96 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS n 



hoofed creatures, nor the Sloths and Ant-eaters, 

 nor the carnivorous Cats, Dogs, and Bears, still 

 less the Rodent. Rats and Rabbits, or the Insec- 

 tivorous Moles and Hedgehogs, or the Bats, could 

 claim our Homo, as one of themselves. 



There would remain then, but one order for 

 comparison, that of the Apes (using that word in 

 its broadest sense), and the question for discussion 

 would narrow itself to this is Man so different 

 from any of these Apes that he must form an 

 order by himself? Or does he differ less from 

 them than they differ from one another, and 

 hence must take his place in the same order with 

 them ? 



Being happily free from all real, or imaginary, 

 personal interest in the results of the inquiry thus 

 set afoot, we should proceed to weigh the argu- 

 ments on one side and on the other, with as much 

 judicial calmness as if the question related to a 

 new Opossum. We should endeavour to ascer- 

 tain, without seeking either to magnify or 

 diminish them, all the characters by which our 

 new Mammal differed from the Apes ; and if we 

 found that these were of less structural value than 

 those which distinguish certain members of the 

 Ape order from others universally admitted to 

 be of the same order, we should undoubtedly 

 place the newly discovered tellurian genus with 

 them. 



I now proceed to detail the facts which seem to 



