COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



tigers, and gigantic bears, long since extinct. 

 And recent researches make it probable that 

 even this enormous period must be multiplied 

 six or eight fold before we can arrive at the 

 time when men first appeared upon. the earth as 

 creatures zoologically distinct from apes. The 

 significance of these conclusions, even when we 

 take into account only the shorter epoch of a 

 single million of years, cannot be too strongly 

 insisted upon. They show us that it is only in 

 recent times that man has become widely dis- 

 tinguished from other animals by his capability 

 of progress. If, as evidence of our present pro- 

 gressiveness, we cite the superiority of our Whit- 

 worth guns and Chassepot rifles over the how- 

 itzers and flintlocks used by our grandfathers, 

 we must also remember that more than twenty 

 thousand generations lived and died before the 

 primitive stone hatchets and stone-pointed ar- 

 rows were superseded by battle-axes and jave- 

 lins headed with bronze. During these long 

 ages each generation must have iniitated its pre- 

 decessor almost as closely as is the case with 

 brute animals. The godlike intellect, of whose 

 achievements we are now so justly proud, was 

 then being acquired by almost infinitely minute 

 increments. In the face of the proved fact of 

 man's immense antiquity, no other conclusion 

 is admissible. 



I have introduced these considerations, not 

 S6 



