MAN'S PRIMITIVE CONDITION 1661 



all the developments which we see in the most 

 advanced industrial arts. 



And here it is important to observe that even if 

 savage races be taken as the type of man's primeval 

 condition, the evidence afforded by these races is all 

 in favor of the conclusion that, as regards his char- 

 acteristic mental powers, man has always been man, 

 and nothing less. There is quite as much ingenuity 

 and skill in the manufacture of a knife of flint as in 

 the manufacture of a knife of iron. And the skill 

 displayed by the men who used stone implements is 

 not confined to that which is involved in the selection 

 of mineral substances suitable for the purpose. That 

 skill is also eminently displayed in the use made of 

 those stone implements after they had been fash- 

 ioned. The smaller implements of bone, or of horn, 

 or of wood which the stone knives and hatchets were 

 employed to make are often highly ingenious, and 

 sometimes eminently beautiful. The truth is that 

 high qualities of reasoning and ready faculties of 

 observation are called forth in the inverse ratio of 

 the acquired knowledge with which they are pro- 

 vided, and from which they start. 



It matters not which of the two theories we adopt 

 in regard to the origin of the human race, whether 

 we suppose it to have proceeded from one or from 

 two, or even from several different centres of cre- 

 ation; it matters not whether we suppose with Sir 

 J. Lubbock that the "first being worthy to be called 

 a man" was born of some inferior creature, or 

 whether we believe with Whately, that he was truly 

 human in his powers, but required some "elementary 



