146 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS n 



sixth distinct family, the CHEIROMYINI; while 

 the seventh, the GALEOPITHECINI, contains only 

 the flying Lemur Galeopithecus, a strange form 

 v hich almost touches on the Bats, as the 

 t'heiromys puts on a Eodent clothing, and the 

 Lemurs simulate Insectivora. 



Perhaps no order of mammals presents us with 

 so extraordinary a series of gradations as this 

 leading us insensibly from the crown and summit 

 of the animal creation down to creatures, from 

 which there is but a step, as it seems, to the 

 lowest, smallest, and least intelligent of the 

 placental Mammalia. It is as if nature herself 

 had foreseen the arrogance of man, and with 

 Roman severity had provided that his intellect, 

 by its very triumphs, should call into prominence 

 the slaves, admonishing the conqueror that he is 

 but dust. 



These are the chief facts, this the immediate 

 conclusion from them to which I adverted in the 

 commencement of this Essay. The facts, I 

 believe, cannot be disputed ; and if so, the con- 

 clusion appears to me to be inevitable. 



But if Man be separated by no greater structu- 

 ral barrier from the brutes than they are from 

 one another then it seems to follow that if any 

 process of physical causation can be discovered by 

 which the genera and families of ordinary animals 

 have been produced, that process of causation is 



