The Destiny of Man. 55 



million years have elapsed since the first 

 page of this new chapter in the history of 

 creation was opened : it is probable that 

 the time has been much longer. In com- 

 parison with such a period, the whole re- 

 corded duration of human history shrinks 

 into nothingness. The pyramids of Egypt 

 seem like things of yesterday when we 

 think of the Cave-Men of western Europe 

 in the glacial period, who scratched pic- 

 tures of mammoths on pieces of reindeer- 

 antler with a bit of pointed flint. Yet 

 during an entire geologic aeon before these 

 Cave-Men appeared on the scene, " a being 

 erect upon two legs," if we may quote 

 from Serjeant Buzfuz, "and wearing the 

 outward semblance of a man and not of a 

 monster," wandered hither and thither 

 over the face of the earth, setting his 

 mark upon it as no other creature yet had 

 done, leaving behind him innumerable 

 tell-tale remnants of his fierce and squalid 

 existence, yet too scantily endowed with 

 wit to make any written disclosure of his 



