7 22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the earth examples of all the main stages in the development of 

 human civilization ; that from the period when man appears little 

 above the brutes, and with little if any religion in any accepted 

 sense of the word, these examples can be arranged in an ascending 

 series leading to the highest planes which humanity has reached ; 

 that philosophic observers may among these examples study ex- 

 isting beliefs, usages, and institutions back through earlier and 

 earlier forms until, as a rule, the whole evolution can be easily 

 divined if not fully seen. Moreover, the basis of the whole struct- 

 ure became more and more clear ; the declaration that " the lines 

 of intelligence have always been what they are, and have always 

 operated as they do now — that man has progressed from the 

 simple to the complex, from the particular to the general." 



As this evidence from Ethnology became more and more 

 strong, its significance to Theology aroused attention, and natu- 

 rally most determined efforts were made to break its force. On 

 the Continent the two great champions of the Church in this field 

 were De Maist're and De Bonald ; but the two attempts which 

 may be especially recalled as the most influential among English- 

 speaking peoples were those of Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, 

 and the Duke of Argyll. 



First in the combat against these new deductions of science 

 was Whately. He was a strong man, caring little for conven- 

 tionalities, whose breadth of thought and liberality in practice 

 deserved all honor ; but these very qualities drew upon him the 

 distrust of his orthodox brethren, and while his writings were 

 powerful in the first half of the present century to break down 

 many bulwarks of unreason, he seems to have been constantly 

 in fear of losing touch with the Church, and therefore to have 

 promptly attacked some scientific reasonings, which, had he been 

 a layman, not holding a brief for the Church, he would probably 

 have studied with more care and less prejudice. He was not 

 slow to see the deeper significance of Archaeology and Ethnology 

 in their relations to the theological conception of " the fall," and 

 he set the battle in array against them. 



His contention was, to use his own words, that " no community 

 ever did or ever can emerge unassisted by external helps from a 

 state of utter barbarism into anything that can be called civiliza- 

 tion " ; and that, in short, all imperfectly civilized, barbarous, and 

 savage races are but fallen descendants of races more fully civ- 

 ilized. This view was urged with his usual ingenuity and vigor ; 

 but the facts proved too strong for him : they made it clear, first, 

 that many races were without simple possessions, instruments, and 

 arts which never, probably, could have been lost if once acquired — 

 as, for example, pottery, the bow for shooting, various domesticated 

 animals, spinning, the simplest principles of agriculture, house- 



