CHAPTER V 



DESCENT OF MAN 



It is not to be supposed however that man or other highly 

 evolved forms are necessarily descended from lower forms 

 which are now existing or even from those geologically 

 known. This is a popular mis-conception of evolution 

 which has done much to mislead. If we could trace back- 

 ward the ancestry of man, to a time when his mental 

 development might be approximately like that of the 

 monkeys of this age, we would probably find him differing 

 as much from monkeys of either that or this period, as he 

 does now. The bone structure of man is that of a tailless 

 curved-spine creature, which has walked and run erect upon 

 upright thighs, and grounded feet, for many, many gen- 

 erations; while most monkeys are crouching, four handed 

 creatures of flexed thighs, and with necessary tails, and 

 usually incapable of a truly erect attitude or of speedy walk, 

 while even the tailless apes which can stand nearly erect, 

 have the long arms and distinct arboreal fitness of monkeys 

 generally, utterly different from that of ground walking 

 humans. The human foot and leg are more characteristic 

 (in their indication of most ancient erect walking habit) 

 of humanity, than the hand or even than the head. Both 

 hand and head approximate in the highest apes and lowest 

 humans, but the human foot has no such parallel. Man's 



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