14 THE KINGDOM OF MAN 



two great diverging lines of descent from original living 

 matter only the animals and the plants. And in each 

 of these there are and have been only a limited number 

 of branches to the pedigree some coming off at a lower 

 level, others at higher points when more elaborate struc- 

 ture has been attained. It is easy to imagine groups of 

 both plants and animals with characters and structures 

 which have never existed and never will exist. The 

 limitation of the whole process in spite of its enormous 

 duration in time, its gigantic output and variety, is a 

 striking and important fact. Linnaeus said, ' There are 

 just as many species as in the beginning the Infinite 

 Being created ' ; and the modern naturalist can go no 

 further than the paraphrase of this, and must say, * There 

 are and have been just so many and just so few varieties 

 of animal and vegetable structure on this earth as it 

 was possible for the physical and chemical contents of 

 the still molten globe to form up to the hour now 

 reached.' 



8. THE EMERGENCE OF MAN. 



As to how and when man emerged from the terres- 

 trial animal population so strictly controlled and moulded 

 by natural selection is a matter upon which we gain 

 further information year by year. There must be many 

 here who remember, as I do, the astounding and almost 

 sudden discovery some forty-five years ago of abundant 

 and overwhelming evidence that man had existed in 

 Western Europe as a contemporary of the mammoth 

 and rhinoceros, the hyaena and the lion. The dispute 

 over the facts submitted to the scientific world by 

 Boucher de Perthes was violent and of short duration. 

 The immense antiquity of man was established and 

 accepted on all sides just before Mr. Darwin published 



