62 LECTURES 



has here most conclusively shown, whether It be tasteful 

 for us to face the truth and the facts In the premises or 

 not, that not a single factor in this old traditional notion, 

 which has been told to so many of us, has the slightest 

 semblance to verity to recommend it. Biological research 

 has given us the true relation that man bears to Nature, 

 and has most clearly demonstrated where his place is 

 there. For it has shown that no such things exist in Na- 

 ture as what may be called "central figures," and man's 

 position in the universe is no more peculiar than is the 

 representative of any other family of the class to which 

 he belongs that is, the class mammalia. Outside of his 

 own family man is both structurally and physiologically 

 most closely linked to those mammalian forms in the 

 group next below him, or to the anthropoids. 



After making a comparison of all the minutest details 

 of structure, it was Professor St. George Mivart who was 

 compelled to admit that: "Viewed from the anatomical 

 standpoint, man is but one species of the order Primates; 

 and he even differs far less from the higher apes than do 

 these latter from the inferior forms of the order." (Less. 

 in Elem. Anat., p. 496.) Further, biological research has 

 shown that all of the various groups of existing men, 

 from the very lowest racial types to the highest and best 

 representatives, are quite of this world and form just as 

 much a part of its history as any other factor composing 

 the realm of nature. There is no valid evidence to show 

 that his stay upon the earth is to be a temporary .one, 

 and a great deal of very excellent biological evidence 

 to show that he has existed here for a great many 

 thousands of years. And as to all the rest of Nature' hav- 

 ing been especially created for his benefit and pleasure, I 

 can only say tnat it is hardly necessary for me, in this 

 day and generation, to adduce the simple arguments re- 

 quired to prove the absurdity of any such notion. Every 

 page in the history of man, since the day he first was 

 enabled to make record of his earthly career, reeks with 

 pain, with misery and with unhappiness. Man has had 

 to contend with the elements just as fiercely as other 

 living organisms of the world; he has had to contend even 

 far more strenuously against the ravages of disease and 

 accident; all over the world Nature presents the majority 

 of mankind with objects that are anything but pleas- 

 urable for his beholding; and, finally, for I will not multi- 

 ply the many examples that could easily be brought for- 

 ward, men are even so constituted that they continually 

 war upon each other and by so doing offer thousands of 



