iii 



; You are aware that I am now specially engaged in the study of an- 

 thropology ; but I am bound to declare that every positive advance which 

 we have made in the province of prehistoric anthropology has actually 

 removed us further from the proof of such a conviction. 



When we study the fossil man of the quaternary period, who must, of 

 course, have stood comparatively near our primitive ancestors in the series 

 of descent, or rather of ascent, we always find a man just such as men are 

 now. As recently as ten years ago, whenever a skull was found in a peat 

 bog, or in pile dwellings, or in ancient caves, people fancied they saw in it 

 a wonderful token of a savage state still quite undeveloped. They smelt 

 out the very scent of the ape only the trail has gradually been lost more 

 and more ? : The old Troglodytes, pile-villages, and bog people, prove to be 

 quite a respectable society. They have heads so large that many a living 

 person would be only too happy to possess such." DR. ViRCHOW, of Berlin. 



" The cold water the Professor (Virchow) dashed into the face of these 

 vain imaginings has sobered public opinion, and contributed to a whole- 

 some reaction." TIMES. 



' Popular scepticism was unceasingly guilty of confusion of thought 

 that could hardly be too strongly condemned. Doubtful science, and still 

 more doubtful logic, were now united in the discussion of all deeper sub- 

 jects, and in none more than in that of the great subject they were 

 considering." THE BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER AMD BRISTOL. 



" In the attempt to deduce ourselves and our surroundings from the pri- 

 maeval condition of matter by mere evolution by which I mean the blind 

 operation of natural laws he is obliged to endow with emotion the ultimate 

 molecules of matter in a fiery nebula, and to adopt a series of conjectures 

 against which common sense rebels. The glove is boldly taken up, and 

 the result is a reductio ad absurdum." DR. STOKES, Professor of 

 Mathematics, Cambridge. 



" For many years past I have endeavoured to bring before the readers of 

 this paper evidences from the structure of various mammalia birds and 

 fishes that every thing was made with infinite wisdom by the Almighty 

 Creator, who himself pronounced His work " very good." In the structure 

 of the gannet, I put in the witness-box a bird admirably constructed, as 

 we have seen, for his habits and mode of capturing its prey. I have no 

 need to employ counsel in this case. I simply ask my readers to con- 

 stitute themselves a jury. They cannot help pronouncing the mechanism 

 of the bird " perfect," and that some Great Designer had worked it out. I 

 would then ask if in their opinion it was possible during the lapse of many 

 thousands of years millions if you like it was possible for the gannet to 

 develop within its own body the most perfect aeronautic machinery that 

 can be conceived." FRANK BUCKLAND. 



" It is the part of common sense not only to be helped by Science, but to 

 lend help to it in turn, and to restrain its possible vagaries and vain ambi- 

 tious efforts after what can never be of any use." TIMES. 



' We object to the attempt occasionally made in these restless days to 

 palm off upon us mere imaginative conjectures as the conclusions of 

 science. THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 1880. 



