THE INFOLUTIONARY ASCENT 111 



tributes as need for food and propagation, common to 

 both, and to all animals. 



" In exactly the same way is it impossible for biology 

 to consider man as just an animal. If it touches him 

 at all it must touch him as the human animal. Con- 

 fusion of thought in this matter, not only among laymen 

 but among many biologists, is amazing, and has led to 

 the most bizarre speculations about man, some of these 

 being truly direful in their effects on human outlook and 

 conduct. 



" In the light of this simple zoological principle, such 

 creations as Friedrich Nietzsche's ' Blonde Beast ' is 

 seen to have just as much and just as little claim to 

 serious attention as have satyrs and centaurs. Because 

 man retains some of the attributes of his animal an- 

 cestors which may come to the front in their ancient, 

 or even in augmented force, under exceptional condi- 

 tions, as in feeble-mindedness and insanity, it does not 

 follow that all men should be looked upon as insane or 

 feeble-minded. 



" So biology, having been drawn into this discussion 

 by showing that it would sanction war in such special 

 cases as that symbolised by the hungry man and the 

 loaf of bread, is bound to repel the attempt to make it 

 justify war generally, especially since that involves the 

 attempt to hamper biology in the use of one of her best 

 established, most cherished procedures that of treat- 

 ing each animal on the basis of its most distinctive at- 

 tributes. While biology freely admits that the hungry 

 man, like any other hungry animal, is bound to steal 

 food or fight for it if necessary, it is at the same time 

 compelled by the facts to recognise that as a human 

 animal, endowed with reason, and foresight, and inven- 

 tive talent, and humane sentiments, man dehumanises 



