DISCUSSION 127 



We cannot deny that theoretically there is a 

 connection between the creation of man and 

 of beast, but we have to determine how far the 

 connection is real. From the resemblance 

 between man and the higher mammals 

 only one fact can be directly deduced, 

 viz. that the individual laws governing the 

 evolution of both are based on the same design. 

 The advocates of the theory of evolution go a 

 step further and say, that if the human race 

 has a history, we must assume that in its 

 various stages this history resembles that of the 

 higher animals. But it by no means follows 

 that the histories must be one and the same, and 

 that man is descended from beasts. Nageli, 

 whose remarks on this subject are quoted with 

 approval by Oskar Hertwig (Handbook of Com- 

 parative and Experimental Evolution of Verte- 

 brates, iii. p. 171, 1906), says, that it is quite 

 conceivable for ape and man to 'stand in no 

 genetic connection with one another and to have 

 distinct lines of ancestry, but this does not hinder 

 the ancestors of both from resembling one 

 another more closely than their modern descen- 

 dants do, as we can think of the lines only as 

 divergent. . . . We cannot question the fact that 

 primitive cells, spontaneously generated under 

 the same conditions, but independently one of 

 the other, must give rise to similar organisms, pro- 

 vided that their descendants are subject during 



