CHAPTER IX 



MAN^ ANn THE APES 



Objections to Zoological Discussion of Man's Place — Owen's 

 Prudence — Huxley's Determination to Speak out — Ac- 

 count of bis Treatment of Man's Place in Nature — Ad- 

 ditions Made bv More Recent Work. 



EVEN before the publication of The Origin of Species 

 there was a considerable nervousness in the minds 

 of the more orthodox as to discussions on the position of 

 the human species in zoological classification. Men 

 of the broadest minds, such as Lyell, who himself had 

 suffered considerably from outside interference with the 

 scientific right to publish scientific conclusions, was 

 strongly opposed to anything that seemed to tend to- 

 wards breaking down the barrier between man and the 

 lower creatures. Sir William lyawrence, a very distin- 

 guished and able man, had been criticised with the 

 greatest severity, and had been nearly ostracised, for a 

 very mild little book On Man ; and Huxley tells us that 

 the electors to the Chair of a Scotch University had re- 

 fused to invite a distinguished man, to whom the post 

 would have been acceptable, because he had advocated 

 the view that there were several species of man. The 

 court political leaders, and society generally, resented 



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