PREFACE IX 



history" (1st ed. p. 488) was not only in full 

 harmony with the conclusions at which I had 

 arrived, respecting the structural relations of 

 apes and men, but was strongly supported by 

 them. And inasmuch as Development and Verte- 

 brate Anatomy were not among Mr. Darwin'*? 

 many specialities, it appeared to me that I should 

 not be intruding on the ground he had made 

 his own, if I discussed this part of the general 

 question. In fact, I thought that I might probably 

 serve the cause of evolution by doing so. 



Some experience of popular lecturing had 

 convinced me that the necessity of making things 

 plain to uninstructed people, was one of the very 

 best means of clearing up the obscure corners in 

 one's own mind. So, in 1860, I took the Relation 

 of Man to the Lower Animals, for the subject of 

 the six lectures to working men which it was my 

 duty to deliver. It was also in 1860, that this 

 topic was discussed before a jury of experts, at 

 the meeting of the British Association at Oxford ; 

 and, from that time, a sort of running fight on 

 the same subject was carried on, until it cul- 

 minated at the Cambridge meeting of the 

 Association in 1862, by my friend Sir W. 

 Flower's public demonstration of the existence 

 in the apes of those cerebral characters which had 

 been said to be peculiar to man. 



" Magna est veritas et prasvalebit ! " Truth is 

 great, certainly, but, considering her greatness, it is 



