Alexander Sutherland
Published: 2015-07-08
Total Pages: 478
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Excerpt from The Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct, Vol. 1 of 2 If the name of Charles Darwin but rarely occurs in these pages, it is not that they owe little to his influence. On the contrary, full half of the book is a detailed expansion of the fourth and fifth chapters of his Descent of Man. But in that portion of his memorable work, the great naturalist has given us clearly to understand that he offers us only a brief sketch, not any full and completed demonstration. His progress in these chapters reminds us of the march of some active and brilliant general who outlines a great conquest, but leaves behind him many a fort, and city, and strong place, to be subsequently beleaguered by plodding officers, each concluding in his own province, by time and labour, what his commander had effectively done in design. Darwin showed in these chapters a noble gift of insight, but to have made good his position from point to point, to have left nothing behind him unreduced, would have demanded a labour which neither his own health nor the length of an ordinary life would have permitted. He left many a department in which a book such as the following might make itself useful, by laboriously filling in the master's scheme. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.