PREFACE
"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.
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