300 THE STOEY OP THE EARTH AND MAN. 



be objected that what I have above affirmed of species 

 may be affirmed of varieties, which are admitted to 

 be derived. For example, it may be said that the 

 negro variety of man has existed unchanged from 

 the earliest historic times. It is carious that those 

 who so often urge this argument as an evidence of the 

 great antiquity of man, and the slow development 

 of races, do not see that it proves too much. If 

 the negro has been the same identical negro as far 

 back as we can trace him, then his origin must 

 have been independent, and of the nature of a creation, 

 or else his duration as a negro must have been in- 

 definite. What it does prove is a fact equally obvious 

 from the study of Post-pliocene molluscs and other 

 fossils, namely, that new species tend rapidly to vary to 

 the utmost extent of their possible limits, and then 

 to remain stationary for an indefinite time. Whether 

 this results from an innate yet limited power of expan- 

 sion in the species, or from the relations between 

 it and external influences, it is a fact inconsistent 

 with the gradual evolution of new species. Hence 

 we conclude that the recent origin of man, as revealed 

 by geology, is, in connection with the above facts, an 

 absolute bar to the doctrine of derivation. 



A second datum furnished to this discussion by 

 geology and zoology is the negative one that no 

 link of connection is known between man and any 

 preceding animal. If we gather his bones and his 

 implements from the ancient gravel-beds and cave- 

 earths, we do not find them associated with any 



