336 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



up to the present time, and, therefore, that human civilization is 

 progressive, whatever may be its relation to the human mind and 

 intellect. These views, moreover, supported as they are by 

 direct evidence accessible to all, are held not merely by a select 

 few, but by a large and increasing number of those interested in 

 various branches of science, so that it does not require any pecu- 

 liarly sanguine temperament to regard them, if not as actually 

 established truths, yet, at all events, as in a fair way of being no 

 less generally accepted than any of the fundamental doctrines of 

 astronomy or geolog}\ To have overcome prejudices even to 

 this extent, and to have a free course for future investigation, is, 

 indeed, a great step gained ; but how much have we still to learn, 

 and what an infinity of details have still to be inserted before any 

 single picture of human progress, taken from any point of view, 

 can be regarded as complete ! The principal means we have at 

 command towards solving these and numerous other questions 

 bearing on the origin and progress of mankind, is diligent obser- 

 vation and collection of facts, from which, in due time, some gen- 

 eral laws may be induced, so that these, in their turn, may serve 

 to explain other facts, until gradually a system may be built up 

 in which all phenomena find their proper place, and become 

 mutually illustrative one of another." 



After showing that the regions in which these facts are to be 

 collected are neither few in number nor uniform in character, he 

 said : 



" The great fact, which we cannot too steadily bear in mind, is, 

 that we of the present day, our words and works, and all the sur- 

 roundings of our life, are merely the last links in one long, 

 complicated, though continuous chain, which connects us with 

 our remotest forefathers, their language, implements, and associ- 

 ations. We must never forget that each generation, with all its 

 accompaniments of whatever kind, forms a link in that chain, and 

 stands in the most intimate and close relationship with that which 

 went before and that which immediately follows it ; and, further, 

 that though in countries now possessed of civilization its rate of 

 progress may have varied, or even alternated with retrogression 

 into barbarism, yet that these changes have been by no means 

 sudden, but that all external civilization and all human appliances, 

 whether modern or ancient, have been the result of more or less 

 slow evolution from a lower stage of culture, and from ruder or 

 more simple forms ; while, in case of their decay or degradation, it 

 has been by a gradual process of longer or shorter duration. It is 

 this continuity in all the accessories of the external life of man 

 that renders any knowledge we may gain concerning their form 

 and character, at any given remote period, of such value in recon- 

 structing primitive history, and which renders the study of the 

 development of modern appliances, and of their relation to the 

 culture and mental condition of those who use them, so illustra- 

 tive of the different phases of civilization. 



"The story told by all the appliances of civilized man, whether 

 in ancient or modern times, and in a less degree by those of bar- 

 barous and semi-civilized nations, is invariably one of progress, 



