oral and Intellectual Nature of Man._

From the foregoing discussion it will be seen that I fully accept Mr.
Darwin's conclusion as to the essential identity of man's bodily
structure with that of the higher mammalia, and his descent from some
ancestral form common to man and the anthropoid apes. The evidence of
such descent appears to me to be overwhelming and conclusive. Again, as
to the cause and method of such descent and modification, we may admit,
at all events provisionally, that the laws of variation and natural
selection, acting through the struggle for existence and the continual
need of more perfect adaptation to the physical and biological
environments, may have brought about, first that perfection of bodily
structure in which he is so far above all other animals, and in
co-ordination with it the larger and more developed brain, by means of
which he has been able to utilise that structure in the more and more
complete subjection of the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms to his
service.

But this is only the beginning of Mr. Darwin's work, since he goes on to
discuss the moral nature and mental faculties of man, and derives these
too by gradual modification and development from the lower animals.
Although, perhaps, nowhere distinctly formulated, his whole argument
tends to the conclusion that man's entire nature and all his faculties,
whether moral, intellectual, or spiritual, have been derived from their
rudiments in the lower animals, in the same manner and by the action of
the same general laws as his physical structure has been derived. As
this conclusion appears to me not to be supported by adequate evidence,
and to be directly opposed to many well-ascertained facts, I propose to
devote a brief space to its discussion.

_The Argument from Continuity._

Mr. Darwin's mode of argument consists in showing that the rudiments of
most, if not of all, the mental and moral faculties of man can be
detected in some animals. The manifestations of intelligence, amounting
in some cases to distinct acts of reasoning, in many animals, are
adduced as exhibiting in a much less degree the intelligence and reason
of man. Instances of curiosity, imitation, attention, wonder, and memory
are given; while examples are also adduced which may be interpreted as
proving that animals exhibit kindness to their fellows, or manifest
pride, contempt, and shame. Some are said to have the rudiments of
language, because they utter s