The firmness of the belief in conventional dogmas, which hampers the progress of rational enlightenment in orthodox Protestant circles as well as Catholic, is often admired as an expression of the deep emotion of the German people. But its real source is their confusion of thought and their credulity, the power of conservative tradition, and the reactionary state of political education. While our schools are bent under the yoke of the creeds, those of our neighbours are free. France, the pious daughter of the Church, gives anxious moments to her ambitious mother. She is breaking the chains of the Concordat, and taking up the work of the Reformation. In Germany, the birthplace of the Reformation, the Reichstag and the Government vie with each other in smoothing the paths for the Jesuits, and fostering, instead of suppressing, the intolerant spirit of the sectarian school. Let us hope that the latest episode in the history of evolution, its recognition by Jesuitical science, will bring about the reverse of what they intend--the substitution of rational science for blind faith. CHAPTER II THE STRUGGLE OVER OUR GENEALOGICAL TREE OUR APE-RELATIVES AND THE VERTEBRATE-STEM EXPLANATION OF PLATE II SKELETONS OF FIVE ANTHROPOID APES These skeletons of the five living genera of anthropomorpha are reduced to a common size, in order to show better the relative proportions of the various parts. The human skeleton is 1/20th natural size, the gorilla 1/18th, the chimpanzee 1/7th, the orang 1/7th, the gibbon 1/9th. Young specimens of the chimpanzee and orang have been selected, because they approach nearer to man than the adult. No one of the living anthropoid apes is nearest to man in all respects; this cannot be said of either of the African (gorilla and chimpanzee) or the Asiatic (orang and gibbon). This anatomic fact is explained phylogenetically on the ground that none of them are direct ancestors of man; they represent divergent branches of the stem, of which man is the crown. However, the small gibbon is nearest related to the hypothetical common ancestor of all the anthropomorpha to which we give the name of Prothylobates. Further information will be found in my _Last Link_ and _Evolution of Man_ (chap. xxiii.). PLATE II. SKELETONS OF FIVE ANTHROPOID APES. [Illustration: 1/20 MAN (Homo) 1/18 GORILLA 1/7 Young CHIMPANZEE (Anthropithecus) 1/7 Young ORANG (Satyrus) 1/9 GIBBON (Hylobates)] CHAPTER II THE STRUGGLE OVER OUR GENEALOGICAL TREE OUR APE-RELATIVES AND THE VERTEBRATE-STEM