The philosophical question propounded in the opening words of our author, is indeed a most important one, for it embraces Man's advent upon this earth, his proper relation to the rest of the universe, his present moral dignity and his future destiny. But the subject is divested of all its gran leur, and assumes an entirely different aspect, the moment Mr. Huxley attempts its consideration. We learn, with infinite surprise, that this momentous question is to be settled solely by the aid of the "scalpel," and that Man's true place in nature, involving, as it necessarily does, his moral relations and future destiny, is to be determined by his anatomical position in a system of Classification. He assumes that structural affinities are proofs of identity of nature, and that structural differences between animals classified in the same Order, are sufficiently accounted for by the doctrine of transmutation of species. He argues that, as Man differs in physical structure from the Monkey tribe no more widely than some members of this extensive family differ from one another, he must be classed in the same Order with them,-and therefore we are bound to conclude that he has been derived from a common origin.

This is truly, as our author asserts, "a vast argument, fraught with the deepest consequences,”—for, if it be a sound one, we must admit that men and brutes are identical as to their nature; that at present they are in different stages of development, but that they are alike tending to the same goal, and advancing to a common destiny.

To this conclusion of "unity of origin of men and brutes,” Mr. Huxley arrives, after setting forth numerous anatomical facts in support of his argument, which he constantly repeats in proof of his conclusion. The vastness of such an argument we freely admit, but we propose to show its entire fallacy.

"The facts, (says Mr. Huxley,) I believe cannot be disputed; and if so, the conclusion appears to me to be inevitable. But if Man be separated by no greater structural barrier from the brutes than they are from one another, then it seems to follow, that if any process of physical causation can be discovered, by which the genera and families of ordinary animals have been produced, that process of causation is amply sufficient to account for the origin of Man. In other words,

if it could be shown that the Marmosets,* for example, have arisen by gradual modification of the ordinary Platyrhini,f or that both Marmosets and Platyrhini are modified ramifications of a primitive stock, then there would be no rational ground for doubting that man might have originated, in the one case, by the gradual modification of a man-like ape; or in the other case, as a ramification of the same primitive stock as those apes."-p. 125.

He asserts that such a process of physical causation has been discovered by Mr. Darwin, and that his hypothesis is just as true as the Copernican theory of the planetary motions.

As Mr. Huxley makes the acceptance of his own conclusions to depend upon the truth of Mr. Darwin's doctrine, we might safely leave the question of man's place in nature to this arbitrament, since we have proved, in the preceding part of this Essay, that this doctrine is a baseless and visionary hypothesis. But Mr. Huxley also rests his conclusion on the anatomical facts which he has set forth in proof of his fundamental proposition,

"That the structural differences which separate Man from the Gorilla and the Chimpanzee, are not so great as those which separate the Gorilla from the lower apes."

Now, we are willing to admit all of Mr. Huxley's anatomical facts, though we shall take large exception to their application; but we entirely dissent from his " inevitable" conclusion, as being not only illogical in itself, but also as being a gratuitous corollary appended, inconsequentially, to his argument. We also undertake to prove that the argument itself is of no value in determining the great question propounded; and that it is not only devoid of scientific merit, but that it is also eminently sophistical.

The first facts cited by Mr. Huxley are those which relate to development. These are introduced, not so much in direct support of his position, as to prepare the minds of his readers for the easy acceptance of the doctrine of transmutation of

* Marmoset a small animal of South America resembling a squirrel, but classed among the monkeys.

+ Platyrhini―(flat-nosed,) a group of South American animals classed among the monkeys.

species, for unless this doctrine be admitted, all his other facts would be unavailable. He therefore lays great stress on the similarity which the human ovum bears to that of the dog, and still more, to that of the ape, to prove what he calls the structural "unity" of man and brutes, and that the physical processes of development are "identical." While we object to the use of the terms "unity" and "identical," as being deceptious, when all he can pretend to claim is similarity, yet we have no difficulty in admitting the facts which he adduces. Nobody doubts the fact, that the physical organization of man has great affinity to that of all animals belonging to the same great structural type, and particularly to those who are nearest to him in rank. What then? This similarity of structure is no evidence of identity of nature or origin Nobody doubts that man belongs to the Animal Kingdom,—to the class of Mammalia,—and it matters little in regard to the question propounded by Mr. Huxley, whether he is placed in the same Order with the Apes, or in a separate one. We admit that the ova of a snake, fish, bird, dog, ape, and man, are all, in a certain stage of their existence, undistinguishable. What then? This does not prove that the ova of these animals are identical. On the contrary, the diversity of their future development proves that each has been impressed with a different law of being. Mr. Huxley cannot deny, nor does he pretend to, that these different ova are all invariably developed into animals of entirely separate and distinct species. What he is driving at, however, by this indirect argument, is the identity of origin and gradual transmutation of species. But this is a question of fact, in regard to which there is not a particle of evidence. What logical or philosophical connection is there between the similarity in appearance of ova which are invariably developed into distinct species of animals, and the idea that a man may have been derived from an ape, and that an ape was once a dog? When has such a change ever taken place, in a single instance, to warrant us in assuming its possibility? Invariability in development presupposes immutability of being. Similarity in the appearance or in the processes of development of the ova of two distinct animals, is no more evi

dence that these animals can change the invariable law of their being, than similarity in the appearance or the revolution of two planets, is evidence that they may mutually change their fixed orbits and relations.

Scientific facts in regard to the similarity of ova, of fetal development, and affinity of structure adduced to support, inferentially, the doctrine of transmutation of animals, furnish at best but a specious and sophistical argument in favor of identity of origin. They are calculated to mislead the unlearned into the belief that such a process is natural and feasible; but they have not the slightest scientific weight in deciding the question at issue. The question of transmutation is one of fact, and can only be determined by positive evidence.

Preparatory to his grand conclusion that the Gorilla is the parent of Man, Mr. Huxley first seeks, with great labor and ingenuity, to place him in the same natural Order. Most of his subsequent facts are adduced with this intention; and he argues for this point, as if this change of classification would establish the necessary consanguinity. This position might be safely granted to him, so far as it has any true bearing on the great question under consideration. Man would be no less distinctively human, by proving, as Mr. Huxley aims to do, that the Gorilla is also a bimanous biped, and should, accordingly, be ranked in the same Order of "Primates." The true position to be established is identity of nature, from which identity of origin might be properly inferred,-not anatomical similarity, which determines only the ordinal rank which we may deem proper to assign to an animal, in our varying systems of classification.

The argument by which our author attempts to prove this position, in order to deduce from it his preposterous corollary of Gorilla parentage, is precisely the same which he repeats in proof of every other point, and is founded solely on the proposition, "that the differences between Man and the Gorilla are of smaller value than those between the Gorilla and some other Apes." He argues that Man differs "less from them (the Apes) than they from one another, and hence must take his place in the same Order with them."

Such an argument would be admissible, if the only point at issue were the correctness or consistency of an arbitrary scientific classification, but applied, as it is by Mr. Huxley, to establish Man's unity of nature with the brutes and his descent from the Gorilla, it is certainly very illegitimate, if not absurd.

Having secured, in the Quadrumana,* a very extensive field of comparison, he proceeds to enumerate, consecutively and with great minuteness, the differences in the proportions of the arms, legs, hands, feet, vertebra, ribs, pelvis, skulls and teeth of men and gorillas, to show that the lower Quadrumana differ as much from the Gorilla in these respects, as the last does from Man. He argues that these facts seem to him "to leave us no choice," but to place Man and the Gorilla in the same Order ; and the conclusion which he deduces from this argument, by way of corollary, is, that Man is descended from the Gorilla !

It must be borne in mind, that Mr. Huxley does not attempt to show a gradational elevation, in respect to the several parts enumerated, from the lowest to the highest Apes, culminating in the Gorilla, and the same gradational elevation continued in Man, with no greater difference between him and the Gorilla, than exists between the latter and the next highest Ape. Such a showing, if it could be made, would furnish a pertinent argument; but Mr. Huxley attempts nothing of the kind, though he gives to the unlearned reader the impression that such is his line of argument. But to understand the scientific value of the argument, as presented by Mr. Huxley, the reader must be informed that he takes for his field of comparison the whole Order of the Quadrumana, including even the Cheiromys, (Rat with hands,) which Cuvier classes with the Squirrels, and the Galeopithecus, (Flying Cat,) which Cuvier places among the Bats. This Order comprises over a hundred species of animals, widely differing from one another in form and structure, many of them approaching, in their characteristics, to carnivora, insectivora, and rodentia, resembling dogs, cats, foxes,

* Quadrumana, (four-handed:) an Order comprising apes, monkeys, and many animals very diverse in form, but classed together (with some hesitancy) by Cuvier, from the fact that they all have prehensile feet or hand-like claws.