CHAPTER XIV. 



PRIMITIVE MAN. CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO MODERfl 

 THEORIES AS TO HIS ORIGIN. 



THE geological record, as we have been reading it, 

 introduces us to primitive man, but gives us no 

 distinct information as to his origin. Tradition and 

 revelation have, it is true, their solutions of the 

 mystery, but there are, and always have been, many 

 who will not take these on trust, but must grope for 

 themselves with the taper of science or philosophy 

 into the dark caverns whence issue the springs of 

 humanity. In former times it was philosophic specu- 

 lation alone which lent its dim and uncertain light to 

 these bold inquirers ; but in our day the new and 

 startling discoveries in physics, chemistry, and biology 

 have flashed up with an unexpected brilliancy, and 

 have at least served to dazzle the eyes and encourage 

 the hopes of the curious, and to lead to explorations 

 more bold and systematic than any previously under- 

 taken. Thus has been born amongst us, or rather 

 renewed, for it is a very old thing, that evolutionist 

 philosophy, which has been well characterised as the 

 <( baldest of all the philosophies which have sprung up 

 in our world," and which solves the question of human 

 origin by the assumption that human nature exists 

 potentially in mere inorganic matter, and that a chain 



