Fig. I.
Fig. I.—Represents Primæval Amniota (Protamnia). Lizard (Lacerta), after Orton.
Fig. II.
Fig. II.—Represents Primary Mammals (Promammalia). Amniota Series. Duck-billed Platypus (Ornithorhynchus paradoxus).—Haeckel.
"Feeling evidently,"[17] says Haeckel, "rather than understanding, induces most people to combat the theory of their 'descent from apes.' It is simply because the organism of the ape appears a caricature of man, a distorted likeness of ourselves in a not very attractive form; because the customary æsthetic ideas and self-glorification of man are touched by this in so sensitive a point, that most men shrink from recognizing their descent from apes. It seems much pleasanter to be descended from a more highly developed divine being, and hence, as is well known, human vanity has from the earliest times flattered itself by assuming the original descent of the race from gods or demi-gods."