264 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



of the theory, as well as by all its opponents who reason 

 logically. 



But if the doctrine be true, then the recognition of the 

 animal origin and pedigree of the human race will neces- 

 sarily affect more deeply than any other progress of the 

 human mind the views we form of aU human relations, 

 and the aims of all human science. It must sooner 

 or later produce a complete revolution in the conception 

 entertained by man of the entire universe. I am firmly 

 convinced that in future this immense advance in our know- 

 ledge wiU be regarded as the beginning of a new period 

 of the development of Mankind. It can only be com- 

 pared to the discovery made by Copernicus, who was the 

 first who ventured distinctly to express the opinion, that 

 it was not the sun which moved round the earth, but the 

 earth round the sun. Just as the geocentric conception 

 of the universe — namely, the false opinion that the earth 

 was the centre of the universe, and that all its other por- 

 tions revolved round the earth — was overthrown by the 

 system of the universe established by Copernicus and his 

 followers, so the anthro'pocentTic conception of the universe 

 — the vain delusion that Man is the centre of terrestrial 

 nature, and that its whole aim is merely to serve him — 

 is overthrown by the application (attempted long since by 

 Lamarck) of the theory of descent to Man. As Copernicus' 

 system of the universe was mechanically established by 

 Newton's theory of gravitation, we see Lamarck's theory 

 of descent attain its causal establishment by Darwin's 

 theory of selection. This comparison, which is very in- 

 teresting in many respects, I have discussed in detail 

 elsewhere. 



