On one side of the heights above the River of Life stand the men of this little world,--the fully developed, the underdone, and the unbaked, in one struggling, seething mass. On the other side, and on a level but one step lower down, stands the vanguard of the long procession of "Lower" Animals, led by the chimpanzee, the orang and the gorilla. The natural bridge that _almost_ spans the chasm lacks only the keystone of the arch. Give the apes just one thing,--_speech,_--and the bridge is closed! Take away from a child its sight, speech and hearing, and the whole world is a mystery, which only the hardest toil of science and education ever can reveal. Give back hearing and sight, without speech, and even then the world is only half available. Give a chimpanzee articulate expression and language, and no one could fix a limit to his progress. Take away from a man the use of one lobe of his brain, and he is rendered speechless. The great Apes have travelled up the River of Life on the opposite side from Man, but they are only one lap behind him. Let us not deceive ourselves about that. Remember that truth is inexorable in its demands to be heard. We need not rack our poor, finite minds over the final problem of evolution, or the final destiny of Man and Ape. We cannot prove anything beyond what we see. We do not know, and we never can know, whether the chimpanzee has a "soul" or not; and we cannot _prove_ that the soul of man is immortal. If man possesses a soul of lofty stature, why not a soul of lowly stature for the chimpanzee? We do not know just _where_ "heaven" is; and we cannot know until we find it. But what does it all matter on earth, if we keep to the straight path, and rest our faith upon the Great Unseen Power that we call God? Said the great Poet of Nature in his ode "To a Waterfowl:" "He who from zone to zone Guides through the boundless Sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone Will lead my steps aright." CURTAIN. BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY THE MINDS AND MANNERS OF WILD ANIMALS CAMP FIRES ON DESERT AND LAVA CAMP FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE The Experiences of a Hunter and Naturalist in India, Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. Illustrated. 8 vo. THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY A Foundation of Useful Knowledge of the Higher Animals of North America. Four Crown Octavo Volumes, Illustrated in colors and half-tones. THE SAME Royal 8 vo. Complete in one volume. OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE Its Extermination and Preservation.