THE RAGES OF MAN. 205 



races now existing, and was known to the ancient cave- 

 inhabitants of Europe. Perhaps the art of making rude 

 canoes or rafts was likewise known; but as man existed at a 

 remote epoch, when the land in many places stood at a very 

 different level to what it does now, he would have been able, 

 without the aid of canoes, to have spread widely. Sir J. 

 Lubbock further remarks how improbable it is that out 

 earliest ancestors could have " counted as high as ten, con- 

 sidering that so many races now in existence cannot get 

 beyond four." Nevertheless, at this early period, the intel- 

 lectual and social faculties of man could hardly have been 

 inferior in any extreme degree to those possessed at present 

 by the lowest savages; otherwise primeval man could not 

 have been so eminently successful in the struggle for life, 

 as proved by his early and wide diffusion. 



From the fundamental differences between certain lan- 

 guages, some philologists have inferred that when man first 

 became widely diffused, he was not a speaking animal; but 

 it may be suspected that languages, far less perfect than 

 any now spoken, aided by gestures, might have been used, 

 and yet have left no traces on subsequent and more highly- 

 de\ eloped tongues. Without the use of some language, 

 however imperfect, it appears doubtful whether man's intel- 

 lect could have risen to the standard implied, by his domi- 

 nant position at an early period. 



Whether primeval man, when he possessed but few arts, 

 and those of the rudest kind, and when his power of lan- 

 guage was extremely imperfect, would have deserved to be 

 called man, must depend on the definition which we 

 employ. In a series of forms graduating insensibly from 

 some ape-like creature to man as he now exists, it would be 

 impossible to fix on any definite point when the term 

 " man " ought to be used. But this is a matter of very 

 little importance. So again, it is almost a matter of indif- 

 ference whether the so-called races of man are thus desig- 

 nated, or are ranked as species or sub-species; but the latter 

 term appears the more appropriate. Finally, we may con- 

 clude that when the principle of evolution is generally 

 accepted, as it surely will be before long, the dispute 

 between the monogenists and the polygenists will die a silent 

 and unobserved death. 



One other question ought not to be passed over without 



