TAILED MINDS. 391 



only belong to quadrupeds of the higher type. At last 

 the hour of birth approaches ; coiled within the dark 

 womb he sits, the image of an ape ; a caricature and a 

 prophecy of the man that is to be. He is born, and 

 for some time he walks only on all fours ; he utters 

 only inarticulate sounds ; and even in his boyhood his 

 fondness for climbing trees would seem to be a relic of 

 the old arboreal life. Since, therefore, every man has 

 been himself in such a state that the most experienced 

 observer could not with the aid of the best microscopes 

 have declared whether he was going to be man or 

 plant, man or animalcule, man or mollusc, man or 

 lobster, man or fish, man or reptile, man or bird, man 

 or quadruped, man or monkey; why should it appear 

 strange that the whole race has also had its animalcule 

 and its reptile days ? But whether it appears strange 

 or not, the public must endeavour to accustom its mind 

 to the fact which is now firmly established, and will 

 never be overthrown. 



Not only are the bodies, but also the minds of man 

 constructed on the same pattern as those of the lower 

 animals. To procure food ; to obtain a mate ; and to 

 rear offspring ; such is the real business of life with us 

 as it is with them. If we look into ourselves we dis- 

 cover propensities which declare that our intellects 

 have arisen from a lower form ; could our minds be 

 made visible we should find them tailed. And if we 

 examine the minds of the lower animals, we find in 

 them the rudiments of our talents and our virtues. 

 As the beautiful yet imperfect human body has been 

 slowly developed from the base and hideous creatures 

 of the water and the earth, so the beautiful yet imper- 

 fect human mind has been slowly developed from the 

 instincts of the lower animals. All that is elevated, 



