MAN AND APE COMPARED 13 



far as they pertain to the means of life ; their 

 faculties are one, so far as they pertain to the animal 

 polity, yet they may not be of a common stock. 



The public mind does not seem to have grasped 

 the correct idea of evolution, and prejudice has 

 blinded, to some extent, the judgment. The common 

 opinion that man has descended from or is related 

 by consanguinity to a monkey is silly and absurd. 

 Science has never taught such folly, nor advanced 

 any theory from which such a conclusion could be 

 justly deduced. It would be a waste of time for me 

 to offer to explain the doctrine of evolution to any 

 one who does not already understand it from the 

 literature of others on this subject. If he still nurse 

 the idol of the identity of man and monkey, he must 

 be too obtuse or too perverse to be reclaimed. But 

 no one will deny the physical resemblance between 

 man and the great apes, and it is this resemblance 

 we seek to show rather than trace any relationship 

 based upon theories. It is not a matter that con- 

 cerns the purpose of this work, and we shall here 

 dismiss the subject by saying, that things may be 

 equivalent and yet not identical. 



