Note 29 — Chapter I

“If I am not mistaken,” says M. de Quatrefages, “there is in this result, independently of the scientific consequences which may proceed from it, a something which responds to our most noble aspirations. Man confers upon himself dominion of his own will; he loves to proclaim himself legitimate sovereign of all things on the surface of this globe; and, in fact, no creature will dare to dispute with him an empire which, day by day, extends and increases. Well! is it not satisfactory to behold anthropological characteristics sanction and ennoble this empire by placing by the side of the right, which springs from intellectual superiority, the notion of duty, which arises from morality and religion?” (Unité de l’Espèce Humaine, p. 33.)