Apes. 221 



admissions of its advocates not on knowledge, 

 but on the want of knowledge. Absolutely 

 powerless to derive man from the ape, it is not 

 less powerless to derive the cardinal ape from 

 the primordial form. And yet it is in the name 

 of Science that we are presented with this 

 paraded pedantry of Nescience, and are asked 

 to believe that " IN THE DIM OBSCURITY of the 

 Past, we can SEE " l the unreal nonentities, the 

 airy nothings, required by the "theoretic con- 

 ception," as they " must have " existed " once 

 upon a time " ! a 



1 " Descent of Man," vol. ii. p. 389. 

 * Vide Appendix, Note F. 



