A World Without Souls

The lost race is a band of soul-less people where, according to the narrator, the theories of Lord Monboddo are confirmed in the way the inhabitants pick up 'certain oblong papers, mysteriously spotted. for the very important purpose of laying down again,' and fight duels for no better reason than someone insulting their dogs. Lord Monboddo's proto-evolutionist theories are reflected upon repeatedly, for example in the assessment of the creatures populating the country O: 'The creature which inhabits O. is so mysterious, that in discussing any points which concern his nature I am continually at a loss. A little superior to what a monkey is, he is far inferior to what a man should be. Take him now (for nature is ever greedy for gradations) as a kind of connecting link, between man and monkey, and I shall have some grounds on which to reason'.