MAN AS AN INTELLIGENT ANIMAL. 293 



arguments against this phase of evolution. Your 

 primitive half man, it is said, is only hypothetical, 

 you cannot prove his existence, nor even find any 

 evidence of him in fossils. The fact that the origin 

 of the human race is so much more important than 

 that of any other animal, makes this argument very 

 forcible in its appeal, and it is sometimes regarded 

 as insurmountable. But as a scientific argument 

 this fact has no more weight than the absence 

 of certain other connecting links, of which every 

 one admits there is an abundance. We may be 

 more anxious in regard to finding evidence of this 

 connecting link between man and his supposed an- 

 cestors than we are to find evidence connecting the 

 elephant with his ancestors, but we have no more 

 reason for expecting the one than the other. The 

 absence of fossil half-man is unfortunate for evolu- 

 tion, but it is scientifically only an instance of the 

 imperfection of the fossil record, which we well 

 know to be great. 



Man as an Intelligent Animal. 



It is useless to attempt, as far as man's body is 

 concerned, to exempt him from the general principle 

 of evolution, and few would think of doing so to- 

 day. It would be simply to deny the cogency of 

 the arguments which are conceded elsewhere, and 

 consistency requires us either to deny evolution al- 

 together or admit it here. 



But when we come to consider man as an intel- 

 ligent, moral being, the question assumes a very 

 different aspect. If man's mental qualities be taken 



