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66 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



long years of fruitless endeavours to civilize these lowest 

 races, have abandoned the attempt, express !the same 

 harsh judgment, and maintain that it would be easier to 

 train the most intelligent domestic animals to a moral and 

 civilized life, than these unreasoning brute-like men. For 

 instance, the able Austrian missionary Morlang, who tried 

 for many years without the slightest success to civilize the 

 ape-like negro tribes on the Upper Nile, expressly says : 

 "that any mission to such savages is absolutely useless. 

 They stand far below unreasoning animals ; the latter at 

 least show signs of affection towards those who are kind 

 towards them, whereas these brutal natives are utterly 

 incapable of any feeling of gratitude." 



Now, it clearly follows from these and other testimonies, 

 that the mental differences between the lowest men and the 

 animals are less than those between the lowest and the 

 highest men ; and if, together with this, we take into con- 

 sideration the fact that in every single human child mental 

 life develops slowly, gradually, and step by step, from the 

 lowest condition of animal unconsciousness, need we still 

 feel offended when told that the mind of the whole human 

 race has in like manner gone through a process of slow, 

 gradual, and historical development ? Can we find it 

 " degrading " to the human soul that, by a long and slow 

 process of differentiation and perfecting, it has very 

 gradually developed out of the soul of vertebrate animals ? 

 I freely acknowledge that this objection, which is at pre- 

 sent raised by many against the pithecoid theory, is quite 

 incomprehensible to me. On this point Bernhard Cotta, 

 in his excellent " Geologic der Gegenwart," very justly 

 remarks : " Our ancestors may be a great honoiu" to us ; 

 but it is much better if we are an honour to them ! " ^^ 



