ARBOREAL MAN 



CHAPTER I 

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THE PROBLEM OF MAN'S ORIGIN 



IT is a strangely difficult thing, for one of our generation, 

 to picture the acuteness of the upheaval brought about 

 in 1859 by the publication of the " Origin of Species." 

 It is hard to realize that there should have been so much 

 novelty in the ideas expressed in the book that thought 

 should have been overwhelmed by the new teaching ; 

 that " evolution " should have become a creed; and that 

 " special creation " should have become an obsession. 

 So many suggestions had gone forth before, so much of 

 the path had been paved for evolution, that it seems 

 strange how the basal idea that species were not specially 

 created, and definitely fixed types of life, should have 

 suddenly, as a flame, lit up the fires of the most bitter 

 controversy carried on in modern times. 



It is the more wonderful when we think that, at any 

 rate as far as the scientific world was concerned, Darwin 

 was by no means standing as the pioneer of evolution; 

 but was only the thoughtful student who was putting 

 forward some easily understood explanation of the 

 manner in which evolution had been effected. 



And yet of the upheaval of thought that occurred we, 

 separated by more than fifty years from the advent of 

 that work, can feel the bitter reality when turning the 

 pages of any contemporary periodical in the columns of 

 which some of the many battles were waged. Even when 



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