THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 
477 
FURTHER FACTS AND ARGUMENTS ON THE ORIGIN 
OF MAN, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE 
MECHANICAL THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 
ABSTRACT OF REV. J. ERSKINE RISERS PAPER. 
(Read February 3rd, 1876.) 
The former lecture on the origin of man dealing only with the 
natural history of the subject, this will distinguish between the 
various theories of evolution. The mechanical or nontheistic 
theory distinguished from the atheistic, or prevalent German 
theory. Herbert Spencer's illustration of his theory analysed and 
tested. The precise stand-point of Spencer, and relation of his 
theory to that of Darwin. Is there really a strict community of 
descent? Review of arguments to this effect, and what they 
really prove; viz., the common general type of all the vertebrata, 
and the common animal nature of man and the other animals. 
The mechanical evolutionist theory of the origin of life, mind, and 
the moral faculties. Its inadequacy. Size of brain and mental 
capacity, how related. Limits of natural selection in man. The 
difference in mental and moral faculties of man and brute is one 
of kind, and not merely of degree. The stability of species is 
relative rather than absolute, if we take into account the immense 
periods of duration of the existence of the earth. Summary of con- 
clusions from the facts and arguments adduced in the two lectures 
of the session on this subject. Confirmation of these conclusions 
from the recent address (1875) of Professor Cleland, of Glasgow, at 
the British Association. " Even ... in the varieties of the human 
race," says Professor Cleland, " there seems to be some evidence 
that the progress of evolution is to be traced from man, not to other 
animal forms yet to appear, but through his psychical nature, into 
the land of the unseen.' ' 
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