234 Men. 



ever climbed a tree, or built a nest, or buried 

 his dead companion under the dried leaves of 

 an African forest." l 



17. As to the alleged ancestry of Man from 

 the brutes, this, then, is certain : " that whether 

 from them or not, he is assuredly not of them." 



But is he "from them " ? He who answers 

 this question in the affirmative affirms what he 

 cannot even pretend to prove. The evidence, 

 such as it is, in every particular, and in the most 

 positive terms, endorses the direct negative of 

 the proposition which on any theory of Ascen- 

 sive Development it is found necessary to main- 

 tain. It is Mr. Darwin himself who tells us of 

 " the great break in the organic chain between 

 man and his nearest allies, which cannot be 

 bridged over by any extinct or living species." 3 

 "The fossil remains of man hitherto discovered," 

 says Professor Huxley, " do not seem to take us 

 appreciably nearer to that lower pithecoid form " 

 from which it is conjectured but only con- 

 jectured that he sprang. It is nothing less 

 than the utter destitution of evidence in support 

 of the unverified " theoretic conception " that 

 constrains even Professor Huxley to ask, "Where 

 then must we look for primaeval man ? " 



1 The Athencsum, No. 1844, p. 288. 

 * " The Descent of Man," vol. i. p. 200. 



