EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION 11 



the date of man s appearance on the earth becomes a 

 historic question of primary importance for our general 

 conclusions. Testimony from fossiliferous strata in 

 the earth s surface has accumulated to support the 

 view that a much more remote date must be assigned 

 for man s appearance on earth than had been previously 

 supposed. 1 The first effects of this change have been 

 revolutionary. One thing, however, stands out clearly. 

 The reconstructive work following admission of man s 

 antiquity, must assign to human agency a much 

 larger place in natural history than current hypotheses 

 suggest. By this admission, the problem of man s place 

 in Nature is increasingly complicated. Literary history 

 bears only a small part of actual history. The earth s 

 crust is the earliest chronicle of human activity. We 

 transcend the so-called historic period, continuing 

 to trace with certainty far beyond it, evidence for 

 intelligence such as belongs to men now. The dis 

 tinction between historic and prehistoric times 

 is relative only to our dependence on literary records. 

 Historic certainty is not restricted to chronicles. 

 It may even more readily be found independently of 

 documentary evidence. Far into prehistoric times 

 we are conducted in thought by reference to remains 

 which can be deliberately examined. It is in these 

 silent regions of unwritten history, as it is over the 

 wide moors of Scotland, where patches of green 

 sward mark sites of former homesteads, abandoned by 

 families whose descendants have sought more pro 

 mising fields for enterprise. There is, then, no exact 

 line of demarcation visible between historic and pre 

 historic times. In more remote periods, measure- 



1 The Antiquity of Man, by Sir Charles Lyell. 



