242 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [x. 



" That if the various kinds of lower animals have been evolved one 

 from the other by a process of natural generation or evolution, then 

 it becomes highly probable, d priori, that man's body has been 

 similarly evolved ; but this, in such a case, becomes equally probable 

 from the admitted fact that he is an animal at all " (p. 65). 



From the principles laid down in the last sentence, it 

 would follow that if man were constructed upon a plan 

 as different from that of any other animal as that of a 

 sea-urchin is from that of a whale, it would be " equally 

 probable " that he had been developed from some other 

 animal as it is now, when we know that for every bone, 

 muscle, tooth, and even pattern of tooth, in man, there 

 is a corresponding bone, muscle, tooth, and pattern of 

 tooth, in an ape. And this shows one of two things 

 either that the Quarterly Beviewer's notions of probability 

 are peculiar to himself; or, that he has such an over- 

 powering faith in the truth of evolution, that no extent 

 of structural break between one animal and another is 

 sufficient to destroy his conviction that evolution has 

 taken place. 



But this by the way. The importance of the 

 admission that there is nothing in man's physical 

 structure to interfere with his having been evolved from 

 an ape, is not lessened because it is grudgingly made 

 and inconsistently qualified. And instead of jubilating 

 over the extent of the enemy's retreat, it will be more 

 worth while to lay siege to his last stronghold the 

 position that there is a distinction in kind between the 

 mental faculties of man and those of brutes ; and that, 

 in consequence of this distinction in kind, no gradual 

 progress from the mental faculties of the one to those of 

 the other can have taken place. 



The Quarterly Ke viewer entrenches himself within 

 formidable-looking psychological outworks, and there 

 is no getting at him without attacking them one by one. 



