50 PROLOGUE I 



sapiens, as Hipparion does to Equus. I think it a 

 conclusion, fully justified by analogy, that, sooner 

 or later, we shall discover the remains of our less 

 specialised primatic ancestors in the strata which 

 have yielded the less specialised equine and 

 canine quadrupeds. At present, fossil remains of 

 men do not take us back further than the later 

 part of the Quaternary epoch ; and, as was to be 

 expected, they do not differ more from existing 

 men, than Quaternary horses differ from existing 

 horses. Still earlier we find traces of man, in 

 implements, such as are used by the ruder savages 

 at the present day. Later, the remains of the 

 paleolithic and neolithic conditions take us 

 gradually from the savage state to the civilisations 

 of Egypt and . of Mycenae ; though the true 

 chronological order of the remains actually dis- 

 covered may be uncertain. 



9. Much has yet to be learned, but, at present, 

 natural knowledge affords no support to the notion 

 that men have fallen from a higher to a lower 

 state. On the contrary, everything points to a 

 slow natural evolution ; which, favoured by the 

 surrounding conditions in such localities as the 

 valleys of the Yang-tse-kang, the Euphrates, 

 and the Nile, reached a relatively high pitch, five 

 or six thousand years ago ; while, in many other 

 regions, the savage condition has persisted down 

 to our day. In all this vast lapse of time there 

 is not a trace of the occurrence of any genera] 



