Chap. XXI.] AND CONCLUDING REMARKS. 387 



veins. For my own part, I would as soon be descended 

 from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded 

 enemy in oi-der to save the life of his keeper ; or from 

 that old baboon, who, descending from the mountains, 

 carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd 

 of astonished dogs — as from a savage who delights to tor- 

 ture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practises in- 

 fanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, 

 knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest super- 

 stitions. 



Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having 

 risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very 

 summit of the organic scale ; and the fact of his having 

 thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed 

 there, may give him hopes for a still higher destiny in the 

 distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes 

 or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason allows 

 us to discover it. I have given the evidence to the best 

 of my ability ; and we must acknowledge, as it seems to 

 me, that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy 

 which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which 

 extends not only to other men but to the humblest living 

 creature, with his godlike intellect which has penetrated 

 into the movements and constitution of the solar system 

 — with all these exalted powers — Man still bears in his 

 bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. 



