196 Man and Apes 



before the new idea, which always comes to stay, 

 becomes a harmonious and integral part of the house- 

 hold. We cannot pick and choose our science ; it is a 

 case of all or nothing. If seeking the Truth seems 

 easy, we may be sure we have lost our way. 



There was an old man in a little German town who 

 did not believe in railways, declaring them to be im- 

 possible. He shook his head when his neighbors told 

 him of journeys they had made. But in the course of 

 time — this was long ago — the railway line was ex- 

 tended, and there was a station at the town. So the 

 old man had to restrict his walks to remote places 

 from which he could not see any trains. He died an 

 unbeliever in railways. It is the same with some people 

 and the Descent of Man. 



§2. What Darwin Proved. 



What Darwin proved, so far as proof is possible, was 

 Man's solidarity with the rest of creation. Whatever 

 Man was and is and will be, he is zoologically affiliated 

 with the highest order of Mammals, to which apes and 

 monkeys also belong. Not that any living creature is 

 his ancestor ; no one supposes that Man sprang from 

 any living Simian. The theory is that he emerged, 

 probably as a mutation or saltatory variant, from a 

 stock common to the anthropoid apes and to him. 

 The ape voyage has been in one direction, man's in 

 another, but the vessels sailed from the same port; 

 their keels were laid down in the same shipbuilding 

 yard. 



