leads up to
him through a gradual sequence of stages. And his nearness, analogy, or
relationship to what is beneath him is in no way increased by descent, or
rendered a whit more intimate or more disturbing.

The Problema Continui.

The problem of descent thus shows itself to be one which has neither
isolated character nor special value. It is an accessory accompaniment of
all the questions and problems which have been raised by, or are
associated with, the doctrine of evolution, which would have been in our
midst without Darwin, which are made neither easier nor more difficult by
zoological knowledge, and the difficulties of which, if solved, would
solve at the same time any difficulties presented by descent. The
following considerations will serve to make this clear. The most
oppressive corollary of the doctrine of descent is undoubtedly that
through it the human race seems to become lost in the infra-human, from
which it cannot be separated by any hard and fast boundaries, or absolute
lines of demarcation. But it is easy to see that this problem is in fact
only a part of a larger problem, and that it can really be solved only
through the larger one. Even if it were possible to do away with this
unpleasing inference as regards the whole human race, so that it could be
in some way separated off securely from the animal kingdom, the same
fatality would remain in regard to each individual human being. For we
have here to face the problem of individual development by easy
transitions, the ascent from the animal to the human state, and the
question: When is there really soul and spirit, when man and ego, when
freedom and responsibility? But this is the same problem again, only
written with smaller letters, the general _problema continui_ in the
domain of life and mind. And the problem is very far-reaching. In all
questions concerning mental health and disease, abnormalities or cases of
arrest at an early stage of mental development, concerning the greater or
less degree of endowment for intellectual, moral, and religious life, down
to utter absence of capacity, and this in relation to individuals as well
as races and peoples, and times; and again, concerning the gradual
development of the ethical and religious consciousness in the long course
of history, in its continuity and gradual transition from lower to higher
forms: everywhere we meet this same _problema continui_. And our
oppressive difficulty is bound up