n OBJECTIONS 153 



time, no one is more strongly convinced than I am 

 of the vastness of the gulf between civilized man 

 and the brutes ; or is more certain that whether 

 from them or not, he is assuredly not of them, 

 No one is less disposed to think lightly of the 

 present dignity, or desparingly of the future hopes, 

 of the only consciously intelligent denizen of this 

 world. 



We are indeed told by those who assume 

 authority in these matters, that the two sets of 

 opinions are incompatible, and that the belief in 

 the unity of origin of man and brutes involves the I 

 brutalization and degradation of the former. But 

 is this really so ? Could not a sensible child con- 

 fute by obvious arguments, the shallow rhetori- 

 cians who would force this conclusion upon us ? 

 Is it, indeed, true, that the Poet, or the Philoso- 

 pher, or the Artist whose genius is the glory of his 

 age, is degraded from his high estate by the 



which is otherwise nearly a reprint of the paper in question. 

 Prof. Owen writes : 



"Not being able to appreciate or conceive of the distinction 

 between the psychical phenomena of a Chimpanzee and of a 

 Boschisman or of an Aztec, with arrested brain growth, as being 

 of a nature so essential as to preclude a comparison between 

 them, or as being other than a difference of degree, I cannot 

 shut my eyes to the significance of that all-pervading similitude 

 of structure every tooth, every bone, strictly homologous 

 which makes the determination of the difference between Homo 

 and Pithecus the anatomist's difficulty." 



Surely it is a little singular, that the "anatomist," who finds 

 it "difficult" to determine "the difference" between Homo 

 and Pithecus, should yet range them on anatomical grounds, in 

 distinct sub-classes. 



