igo Prehistoric and Savage Man 



little time ago, not only must facts and legitimate reasons be 

 accepted although they may conflict with a traditional belief, 

 but they must also be accepted even though they may 

 disaccord with some scientific theory which may have capti- 

 vated the fancy. 



But the theory of Evolution, as a whole, is not threatened 

 by any contention, but only the doctrine which affirms the 

 essential bestiality of man. As to one stage of evolution Mr. 

 Darwin himself has said : ' There is grandeur in the view of 

 life having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few 

 forms or into one.' Why not then into the first human form 

 also ? If such a breach of continuity as Mr. Darwin supposes 

 may have taken place once, why not again — above all at the 

 first origin amongst mere animal life of an intellectual nature 

 capable of recognising with gratitude and love that creative 

 act to which it owed its being ? 



The reluctance to recognise the existence of a break in 

 the continuity of nature because we cannot imagine it, is but 

 one of the many modern attempts to tie doAvn reason within 

 the narrow bonds of our power of imagination, and this 

 though even in our own very act of sight we have an 

 example of what we can neither perceive nor imagine, but 

 which we nevertheless most certainly know. 



Unless, then, I am very greatly mistaken, the arguments 

 adduced to prove the bestiality of man seem but to bring out 

 more clearly the essential distinction which may be dra^vTi 

 between him and the beasts which perish — a distinction 

 which defies refutation and courts the most ample and 

 searching examination. Not even an attempt has, as far as 

 I know, yet been made to meet the arguments which I have 

 briefly here restated against Mr. Darwin's theory of man's 

 origin. I am strongly persuaded they cannot be met ! 



To these deductions of reason, the data set before us 

 by the science of Ethnography lend very important aid, and 



