894 PHYLUM CHORDATA I CLASS MAMMALIA 



if the doctrine of descent is true for other organisms, it is 

 likely to be true for man also. 



As to the antiquity of the human race, it is certain that 

 men (Homo) lived in Europe in the later stages of the Ice 

 Age, and Pithecanthropus probably lived in Pliocene times. 

 No fossil remains of Homo are known till the Pleistocene. 

 But, as it is certain that man could not have arisen from 

 any of the known anthropoid apes, and as it is likely that he 

 arose from an ancestral stock common to them and to him, 

 it seems justifiable to date the antiquity of the human race 

 not later than the time when the anthropoid apes are known 

 to have been established as a distinct family. This indi- 

 cates Miocene ages — between one and two million years 



ago. 



If man was naturally evolved, the factors in the process 

 require elucidation, but in regard to these we can only 

 speculate. From what we know of men and monkeys, it 

 seems likely that, in the struggles of primitive man, wits 

 were of more use than strength. When the habits of 

 walking erect, of using sticks and stones, of building 

 shelters, of living in families began — and they have begun 

 among monkeys — it is likely that wits would grow rapidly. 

 The prolonged infancy, characteristic of human offspring, 

 would help to evolve gentleness. But even more important 

 is the fact that among monkeys there are distinct societies. 

 Families combine for protection ; the combination favours 

 the development of emotional and intellectual strength. 

 " Man did not make society ; society made man." 



Finally, it is plain that all repugnance to the doctrine of 

 descent as applied to man should disappear w^hen we 

 clearly realise the great truism of evolution, that *' there 

 is nothing in the end which was not also in the beginning." 



