PRIMITIVE MAN. 373 



itself, an argument for the existence of a Supreme 

 Creator. Man is himself an image and likeness of 

 God ; and the fact that he can establish relations with 

 nature around him, so as to understand and control 

 its powers, implies either that he has been evolved as 

 a soul of nature, by its own blind development, or 

 that he has originated in the action of a higher being 

 related to man. The former supposition has been 

 above shown to be altogether improbable ; so that we 

 are necessarily thrown back upon the latter. We 

 must thus regard man himself as the highest known 

 work of a spiritual creator, and must infer that he 

 rightly uses his reason when he infers from nature 

 the power and divinity of God. 



The last point that I think necessary to bring for- 

 ward here, is the information which geology gives as 

 to the locality of the introduction of man. There can. 

 be no hesitation in affirming that to the temperate 

 regions of the old continent belongs the honour of 

 being the cradle of humanity. In these regions aro 

 the oldest historical monuments of our race; here 

 geology finds the most ancient remains of human 

 beings; here also seems to be the birthplace of the 

 fauna and flora most useful and congenial to man; 

 and here he attains to his highest pitch of mental 

 and physical development. This, it is true, by no 

 means accords with the methods of the derivationists. 

 On their theory we should search for the origin of 

 man rather in those regions where he is most de- 

 pauperated and degraded, and where his struggles 



