more salient points in this work. Many of the views which have been
advanced are highly speculative, and some no doubt will prove
erroneous; but I have in every case given the reasons which have led me
to one view rather than to another. It seemed worth while to try how
far the principle of evolution would throw light on some of the more
complex problems in the natural history of man. False facts are highly
injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but
false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every
one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness: and when this
is done, one path towards error is closed and the road to truth is
often at the same time opened.
The main conclusion here arrived at, and now held by many naturalists
who are well competent to form a sound judgment, is that man is
descended from some less highly organised form. The grounds upon which
this conclusion rests will never be shaken, for the close similarity
between man and the lower animals in embryonic development, as well as
in innumerable points of structure and constitution, both of high and
of the most trifling importance, the rudiments which he retains, and
the abnormal reversions to which he is occasionally liable, are facts
which cannot be disputed. They have long been known, but until recently
they told us nothing with respect to the origin of man. Now when viewed
by the light of our knowledge of the whole organic world, their meaning
is unmistakable. The great principle of evolution stands up clear and
firm, when these groups or facts are considered in connection with
others, such as the mutual affinities of the members of the same group,
their geographical distribution in past and present times, and their
geological succession. It is incredible that all these facts should
speak falsely. He who is not content to look, like a savage, at the
phenomena of nature as disconnected, cannot any longer believe that man
is the work of a separate act of creation. He will be forced to admit
that the close resemblance of the embryo of man to that, for instance,
of a dog the construction of his skull, limbs and whole frame on the
same plan with that of other mammals, independently of the uses to
which the parts may be put the occasional re-appearance of various
structures, for instance of several muscles, which man does not
normally possess, but which are common to the Quadrumana and a crowd of
analogous facts all point in the plainest manner to the conclusion that
man is the co-descendant with other mammals of a common progenitor.
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