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I believe that the following supposititious guesses are "worthy 

 of all men to be received," and should be accepted by all the 

 world as scientific facts and truths, inasmuch as " I have 

 spoken ;" namely, 



I believe, "by considering the embryological structure of man 

 the homologies which he presents with the lower animals the 

 rudiments which he retains and the reversions to which he is 

 liable, we can partly recall, in imagination, the former condition 

 of our early progenitors, and can approximately place them in their 

 proper position in the zoological series. We thus (!) learn that 

 man is descended from a hairy quadruped, furnished with tail and 

 pointed ears, probably arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant of 

 the Old World. This creature, if its whole structure had been 

 examined by a naturalist, would have been classed amongst the 

 quadrumana, as surely as would the common and still more 

 ancient progenitor of the Old and New World Monkeys. The 

 quadrumana and all the higher mammals are probably derived 

 from an ancient marsupial animal ; and this, through a long 

 line of diversified forms, either from some reptile-like or some 

 amphibian-like creature, and this again from some fish-like 

 animal. In the dim obscurity of the past we can see (?) that the 

 early progenitor of all the vertebrata must have been (!) an aquatic 

 animal, provided with branchiae, with the two sexes united in the 

 same individual, and with the most important organs of the body 

 (such as the brain and heart) imperfectly developed. This animal 

 seems to have been more like the larva of our existing marine 

 Ascidians than any other known form." (To be sure ! : 

 Quite so!) 



I believe that an argument based on that which seems, is quite 

 as valuable as one based on that which is ; that a chain with 

 gaps in the links, is quite as firmly held together as one without ; 

 and to lack no evidence but that of facts is amply sufficient for 

 me, of which the following will serve for examples. 



I believe "I cannot doubt, that the theory of descent with 

 modification embraces all the members of the same class." u I 

 can indeed hardly doubt that all vertebrate animals having true 

 lungs are descended by ordinary generation from an ancient 



