SCIENTIFIC WORKS 49 



referred to are : fii'st, the natural history of the 

 highest apes ; second, the relation of man to the 

 lower animals ; third, the fossil relations of man ; 

 fourth, the results of the study of ethnology ; fifth, 

 the facts of British ethnology ; and, lastly, the dis- 

 cussion of the Aryan question. These various 

 essays appeared la different reviews, the first three 

 being published in 1863. The argument of the first 

 essay especially is to set forth in the simplest possible 

 language, the principal facts upon which aU con- 

 clusions " respecting the nature of the extent of the 

 bonds AvViich connect man with the brute world must 

 be based." Having studied these, Huxley says that 

 he might cease at that point, since Science has ful- 

 filled her function, when she has ascertained the 

 truth and stated it ; but since he wished to appeal 

 to a wider audience than scientific readers, he adds 

 a paragraph or two, in the hope of dispeUing the 

 natural repugnance with wliich some of his readers 

 would view his conclusions. It is interesting to note, 

 too, here that, having endeavoured to show that 

 there is no greater morphological difference between 

 man and the apes than between various other ariimals, 

 it is, he also adds, his own opinion that it is equally 

 futile to draw a 'psychical distinction, since even the 

 highest faculties show some germ in lower forms of 

 life. He combats the belief that the unity of the 

 origin of man and the brutes involves man's degrada- 

 tion. Is it true, he asks, " that the poet or the artist 

 is degraded because he is the direct descendant of 

 some bestial savage ? Is he bound to howl and grovel 

 on all fours because he was once an egg which no 

 cue could distinguish from that of a dog ? Is maternal 

 affection vile because shown in a bird ? or fidelity 



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