PEE ADAMITE MAN. 119 



vent of man. I would not be understood to assert that 

 concurrence at the point indicated is universal, but nearly 

 universal. People of exceptional minds there are, to whom 

 the bodily presence of a mastodon or other extinct animal in 

 any geological formation would signify no more than that the 

 Enemy of man had deposited the semblance of bones there as 

 a snare and a delusion to lead men astray. Such minds are 

 exceptional ; upon the possessors of them argument is thrown 

 away. There exist very few such ; the point of concurrence 

 being pretty much as indicated. 



Assuming it then for granted that the materials of our 

 planet existed in a consolidated form long before the stated 

 Mosaic date of creation, and that in those antecedent periods 

 animal beings had been created, as proved by their osteolo- 

 gical remains, the first question that suggests itself is: If 

 human beings lived in those antediluvian periods, ought not 

 their remains to be found also ? Certainly they ought to be 

 found, and the purport of what is to follow is intended to 

 prove they are found ; but the contrary belief long prevailed 

 amongst geologists. The fact is, that in science there can be 

 no such thing as any immutable article of faith of belief. 

 As evidence turns up, so faith, belief, may have to alter. 

 The matter in hand furnishes examples of some remarkable 

 changes of belief : examples that the dogmatist, in whatever 

 department, might study with gain to his charity. The first 

 example is furnished by Dr. Buckland, who no longer opposes 

 the belief in the existence of prehistoric man, although a con- 

 trary belief had been set forth in his work the Reliquice Dilu- 

 viance, published in 1823. 



It treats of the organic remains contained in caves, fis- 

 sures, and < diluvial gravel' in England ; and in it the writer 

 declared that none of the human bones or stone implements 

 met with by him in any of the caverns could be considered to 

 have the same antiquity as the bones of the mammoth and 

 other extinct quadrupeds. With this profession of faith Eng- 



