142 HOMO V. DARWIX 



and of " a single body presenting the extraordinary number 

 of twenty-five distinct abnormalities." If all these Taria- 

 tiona and abnormalities were in the direction of the 

 monkey, and the body of man was thus manifesting a con- 

 stant tendency toward the monkey type, there would be 

 some show of reason for seeking its origin in that quarter ; 

 but when it is only occasianaUy — I may say, rarely — that 

 the variations in question glance towards the simian tribe, 

 and when it is but a very few out of the large number of 

 these variations that do so, to argue from so trivial a 

 circumstance that man is descended from the ape, is an 

 abuse both of logic and common sense. 



Besides, if a few of those variations look towards the ape, 

 in what direction do the many look ? It is not pretended 

 that they also point us downward. Are they pre-intima- 

 tions, then, of some higher form yet to be developed from 

 man ? In writing regarding those cases which he calls 

 " reversions," Mr. Darwin should have kept in mind his 

 own word^, " With respect to the causes of variability, we 

 are, in all cases, very ignorant." But he invariably forgets 

 those words when, now and then, he meets with some 

 variation which he imagines points in the direction of the 

 brute. Then, he knows the cause perfectly ! It lies in the 

 fact that we are descended from apes 1 Mr. Darwin should 

 be more consistent. I think, therefore, that, until we know 

 more about those " causes of variability," of which, as he 

 tells us, " we are in all cases very ignorant," or until we 

 have some more reliable evidence of the truth of his 

 hypothesis, we must, in all fairness, set down those in- 

 stances which he quotes as proving our descent from the 

 lower animals, as instances, not of reversion, but of simple 

 variation. 



It will not be necessary for me to refer at any length to 



