118 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



possibility of a natural evolution, he would be 

 carried away by quite definite logical sequences of 

 thought, and could find no obstacle in the fact that 

 some little bones were missing in man, which would 

 prove his descent from beasts. Logic has to continue 

 its task unaided, and logic is the power that moves 

 mankind. If it be once granted that, with regard 

 to his body, man may possibly be descended from 

 beasts, we are at once involved in the difficult 

 question of the connection between body and soul. 

 Whether we regard the world merely as a special 

 soul, or whether we regard it as a panpsychism, in 

 which we men are something objective, though at 

 the same time inwardly intelligent, body and 

 spirit are always in union. This is the first logical 

 result at which we arrive.' 



The following criticism on this ' first logical 

 result ' must suffice. The question as to how 

 far we must regard the theory of descent as 

 proved, is not a matter of possibilities, but of 

 facts. If, as Bolsche admits, natural science 

 does not give us any actual proof of the descent 

 of man from beasts, so far from being logical, we 

 should be most illogical, should we, as scientists, 

 assume this descent to be a fact. We should 

 be still more illogical if, in consequence of the 

 close connection that exists between the 

 human body and soul, we were to conclude that 

 man in his spiritual nature is the descendant 



