II.

Man’s Place in Nature, as affected by Darwinism.

When the Copernican astronomy was finally established through the discoveries of Kepler and Newton, it might well have been pronounced the greatest scientific achievement of the human mind; but it was still more than that.  It was the greatest revolution that had ever been effected in Man’s views of his relations to the universe in which he lives, and of which he is—­at least during the present life—­a part.  During the nineteenth century, however, a still greater revolution has been effected.  Not only has Lyell enlarged our mental horizon in time as much as Newton enlarged it in space, but it appears that throughout these vast stretches of time and space with which we have been made acquainted there are sundry well-marked changes going on.  Certain definite paths of development are being pursued; and around us on every side we behold worlds, organisms, and societies in divers stages of progress or decline.  Still more, as we examine the records of past life upon our globe, and study the mutual relations of the living things that still remain, it appears that the higher forms of life—­including Man himself—­are the modified descendants of lower forms.  Zooelogically speaking, Man can no longer be regarded as a creature apart by himself.  We cannot erect an order on purpose to contain him, as Cuvier tried to do; we cannot even make a separate family for him.  Man is not only a vertebrate, a mammal, and a primate, but he belongs, as a genus, to the catarrhine family of apes.  And just as lions, leopards, and lynxes—­different genera of the cat-family—­are descended from a common stock of carnivora, back to which we may also trace the pedigrees of dogs, hyaenas, bears, and seals; so the various genera of platyrrhine and catarrhine apes, including Man, are doubtless descended from a common stock of primates, back to which we may also trace the converging pedigrees of monkeys and lemurs, until their ancestry becomes indistinguishable from that of rabbits and squirrels.  Such is the conclusion to which the scientific world has come within a quarter of a century from the publication of Mr. Darwin’s “Origin of Species;” and there is no more reason for supposing that this conclusion will ever be gainsaid than for supposing that the Copernican astronomy will some time be overthrown and the concentric spheres of Dante’s heaven reinstated in the minds of men.

It is not strange that this theory of man’s origin, which we associate mainly with the name of Mr. Darwin, should be to many people very unwelcome.  It is fast bringing about a still greater revolution in thought than that which was heralded by Copernicus; and it naturally takes some time for the various portions of one’s theory of things to become adjusted, one after another, to so vast and sweeping a change.  From many quarters the cry goes up,—­If this be true, then Man is at length cast down from his