Chap. VII.] THE RACES OF MAN. . 225 



Now, when naturalists observe a close agreement in 

 numerous small details of habits, tastes, and dispositions, 

 between two or more domestic races, or between nearly- 

 allied natural forms, they use this fact as an argument 

 that all are descended from a common progenitor who 

 was thus endowed ; and consequently that all should be 

 classed under the same species. The same argument may 

 be applied with much force to the races of man. 



As it is improbable that the numerous and unimportant 

 points of resemblance between the several races of man 

 in bodily structure and mental faculties (I do not here re- 

 fer to similar customs) should all have been independently 

 acquired, they must have been inherited from progenitors 

 who were thus characterized. We thus gain some insight 

 into the early state of man, before he had spread step by 

 step over the face of the earth. The spreading of man to 

 regions widely-separated by the sea, no doubt, preceded 

 any considerable amount of divergence of character in 

 the several races ; for otherwise we should sometimes 

 meet with the same race in distinct Continents ; and this 

 is never the case. Sir J. Lubbock, after comparing the 

 arts now practised by savages in all parts of the world, 

 specifies those which man could not have known, when he 

 first wandered from his original birthplace ; for if once 

 learned they would never have been forgotten. 27 He thus 

 shows that " the spear, which is but a development of the 

 knife-point, and the club, which is but a long hammer, are 

 the only things left." He admits, however, that the art 

 of making fire probably had already been discovered, for 

 it is common to all the races now existing, and was known 

 to the ancient cave-inhabitants of Europe. Perhaps the 

 art of making rude canoes or rafts was likewise known ; 

 but as man existed at a remote epoch, when the land in 

 many places stood at a very different level, he would have 



17 ' Prehistoric Times,' I860, p. 574. 



