134 Progress and Civilisation. PT. m. 



and success, just as we would study any other being 

 distinct from ourselves, but written language enables 

 us to identify ourselves with his inner nature, and to 

 know him in some sort as we know ourselves. 



Modern Science has been making efforts in diffe- 

 rent directions to penetrate through the mists which 

 overshadow Man's origin ; but it may be doubted if 

 these inquiries have led to any certainty, or even if 

 these results were attained, would have any par- 

 ticular bearing upon our present condition, or our 

 future prospects. Sir Charles Lyell has involved 

 the chronology of primeval man in yet profounder 

 darkness and obscurity ; and the philological re- 

 searches of Professor Max Miiller have given us but 

 a shadowy glimpse of the races who are either alto- 

 gether extinct, or who have become so blended 

 together as to have lost all separate identity. But 

 these inquiries must always possess a philosophic 

 interest: the materials which enable us to study 

 Man as he at present exists can only be furnished 

 with an approach to accuracy since the dawn of the 

 historical period. We may be told of the Aryans as 

 our progenitors; but we know so little of them, 

 that we derive little more than a name from these 

 studies. But when we come down to the historical 



