MAN AND APES. 



called " the descent of man," manifests itself 

 far and wide in the daily press — in popular 

 caricatures — on the theatrical stage, and in 

 the Houses of our own Legislature as in the 

 French Assembly. 



It is interesting also to note that whereas 

 a few years ago the notion of the brute ori- 

 gin of man was vehemently and all but uni- 

 versally scouted, the public are now carried 

 by a wave of sentiment in a diametrically 

 opposite direction, and there is even a widely 

 diffused sympathy with notions which but 

 lately were found so unpalatable. Then there 

 was not tolerance to listen to, far less to fairly 

 appreciate, the arguments advanced by cer- 

 tain men of science in support of their views. 

 Now there is as little disposition as ever to 

 weigh evidence, but the tendency is to accept 

 without examination and without criticism the 

 statements of every advocate of the essential 

 unity of man and beasts. 



Concomitantly with this change of senti- 

 ment there has also arisen a popular belief in 



