Page:The Last link.djvu/86

74 anthropoid apes. They have shown that among the lower races of man the primitive Veddahs of Ceylon approach the apes most nearly, and that among the latter the chimpanzee stands nearest to man.

The direct descent of man from some extinct ape-like form is now beyond doubt, and admits of being traced much more clearly than the origin of many another mammalian order. The pedigrees of the Elephants, the Sirenia, the Cetacea, and, above all, of the Edentata, for example, are much more obscure and difficult to explain. In many parts of their organization—for example, in the number and structure of his five digits and toes—man and monkeys have remained much more primitive than most of the Ungulata.

The immense significance of this positive knowledge of the origin of man from some Primate does not require to be enforced. Its bearing upon the highest questions of philosophy cannot be exaggerated. Among modern philosophers no one has perceived this more