ANTIQUITY OF THE HUMAN RACE 213 



die, stretching his estimates beyond all need in 

 order to satisfy all critics, quite appositely argues : 



It is less than 10,000 years to follow the generous esti- 

 mate which we are using since the knowledge of metal came 

 into existence; less than 4,000 since iron became known. Some 

 6,000 or 8,000 years for the evolution of our present com- 

 plicated civilization, and what of the previous 190,000 odd 

 years? What was the highly capable Mousterian man doing, 

 still more what were the undoubtedly talented Aurignacians 

 and Solutreans doing, that they made so little progress in so 

 vast an extent of time ? ** 



Admitting the existence of backward nations 

 today, the reason for which shall be given later, 

 the history of Europe fits in badly, as the author 

 says, with these long vistas of time. The vast 

 discrepancies between the various geological com- 

 putations of the Glacial Period, running from 

 500,000 years or more, to 25,000 years or less, 

 show how absurd it is to speak of scientific cer- 

 tainty in this matter, or to be disturbed by "sci- 

 entific" dogmatism. Professor Driver in his 

 "Genesis," and the renowned anthropologist, 

 Abbe Breuil rest satisfied with an estimate of 

 20,000 years for the antiquity of man, but the 

 various eminent authorities we have already 

 quoted, and among them G. F. Wright, the most 

 worthy of all, require no more than 10,000 years. 

 We therefore remain scientifically near this figure, 

 unless a greater period of years should actually 

 be proved, which now is not the case. A close 



*Op. cit., p. 268. 



