THE GENEALOGY OF MAN. 227 



ing Ascidians. These animals probably gare rise to a 

 group of fishes, as lowly organized as the lancelet ; and 

 from these the Ganoids, and other fishes like the Lepido- 

 siren, must have been developed. From such fish a 

 very small advance would carry us on to the Amphibians. 

 We have seen that birds and reptiles were once intimately 

 connected together ; and the Monotremata now connect 

 mammals with reptiles in a slight degree. But no one can 

 at present say by what line of descent the three higher 

 and related classes, namely, mammals, birds, and reptiles, 

 were derived from the two lower vertebrate classes, 

 namely, amphibians and fishes. In the class of mammals 

 the steps are not difficult to conceive which led from the 

 ancient Monotremata to the ancient Marsupials ; and 

 from these to the early progenitors of the placental mam- 

 mals. We may thus ascend to the Lemuridm ; and the 

 interval is not very wide from these to the SimiadcB. The 

 SimiadcB then branched ofE into two great stems, the New 

 World and Old World monkeys ; and from the latter, 

 at a remote period, Man, the wonder and glory of the 

 universe, proceeded. 



Thus, we have given to man a pedigree of prodigious 

 length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality. The 

 world, it has often been remarked, appears as if it had 

 long been preparing for the advent of man : and this, in 

 one sense, is strictly true, for he owes his birth to a long 

 line of progenitors. If any single link in this chain had 

 never existed, man would not have been exactly what he 

 now is. Unless we willfully close our eyes, we may, with 

 our present knowledge, approximately recognize our par- 

 entage ; nor need we feel ashamed of it. The most hum- 

 ble organism is something much higher than the inor- 

 ganic dust under our feet ; and no one with an unbiased 

 mind can study any living creature, however humble. 



