Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- I Man's Place in Nature as affected by the Copernican Theory
- II As affected by Darwinism
- III On the Earth there will never be a Higher Creature than Man
- IV The Origin of Infancy
- V The Dawning of Consciousness
- VI Lengthening of Infancy and Concomitant Increase of Brain-Surface
- VII Change in the Direction of the Working of Natural Selection
- VIII Growing Predominance of the Psychical Life
- IX The Origins of Society and of Morality
- X Improvableness of Man
- XI Universal Warfare of Primeval Men
- XII First checked by the Beginnings of Industrial Civilisation
- XIII Methods of Political Development, and Elimination of Warfare
- XIV End of tie Working of Natural Selection upon Man. Throwing off the Brute-Inheritance
- XV The Message of Christianity
- XVI The Question as to a Future Life
- References
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- I Man's Place in Nature as affected by the Copernican Theory
- II As affected by Darwinism
- III On the Earth there will never be a Higher Creature than Man
- IV The Origin of Infancy
- V The Dawning of Consciousness
- VI Lengthening of Infancy and Concomitant Increase of Brain-Surface
- VII Change in the Direction of the Working of Natural Selection
- VIII Growing Predominance of the Psychical Life
- IX The Origins of Society and of Morality
- X Improvableness of Man
- XI Universal Warfare of Primeval Men
- XII First checked by the Beginnings of Industrial Civilisation
- XIII Methods of Political Development, and Elimination of Warfare
- XIV End of tie Working of Natural Selection upon Man. Throwing off the Brute-Inheritance
- XV The Message of Christianity
- XVI The Question as to a Future Life
- References
Summary
For the creation of Man was by no means the creation of a perfect being. The most essential feature of Man is his improvableness, and since his first appearance on the earth the changes that have gone on in him have been enormous, though they have continued to run along in the lines of development that were then marked out. The changes have been so great that in many respects the interval between the highest and the lowest men far surpasses quantitatively the interval between the lowest men and the highest apes. If we take into account the creasing of the cerebral surface, the difference between the brain of a Shakespeare and that of an Australian savage would doubtless be fifty times greater than the difference between the Australian's brain and that of an orangoutang. In mathematical capacity the Australian, who cannot tell the number of fingers on his two hands, is much nearer to a lion or wolf than to Sir Rowan Hamilton, who invented the method of quaternions. In moral development this same Australian, whose language contains no words for justice and benevolence, is less remote from dogs and baboons than from a Howard or a Garrison. In progressiveness, too, the difference between the lowest and the highest races of men is no less conspicuous. The Australian is more teachable than the ape, but his limit is nevertheless very quickly reached.
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- Information
- The Destiny of ManViewed in the Light of his Origin, pp. 71 - 76Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1884