THE ANNUAL ADDEESS. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RELIGIOUS 

 FACULTY LX MAN, APART FROM REVELA- 

 TLON By the Et. Eev. Bishop Welldox, D.D. 



This paper has not been finally corrected by the author. 



1. Whatever be the way in which man came into the world, 

 whether by an immediate act of the Creator or by evolution 

 from a lower species, it is evident that there must have been 

 a first man, in other words, there was at some point of the 

 world's history a being who first deserved the name of man. 

 It is perhaps a difficulty in the way of the modern doctrine of 

 man's descent from some lower animal that the beings immedi- 

 ately next to him in the evolutionary scale should be either 

 non-existent or far less numerous than such beings as are 

 infinitely below him. But if there was, as there must have 

 been, a first man, then the nature of man stands by itself: it is 

 what it has been experimentally proved to be, and it must not 

 be limited by any such standard as may be applicable to the 

 nature of lower beings. 



2. History proves the spiritual element in man. To deny it 

 is wholly to misconceive human nature. It may be admitted 

 that the spiritual part of man's nature, like other parts, has at 

 times become distorted, that is, it has tended to such results 



B 



