148 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



sees in the gorilla man's nearest relative, points 

 out certain bodily similarities which are not new 

 to us, alludes to the ape's clumsy attempts at 

 walking erect, and then continues : 



In the same way the ape that would be a man, and who in 

 a thousand generations succeeded in that ambition, started to 

 leave the sheltered woods by degrees and with hesitating steps. 

 He and his wife, the real Adam and Eve, made their home in 

 a tree their house a sort of bird's nest arranged of branches 

 in a suitable crotch, the thick foliage overhead serving as a 

 roof. 10 



So the tale continues as we have read it a 

 thousand times before, and it should certainly be 

 true if constant repetition could make it so. Oc- 

 casionally an interesting originality is displayed by 

 these writers, as when Professor G. F. Scott El- 

 liott, M.A. (Cantab.), B.Sc., (Edin.), F.R.S.E., 

 F.L.S., F.R.G.S., who is far less extreme than 

 many another writer upon these subjects, and even 

 refers us to "the oldest and most widely read of 

 all books" for an answer to the difficulties that per- 

 plex the scientist, yet assures us that it is quite 

 possible to give "a rude, blurred picture of the 

 Pliocene precursor (of man) when he was just 

 on the point of venturing on the great step up- 

 wards." This he at once proceeds to do : 



His body would be covered with hair or fur, except on the 

 palms or soles of his feet. On his head the hair grew long 

 and thick, and was continued in all probability down his cheeks 

 and chin to form a combined beard and whisker fringe. We do 



10 Reported in Brooklyn Eagle. 



