28 THE DESCENT OF MAN, 



Thus we can understand how it has come to pass that 

 man and all other vertebrate animals have been con- 

 structed on the same general model, why they pass througli 

 the same early stages of development, and why they retain 

 certain rudiments in common. Consequently we ought 

 frankly to admit their community of descent ; to take any 

 other view, is to admit that our own structure, and that of 

 all the animals around us, is a mere snare to entrap our 

 judgment. This conclusion is greatly strengthened, if we 

 look to the members of the whole animal series, and con- 

 sider the evidence derived from their affinities or classifica- 

 tion, their geographical distribution and geological succes- 

 sion. It is only our natural prejudice, and that arrogance 

 which made our forefathers declare that they were de- 

 scended from demi-gods, which leads us to demur to this 

 conclusion. But the time will before long come, when it 

 will be thought wonderful that naturalists, who were well 

 acquainted with the comparative structure and development 

 of man, and other mammals, should have believed that 

 each was the work of a separate act of creation. 



