20 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



by slow degrees, its teachings were found to be not so 

 very dreadful after all, and it had almost passed the three 

 stages of every great truth, viz. : — 1st, that it is contrary 

 to scripture ; 2nd, that there is nothing new in it ; and 

 3rd, that people always believe it, when a book bearing 

 the alarming title of " The Descent of Man," issuing 

 from Darwin's pen, appeared. This was more than even 

 the second half of the nineteenth century was prepared 

 for, and the book, like its predecessor, met with a storm 

 of abuse. Weak and unwilling adherents to the theories 

 enunciated in the " Origin of Species " felt that the thick 

 end of the wedge was being played, and it was now time 

 to retire from so dangerous a game. 



It was hard enough to believe that the inferior animals 

 might have ascended or descended from a sponge or an 

 amoeba, but that man himself should be the result of a 

 little further development from the same humble stock 

 was certainly more than they were inclined to accept. 

 But those who were fortunate enough not to be bound by 

 reputation, or to possess that confidence so easily acquired 

 by a sublime ignorance of facts, on coming to calmly 

 examine the facts and arguments contained in " The 

 Descent of Man," found it to be but a necessary supple- 

 ment to the " Origin of Species," man himself being 

 formed in precise conformity to the same laws which 

 govern the structure of the elephant or the lily. Charles 

 Kingsley well said — " We believe that God is so wise 

 that he made all things, why not believe that he is still 

 wiser, and made all things make themselves." 



Darwin commences this work by showing how notor- 

 iously it is a fact that man is constructed on the same 

 general type or model as other animals. All the bones in 

 his skeleton can be compared with corresponding bones 

 in the monkey, bat, or seal. So it is with his muscles. 



