THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 12$ 



man, nor yet do I deny that such may be the 

 case ; but I do deny that the broad chasm which 

 separates man from other primates cannot be 

 crossed on the bridge of speech, and while this 

 does not prove their identity or common origin, 

 it does show that Nature did not intend that 

 either one should monopolize any gift which she 

 had to bestow. It is as reasonable to believe that 

 man has always occupied a sphere of life apart 

 from that of apes as to believe that apes have 

 occupied a sphere of life apart from birds, except 

 that the distance from centre to centre is greater 

 between birds and apes than that distance be- 

 tween apes and man. So far as any fossil proofs 

 contribute to our knowledge, we find no point at 

 which the line is crossed in either case, and the 

 earliest traces of man's physiological history finds 

 him distinctly man, and this history reaches back, 

 on meagre evidence, many, many centuries be- 

 fore historic time. Among these earlier remains 

 of man we find no fossils of the simian type to 

 show that he existed at that time, but at a some- 

 what later period we find some remnants of the 

 simian in deposits of Southern Europe; these, 

 however, are of the smaller tribes, and have been 

 assigned to the Macacus. We cannot trace the 



