REVIEWS. 
517 
two appreciably nearer to one another ! Upon what, then, does Professor 
Huxley found his belief in our “probable ” descent from the apes? — and 
although we give him the benefit of his own word “ probable,” it is a 
probability conveyed to the world in such terms as to admit of little doubt 
that in the author’s mind it is a conviction. 
His theory is based upon another that is probable — namely, that of 
Darwin, — a theory which the originator does not see his way clear to 
apply to man ; although, as Professor Huxley very properly remarks, “ if 
Darwin’s views are sound, they apply as much to man as to the lower 
animals.” Nevertheless, Mr. Darwin is discreet, and “ has said nothing 
about man in his book.”" 
But our author does apply Darwin’s theory to man, for he accepts it as 
proved, subject to the production of a new species by artificial selection, 
which will render the same process by natural selection probable. As we 
have already stated, f the production of a new species by artificial selection 
has not yet been attained, although in the experiments made with this 
object, a hundred and fifty new varieties have been derived from one 
original stock. 
If any of our readers, then, will take the trouble to compare the 
author’s two works which we have been reviewing, they will find his 
argument on the ape-origin of man to run thus. In the first : — £ 
“ New and marked varieties may be produced by artificial selection. 
Artificial selection occurs in nature, and it looks very much as though all 
species had been produced in the same way, for their existence cannot 
be otherwise accounted for. This being the only rational theory, I accept 
it, subject to the production of an artificial species.” 
Then, in the work before us : — 
“ I will now show you that the differences between apes and men 
are no greater than between apes and apes ; that they therefore come 
within the range of Darwin’s law, and that one is probably a modi- 
fication of the other by transmutation. The differences between apes 
and men are enormous, and neither in the present, nor in the records 
of the past history of nature do we find any intermediate form to 
bridge over the gap between them ; but according to Darwin’s theory, 
which I have accepted, subject to the artificial production of a new species 
( which will satisfy me that all species are the result of 4 natural selection ’) 
man is probably descended from the ape; and probably some unborn 
palaeontologist will discover the missing link.” § 
This, Professor Huxley, “ may be truth, but it is not evidence.” 
We would not for a moment deny that Mr. Darwin’s theory of transmuta- 
tion by natural selection is deserving of all the attention that has been, or 
can be bestowed upon it by naturalists ; and that whether the law be partially 
* Lectures to Working Men, p. 153. 
t Popular Science Review, No. VII. p. 392. 
£ Lectures to Working Men. 
§ Of course these inverted commas do not denote that we are using the 
author’s words. 
2 n 2 
