262 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



It seemed as if an unexampled hurricane had passed 

 over the scene, and his abode had vanished. True, 

 man is apt to be found alive when the hurricane has 

 spent its force ; he has an awkward habit of building 

 his abode again, after the old dwelling has been 

 destroyed, and of walking forth in the quietness of the 

 evening, to look on the clear sky, bright as aforetime, 

 just as if nothing singular had happened. 



Nevertheless, something not only new, but great, 

 had happened, in this demonstration of man s heritage 

 among the animals. The new truth arrests the 

 imagination. The range of animal inheritance in 

 cludes man. In embryonic life, he is like to the 

 animals: strangely like: so closely allied that it proves 

 difficult to distinguish embryonic man from ape, or 

 dog, or calf, or even from the rabbit. We are low 

 enough, indeed, in the scale, when comparisons are 

 concerned with embryonic history. From the period 

 of birth, man s distinction is plain enough, it is 

 true; it seems as if the lost dignity were being re 

 stored a little, when we see how an infant differs from 

 a calf. But we cannot part in summary way from 

 humble associations, for the baby-man does not so 

 greatly differ from the baby-ape. We are again some 

 what perplexed as to our ancestors, or, if the question 

 is not quite so serious, at least as to our kinships. 

 Even this may not be so serious as it looks, for we 

 have kinship with all animals, not merely with the 

 higher, insomuch that kinship is only a question of 

 degree, involving no great elevation for the apes, if 

 it do not involve special degradation for men. 



The fact now to be fully recognised is, that the 

 boundaries of animal life include man. The 



