THE DESTINY OF MAN
VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF HIS ORIGIN
BY
JOHN FISKE
TWENTIETH EDITION.
BOSTON
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
1893
Copyright, 1884,
BY JOHN FISKE.
TO
MY CHILDREN,
MAUD, HAROLD, CLARENCE, RALPH, ETHEL, AND HERBERT,
This Essay
IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
Having been invited to give an address before the Concord School ofPhilosophy this summer, upon some subject relating to the question ofimmortality there under discussion, it seemed a proper occasion forputting together the following thoughts on the origin of Man and hisplace in the universe. In dealing with the unknown, it is well to takeone’s start a long way within the limits of the known. The question ofa future life is generally regarded as lying outside the range oflegitimate scientific discussion. Yet while fully admitting this, onedoes not necessarily admit that the subject is one with regard towhich we are forever debarred from entertaining an opinion. Now ouropinions on such transcendental 6questions must necessarily beaffected by the total mass of our opinions on the questions which liewithin the scope of scientific inquiry; and from this point of view itbecomes of surpassing interest to trace the career of Humanity withinthat segment of the universe which is accessible to us. The teachingsof the doctrine of evolution as to the origin and destiny of Man have,moreover, a very great speculative and practical value of their own,quite apart from their bearings upon any ultimate questions. The bodyof this essay is accordingly devoted to setting forth these teachingsin what I conceive to be their true light; while their transcendentalimplications are reserved for the sequel.
As the essay contains an epitome of my own original contributions tothe doctrine of evolution, I have added at the end a short list ofreferences to other works of mine, where the points here brieflymentioned are more fully argued and illustrated. 7The viewsregarding the progress of human society, and the elimination ofwarfare, are set forth at greater length in a little book now in thepress, and soon to appear, entitled “American Political Ideas.”
PETERSHAM, September 6, 1884.
9
CONTENTS.
  1. Man’s Place in Nature as affected by the Copernican Theory.
  2. As affected by Darwinism.
  3. On the Earth there will never be a Higher Creature than Man.
  4. The Origin of Infancy.
  5. The Dawning of Consciousness.
  6. Lengthening of Infancy and Concomitant Increase of Brain-Surface.
  7. Change in the Direction of the Working of Natural Selection.
  8. Growing Predominance of the Psychical Life.
  9. The Origins of Society and of Morality.
  10. Improvableness of Man.
  11. Universal Warfare of Primeval Men.
  12. First checked by the Beginnings of Industrial Civilisation.
  13. ...
                        
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