injurious effects which his work is likely 

 to produce on too many of our half-educated classes. 



There is another question concerning the various races of 

 umty of man about which only a few words can now be said, 

 human races. jr or tuiiately but few words need be said, since there 

 is much unanimity on the subject between thinkers of very 

 diverse views as to man s origin. 



This question is whether the races of man form but one 

 species. Upon this subject the verdicts of evolutionists of 

 the school of Darwin and Huxley are not doubtful. Mr. 

 Darwin says * as to the instability of racial characters : 

 &quot; it may be doubted whether any character can be named 

 which is distinctive of a race and is constant/ Again, as to 

 the origin of the existing races from a single pair, he admits f 

 that &quot; with our domestic animals a new race can readily be 



* Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 225. f Op. cit. p. 235. 



