354 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



being almost fac-similes of their Mothers. But 

 this point need not be dwelt on. It is of insig- 

 nificant importance, and belongs to the surface. 

 The idea of Nature going out of her way to make 

 better family likenesses will not stand scrutiny as 

 a final end in physiology. These illustrations are 

 simply adduced to confirm the impression that 

 Nature is working not aimlessly, not even mysteri- 

 ously, but in a specific direction ; that somehow 

 the idea of Mothers is in her mind, and that she 

 is trying to draw closer and closer the bonds 

 which are to unite the children of men. It will 

 be enough if we have gathered from this paren- 

 thesis that some time in the remote past, parent 

 and child came to be introduced to one another; 

 that the young when born into the world gradually 

 approached the parental form, that they no longer 

 " shocked them by their larval ugliness " ; so that 

 " the first human mother on record, seeing her 

 first-born son, exclaimed : ' I have gotten a Man 

 from the Lord.' " ^ 



If this second process in the Evolution of 

 Motherhood is of minor importance, the necessity 

 for the third will not be doubted. What use is 

 there for perfecting the power of recognition be- 

 tween parent and child if the latter act like the 

 ^Mammalian Descent^ Prof. W. P. Parker, F.R.S., p. 14. 



