25O THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



exception to the law. So the battle dropped at once 

 upon this most interesting point, and around this cen- 

 ter the contest has waged. 



What is the origin of man? Who are his ances- 

 tors? As soon as we ask the question there is no 

 doubt whatever as to the answer, if we accept the 

 principle of evolution. Our only means of judging 

 relationship between animals is by the similarity of 

 their structure. As soon as we come to examine the 

 other creatures even in the most cursory fashion, 

 there is only one group which in any close degree re- 

 sembles the human species. Our nearest relatives 

 among living animals must undoubtedly be the apes. 

 Some little distance farther away stand the monkeys, 

 and, structurally speaking, there is more difference 

 between a monkey and an ape than there is between 

 an ape and man. The gap between man and his rela- 

 tives of this group, known as the primates, is a men- 

 tal, not a physical one. While his brain and his mind 

 have developed far beyond theirs, the rest of his 

 body is comparatively close to that of an ape. 



Probably no one can face the possibility of his 

 being descended from creatures not unlike the ape, 

 without feeling a stirring sense of repugnance. The 

 least aristocratic of us hesitates to name in the line 

 of his ancestry creatures so unlike himself as the 

 members of this group. It seems to us impossible 



