surface, the lengthened period of infancy, the consequent capacity for
progress, the definite constitution of the family, and the judgment of
actions as good or bad according to some other standard than that of
selfish desire,--these are the attributes which essentially distinguish
Man from other creatures. All these, we see, are direct or indirect
results of the revolution which began when natural selection came to
confine itself to psychical variations, to the neglect of physical
variations. The immediate result was the increase of cerebrum. This
prolonged the infancy, thus giving rise to the capacity for progress;
and infancy, in turn, originated the family and thus opened the way for
the growth of sympathies and of ethical feelings. All these results have
perpetually reacted upon one another until a creature different in kind
from all other creatures has been evolved. The creature thus evolved
long since became dominant over the earth in a sense in which none of
his predecessors ever became dominant; and henceforth the work of
evolution, so far as our planet is concerned, is chiefly devoted to the
perfecting of this last and most wonderful product of creative energy.




X.

Improvableness of Man.


For the creation of Man was by no means the creation of a perfect being.
The most essential feature of Man is his improvableness, and since his
first appearance on the earth the changes that have gone on in him have
been enormous, though they have continued to run along in the lines of