Dr. Bateman on Darwinism. 49 



origin of language, the Darwinian is in no wise 

 debarred, by any logical necessity of his position, 

 from fully recognizing the fact of this enormous 

 superiority. Writers like Dr. Bateman argue as 

 if they supposed Darwinians to be in the habit 

 of depicting the human race as a parcel of naked, 

 howling troglodytes. They " point with pride " 

 to Parthenons and Iliads, and ask us to produce 

 from his African forests some gorilla who can 

 perform the like. These worthy critics should 

 first try to grasp the meaning of the contrast, 

 that while zoologically man presents differences 

 from the higher catarrhine apes that are barely 

 of generic value, on the other hand the psycholog- 

 ical difference is so great as, in Mr. Mivart's 

 emphatic language, to transcend the difference 

 between an ape and a blade of grass. After 

 duly reflecting on this, with the aid to be derived 

 from Mr. Wallace's suggestion above cited, they 

 will perhaps be able to comprehend how it is that 

 the Darwinian, without ignoring the immensity 

 of this difference, seeks, nevertheless, by working 

 hypotheses to bring it out of the region of bar- 

 ren mystery into that of scientific interpretation. 

 When they have once got this through their 

 heads, such trash as Dr. Bateman's will no longer 



D 



get published. 

 November, 1878. 



