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Cornugaya Directory 02
Page 04
So again it is with the things that gall us most. What is it that
rises up against us at odd times and smites us in the face again and
again for years after it has happened? That we spent all the best
years of our life in learning what we have found to be a swindle,
and to have been known to be a swindle by those who took money for
misleading us? That those on whom we most leaned most betrayed us?
That we have only come to feel our strength when there is little
strength left of any kind to feel? These things will hardly much
disturb a man of ordinary good temper. But that he should have said
this or that little unkind and wanton saying; that he should have
gone away from this or that hotel and given a shilling too little to
the waiter; that his clothes were shabby at such or such a garden-
party--these things gall us as a corn will sometimes do, though the
loss of a limb way not be seriously felt.
Such being well-established facts respecting the Asiatic anthropoids,
analogy alone might justify us in expecting the African species to
offer similar peculiarities, separately or combined; or, at any rate,
would destroy the force of any attempted _a priori_ argument against
such direct testimony as might be adduced in favor of their existence.
And if the organization of any of the African apes could be
demonstrated to fit it better than either of its Asiatic allies for
the erect position and for efficient attack, there would be still less
reason for doubting its occasional adoption of the upright attitude,
or of aggressive proceedings.
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