THE PAST EVOLUTION OF MAN 87 



say that the tiny coccygeal artery of man is the 

 homologue and the analogue of the important 

 caudal artery of his poor relations. 



In concluding this inevitably long chapter, we 

 must now more precisely consider, in so far as we 

 can, the relationship of man to the anthropoid 

 apes. Despite constant correction, there still 

 widely prevails the error that biologists teach the 

 descent of man from one or other of the existing 

 apes. This, however, is not merely not taught, but 

 is explicitly denied. I grant that, from the point 

 of view of implications, it really matters little 

 whether we declare man to be a descendant of the 

 chimpanzee, or that man and the chimpanzee are 

 descended from a common ape-ancestor. But 

 the distinction is of great scientific importance 

 nevertheless ; and we must therefore devote some 

 attention to it, the history of science having taught 

 us that the supposed " importance " or " unim- 

 portance " of any inquiry must not be taken as an 

 imperative that we must or must not pursue it. 

 If the Universe is really a Universe — a cosmos and 

 not a chaos — then Truth is one and indivisible ; 

 and the negligible Truth does not and cannot exist. 

 Indeed, from this very inquiry we can draw an 

 illustration of my contention that, in the last resort, 

 no sincere inquiry will be found to be without 

 practical importance. If it must be held that any 

 species of the present anthropoid — say the chim- 

 panzee — is the exact living representative of the 

 type from which man is descended, then the 

 opponents of the theory of organic evolution are 



