140 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



under changed habits of life they became greatly reduced, 

 either from simple disuse or through the natural selection 

 of those individuals which were least encumbered with a 

 superfluous part, aided by the other means previously 

 indicated. 



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 

 through 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 struct- 

 ure, and that of all the animals around us, is a mere snare 

 laid to entrap our judgment. This conclusion is greatly 

 strengthened, if we look to the members of the whole 

 animal series, and consider the evidence derived from 

 their affinities or classification, their geographical distri- 

 bution, and geological succession. It is only our natural 

 prejudice and that arrogance which made our forefathers 

 declare that they were descended 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 compara- 

 tive structure and development of man and other mam- 

 mals, should have believed that each was the work of a 

 separate act of creation. 



UNITY OF TYPE EXPLAINED BY EELATIOISTSHIP. 



Origin of ^ e ^ ave seen ^ a ^ * ne m embers of the same 



Species, class, independently of their habits of life, re- 

 page 382. gentle eacn other in the general plan of their 

 V organization. This resemblance is often expressed by the 

 term "unity of type"; or by saying that the several 



