16 THE RISE OF MAN. 



any other creatures except homo sapiens, so self-styled, 

 their very aspect is repulsive to us, and if we analyze our 

 sentiments we will be compelled to admit that we have 

 become prejudiced on account of the tacit comparison we 

 make to ourselves. Apes range far below man, and man 

 deems it opprobrious that they should be considered kin 

 to him, and yet how human are they ! We abhor them 

 as a caricature of ourselves. They appear like an attempt 

 at manhood which has turned out a conspicuous failure. 

 If an ape did not remind us of a human figure, we would 

 find in the expression of his face, his stature, his carriage, 

 and general deportment, as much beauty as that which 

 we admire in a St. Bernard or a full-blooded Arabian 

 steed. 



Let us try to divest ourselves of the odium of com- 

 parisons and consider the ape race with that natural in- 

 terest which we cherish for all life, so as to be impartial 

 in our judgment, and we shall find that the eye of the 

 chimpanzee is remarkably soulful, that the manners of 

 the orang-utan are astonishingly affectionate, and the 

 devotion of the gorilla to his family is manly to a degree 

 that compels respect. 



* * * 



Prof. H. Klaatsch, one of the foremost anthropologists 

 of Germany, speaks pretty authoritatively in the name 

 of his colleagues when he says in a new, large and popular 

 work, Weltall und Menschheit? that man can scarcely 

 have developed from any of the anthropoid apes, but that 

 both man and ape must have developed from one common 

 ancestor now extinct. The three large groups of anthro- 

 poid apes, the gorilla, chimpanzee and orang-utan* must 

 be regarded as degenerates from a higher type, for they are 



1 Edited by Hans Kraemer. Published by Bong & Co., of Berlin, Leipsic, 

 Vienna and Stuttgart. 5 vol. <}to. 



2 The popular pronunciation utang, which has obviously originated by its 

 rhyme with orang, is incorrect. Orang means "man" and utan, "woods" in 

 the Dajak language. 



