210 THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS, 



possibility that monkeys may be educated to a limited 

 extent. Moreover, all these considerations lie outside of 

 the territory of this paper, and I will not dwell on them at 

 length, nor on their importance for linguists. 



What I wanted to emphasize here is that we consider 

 in Mr, Garner's discovery one of the most powerful and 

 most convincing links for the chain of proofs that 

 establish evolution. Indeed, we are allowed to say that 

 any one who is still contesting the animal descent of man 

 exposes himself to the suspicion that he cannot make a 

 simple conclusion. There are few scientific hypotheses 

 which can be raised to an equally high degree of proba- 

 bility, a probability which comes as near certainty as is 

 possible, with a fact which cannot be observed with our 

 own eyes. 



It is true that no other doctrine, with the exception 

 perhaps of Copernicus' new planetary system, has in- 

 terfered so much with our innermost convictions. For it 

 tries to solve "the question of questions," the funda- 

 mental question of the position of man in nature, and 

 this had hitherto been quite different from what the 

 theory of evolution teaches. Just as man is the measure 

 of all things, so also the last fundamental questions and 

 the highest principles of all science must depend upon 

 the position which our advanced natural science gives to 

 man himself in nature. Evolution has for the first time 

 since times immemorial tried to solve the question of the 

 origin of man in a scientific way. It is a common error, 

 however, that Darwin's theory teaches a descent of man 

 from the apes which live nowadays. Darwin's idea has 

 quite a different root and direction, and its application 

 to the human race is only one of the last consequences, 

 but does not at all represent the whole theory. He tells 

 us that all living beings originate from one organism or 

 from a few very simple organisms, and that they have 

 developed in the natural way of gradual changes. It is, 



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