204 SCIENCE AND THE HUMAN MIND 



now unknown or have long been extinct in Europe, 

 enabled Lyell in 1863 to place man in a position in 

 the long series of organic types, and to show that his 

 existence on the earth must have extended over 

 periods vastly greater than any contemplated by the 

 accepted Biblical chronology. The subject is not yet 

 closed. More recently, remains have come to light 

 showing that man, as we know him now, was also pre- 

 ceded by types to which it is hard to give a name or 

 to classify definitely either among the lower races of 

 mankind or among the species of the higher anthropoid 

 apes. The human form apparently has varied and 

 developed, and is probably still subject to the possi- 

 bility of change. 



The idea of an evolutionary process in nature is 

 at least as old as the days of the Greek philosophers. 



Evolution Heracleitus believed that all things were 

 before Darwin. m a s t a te of flux travra pel. Em- 

 pedocles taught that the development of life was 

 a gradual process, and that imperfect forms were 

 slowly replaced by forms more perfect. By the time 

 of Aristotle, speculation seems to have gone farther, 

 and to have conceived the idea that the more perfect 

 type might have developed out of, as well as pre- 

 ceded, the less perfect. But the atomists, who are 

 often claimed as evolutionists, seem again to have 

 contemplated the arising of each species de novo. 

 Nevertheless, in their belief that only those types 

 survived which were fitted for the environment, they 

 touched in spirit the essence of the theory of natural 

 selection, though their basis of fact was insufficient. 

 But, in science, it has been truly observed that 



