224 THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 



. . . . Each individual, before coming 

 into the world, exemplifies in his own 

 person the development of his species 

 from some lower animal, lower even than 

 the ape, and furnishes solid collateral 

 evidence of the truth of the theory 

 founded upon a comparison of the affi- 

 nities and differences of allied species 

 as they exist at present " ! ! ! * 



It may be a doubtful point to decide 

 whether the author of the above passage 

 was writing seriously, humorously, or 

 sarcastically, but if seriously it is a fresh 

 instance of the self-illusion which has 

 weakened the minds of so many specula- 

 tors in the present day. To assert that 

 fact, science, and religion all support the 

 Darwinian theory, is an astonishing sign 

 of the contempt for exact truth which 

 certain writers display. As Johnson once 

 said of Lord Monboddo's theory, " Of a 

 standing fact there ought to be no con- 

 troversy. If there are men with tails, 



* The Nineteenth Century for May, 1883. 



