The first definite statement of his belief in "this something" other
than material in the evolution of Man appeared in his essay on "The
Development of Human Faces under the Law of Natural Selection" (1864).
In this he suggested that, Man having reached a state of physical
perfection through the progressive law of Natural Selection, thenceforth
Mind became the dominating factor, endowing Man with an ever-increasing
power of intelligence which, whilst the physical had remained
stationary, had continued to develop according to his needs. This
"in-breathing" of a divine Spirit, or the controlling force of a supreme
directive Mind and Purpose, which was one of the points of divergence
between his theory and that held by Darwin, is too well known to need
repetition.
This disagreement has a twofold interest from the fact that Darwin, in
his youth, studied theology with the full intention of taking holy
orders, and for some years retained his faith in the more or less
orthodox beliefs arising out of the Bible. But as time went by, an
ever-extending knowledge of the mystery of the natural laws governing
the development of man and nature led him to make the characteristically
frank avowal that he "found it more and more difficult ... to invent
evidence which would suffice to convince"; adding, "This disbelief crept
over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so
slow that I felt no distress.
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