468 LECTURE XVI. 



leads us to an original plurality of mankind, not to their deri- 

 vation from a single stock, but from the various twigs of that 

 tree, so rich in branches, which we surround with the order of 

 primates or apes. 



Here again, gentlemen, you will observe the agi'eement in de- 

 meanour of the now distinct types. The simian type parts in 

 various directions ; it first divides into . two chief branches — 

 monkeys of the old, monkeys of the new world — each of these 

 main branches produces twigs which seem more and more to 

 part from each other. But on arriving at perfection the ends 

 of the twigs turn again towards each other, so that from the 

 fundamentally distinct famiHes of the gibbons, Macaci, and 

 baboons are developed the three anthropoid apes, which, by a 

 number of common characters stand considerably nearer each 

 other than the groups of which they are the heads. Does not 

 the history of man present something similar ? The further 

 back we go in histoiy the greater is the contrast between indi- 

 vidual types, the more opposed are the characters — the most 

 decided longheads immediately by the side of the most decided 

 shortheads. Our savage ancestors stand opposed to each other 

 — stock against stock, race against race, species against spe- 

 cies. By the constant working of his brain man gradually 

 emerges from his primitive barbarism ; he begins to recognise 

 his relation to other stocks, races, and species, with whom he 

 finally intermixes and interbreeds. The innumerable mongrel 

 races gradually fill up the spaces between originally so dis- 

 tinct types, and, notwithstanding the constancy of characters, 

 in spite of the tenacity with which the primitive races resist 

 alteration, they are by fusion slowly led towards unity. 



My task is finished, believing that I have, as far as was in 

 my power, attained the object I had in view. But before con- 

 cluding, I feel bound to address a few words to friends and 

 opponents. 



The lamentation over the destruction of all faith, morality, 

 and virtue ; the woeful cry about the endangered existence of 

 society, which years ago forced me to take up my pen, is heard 

 again — but this time it is in the French tongue. The pulpits 

 of the orthodox churches, the pews of the pietistic oratories, 



