MAN VIEWED OBJECTIVELY. 265 
In order to carry out this extremely important appli- 
cation of the Theory of Descent to man, with the necessary 
impartiality and objectivity, I must above all beg the 
reader (at least for a short time) to lay aside all traditional 
and customary ideas on the “Creation of Man,” and to 
divest himself of the deep-rooted prejudices concerning 
it, which are implanted in the mind in earliest youth. If 
he fail to do this, he cannot objectively estimate the weight 
of the scientific arguments which I shall bring forward 
in favour of the animal derivation of Man, that is, of 
his origin out of Ape-lke Mammals. We cannot here 
do better than imagine ourselves with Huxley to be the 
inhabitants of another planet, who, taking the opportunity 
of a scientific journey through the universe, have arrived 
upon the earth and have there met with a peculiar two- 
legoed mammal called Man, diffused over the whole earth 
in great numbers. In order to examine him zoologically, 
we should pack a number of the individuals of different . 
ages and from different lands (as we should do with the 
other animals collected on the earth) into large vessels 
filled with spirits of wine, and on our return to our own 
planet we should commence the comparative anatomy of all 
these terrestrial animals quite objectively. As we should 
have no personal interest in Man, in a creature so entirely 
different from ourselves, we should examine and criticise 
him as impartially and objectively as we should the 
other terrestrial animals. In doing this we should, of 
course, in the first place refrain from all conjectures and 
speculations on the nature of his soul, or on the spiritual 
side of his nature, as it is usually called. We should 
occupy ourselves solely with his bodily structure, and with 
