224 ARBOREAL MAN 



to the ancestors of the Mammals, the fore-limb of the 

 mammalian stock from which Man sprang has been spared 

 from the servile function of merely supporting the body 

 weight in quadrupedal progression. " Man and his 

 ancestors were never quadrupeds;" there has never been 

 " a slow and painful acquisition of a radically new 

 position." Until Man walked upon the earth in " that 

 majestic attitude which announces his superiority over 

 all the other inhabitants of the globe," he and his fore- 

 bears climbed and walked about the branches of the trees. 



No " ordinary quadruped " was turned through " a 

 quarter of a circle into the vertical plane." But some 

 extremely primitive Mammal climbed a tree, lived and 

 evolved among its branches, and after long ages walked 

 to earth again as that Primate destined to be the dominant 

 member of the animal kingdom. That the upright habit 

 is of the very first importance as an evolutionary factor 

 and as a human possession must be freely admitted. 

 But that this upright habit is the distinct prerogative 

 of Man is a proposition not to be entertained for a moment. 



That there is an alternative to the all too common 

 idea that a four-footed pronograde Mammal must have 

 become upright in process of the making of mankind is, 

 I think, obvious. And that this alternative is the gradual 

 readjustment incidental to an arboreal life, I conceive 

 to be certain. The human child sits up before it stands ; 

 the human stock sat up before it stood. 



