144 HYPOTHESIS OP THE DEVELOPMENT OF 



theory is in giving this adaptive principle too much to do. 

 What undoubtedly is effectual in modifying the exterior 

 peculiarities of animals was obviously insufficient to account 

 for the great grades of organization. In the present day, we 

 have superior light from geology and physiology, and hence 

 arises my suggestion of a process analogous to ordinary ges- 

 tation for advancing organic life through its grades in the 

 course of a long but definite space of time, with only a 

 recourse to external conditions as a means of producing the 

 exterior characters. It must nevertheless be acknowledged 

 that the germ of this natural view of the history of the world 

 is presented in the work of Lamarck. 



But the idea that any of the lower animals have been con- 

 cerned in any way with the origin of man is not this de- 

 grading ? Degrading is a term expressive of a notion of the 

 human mind, and the human mind is liable to prejudices 

 which prevent its notions from being invariably correct. 

 Were we acquainted for the first time with the circumstances 

 attending the production of an individual of our race, we 

 might equally think them degrading, and be eager to deny 

 them, and exclude them from the admitted truths of nature. 

 Knowing this fact familiarly and beyond contradiction, a 

 healthy and natural mind finds no difficulty in regarding it 

 complacently. So also, on becoming aware of the genetic 

 history of our species, we might expect a rational and well- 

 ordered mind to receive the idea with submission, as a view 

 of the manner in which Divine Providence has been pleased 

 in this instance to work. One source of the prejudice here 

 to be contended with rests in our associations with the word 

 ancestry. From seeing our immediate seniors possessed of 

 venerable qualities, we naturally incline to venerate an an- 

 cestry ; we presume its constituent elements to be something 

 superior to ourselves. When called upon, therefore, to place 

 any of the inferior orders of Being in this relation, a shock 

 unavoidably follows. But here the error lies in transferring 

 our idea of the qualities of a sire or grandsire to a collective 

 ancestry. The elder people of the earth are in reality its 

 children, and we are its true senate. The feeling due to 



