wishes to be. It is not an
unworthy idea, but rather an elevating one, that man constitutes the last
and highest member in the ancient and infinitely rich development of
organic nature on our planet, being connected by the most intimate bonds of
relationship with the other members, as the latter are connected among
themselves with one another: not a pernicious parasite on the tree of
natural life, but the true son of the blissful mother Nature." In reducing
descent, which he accepts, to a development from an _inner_ force, and in
ascribing to the Darwinian selection, with its struggle for existence, the
value only of a regulator (he adopts this term of Wallace as a very
striking one), Braun, in his concluding appeal to young students, calls
especial attention to the ethical importance of a development proceeding
from within, saying: "Life has its outer and its inner side; all its works
and ways must follow mechanical laws, but its tasks and aims belong to a
higher realm. We are permitted to take a glance into this realm through the
all-embracing history of the development of nature, which leads up into our
own inmost being, up to our highest end. Truly progressive development is
the best wish for every youth," etc.

Inasmuch as that in which Alex. Braun finds a satisfaction for the
fulfillment of the ethical tasks--namely, a deeper knowledge of man's
connection with lower nature, and the pointing to the proper tasks of the
development of mankind,--has thus far been the substance of all sound
systems of morality, we did not mention these and similar utterances, of
which we could gather many more from other writers, in the preceding part
of our {248} work--_i.e._, in describing those who ascribe to Darwinism a
reformatory influence upon morality; but we rank these utterances with
those which predict from the descent theory neither injury to morality nor
any especial enlightenment regarding it.

We have now reached the end of that part of our work which considers and
treats of the views of others. To our regret, we have been compelled to
restrict ourselves, in this review, to the countries of the English and
German tongues; the former being the home of Darwin, the latter our own. We
should have preferred to take into our review also the literature of France
and Belgium, Holland and Italy; but we feared being able to give only an
incomplete report. Besides, it is in Germany and Great Britain--and partly
also in North Americ