(37) igi 



has been opened, which marks one of Nature's great 

 transitions, such as have been called " Expression 

 points " of progress. 



What point of progress in such a history would ac- 

 count for this accession of the powers of the human in- 

 telligence ? It has been answered, with considerable 

 confidence, The power of speech. Let us picture man 

 without speech. Each generation would learn nothing 

 from its predecessors. Whatever originality or observa- 

 tion might yield to a man would die with him. Each in- 

 tellectual life would begin where every other life began, 

 and would end at a point only differing with its original 

 capacity. Concert of action, by which man's power 

 over the material world is maintained, would not exceed, 

 if it equaled, that which is seen among the bees ; and 

 the material results of his labors would not extend be- 

 yond securing the means of life and the employment of 

 the simplest modes of defence and attack. 



The first men, therefore, are looked upon by the de- 

 velopmentalists as extremely embryonic in all that char- 

 acterizes humanity, and they appeal to the facts of his- 

 tory in support of this view. If they do not derive 

 much assistance from written history, evidence is found 

 in the more enduring relics of human handiwork. 



The opposing view is, that the races which present 

 or have presented this condition of inferiority or sav- 

 agery have reached it by a process of degradation from 

 a higher state as some believe, through moral delin- 

 quency. This position may be true in certain cases, 

 which represent perhaps a condition of senility, but in 

 general we believe that - savagery was the condition of 

 the first man, which has in some races continued to the 

 present day. 



