"THE more I think of it," says
Mr. Ruskin, "I find this conclusion more impressed upon me--that the
greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something,
and tell what it saw in a plain way." In these pages an attempt is
made to tell "in a plain way" a few of the things which Science
is now seeing with regard to the Ascent of Man. Whether these seeings are
there at all is another matter. But, even if visions, every thinking mind,
through whatever medium, should look at them. What Science has to say about
himself is of transcendent interest to Man, and the practical bearings
of this theme are coming to be more vital than any on the field of knowledge.
The thread which binds the facts is, it is true, but a hypothesis As the
theory, nevertheless. with which at present all scientific work is being
done, it is assumed in every page that follows.
Though its stand-point is Evolution and its
subject Man, this book is far from being designed to prove that Man has
relations, compromising or otherwise, with lower animals. Its theme is
Ascent, not Descent. It is a History, not an Argument. And Evolution, in
the narrow sense in which it is often used when applied to Man, plays little
part in the drama outlined here. So far as the general scheme of Evolution
is introduced--and in the Introduction and elsewhere this is done at length
--the object is the important one of pointing out how its nature has been
misconceived, indeed how its greatest factor has been overlooked in almost
all contemporary scientific thinking. Evolution was given to the modern
world out of focus, was first seen by it out of focus, and has remained
out of focus to the present hour. Its general basis has never been re-examined
since the time of Mr. Darwin; and not only such speculative sciences as
Teleology, but working sciences like Sociology have been led astray by
a fundamental omission. An Evolution Theory drawn to scale, and with the
lights and shadows properly adjusted--adjusted to the whole truth and reality
of Nature and of Man--is needed at present as a standard for modern thought;
and though a reconstruction of such magnitude is not here presumed, a primary
object of these pages is to supply at least the accents for such a scheme.
Beyond an attempted readjustment of the accents
there is nothing here for the specialist--except, it may be, the reflection
of his own work. Nor, apart from Teleology, is there anything for the theologian.
The limitations of a lecture-audience made the treatment of such themes
as might appeal to him impossible; while owing to the brevity of the course,
the Ascent had to be stopped at a point where all the higher interest begins.
All that the present volume covers is the Ascent of Man, the Individual,
during the earlier stages of his evolution. It is a study in embryos, in
rudiments, in installations; the scene is the primeval forest; the date,
the world's dawn. Tracing his rise as far as Family Life, this history
does not even follow him into the Tribe; and as it is only then that social
and moral life begin in earnest, no formal discussion of these high themes
occurs. All the higher forces and phenomena with which the sciences of
Psychology, Ethics, and Theology usually deal come on the world's stage
at a later date, and no one need be surprised if the semi-savage with whom
we leave off is found wanting in so many of the higher potentialities of
a human being.
The Ascent of Mankind, as distinguished from
the Ascent of the Individual, was originally summarized in one or two closing
lectures, but this stupendous subject would require a volume for itself,
and these fragments have been omitted for the present. Doubtless it may
disappoint some that at the close of all the bewildering vicissitudes recorded
here, Man should appear, after all, so poor a creature. But the great lines
of his youth are the lines of his maturity, and it is only by studying
these, in themselves and in what they connote, that the nature of Evolution
and the quality of Human progress can be perceived.
HENRY DRUMMOND.