The third and last of the Evolution stumbling-blocks is that connected with the dogma of the Fall and Atonement. Before considering this, it will be better, I think, to summarise as briefly and simply as possible some of the chief proofs of our animal origin. The well-informed can skip this section, which is intended for the benefit of that vast majority--the ill-informed. Space will not permit me to do much more than allude to the proofs; but anyone really desirous of convincing himself or herself of the truth of the doctrine, and at the same time wishing to avoid details that might possibly prove wearisome, will find it popularly treated in Huxley's work on Man's Place in Nature (Macmillan); in Dennis Hird's An Easy Outline of Evolution (Watts & Co.; 2s. 6d.); in Edward Clodd's The Story of Creation (Watts & Co.; 6d.); in S. Laing's Modern Science and Modern Thought (Watts & Co.; 6d.); in Haeckel's Riddle of the Universe (Watts & Co.; 6d.), though this can hardly, perhaps, be described as popular; and in Metchnikoff's The Nature of Man (Heinemann, 1903; 12s. 6d.). The most complete work on the subject is Haeckel's The Evolution of Man (Watts & Co., 1905; 42s.; abridged edition, 2s.). This is in two volumes, copiously illustrated, of which the first is entirely devoted to human embryology or ontogeny, a branch of science which furnishes the most overwhelming evidence. The proofs may, roughly speaking, be grouped under three heads--the extraordinary affinity of bodily structure, the revelations of embryology, and the tale told by the useless rudimentary organs. We will commence with THE EXTRAORDINARY AFFINITY OF BODILY STRUCTURE. "It is notorious that man is constructed on the same general type or model with other mammals. All the bones in his skeleton can be compared with corresponding bones in a monkey, bat, or seal. So it is with his muscles, nerves, blood-vessels, and viscera. The brain, the most important of all the organs, follows the same law, as shown by Huxley and other anatomists." [157] Man's nearest animal relations are the tailless anthropoid or man-like apes--namely, the gorilla, the chimpanzee, the orang, and the gibbon. "Now that all the details of the human organisation have been studied, and the anatomical structures of man and large monkeys without tails have been compared, bone with bone, and muscle with muscle, a truly astonishing analogy between these organisms is made manifest--an analogy apparent in every detail." [158] The following are some of the points more particularly calling for notice:--