i 



182 MAN'S PRIMITIVE STATE 



acknowledgment that his existing condition is in line 

 with unassisted natural evolution. 



3. The proposition that man, so far as known to 

 anthropological science, appears to have started in 

 his development at a savage stage is entirely consist- 

 ent with our doctrine of his primitive state, — that is, 

 if we recognize, as we certainly ought to recognize, 

 the limitations of natural investigation with regard to 

 that state. No evidence has been or can be found 

 which determines with certainty the absolute primi- 

 tiveness of ancient savagery. Confessedly our first 

 parents employed no tools and built no structures 

 which could escape destruction and remain for our 

 discovery and consideration. If we were to unearth 

 Adam's bones, we should not be able to identify them 

 as his, nor could we find in their neighbourhood any 

 indications of his moral condition. All that modern 

 investigation can be said to establish is that, when 

 /men began to use permanent tools and build enduring 

 structures, they were apparently emerging from sav- 

 agery — from such savagery as the Christian view of 

 history would lead us to look for during the period 

 between man's fall from grace and his development of 

 material arts. The conclusion to which we are driven 

 is that the evidences of a general prevalence of savagery 

 |among the most ancient races that have left traces of 

 their condition neither prove nor disprove the primi- 

 ^tiveness of such savagery. If they appear to prove 

 it, this is because of what we have seen to be an 

 unwarranted assumption, that the Christian view of 



