explaining in a tentative way, or at
least suggesting, the probable origin of man from some arboreal creature
allied to the apes. It is as regards the actual evolutional steps
supposed to have been taken by the simian ancestors of man, a more
detailed and comprehensive hypothesis than that offered by Darwin in his
_Descent of Man_,[197] which Lamarck has anticipated. Darwin does not
refer to this theory of Lamarck, and seems to have entirely overlooked
it, as have others since his time. The theory of the change from an
arboreal life and climbing posture to an erect one, and the
transformation of the hinder pair of hands into the feet of the erect
human animal, remind us of the very probable hypothesis of Mr. Herbert
Spencer, as to the modification of the quadrumanous posterior pair of
hands to form the plantigrade feet of man.

FOOTNOTES:

[195] Author's italics.

[196] "How much this unclean beast resembles man!"--_Ennius_.

"Indeed, besides other resemblances the monkey has mammae, a clitoris,
nymphs, uterus, uvula, eye-lobes, nails, as in the human species; it
also lacks a suspensory ligament of the neck. Is it not astonishing that
man, endowed with wisdom, differs so little from such a disgusting
animal!"--_Linnaeus_.

[197] Vol. i., chapter iv., pp. 135-151; ii., p. 372.

CHAPTER XIX

LAMARCK'S THOUGHTS ON MORALS, AND ON THE RELATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND
RELIGION

One who has read the writings of the great French naturalist, who may be
regarded as the founder of evolution, will readily realize that
Lamarck's mind was essentially philosophic, comprehensive, and
synthetic. He looked upon every problem in a large way. His breadth of
view, his moral and intellectual strength, his equably developed nature,
generous in its sympathies and aspiring in its tendencies, naturally led
him to take a conservative position as to the relations between science
and religion. He should, as may be inferred from his frequent references
to the Author of nature, be regarded as a deist.

When a very young man, he was for a time a friend of the erratic and
gifted Rousseau, and was afterwards not unknown to Condorcet, the
secretary of the French Academy of Sciences, so liberal in his views and
so bitter an enemy of the Church; and though constantly in contact with
the radical views and burning questions of that day, Lamarck throughout
his life preserved his philosophic calm, and maintained his lofty tone
and firm tempe