The Lowell lectures on the ascent of man / by Henry Drummond.

  • Henry Drummond
Date:
[1894], t.p. 1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Lowell lectures on the ascent of man / by Henry Drummond. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    shortest and the quickest road to reach it. Hence the Ascent of Man is not only the noblest prob- lem which science can ever study, but the prac- tical bearings of this theme are great beyond any other on the roll of knowledge. Now that the first rash rush of the evolutionary invasion is past, and the sins of its youth atoned for by sober concession. Evolution is seen to be neither more nor less than the story of creation as told by those who know it best. “ Evolution,” - says Mr. Huxley, “ or development is at present employed in biology as a general name for the history of. the steps by which any living being has acquired the morphological and the physio- logical characters which distinguish it.”^ Though applied specifically to plants and animals this definition expresses the chief sense in which Evolu- tion is to be used scientifically at present. We shall use the word, no doubt, in others of its many senses ; but after all the blood spilt. Evolu- tion is simply “ history,” a “ history of steps,” a “ general name ” for the history of the steps by which the world has come to be what it is. Ac- cording to this general definition, the story of Evolution is narrative. It may be wrongly told; it may be coloured, exaggerated, over- or under- ^ Eftcyclopcedia Britamiica^ 9th Ed.