“Thus, identical in the physical processes by which he originates,—­identical, in the early stages of his formation—­identical in the mode of his nutrition before and after birth, with the animals which lie immediately below him in the scale,—­Man, if his adult and perfect structure be compared with theirs exhibits, as might be expected, a marvellous likeness of organisation.  He resembles them as they resemble one another—­he differs from, them as they differ from one another.  And, though these differences cannot be weighed and measured, their value may be readily estimated; the scale or standard of judgment, touching that value, being afforded and expressed by the system of classification of animals now current among zooelogists.”

Having explained the general system of zooelogical classification, he tried to dispel preliminary prejudice by inducing his readers or bearers to take an outside view of themselves.

“Let us endeavour for a moment to disconnect our thinking selves from the mask of humanity; let us imagine ourselves scientific Saturnians, if you will, fairly acquainted with such animals as now inhabit the earth, and employed in discussing the relations they bear to a new and singular ‘erect and featherless biped,’ which some enterprising traveller, overcoming the difficulties of space and gravitation, has brought from that distant planet for our inspection, well preserved, may be, in a cask of rum.  We should all, at once, agree upon placing him among the mammalian vertebrates; and his lower jaw, his molars, and his brain, would leave no room for doubting the systematic position of the new genus among those mammals whose young are nourished during gestation by means of a placenta, or what are called the placental mammals.

      “Further, the most superficial study would at once convince us
     that, among the orders of placental mammals, neither the whales,
     nor the hoofed creatures, nor the sloths and ant-eaters, nor the
     carnivorous cats, dogs, and bears, still less the rodent rats and
     rabbits, or the insectivorous moles and hedgehogs, or the bats,
     could claim our Homo as one of themselves.

      “There would remain, then, but one order for comparison, that of
     the apes (using that word in its broadest sense), and the
     question for discussion would narrow itself to this—­Is Man so
     different from any of these apes that he must form an order by
     himself?  Or does he differ less from them than they differ from
     one another,—­and hence must take his place in the same order
     with them?

      “Being happily free from all real or imaginary personal interest
     in the results of the enquiry thus set afoot, we should proceed
     to weigh the arguments on one side and on the other, with as much
     judicial calmness as if the question related to a new opossum.