172 PERFECTIBILITY OP MAN. 



animal species and varieties, and with that recognised 

 law of progress by which specialties of organisation 

 are evolved, or differentiated, to use a modern term, 

 from more general forms. The latter hypothesis, ad- 

 mitting neither of proof nor disproof, can only be met 

 by presumptions founded on the seeming stability of 

 the actual conditions of the earth (a supposition upon 

 which both astronomy and geology throw some doubt), 

 and on the great elevation of man above other animals 

 in his mental nature, j ustifying the belief that in him 

 the final design of the Creator, as regards the earth, 

 has been fulfilled. 1 Putting aside, however, these 

 vague speculations, we recur to our main question, can 

 the human race, as now constituted, and by its own 

 intrinsic capacities for change and progress, raise itself 

 to a higher level of intellectual and moral power than 

 that now existing ? 



In seeking to answer this question we must once 

 again refer to the inferior forms of life around us. The 

 natural history of man cannot in truth be separated 

 from theirs. One obvious fact here, and very im- 

 portant to the argument, is the great and often lasting 

 change produced in many of them by domestication 

 and human instruction. Such changes, indeed, made 

 more for man's sake than the animals', may be only 

 partial and doubtful improvement upon the wild races. 

 Even in the case of dogs an instance always foremost 

 in illustration the canine republics of some Oriental 



1 It is worthy of note that two writers, so little congruous in other 

 ways as Locke and Bolingbroke, have each expressed the probability that 

 created beings exist elsewhere of higher grade than man. The astrono- 

 mer may find some sanction of l*is own for this conception, 



