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A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga840
of monkey life descended from some common ancestral form, which same
ancestor was also the ancestor of Man. In other words, Man and Apes are the
different branches that emerged from the common trunk ages ago. Other
forms doubtless emerged from the same trunk, and perished because less
adapted to their environments. The Apes were best adapted to their own
environments, and Man was best adapted to his. The weaker branches failed.
One must remember that the most savage races known to us today are
practically as far different from the highest American, European or Hindu
types of Man as from the highest Apes. Indeed, it would seem far easier for
a high Ape to evolve into a Kaffir, Hottentot, or Digger Indian, than for the
latter to evolve into an Emerson, Shakespeare, or Hindu Sage. As Huxley has
shown, the brain-structure of Man compared with that of the Chimpanzee
shows differences but slight when compared with the difference between
that of the Chimpanzee and that of the Lemur. The same authority informs
us that in the important feature of the deeper brain furrows, and intricate
convolutions, the chasm between the highest civilized man and the lowest
savage is far greater than between the lowest savage and the highest manlike
ape. Darwin, describing the Fuegians, who are among the very lowest
forms of savages, says: “Their very signs and expressions are less intelligible
to us than those of the domesticated animal. They are men who do not
possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet appear to boast of human
reason, or at least of arts consequent upon that reason.”
Professor Clodd, in describing the “primitive man,” says: “Doubtless he
was lower than the lowest of the savages of today—a powerful, cunning
biped, with keen sense organs always sharper, in virtue of constant
exercise, in the savage than in the civilized man (who supplements them by
science), strong instincts, uncontrolled and fitful emotions, small faculty of
wonder, and nascent reasoning power; unable to forecast tomorrow, or to
comprehend yesterday, living from hand to mouth on the wild products of
Nature, clothed in skin and bark, or daubed with clay, and finding shelter
in trees and caves; ignorant of the simplest arts, save to chip a stone missile,