FOURTH day's SITTING. 81 



Homo. Possibly, my Lord, but then there would have 

 been other kinds of brutes, quite as terrible to a poor 

 rheumatic ape, whose hind-hands were stiffening into 

 human feet, and which was, therefore, unable to run up a 

 tree for security. 



Danvin. " No country in the world," my Lord, "abounds 

 in a greater degree with dangerous beasts than Southern 

 Africa. . . . but it is quite conceivable that they (the early 

 progenitors of man) might have existed, or even flourished, 

 if, whilst they gradually lost their brute-like powers, such 

 as climbing trees, &c., they at the same time advanced in 

 intellect." (Vol. i. p. 157.) 



Homo. I should say, my Lord, that it is quite incon- 

 ceivable that the ape-like progenitors of man should have 

 "lost their brute-like powers," especially that of climbing 

 trees, in so dangerous a country as Southern Africa. Natural 

 Selection would have proved a harder nurse to them than 

 she has done even to the gorilla, had she so treated them. 

 Then, why should she not — their circumstances being the 

 same — have treated all the monkey tribes alike ? 



Darwin. "Granting," my Lord, "that the progenitors 

 of man were far more helpless and defenceless than any 

 existing savages, if they had inhabited some warm con- 

 tinent or large island, such as Australia or New Guinea, or 

 Borneo . . . they would not have been exposed to any 

 special danger." (Vol. i. p. 157.) 



Homo. How can Mr. Darwin make such a supposition, 

 my Lord, when he says elsewhere, " the fact that they 

 (man's progenitors) belonged to this (the Catarhine) stock, 

 clearly shows that they inhabited the Old "World ; but not 

 Australia, nor any oceanic island, as we may infer from the 

 laws of geographical distribution" ? (Yol. i. p. 199.) This 

 see-saw mode of reasoning might have suited man's 



