Philosophic Evolution. 165 



tianity. In France, though the school of Comte is com- 

 paratively small, yet English sensationalism, that of Mr. 

 Spencer, is making considerable advances, while the old 

 Voltairian spirit holds its own with a tenacity similar to 

 that possessed by the "principles of 1789." In Italy the 

 English and German speculative schools are also making 

 inroads, while, if such is not yet the case in the Iberian 

 Peninsula, traditional convictions are gradually losing 

 their hold, so that such exemption may perhaps be mainly 

 assigned to political conditions unfavourable for intellec- 

 tual activity. 



In England a remarkable change has come over the 

 spirit of the nation, and now by a singular coincidence 

 even the liveliest sentiments of pity for the brute creation 

 happen to concur with popular science in tending to ob- 

 scure the distinction between rational and irrational 

 natures, and in promoting a ready acceptance of the 

 great doctrine concerning the essential bestiality of man. 

 This doctrine is here specially referred to because it has 

 in fact become the test doctrine by which the philoso- 

 phical position of teachers and disciples may best be 

 gauged.* In the fourth chapter of this essay it was stated 

 that a certain philosophy was much diffused by means 



* Mr. A. J. Mott, in his opening address, October, 1873, to the 

 Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, p. 3, says : " Ques- 

 tions concerning the origin of mankind have become either the 

 radiating or the culminating points in most branches of science." 



