XXiV PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



undertook in publishing these was indeed much harder than 

 that incurred in the " Natural History of Creation; " for 

 while the latter passed lightly through the widest circle 

 of biological phenomena, and touched only on the most 

 interesting points, I was obliged, in the " History of the 

 Evolution of Man," to exhibit a much more limited series 

 of phenomena in their proper connection, of which, indeed, 

 each individual one is interesting in its proper place, 

 although they are of very various degrees of interest. 

 Moreover, the comprehension of form -phenomena, with 

 which human germ- history deals, is among the most 

 difficult of morphological tasks ; the academical lectures 

 on the history of human evolution are rightly considered 

 even by medical men, who are previously acquainted with 

 the anatomical features of the human body, as the most 

 difficult to understand. I saw, therefore, that, if I desired 

 to make the road into this dark region, entirely closed as 

 yet to most men, really accessible to the educated laity, 

 I must, on the one hand, limit myself as far as possible in 

 my selection from the abundance of empiric matter, and 

 yet, on the other hand, that I must be careful not to pass 

 entirely over any essential part of this matter. 



Although, therefore, I have throughout taken pains to 

 present the scientific problem of Anthropogeny in as 

 popular a form as possible, I do not imagine that I have 

 completely accomplished this very difficult task. I shall, 

 however, have gained my object if I succeed in affording 

 educated persons an approximate conception of the most 

 essential outlines of human germ-history, and in con- 

 vincing them that the sole explanation and comprehension 

 of the matter is afforded by the corresponding tribal 



