The Relations of Moral Philosophy to Speculation Concerning the Origin of Man [pp. 288-302]

THE PRINCE TON RE VIR EW.
plicated varieties of animal life in the world is the suggestion
that in the course of the ages all these have sprung from a very
few primordial forms at most. This gives to the theory a
breadth of range quite beyond the reach of a single discussion;
and makes it needful for critical purposes to narrow to a point
of application on which attention may be concentrated. Anything more obviously within the range of ordinary inquiry, or
more thoroughly testing for the theory as a whole, we could not
have than the question concerning the offered explanation of
human nature. And we find at once the most familiar, and
scientifically the most searching point in the test, when we concentrate upon the moral nature of man. Distinguishing between right and wrong in conduct, measuring of individuality,
and reckoning of individual responsibility as we look back upon
the past, are the familiar engagements of every day life, and
they present the most marked distinctions of the human family
as placed in the midst of manifold orders of animal life. Morals
must present the crucial test for an Evolution theory, —and
the exact significance of this test may here be presented in
outline.
The Evolution theory has now reached a stage where it can
afford to depart somewhat from the multitude of interesting
and important details as to the contrivances apparent in the
organism of insects, birds, and quadrupeds. It must encounter
the sterner tests which it has challenged. And as all sciences
have their own contribution to offer, Moral Philosophy only
shares in a common task when it adduces facts and problems
which an Evolution theory must include in order to make good
its claim to be regarded as a theory of organized existence. Observations in Natural History and in Physiology are essential
for the support of the theory, but insufficient. They may suffice when attention is occupied with a low order of animate
existence, but they contribute only a small part of the evidence
required when we contemplate the origin of man. Even the
most important contributions frwm the department of Physiology exclude the most perplexing facts in human life bearing
on an evolution theory. Physiologists are, indeed, not unnaturally inclined to assume that their science is destined to include
the whole facts of human life; but the facts to be adduced
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