& FOSSIL MEN. 



with an engrossing interest, and that all our varied 

 stores of scientific and historical knowledge should be 

 brought to bear on it. Nor need we wonder that 

 obscurity still rest upon the subject when regarded 

 from the. jst^^poi&t of science and secular history. 

 It j,s r oonneptedj in so i far as geology is concerned, with 

 (Ufi&uRj^aiid ixwi'tro verted questions of the Glacial 

 period and its close, and in the domain of archaeology 

 with the darkness that antedates the beginning of 

 literature. It thus forms an appropriate battle- 

 ground for active spirits eager to reach new truths. 

 The evolutionist searches in its obscurity for the tran- 

 sition from apes to men. The geologist painfully 

 gathers the faint traces of forgotten tribes preserved 

 in caves and gravels, and the archaeologist joins him 

 in his quest. 



The result has been the accumulation of a great 

 mass of facts, of which, however, many are doubtful 

 in their import, the initiation of many controversies, 

 and the production of a general vague impression 

 that science has unsettled all our previous views as 

 to the origin and antiquity of man. While popular 

 writers have boldly asserted this last conclusion as 

 established beyond dispute, the more cautious, and 

 those who have the best opportunities of weighing 

 the evidence, are well aware of its doubtful and un- 

 certain character ; and the attempt recently made by 

 one of the greatest and most judicial minds among 

 English geologists to sum up the actual results,* 

 * Lyell, "Antiquity of Man," fourth edition. 



