We seem to have here an epitome of the entire animal creation, most suggestive in the light 

 of development, but otherwise without meaning. 



B. Early Stage of Culture. Whatever view is held concerning the origin of the race, 

 but one view can be maintained concerning its earliest stage of culture. All the scientific 

 evidence thus far available points to the fact that earliest man was in a very low stage of 

 culture, lower than that of any savage tribes of th? present day. When we consider that if 

 directly created he might as well have been started upon the plane of civilization, this low 

 stage of culture furnishes further evidence of his lowly origin. The development method, 

 however, necessitated that he begin at the first round of the ladder and that he work his work 

 laboriously to the top. At least four lines of evidence of his low culture stage may here be 

 cited. 



1. CONFORMATION OF SKULL. A study of the most primitive skulls known, such as the 

 Neanderthal and Spy, shows that their possessors had a full muscular and sense development, 

 but combined with little intellectuality. The heavy supra-orbital processes are suggestive of 

 struggle and combat. The human character of the first of these skulls was for a time ques- 

 tioned but it is now conceded that the skull is typical of very early man and that it marks him 

 as a very low savage. 



2. UTENSILS AND IMPLEMENTS. So far as known the implements of primitive man were 

 crudely chipped from stone and showed no specialization, the same article serving a variety of 

 purposes. They were such as some of the lowest races of to-day, the Bushmen of South Africa, 

 are still using. Had man been civilized he would not have been satisfied with such utensils 

 but would have used the metals and invented special forms for special uses. There is reason 

 for thinking that before man had learned to fashion even such crude articles, he used simply 

 those that Nature had already shaped for him, selecting those that seemed to best answer his 

 immediate purpose. The gradual development of man's mind is clearly seen in the series of 

 implements, more and more improved and specialized, that mark the stages in his upward 

 progress^ 



3. ABSENCE OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. All savage tribes of to-day have more or less 

 religious sentiment and some form of worship. Our American Indians firmly believed in the 

 "happy hunting grounds" and buried with their dead warriors their favorite weapons of war 

 and chase. The Mound Builders who preceded them held elaborate burial ceremonies and left 

 behind certain evidence of their belief in the life beyond the grave. As we peer farther and 

 farther into the dim past we find less and less evidence of such religious, or superstitious senti- 

 ment. In the case of the most primitive type of man, whose remains are known, we have no 

 evidence that he ever buried his dead, held any form of religious observance, made an idol or 

 erected any kind of monument. The evidence is entirely negative in character but it stamps 

 primitive man as standing very low in the scale of culture. 



4. ARBOREAL HABIT. A comparison of the bones of earliest known man with those of 

 the present day shows that they possess characteristics which can be explained only upon the 

 supposition that primitive man was a tree-climber. This inconvenient mode of life was forced 

 upon him because of his inability to cope with the fierce Cenozoic animals with which he was 

 surrounded. Had he been even partialy civilized he would have invented suitable weapons and 

 united with his fellows in a fierce war of extermination. That he did not do so at once is 

 evidence that he lived upon a low culture plane. The skeletal evidence of his tree-climbing 

 habit is shown in the relatively greater length of arms ; the "perforation of the humerus ;" 

 the shorter, curved legs ; the " flattening of the tibia;" the narrow, elongated pelvis; the 

 curvature of the spinal column and the position of the head upon the spinal column. With 

 his dwelling established upon the ground there was less and less climbing done and these 

 characteristics have been slowly eliminated from the human skeleton. 



C. Stages in Race Progress. Starting with man in this low culture stage it is now a 

 matter of interest and importance to follow him in his heroic struggle for existence, to see how 

 the four principles of selection have helped along those individuals and races that were most 

 worthy of such help and have eliminated those that might retard progress towards the highest 

 goal. Nature, the relentless enemy of the many, selected as her favorites those most Jit, 

 either by endowment or acquisition, and for these she has opened her bountiful hand. 



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