The Story of the Earth and ManDawson, John William, Sir
Science
The Story of the Earth and Man
Dawson, John William, Sir
Human beings -- Origin; Paleontology
But while man is related in his type of structure to the higher
animals, his contemporaries, it is undeniable that there are certain
points in which he constitutes a new type; and if this consideration
were properly weighed, I believe it would induce zoologists,
notwithstanding the proverbial humility of the true man of science, to
consider themselves much more widely separated from the brutes then
even by the ordinal distinction above referred to. I would state this
view of the matter thus:--It is in the lower animals a law that the
bodily frame is provided with all necessary means of defence and
attack, and with all necessary protection against external influences
and assailants. In a very few cases, we have partial exceptions to
this. A hermit-crab, for instance, has the hinder part of its body
unprotected; and has, instead of armour, the instinct of using the
cast-off shells of molluscs; yet even this animal has the usual strong
claws of a crustacean, for defence in front. There are only a very few
animals in which instinct thus takes the place of physical
contrivances for defence or attack, and in these we find merely the
usual unvarying instincts of the irrational animal. But in man, that
which is the rare exception in all other animals, becomes the rule. He
has no means of escape from danger, compared with those enjoyed by
other animals no defensive armour, no natural protection from cold or
heat, no effective weapons for attacking other animals. These
disabilities would make him the most helpless of creatures, especially
when taken in connection with his slow growth and long immaturity. His
safety and his dominion over other animals, are secured by entirely
new means, constituting a "new departure" in creation. Contrivance
and inventive power, enabling him to utilise the objects and forces of
nature, replace in him the material powers bestowed on lower animals.
Obviously the structure of the human being is related to this, and so
related to it as to place man in a different category altogether from
any other animal.
This consideration makes the derivation of man from brutes difficult
to imagine. None of these latter appear even able to conceive or
understand the modes of life and action of man. They do not need to
attempt to emulate his powers, for they are themselves provided for in
a different manner. They have no progressive nature like that of man.
Their relations to things without are altogether limited to their
structures and instincts. Man's relations are limited only by his
powers of knowing and understanding. How then is it possible to
conceive of an animal which is, so to speak, a mere living machine,
parting with the physical contrivances necessary to its existence, and
assuming the new role of intelligence and free action?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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