THE ORIGIN OF MAST 239 



peculiar to man, it may well be that these are the in- 

 cidental results of other highly advanced intellectual 

 faculties; and these again are mainly the result of the 

 continued use of a highly developed language." 



He also thinks that man has been evolved from 

 *' ape-like progenitors."* 



The admissions contained in the above quotations 

 are, it seems to me, quite fatal to the general conclu- 

 sions. If man has been evolved from "ape-like pro- 

 genitors," it has been a long time since he branched 

 off from that stock. In the meantime these progeni- 

 tors have been called on by a perpetually changing 

 environment to improve themselves, with the result 

 that they still remain brutes, while man, during the 

 same time, and in the same countries, and with similar 

 environments, has developed God-like capacities of 

 intellect. How can we account for the extreme dif- 

 ference of progress between the "ape-like ancestor" 

 and man? 



The fact that the ape still survives shows that there 

 has been no necessity for his making progress, and, 

 consequently, environment could not have rendered it 

 necessary for any of the offspring of the apes to have 

 changed into men. 



The following is a summary of Mr. Darwin's admis- 

 sions. The "anthropomorphous ape" taking "a dis- 

 passionate view" admits, that he has never thought 

 of fashioning even the simplest tool; that he cannot 

 follow out a train of metaphysical reasoning, or solve 

 a mathematical problem, or reflect on God, or admire 

 a grand natural scene; that " the notion of expressing 

 definite ideas by definite sounds had never crossed 

 their minds," that " disinterested love for all things, 

 the most noble attribute of man, was quite beyond 

 their comprehension; " that he had no knowledge of 

 * Descent of Man, Vol. 1, p. 81. 



