172 Darwin and his Teachings. [ April, 
sufficiently extensive collection of data will be presented to us to 
enable us—or we should rather say, to enable posterity—to form 
an accurate judgment as to the order and succession of living beings 
im ancient times and their relations to living species. 
So far, these data are all in favour of the theory of the origin of 
species through modified descent; and a few would-be orthodox 
naturalists, who seek to explain the facts of paleontology otherwise, 
prefer to trump up absurd and, as it appears to us, irreverent 
theories of their own, rather than to accept the simple truth as it 
has pleased the wise Creator to engrave it upon his enduring tablets 
of stone. 
The investigation of the origin of life on the globe hardly comes 
within the limits of this inquiry, and Darwin scarcely mentions it. 
At present it is still very obscure, and many generations may pass 
away before we are enlightened with regard to the mode in which 
living beings originate—possibly that may be an inscrutable problem 
for ever—but a far more relevant and striking feature in our 
inquiry is the orig of Man himself. There seems to haye been 
an impression amongst naturalists, including many of the most able, 
that if the doctrine of transmutation be correct, man must neces- 
sarily be a direct descendant from some ape; but why this should 
be, it is difficult to understand. If any unprejudiced inquirer will 
take before him the table that illustrates Darwin’s book,* and with 
that for his guide, will carefully consider all the leading facts which 
have of late been so largely debated in connection with Man and 
the Simiz, we venture to think that he will not be disposed to 
admit the necessity of Man’s ape-origin, be he ever so firm a 
believer in Darwin’s theory; but, on the contrary, that he will 
regard it as more probable, that whilst the highest ape stands at 
the head of one succession of types, about to become extinct, Man is 
at present placed at the highest pinnacle of another; though it is 
highly probable, looking at his present condition and his faculty for 
improvement, that his past lmeage is brief when compared with its 
future extension. 
There are many obscure points connected with the ‘Origin of 
Species,’ on which it may be said that we have expressed ourselves 
with uncertainty, but there is one, respecting which we desire to be 
very explicit. We have no sympathy with the aversion manifested 
by some men towards the development theory on the ground of 
feeling. It was doubtless as offensive to the dignity of our fore- 
fathers, when they were told that they were not the denizens of a 
world around which the universe revolved, as it is to some persons 
in the present day to hear that we cannot “go with the angels” 
here, as long as our animal nature adheres to us. But will anyone 
maintain that the earth has lost any of its dignity, or is less noble, 
* ‘ Origin of Species,’ p. 123. 
