Anthropology / by Paul Topinard ; translated from the French.

  • Paul Topinard
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anthropology / by Paul Topinard ; translated from the French. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    threatened or diminished by the transformation theory ? Would it he less real if he had brought it under subjugation by himself or inherited it from his first ancestors 1 Far from depreciating Man and his origin, the doctrine of Lamarck dignifies and ennobles them, by substituting for the theory of the supernatural the theory of the mutability and natural evolution of organic forms. But, after all, what matter to science the regret or complacency of some peopled Its aims and designs are beyond their compre¬ hension. Man is not at liberty to put or not to put a curb upon the functional activity of his brain; his spirit of inquiry is the most noble, the most irresistible of his attributes; and as M. Gabriel de Mortillet said at the meeting of the Association for the Advance¬ ment of Science, his characteristic is here, and not in religiousness. For want of knowledge the imagination muses upon the unknown, and forms it to our own ideal. But to true observers the reality is sufficient; they contemplate the magnificent spectacle which is opening out before them ; they even worship nature in its beauty, its grandeur, its harmony, and its thousand varieties of form and movement. The animal has the simple notion of cause and effect, and sees that the boundary of his faculties and senses is limited. Man alone investigates and wills; his horizon is indefinite, like his intellectual faculties when they are exercised without trammel. Let us not, therefore, seek to contract the circle of knowledge. Is it not knowledge which has conducted us step by step, age after age, to the degree of prosperity we now enjoy 1 Is it not this which engenders civilisation, which adds to our well-being, brings to us the purest satisfaction, instructs us in philosophy, and secures our supremacy over everything on our planet ? Each one has his task to perform in this immense sphere. To some is given subjects of study relating to the progress of life; to others its realities. Let the former have for their object the development in society of ideas of justice, honour, and morality, without which it cannot exist. The means are within their power. Our part is to ascertain facts, to deduce from them laws, and to look at them calmly, without allowing ourselves to be carried away by our feelings. Whatever may be his origin, whatever his future destiny, Man,