THE ORIGIN OF 



H U MAN REASON. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The question of evolution by the agency of natural 

 selection has now been debated for one whole genera- 

 tion. The result of the battle, so far, has been to 

 concentrate almost the entire interest of the struggle 

 upon the question whether or not the mind of man can 

 have been evolved from the psychical faculties of the 

 lower animals. We have not hesitated to declare, again 

 and again,* that such an evolution is necessarily impos- 

 sible ; but our critics and opponents, from Professor 

 Huxley t downwards, have evaded, rather than com- 



* See " The Genesis of Species " (Macmillan, 1870) ; " Lessons 

 from Nature" (John Murray, 1876) ; " On the Development of the 

 Individual and the Species," Proceedings of the Zoological Society^ 

 June 17, 1884; "A Limit to Evolution," Nineteenth Century^ 

 August, 1884; and "Nature and Thought" (Burns and Gates, 

 1885 : 2nd edit.). 



t See his article entitled " Mr. Darwin's Critics," in the Con- 

 temporary Review, 1 871, and reprinted in 1873 in Professor 

 Huxley's " Critiques and Addresses " (Macmillan and Co.), p. 251. 



B 



