362 THE STORY OP THE EA.RTH AND MAN. 



time; and secondly, because the apes, even if they 

 preceded man, instead of being contemporary with 

 him, are not near enough to fulfil the required con- 

 ditions. What is the actual fact with regard to these 

 animals, so confidently afiirmed to resemble some 

 not very remote ancestors of ours ? Zoologically they 

 are not varieties of the same species with man — they are 

 not species of the same genus, nor do they belong 

 to genera of the same family, or even to families of the 

 same order* These animals are at least ordinally 

 distinct from us in those grades of groups in which 

 naturalists arrange animals. I am well aware that 

 an attempt has been made to group man, apes, and 

 lemurs, in one order of *' Primates,^' and thus to reduce 

 their difference to the grade of the family; but as 

 put by its latest and perhaps most able advocate, 

 the attempt is a decided failure. One has only to read 

 the concluding chapter of Huxley^s new book on the 

 anatomy of the vertebrates to be persuaded of this, 

 more especially if we can take into consideration, in 

 addition to the many differences indicated, others 

 which exist but are not mentioned by the author. 

 Ordinal distinctions among animals are mainly de- 

 pendent on grade or rank, and are not to be broken 

 down by obscure resemblances of internal anatomy, 

 having no relation to this pointy but to physiological 

 features of very secondary importance. Man must, on 

 all grounds, rank much higher above the apes than 

 they can do above any other order of mammals. 

 Even if we refuse to recognise all higher grounds 



