ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN TO THE LOWER ANIMALS

by Thomas H. Huxley




Multis videri poterit, majorem esso differentiam Simiae et Hominis, quam
diei et noctis; verum tamen hi, comparatione instituta inter summos
Europae Heroes et Hottentottos ad Caput bonae spei degentes,
difficillime sibi persuadebunt, has eosdem habere natales; vel si
virginem nobilem aulicam, maxime comtam et humanissimam, conferre
vellent cum homine sylvestri et sibi relicto, vix augurari possent,
hunc et illam ejusdem esse speciei.--'Linnaei Amoenitates Acad.
"Anthropomorpha."'

THE question of questions for mankind--the problem which underlies all
others, and is more deeply interesting than any other--is the
ascertainment of the place which Man occupies in nature and of his
relations to the universe of things. Whence our race has come; what are
the limits of our power over nature, and of nature's power over us; to
what goal we are tending; are the problems which present themselves
anew and with undiminished interest to every man born into the world.
Most of us, shrinking from the difficulties and dangers which beset the
seeker after original answers to these riddles, are contented to ignore
them altogether, or to smother the investigating spirit under the
featherbed of respected and respectable tradition. But, in every age,
one or two restless spirits, blessed with that constructive genius,
which can only build on a secure foundation, or cursed with the spirit
of mere scepticism, are unable to follow in the well-worn and