136 CHARLES DARWIN 



and Book of Joshua Critically Examined,' the publication 

 of which began in 1862, had already shaken the founda- 

 tions of the Mosaic cosmogony, and incidentally dis- 

 credited the received view of the direct creation of the 

 first human family. M'Lennan's ' Primitive Marriage' 

 (1865) and Herbert Spencer's articles on the origin of 

 religion had kept speculation alive along other paths, 

 all tending ultimately towards the same conclusion. 

 Darwin's own cousin, Hensleigh Wedgwood, and Canon 

 Farrar, had independently endeavoured to prove that 

 language, instead of being a divine gift, might have 

 arisen in a purely natural manner from instinctive cries 

 and the imitation of external sounds. The Duke of 

 Argyll and Professor Max Miiller, by the obvious feeble- 

 ness of their half-hearted replies, had unconsciously 

 aided in disseminating and enforcing the very views they 

 attempted to combat. Bagehot and Flower, Maudsley 

 and Jevons, Vogt and Lindsay, Galton and Brown- 

 Sequard had each in his way contributed facts and argu- 

 ments ultimately utilised by the great master architect 

 in building up his consistent and harmonious edifice. 

 Finally, in 1868, Haeckel had published his 'Natural 

 History of Creation,' in which he discussed with sur- 

 prising and perhaps excessive boldness the various stages 

 in the genealogy of man. These various works, follow- 

 ing so close upon Huxley's ' Man's Place in Nature ' 

 and Lyell's conclusive ' Antiquity of Man,' left Darwin 

 no choice but to set forth his own reasoned opinions on 

 the subject of the origin and development of the human 

 species. 



The evidence of the descent of man from some lower 

 form, collected and marshalled together by Darwin, con- 



