STUDIES 



IN 



LIFE AND SENSE. 



i. 



HUMAN RESEMBLANCES TO LOWER LIFE. 



" IT is dangerous to show man how much he resembles the beasts, 

 without at the same time pointing out to him his own greatness. 

 It is also dangerous to show him his greatness, without pointing 

 out his baseness. It is more dangerous still to leave him in ignor- 

 ance of both. But it is greatly for his advantage to have both 

 set before him." So far, Pascal in the "Pense'es." There is a 

 considerable deal of sound philosophy in these words. Whilst we 

 might legitimately enough object to the term " baseness " as above 

 used to indicate comparatively the gulf betwixt man and his lower 

 neighbours, the conclusion of Pascal's meditation may sufficiently 

 satisfy both the moralist and the student of science. That which 

 Pascal declares is greatly to our advantage namely, to have both 

 man's likeness to, and differences from, lower animals duly set before 

 us is in a fair way of being realised in these latter days. Biological 

 science, which was formerly regarded as closing its investigations when 

 it approached the human domain, has now boldly entered the precincts 

 of man's own and special order. In a sphere within which biology 

 was formerly regarded as an intruder, it is now welcomed by the latest 

 culture as a friend. As a race, we are beginning to overcome, by an 

 exercise of robust common sense, the feeble foibles and objections 

 which in the early days of Mr. Darwin's fame were urged against any 

 approaches on the part of our " poor relations." The social preju- 

 dices which still exist here and there, and which are engendered 

 chiefly by popular studies of quadrumanous manners at the Zoo', 

 have died away in sensible and unprejudiced minds. The great dis- 

 covery only made, it should be added, after nearly a quarter of a 

 century of misconception that Mr. Darwin and his friends did not 



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