Nature studies / by Grant Allen [and others].

Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nature studies / by Grant Allen [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    161/384 (page 149)
    md pbilosophically, that these facts in no wise detract [ rom man's place in nature j but, rightly viewed, only ; he more ennoble the humanity that, from such humble beginnings, has attained to the highest twig on the f-ree of life. Mr. Darwin’s own words will bear quoting here 'rf The most ancient progenitors in the i,kingdom of the Vertebrata at which we are able to (.obtain an obscure glance, apparently consisted of a ■.group of marine animals, resembling the larvae of iexisting Ascidians. These animals probably gave rise tto a group of fishes as lowly organised as the lancelet; and from these the Ganoids, and other fishes, like the Lepidosiren, must have been developed. From such fish, a very small advance would carry us 011 to the Amphibians.” Mr. Darwin’s words are again worth quoting, when, in speaking of the origin of man, he remarks that “ it is only our natural prejudice, and that arrogance which made our forefathers declare that they were descended from demi-gods, which leads us to demur to this conclusion (that of man’s descent from lower forms). But the time will before long come, when it will be thought wonderful that natural- ists, who were well acquainted with the comparative structure and development of man and other mammals, should have believed that each was the work of a separate act of creation.” And, finally, concerning the often-assumed degradation of vertebrate ancestry- the late distinguished author of the “ Origin oi Species” has a noble passage wherein he gives the death-blow to all arrogance of heart and mind respecting