132 CHARLES DARWIN 



CHAPTER 



THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



IN 1871, nearly twelve years after the 'Origin of 

 Species,' Darwin published his ' Descent of Man.' 



We have seen already that he would fain have 

 avoided the treatment of this difficult and dangerous 

 topic a little longer, so as to let his main theory be 

 fairly judged on its own merits, without the obtrusion 

 of theological or personal feelings into so purely biologi- 

 cal a question ; but the current was too strong for him, 

 and at last he yielded. On the one hand, the adversaries 

 had drawn for themselves the conclusion of man's purely 

 animal origin, and held it up to ridicule under false 

 forms in the most absurd and odious light. On the 

 other hand, imprudent allies had put forth under the 

 evolutionary eegis their somewhat hypothetical and ex- 

 travagant speculations on this involved subject, which 

 Darwin was naturally anxious to correct and modify by 

 his own more sober and guarded inferences. The result 

 was the second great finishing work of the complete 

 Darwinian system of things. 



Ever since evolutionism had begun to be at all it 

 had been observed that a natural corollary from the 

 doctrine of descent with modification was the belief in 



