THE DESCENT OF MAN; 



AND 



SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The nature of the following work will be best understood by a 

 brief account of how it came to be written. During many years 

 I collected notes on the origin or descent of man, "without any 

 intention of publishing on the subject, but rather with the de- 

 termination not to publish, as I thought that I should thus only 

 add to the prejudices against my views. It seemed to me suflB- 

 cient to indicate, in the first edition of my 'Origin of Species,' that 

 by this work "light would be thrown on the origin of man and 

 "his history;" and this implies that man must be included with 

 other organic beings in any general conclusion respecting his 

 manner of appearance on this earth. Now the case wears a 

 wholly different aspect. When a naturalist like Carl Vogt ven- 

 tures to say in his address as President of the National Institution 

 of Geneva (1869), "personne, en Europe au moins, n'ose plus sou- 

 "tenir la creation indSpendante et de toutes pieces, des espfeces," 

 it is manifest that at least a large number of naturalists must ad- 

 mit that species are the modified descendants of other species; 

 and this especially holds good with the younger and rising natural- 

 ists. The greater number accept the agency of natural selection; 

 though some urge, whether with justice the future must decide, 

 that I have greatly overrated its importance. Of the older and 

 honored chiefs in natural science, many unfortunately are still 

 opposed to evolution in every form. 



In consequence of the views now adopted by most naturalists, 

 and which will ultimately, as in every other case, be followed by 

 others who are not scientific, I have been led to put together my 

 notes, so as to see how far the general conclusions arrived at in 

 my former works were applicable to man. This seemed all the 

 more desirable, as I had never deliberately applied these views to 

 a species taken singly. When we confine our attention to any 

 one form, we are deprived of the weighty arguments derived from 

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