INTRODUCTION 



Edwin R. Embree 



IN an essay entitled "This Simian World" Clarence Day 

 has considered what kind of planet this might be if some 

 other species than the great apes had evolved into mastery. 

 He plays with the idea of the dignity and wisdom that 

 might have been displayed if children of elephants had 

 developed into leadership instead of monkey-hke animals; 

 what cleanness and cunning would have marked a world 

 ruled by super-cats; what poise and vision might have come 

 with glorified descendants of eagles. But as a matter of fact 

 animals akin to monkeys were the ones who did evolve; 

 it is the children of that race who rule the earth today. 

 The biology derived from this ancestry governs our potential 

 development and marks its ultimate borders. 



We inherit some very great habilities from these animal 

 forebears. Our bodies are weak and puny as compared with 

 the magnificence of elephants. The grace and beauty of 

 the great cats is lacking in our Simian civihzation. We have 

 httle sense of personal dignity and no real regard for privacy. 

 We congregate in hordes, hve together crowded into tenements 

 and hovels. We are unstable, constantly running after new 

 toys and new ideas, rushing, often aimlessly, up and down 

 the earth as our ancestors used to scuttle chattering among 

 the trees. 



But we inherited in common with our monkey cousins, 

 one great talent, namely curiosity. And that single quality, 

 probably more than all other things taken together, is 

 responsible for the phenomenal progress of our race. We have 

 an insatiable hunger to know all about everything. This 

 appetite drives us to avid gossip about our fellows; to 

 handhng and tinkering with — "monkeying with" — every 

 object or idea that crosses our path; to rushing hither and 

 yon to glimpse a dog fight or view an aeroplane; and also 

 to deep and profound study of intricate problems of medicine 

 and physics. 



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