48 DR. BATEMAN ON DARWINISM. [m. 



fact of this enormous superiority. Writers like Dr. 

 Bateman argue as if they supposed Darwinians to be 

 in the habit of depicting the human race as a parcel 

 of naked, howling troglodytes. They " point with 

 pride" to Parthenons and Iliads, and ask us to pro- 

 duce from his African forests some gorilla who can 

 perform the like. These worthy critics should first 

 try to grasp the meaning of the contrast, that while 

 zoologically man presents differences from the higher 

 catarrhine apes that are barely of generic value, on 

 the other hand the psychological difference is so great 

 as, in Mr. Mivart's emphatic language, to transcend 

 the difference between an ape and a blade of grass. 

 After duly reflecting on this, with the aid to be 

 derived from Mr. Wallace's suggestion above cited, 

 they will perhaps be able to comprehend how it is 

 that the Darwinian, without ignoring the immensity 

 of this difference, seeks, nevertheless, by working 

 hypotheses to bring it out of the region of barren 

 mystery into that of scientific interpretation. When 

 they have once got this through their heads such 

 trash as Dr. Bateman's will no longer get published. 



November 1878. 



