338 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



That savagery and barbarism represent a degenerate, rather 

 than a primitive, state, is proved by the fact that savage tribes, 

 in general, despite their brutish degradation, possess languages 

 too perfectly elaborated and systematized to be accounted for 

 by the mental attainments of the men who now use them, 

 languages which testify unmistakably to the superior intellec- 

 tual and cultural level of their civilized ancestors, to whom 

 the initial construction of such marvelous means of com- 

 munication was due. "It is indeed one of the para- 

 doxes of linguistic science," says Dr. Edwin Sapir, in 

 a lecture delivered April 1, 1911, at the University 

 of Pennsylvania, "that some of the most complexly organ- 

 ized languages are spoken by so-called primitive peoples, 

 while, on the other hand, not a few languages of relatively 

 simple structure are found among peoples of considerable 

 advance in culture. Relatively to the modern inhabitants of 

 England, to cite but one instance out of an indefinitely large 

 number, the Eskimos must be considered as rather limited in 

 cultural development. Yet there is just as little doubt that 

 in complexity of form the Eskimo language goes far beyond 

 English. I wish merely to indicate that, however we may 

 indulge in speaking of primitive man, of a primitive language 

 in the true sense of the word we find nowhere a trace." (Smith- 

 son. Inst. Rpt. for 1912, p. 573.) Pierre Duponceau makes a 

 similar observation with reference to the logical and orderly 

 organization of the Indian languages: "The dialects of the 

 Indian tribes," he says, "appear to be the work of philosophers 

 rather than of savages." (Cited by F. A. Tholuck, "Verm. 

 Schr.," ii, p. 260.) 



It was considerations of this sort which led the great 

 philologist Max Miiller to ridicule Darwin's conception of 

 primitive man as a savage. "As far as we can trace the foot- 

 steps of man," he writes, "even on the lowest strata of history, 

 we see that the Divine gift of a sound and sober intellect 

 belonged to him from the very first; and the idea of humanity 

 emerging slowly from the depths of an animal brutality can 



