24 A GREAT CONFESSION CHAP. 



this search he was led to " survival of 

 the fittest." But he frankly admits that 

 " kindred objections may be urged 

 against the expression " to which this 

 leading led him. The first of these 

 words in a vague way, and the second 

 word in a clear way, calls up an idea 

 which he must admit to be "anthropo- 

 centric." What an embarrassment it is 

 that the human mind cannot wholly turn 

 the back upon itself. Self-evisceration, 

 the happy despatch of the Japanese, is 

 not impossible or even difficult, although 

 when it is done the man does not expect 

 to continue in life. But self-evisceration 

 by the intellectual faculties is a much 

 more arduous operation, especially when 

 we expect to go on thinking and defin- 

 ing as before. It is conceivable that a 

 man might live at least for a time with- 

 out his viscera, but it is not conceivable 

 that a mind should reason with only 



