8 
tion to tlie wonderful variety and extent of learning and observation 
in Dr. Darwin’s last book. He calls it the “ Descent ” of Man, 
rather, as has been well said, it is the “Ascent” of Man. If — though 
I do not say he has succeeded, but if he has proved that man is 
in body developed from some hahy, sharp-eared arboreal quadruped, 
some of us will be made to remember our classic reading of Dryads, 
Hamadryads, Fawns, and other legendary creatures of poets and 
prehistoric traditions, quite as interesting as heraldic griffins, 
and dragons, which anticipated geologists, and which we would not 
willingly give up any more than quite believe ; but I would 
maintain it is an “ ascent,” in one sense, rather than a “ descent,” 
Dr. Darwin exhibits, for when he shows how many creatures, 
four-footed or biped, far below man in bodily formation, yet far 
surpass not only the lowest, but even many considerably advanced 
races of men in mental and moral qualities he makes us feel, 
that whencesoever man has developed in bodily organization, he has 
risen from a lower condition even compared with the brutes, and 
certainly proves that whencesoever and howsoever derived, man can 
never in any stage of development become a complete animal 
worthy of belonging to the brute company. He must be in body 
and in mental condition either below the beast or above ! We 
wrong the animals, whose natural history is our study, when we 
talk of a man being, or making himseK a beast or a brute j for 
the beasts would disown him, and show him to be worse than 
they, if he is not higher ; and we wrong our own higher nature, 
when we forget or disregard the physical condition in which we are 
here dwelling. 
As the butterfly is ever but a beautiful winged grub, so man 
carries the limiting conditions of body in his highest flights of power, 
and in his bodily imperfections is conscious of higher energies and 
destinies. Whether developed from the protoplasmic matter lining 
the ocean’s bed, and cleaving to its rocks miles deep, or descended 
from quadruped or biped in bodily organization, I care not ; for to 
use the recent words of Mr. Froude to the students of St. Andrew’s 
University — “ It is nothing to me how the Maker of me has been 
pleased to construct the organized substance which I call my body. 
