186 MR STARK ON THE SUPPOSED PROGRESS OF HUMAN SOCIETY 



point, " society appears to be as old as the individual, and the use of the tongue as 

 universal as that of the hand or foot."* 



Such are some of the statements hazarded by philosophers and historians re- 

 lative to the earliest ages of human society. In discussing this subject, it appears 

 somewhat strange that the traditionary accounts of DIODORUS SICULUS and HERO- 

 DOTUS, and the early poets, should alone have formed the groundwork of the phi- 

 losophical theories of man's origin and progress, in opposition to the narrative of 

 such origin and progress contained in the First Book of MOSES. That this sacred 

 Book is not referred to as authority on the subject by a certain class of philoso- 

 phers may proceed, in some, from the mistaken idea they entertain of reference to 

 such authority superseding all further argument or inquiry. But there are others 

 who, in the investigation of the works of nature, the structure of their own minds, 

 or the history of their race, systematically avoid allusion to the Great FIRST 

 CAUSE, as if their own delegated and limited powers were sufficient, in all the re- 

 lations of mind and matter, to lead to final results without supposing His agency, 

 or tracing the operations of His hand. It is gratifying to think that the present 

 race of investigators are of a different character ; and in the boundless field of the 

 Natural Sciences, in the world of Mind and Matter within us and around us, 

 it is one aim of modern philosophy to trace the indications of infinite wisdom and 

 beneficence, unfolded at every step of its progress. 



In this instance, I refer to the Scripture account of the origin of man and 

 of his subsequent progress, so far as there detailed, as the most ancient, the 

 most rational, and the only true account of the early history of our race. The 

 facts there recorded are further corroborated by all that is known from other 

 sources, of the spread of man, the traces of his progress, and by the existing mo- 

 numents of the earliest times. 



According to this authority, then, which is indisputable, man was not, at his 

 first creation, a mute and rude savage, totally ignorant of everything around him 

 till taught by experience, and not amenable to moral responsibility. On the con- 

 trary, the Scripture teaches that man was, at his creation, not only endowed with 

 all the physical perfections belonging to our race in the highest degree, but also 

 with all the intellectual information necessary to the happiness and enjoyment of 

 the most perfect human being. GOD did not create man a mute savage on the banks 

 of the Ohio or the Euphrates, with a spear in his hand, and an instinctive thirst 

 of blood to urge him to his prey : HE did not place him on a barren shore, to feed 

 upon the blubber of the stranded whale : HE did not destine him to feed upon the 

 acorns of the forest, or scratch up edible roots from the soil to satisfy his hunger ; 

 but HE placed him in a garden, rich in all the productions of vegetable life, and 



* Essay on the History of Civil Society, p. 9. 



