EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



as I have said already, it must have been a great 

 while, because, even before the close of the Plio- 

 cene age, they had had time to spread over the 

 earth as far as Portugal in one direction, and as 

 far as California in the other. And if we are to 

 take the date of 240,000 years ago for the begin- 

 ning of the Glacial epoch, we can hardly allow 

 for the close of the Pliocene age an antiquity of 

 less than 400,000 years. 



It only remains to add that the enormous 

 length of time during which the human race has 

 existed is of itself a powerful argument in favour 

 of the opinion now generally accepted that 

 the human race was originated, by a slow process 

 of development, from a race of non-human pri- 

 mates, similar to the anthropoid apes. We see 

 man living on the earth for perhaps half a mil- 

 lion years, to all intents and purposes dumb, leav- 

 ing none but a geological record of his existence, 

 progressing with infinite slowness and difficulty, 

 making no history. Yet his geologic record is 

 not quite like that of the dog or the ape, who 

 could not chip a flint, and in the incised antlers 

 of the Cave-men we see the first faint gleams of 

 the divine intelligence that was by and by to 

 shine forth with the glories of a Michael Angelo. 

 We cannot but suppose that during those 

 long dumb ages, through infinite hardship and 

 through the stern regimen of deadly competi- 

 tion and natural selection, man was slowly but 

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