28 



affinities and genealogy of man ". "Man is liable to numerous, 

 slight and diversified variations, which are induced by the 

 same general causes, are governed and transmitted in accord- 

 ance with the same general laws as in the lower animals." 1 

 This biological standpoint is thenceforth continued to the 

 end of the book. This standpoint is the same as that adopted 

 in 'The Origin of Species', and it should be noticed, in contrast 

 with what we shall find when we come to deal with the intel- 

 lectual and moral qualities, that the point of emphasis here 

 is on the side of identifying man with the great animal class 

 below him. In a word, we might look upon 'The Descent of 

 Man' as a biological work, treating chapters two, three, and 

 five, as parenthetical. 2 



Now we may briefly examine the standpoint which Darwin 

 adopts in the chapters on the intellectual and moral qualities. 

 His own words will perhaps indicate this best. "We have 

 seen in the last chapter, 3 that man bears in his bodily structure 

 clear traces of his descent from some lower form; but it may 

 be urged that as man differs so greatly in his mental power 

 from all other animals, there must be some error in this con- 

 clusion." 4 "My object in this chapter is solely to show that 

 there is no fundamental difference between man and the 

 higher mammals in their mental faculties." 5 How does Darwin 

 deal with this position? He does not, as so many writers on 

 mental evolution do, begin with a very minute analysis of the 

 nervous system, and thus trace the gradual rise of conscious- 

 ness. This is indicated in the following: "In what manner 

 the mental powers were first developed in the lowest organisms, 

 is as hopeless an enquiry as how life itself first originated. 

 These are problems for the distant future, if they are ever to 

 be solved by man." 6 We find also that Darwin's standpoint 

 in dealing with 'man' is changed when he begins to discuss 

 mental facts. At least the order of his procedure is different. 

 From the biological standpoint, as we have seen, the effort 

 was to show that the human organism contains in a developed 

 form nothing but those properties which are found in animals. 

 In dealing with the difference between men and animals 



'O.C. Vol. I, p. 185. 



2 In the second English edition, Ch. 4, of the 1st ed. is inserted after Ch. 

 1, as Ch. 2, thus dealing with intellectual and moral phenomena in Chs. 3, 

 4, and 5. 



s That is, Ch. 1, dealing with the manner of development of man , as a 

 physical organism, from some lower form. 



<O.C. p. 34. 



6 O.C. p. 35. 



O.C. p. 36. 



