1 6 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



now first appeared. The first appearance of Man — or to 

 speak more correctly — the development of man from the 

 most nearly allied ape-form, dates probably either from the 

 Miocene or the Pliocene Period, — from the middle or the 

 latest section of the Tertiary Epoch. Perhaps, as is assumed 

 by others, Man strictly so-called, i.e., Man gifted with 

 language, first developed from the speechless man-like Apes, 

 in the subsequent Anthropolithic Age. 



At all events, the perfect development and distribution % 

 of the various races of Man dates from the fifth and last 

 main division of the organic history of the earth, and hence 

 this Epoch has been called the Anthropolithic, or Anthro- 

 pozoic, and also the Quaternary Epoch. It is true that, in 

 the present imperfect state of our palseontological and 

 prehistoric knowledge, we cannot solve the problem as to 

 whether the development of Man from the nearest allied 

 Ape-forms took place in the beginning of this Anthropolithic 

 Epoch, or as early as the middle or towards the close of the 

 preceding Tertiary Epoch. This much, however, is certain, 

 that the true development of human culture dates only 

 from the Anthropolithic Epoch, and that this latter con- 

 stitutes only an insignificantly small section of the entire 

 enormous period of time occupied in the development of 

 the organic earth. When we reflect upon this, it appears 

 absurd to speak of the brief span of man's period of cul- 

 ture as " the world's history." This so-called History of 

 the World does not amount approximately to even one- 

 half per cent, of the length of those enormous periods 

 which have passed away from the beginning of the earth's 

 organic history down to the present time. For this World's 



