THE GORILLA AND OTHER APES. 31$ 



parents might be so removed in circumstances from sur- 

 rounding families so much superior to them, let us say 

 that neither they nor any of their descendants would inter- 

 marry with these inferior families : and thus none of their 

 great-grandchildren would share descent from some other 

 stock contemporary with the great-grandparents ; or which 

 is the same thing, but seen in another light none of the 

 contemporaries of the great-grandchildren would share de- 

 scent from the eight grandparents. But so complete a 

 separation of the family from surrounding families would be 

 altogether exceptional and unlikely. For, even assuming 

 the eight families to be originally very markedly distin- 

 guished from all surrounding families, yet families rise and 

 fall, marry unequally, and within the range of a few genera- 

 tions a wide disparity of blood and condition appears among 

 the descendants of any group of families. So that, in point 

 of fact, the relations assumed to subsist between man, the 

 Simiadae, and lower animal forms, corresponds to an unusual 

 and improbable set of relations among families of several 

 persons. Either, then, the relations of families must be re- 

 garded as not truly analogous to the relations of races, which 

 no evolutionist would assert, or else we must adopt a some- 

 what different view of the relationship between man, the 

 Simiadae, and inferior animals. 



One other illustration may serve not only to make my 

 argument clearer, but also, by presenting an actual case, to 

 enforce the conclusion to which it points. 



We know that the various races of man are related to- 

 gether more or less closely, that some are purer than others, 

 and that one or two claim almost absolute purity. Now, if 

 we take one of these last, as, for instance, the Jewish race, 

 and trace the race backwards to its origin, we find it, accord- 

 ing to tradition, carried back to twelve families, the twelve 

 sons of Jacob and their respective wives. (We cannot go 

 further back because the wives of Jacob's sons must be 

 taken into account, and they were not descended from 

 Abraham or Isaac and their wives only, in fact, could not 



