CHAPTER III.

THE GRADES OF THE FACTORS OF EVOLUTION AND THE ORDER OF THEIR APPEARANCE.

_Factors of evolution restated; their grades and the order of their introduction shown_--Lamarckian factors, first in order because they precede sexual reproduction--(1) Environment--(2) Use and disuse--With sexual reproduction selective factors introduced--(3) Natural selection--(4) Physiological selection--(5) Sexual selection--With man was introduced (6) the rational factor--In this process two striking stages--viz., the introduction of sex and the introduction of reason--Effect of each to hasten the steps of evolution--The last by far the greater change 81

_Contrast between organic and human evolution_--(1) The meaning of term _fittest_ in each--(2) Destiny of the weak and helpless in each--(3) The nature of evolutionary transformation in each--(4) The law of strait and narrow way applied in each--(5) Human evolution is a different kind and on a higher plane 88

_Application to some questions of the day._

I. Neo-Darwinists, their position explained--Reasons for dissenting--(_a_) Lamarckian factors preceded all others-- (_b_) Though now subordinate, they still underlie and condition all other factors--(_c_) Shown by comparison of phylogeny with ontogeny 92

II. Human progress not identical with organic evolution--Mistake of the materialists--But neither is it wholly different, as some suppose 96

III. Neo-Darwinism is fatal to hopes of human progress--Reason may use freely Lamarckian factors, but can not use natural selection in the same way as Nature does 97