314 ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE 



of the whole human race. Such a question as this last, 

 however, cannot be entered upon here, any more than 

 the inquiry as to the origin of intellect * or of life,t or 

 the absolute nature of light or heat.J The facts which 

 have been herein brought before the reader's notice, are 

 too elementary to warrant the introduction of statements 

 which must be merely speculative. Persons specially 

 interested in the question as to what light science throws 

 upon the origin of man, are here referred to an ante- 

 cedent publication of the present author. We may, 

 however, even here, point out that since thought pre- 

 cedes language (whether of speech or gesture) it is 

 impossible to understand how a rational being, one 

 especially who has a perception of right from wrong, 

 could ever have arisen from a basis of mere feeling, and 

 from creatures incapable of abstract thought, even such 

 thought as everywhere exists even amongst the very 

 lowest savage tribes. || However tempted we may be to 

 assume it, it is also by no means evident that the most 

 barbarous existing savages afford us the best attainable 

 representation of the very earliest condition of man- 

 kind. 



Of course when we take a wide view of all human 

 history known to us, it becomes plain that, on the 

 whole, there has taken place a process which we must 

 recognise as one of progress and improvement ; yet even 

 with respect to savages, there is much evidence to show 

 that very many of them have fallen from some higher 

 Antecedent condition. Social progress is an exceedingly 

 complex phenomenon, the result of many factors. No 



* See ante, p. 269. t See ante, p. 189. 



J See ante, p. 86. 



The "Origin of Human Reason." Kegan Paul, Trench, 



& Co., 1889. || See ante, pp. 264 and 268. 



