1890.] From Brute to Man 341 
FROM BRUTE TO MAN. 
BY CHARLES MORRIS. 
puat man as an animal is an offspring of the lower life king- 
dom, none who are familiar with the facts of science now 
think of denying. Despite the indignant protest against this idea 
when promulgated by Darwin less than thirty years ago, it is 
now generally accepted by all those who have fully considered 
the evidence, and who therefore are alone competent to decide 
upon it. But that man as a thinking being has descended from 
the lower animals is a very different matter, and is by no means 
proved. Regarding the origin of man’s intellect, there is much 
difference of opinion, even among scientists, and such a radical 
evolutionist as Alfred Russel Wallace finds here a yawning gap 
in the line of descent, and believes that the intellect of man is a 
direct gift from the realm of spirits. His explanation, it is true, 
is more difficult than the difficulty itself. It cannot justly be 
called a hypothesis, for a hypothesis should have some facts to 
give it warrant, and this has none. That man’s mind cannot be 
explained on the principle of natural selection alone we may, 
with Wallace, admit. But it certainly would have been better 
had he on his part more fully considered the possibilities of use 
and effort, and other natural agencies, before dragging in the 
angels to bridge the chasm. 
That man’s intellect at its lowest level is not different in kind 
from the brute intellect at its highest level Romanes has satisfac- 
torily shown. His evidence, indeed, is superabundant. Contro- 
versy on this subject is too apt to be based on the difference 
between the intellect of the brute and that of enlightened man. 
Yet the mental gap between the latter and the lowest savage is 
quite as great as that between the savage and the brute. From 
the intellect of the animal to that of enlightened man the distance 
is enormous, yet throughout its whole extent, with a single ex- 
ception, can be traced intermediate steps of mental development 
