ON MAN AND HIS DEVELOPMENT. 7o 



as the special characteristic of our favoured species, has 

 been made possible. The accidental variation or depar- 

 ture from the average, that occasionally occurs in the 

 individuals of a species, and which gives to its possessor 

 an advantage in the struggle of life, which, according 

 to Darwin, is transmitted to posterity by inheritance, so 

 as to become in time an attribute of the whole species 

 by natural selection, this accidental variation corre- 

 sponds to the appearance of the man of genius, of 

 superior insight, in the human species, save only that 

 the rare differential quality is scarcely ever transmitted 

 by inheritance, and does not usually give its possessor 

 the victory in the combat of existence. 



Human societies, then, have not been raised by 

 natural selection. It has not been in the manner im- 

 plied in the doctrine of Darwin and evolution that man's 

 mental and moral constitution has been developed, what- 

 ever be the truth as regards his physical. It has not 

 been by the superior man winning in the battle of life, 

 and then transmitting his genius to his children, who 

 thus became the origin of a chosen race, that the great 

 man has profited either his species or himself. He has 

 served his kind by the communication of his special 

 secret, new truth, superior insight, higher quality of soul, 

 to some of his brother men the likest himself, and these 

 again to others, till in time the whole mass of men 

 becomes possessed of his idea, and leavened with his 

 spirit. He served men not by the hereditary transmis- 

 sion, but by the direct communication, of his soul. Often 

 the man of genius or hero did not win in the battle of 

 life, rarely or never he transmitted his genius to his 

 children, even if he had any. He did better; he gave 

 the benefit of it at once to all who could profit by it, 

 and ultimately to the human race. At least this is 



