OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY OF DESCENT. 347 



descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph 

 his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs — as 

 from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers 

 up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, 

 treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is 

 haunted by the grossest superstitions. 



Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having 

 risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very 

 summit of the organic scale ; and the fact of his having 

 thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed 

 there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the 

 distant future. But we are not here concerned with 

 hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason 

 permits us to discover it ; and I have given the evidence 

 to the best of my ability. We must, however, acknowl- 

 edge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble quali- 

 ties, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, 

 with benevolence which extends not only to other men 

 but to the humblest living creature, with his godlike 

 intellect which has penetrated into the movements and 

 constitution of the solar system — with all these exalted 

 powers — man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible 

 stamp of his lowly origin. 



" ACCORDS BETTER WITH WHAT WE KNOW OF THE CRE- 

 ATOR'S LAWS." 



Origin of Authors of the highest eminence seem to 



Species, be fully satisfied with the view that each spe- 

 cies has been independently created. To my 

 mind it accords better with what we know of the laws 

 impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production 

 and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the 

 world should have been due to secondary causes, like 



