Summary of Contents xiii 



material of progress furnished by variations and mutations 

 — De Vries's Evening Primroses — "Modifications" do not 

 count for much as far as the race is concerned — The 

 directive factors are included in the terms Selection and 

 Isolation — A common error as to fortuitousness — The 

 preciousness of individuality — The importance of struggle 

 and endeavor — Struggle is more than competitive — Ethical 

 aspect of organic evolution — Attempt at a correction of the 

 ultra-Darwinian picture — The struggle for existence is 

 often an endeavor after well-being, an rndeavor for others 

 as well as self — Darwin on the emotional value of the 

 evolutionary conception. 



V. MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE 



Man's zoological position and his distinctive peculiarities 

 — Closely allied anatomically to the Primates, but dis- 

 tinctive from heel to chin, from big toe to forehead, above 

 all in his big brain — His real distinctiveness depends not 

 on anatomical peculiarities, but on his powers, especially 

 on his powers of rational discourse, of building up general 

 ideas, of guiding his conduct by ideals — Does "the all- 

 pervading similitude of structure" between Man and the 

 Primate stock imply affiliation? — The scientific answer is 

 Yes, Man and the Anthropoid apes must have had a com- 

 mon ancestor — What other interpretations are in the field ? 

 That man is "the Great Exception" to natural evolution, 

 that while his body was naturally evolved he received a 

 specific "spiritual influx" — Summary of the facts used by 

 Darwin and others in support of the evolutionist inter- 

 pretation — As in other cases, these are not demonstrative, 

 but they have a cumulative convincingness — The difficulty 

 of the problem of the Ascent of Man — We do not know 

 how he arose, or whence he came, or when he began, or 

 where it was — His antiquity is certain, but little else — Man 



