CHAPTER XVII. 

 EARLY MAN. 



HE science of the earth has its culmination and terminus 

 _L in man ; and at this, the most advanced of our salient 

 points, as we look back on the long process of the development 

 of the earth, we may well ask, Was the end worthy of the 

 means? We may well have doubts as to an affirmative 

 answer if we do not consider that the means were perfect, 

 each in its own time, and that man, the final link in the chain 

 of life, is that which alone takes hold of the unseen and 

 eternal. He alone can comprehend the great plan, and appre- 

 ciate its reason and design. Without his agency in this respect 

 nature would have been a riddle without any solution a 

 column without a capital, a tree without fruit. Besides this, 

 even science may be able to perceive that man may be not 

 merely the legatee of all the ages that lie behind, but the heir 

 of the eternity that lies before, the only earthly being that 

 has implanted in him the germ and instinct of immortality. 



Whatever view we may take of these questions, it is of inter- 

 est to us to know, if possible, how and when this chief corner 

 stone was placed upon the edifice of nature, and what are the 

 precise relations of man to the later geological ages, as well as 

 to the present order of nature, of which he is at once a part, 

 and its ruler and head. Let us put this first in the form of a 

 narrative based on geological facts only, and then consider 

 some of its details and relations to history. 



The Glacial age had passed away. The lower land, in great 

 part a bare expance of mud, sand, and gravel, had risen from 



