CHAP. XX. ANTIQUITY OF EXISTING RACES OF MANKIND. 385 



CHAPTER XX. 



THEORIES OF PROGRESSION AND TRANSMUTATION. 



ANTIQUITY AND PERSISTENCY IN CHARACTER OF THE EXISTING RACES 



OF MANKIND THEORY OF THEIR UNITY OF ORIGIN CONSIDERED 



BEARING OF THE DIVERSITY OF RACES ON THE DOCTRINE OF TRANS- 

 MUTATION DIFFICULTY OF DEFINING THE TERMS "SPECIES"AND "RACE" 



— Lamarck's introduction of the element of time into the 

 definition of a species his theory of variation and pro- 

 gression objections to his theory, how far answered 



arguments of modern writers in favor of progression in the 



animal and vegetable world the old land-marks supposed to 



indicate the first appearance of man, and of different 



classes of animals, found to be erroneous yet the theory 



of an advancing series of organic beings not inconsistent with 



facts earliest known fossil mammalia of low grade no 



vertebrata as yet discovered in the oldest fossiliferous rocks 



— objections to the theory of progression considered causes 



of the popularity of the doctrine of progression as compared 

 to that of transmutation. 



TTTHEK speaking in a former work of the distinct races of 

 "' mankind,* I remarked that, 'Mf all the leading varie- 

 ties of the human family sprang originally from a single pair" 

 (a doctrine to which then, as now, I could see no valid ob- 

 jection), "a much greater lapse of time was required for the 

 slow and gradual formation of such races as the Caucasian, 

 Mongolian, and JSTegro, than was embraced in any of the 

 popular systems of chronology." 



In confirmation of the high antiquity of two of these, I 

 referred to pictures on the walls of ancient temples in Egypt, 

 in which, a thousand years or moi-e before the Christian era, 



* Principles of Geology, Tth ed., p. 637, I8i7 ; see also 9th ed., p. 660. 



