96 MAN AXD THE LOWER ANIMALS. n 



nor the carnivorous Cats, Dogs, and Bears, still 

 less the Eodent Eats and Rabbits, or the Insectiv- 

 orous Moles and Hedgehogs, or the Bats, could 

 claim our Homo, as one of themselves. 



There would remain then hut one order for 

 comparison, that of the Apes (using the word in 

 its broadest sense), and the question for discussion 

 would narrow itself to this — is Man so different 

 from any of these Apes that he must form an 

 order by himself? Or does he differ less from 

 them than they differ from one another, and 

 hence must take his place in the same order with 

 them ? 



Being happily free from all real, or imaginar}', 

 personal interest in the results of the inquiry thus 

 set afoot, we should proceed to weigh the argu- 

 ments on one side and on the other, with as much 

 judicial calmness as if the question related to a 

 new Opossum. We should endeavour to ascer- 

 tain, without seeking either to magnify or dimin- 

 ish them, all the characters by which our new 

 Mammal differed from the Apes; and if we found 

 that these were of less structural value than those 

 which distinguish certain members of the Ape 

 order from others universally admitted to be of 

 the same order, we should undoubtedly place the 

 newly discovered tellurian genus with them. 



I now proceed to detail the facts which seem 

 to me to leave us no choice but to adopt the last- 

 mentioned course. 



