TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



i 



MONKEYS 



IF any one knew when it was that the first flint-imple- 

 rneiit was struck out with a will by Palaeolithic men, he 

 might be able to tell us how long the period is since the 

 monkey's resemblance to ourselves was first a subject of 

 remark. Of that period, the time which has elapsed 

 since the very old line, " Simla quam similis turpissima 

 bestia nob-is," was written, can, at any rate, be but a 

 small fraction. Of late the progress of knowledge has 

 largely increased the interest, felt from of old, in this 

 most exceptional group of animals. The more we know 

 of science the more we know of their bodily resemblance 

 to us and of their divergence from every other creature, 

 and the more also do we become interested in their ways 

 and in that problem which concerns their origin. 



Most readers are probably, by this time, not a little 

 tired of Darwinian controversy ; and certainly we have 

 no intention of dealing with it here. That would lead 

 us into psychology and metaphysics, while our present 

 purpose is to deal only with what appear to us to be the 

 most interesting facts which concern their natural history, 

 and not to analyse the phenomena of the ape mind. 



