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The first difficulty I shall mention is, however, a structural one.
Supposing that an ape-like ancestor developed into man, on the
principles of natural selection; then his development has taken place in
a manner directly contrary to the acknowledged law of natural selection.
He has developed backwards; his frame is in every way weaker; he is
wanting in agility; he has lost the prehensile feet; he has lost teeth
fitted for fighting or crushing or tearing; he has but little sense of
smell; he has lost the hairy covering, and is obliged to help himself by
clothes.[1] If this loss was ornamental it is quite unlike any other
development in this respect, since no other creature has the same; for
ornamental purposes the fur becomes coloured, spotted, and striped, but
not lost. It is easy to reply that man being _intelligent_, his brain
power enables him to invent clothes, arms, implements, and so forth,
which not only supply all deficiencies of structure, but give him a
great superiority over all creatures. But how did he get that
intelligence? By what natural process of causation (without intelligent
direction) is it conceivable that, given a species of monkey, all at
once and at a certain stage, structural development should have been
retarded and actually reversed, and a development of brain structure
alone set in? Nor, be it observed, has any trace of _man_ with a
rudimentary brain ever been discovered.
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