154 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS n 



undoubted historical probability, not to say cer- 

 tainty, that he is the direct descendant of some 

 naked and bestial savage, whose intelligence was 



- just sufficient to make him a little more cunning 

 than the Fox, and by so much more dangerous 

 than the Tiger ? Or is he bound to howl and 



"" grovel on all fours because of the wholly unques- 

 tionable fact, that he was once an egg, which no 

 ordinary power of discrimination could distinguish 

 from that of a Dog ? Or is the philanthropist, or 

 the saint, to give up his endeavours to lead a noble 

 life, because the simplest study of man's nature 

 reveals, at its foundations, all the selfish passions, 

 and fierce appetites of the merest quadruped ?" Is 

 mother-love vile because a hen shows it, or fidelity 

 base because dogs possess it ? 



The common sense of the mass of mankind 

 will answer these questions without a moment's 

 hesitation. Healthy humanity, finding itself hard 

 pressed to escape from real sin and degradation, 

 will leave the brooding over speculative pollution 

 to the cynics and the "righteous overmuch " who, 

 disagreeing in everything else, unite in blind 

 insensibility to the nobleness of the visible world, 

 and in inability to appreciate the grandeur of the 

 place Man occupies therein. 



Nay more, thoughtful men, once escaped from 

 the blinding influences of traditional prejudice, 

 will find in the lowly stock whence Man has 

 sprung, the best evidence of the splendour of his 



