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elements and roots of religion are formed with him as a part 
of his nature; and what are these elements? ‘They are, to use 
the words of Professor Max Miiller, ‘‘an intuition of God, 
a sense of human weakness and dependence, a belief in a Divine 
government of the world, a distinction between good and evil, 
and-a hope of a better life. These are some of the natural 
elements of all religions. Though some time hidden, they rise 
again and again to their perfect form. Unless they had formed 
a part of the oldest dowry of the human soul, religion would 
remain an impossibility.’’—Selected Hssays, p. 4. 
Thus, then, to the question, Was primeval man a savage, 
a descendant of a particular branch of the catarhine apes ? 
must be given an emphatic negative. And so, when the 
Christian is called upon by the advanced scientist of the 
present day to give up his old faith—his belief in the Divine 
origin and glorious future of the human race—and to embrace 
the new dogma—its evolution from the quadrumana—he 
should withhold his assent, and demand some better proofs 
than those at present offered that the teaching of Moses, of 
Christ, and of Paul, concerning the nature of man, is worthy 
only to be relegated to the keeping of the custodians of 
ancient relics. 
THe CuHarrMan (Mr. W.N. West) said he was sure all thanked Mr. Hassell 
for his very interesting paper, the discussion of which was now open to all 
present. 
Mr. 8. R. Partison, F.G.S., said it was scarcely needful that he should 
speak upon the subject, as he perfectly agreed with the Author, and had no 
objection to make to the paper and no observation which could add to the 
force of its reasoning. But there were other reasons which would, in his 
opinion, tend to the same conclusion as that to which the author had come. 
The relics that we have from language and customs as well as art make it 
appear to be utterly inexplicable that man arose from a previous savage 
condition ; but the question was one which they might long debate, because 
there were savages and civilised people in all ages of the world. There 
were savages now, and progress was going on on the one hand, and degradation 
was going on on the other. Inasmuch as the matter was now regarded in 
two ways, if they threw one overboard, the evidence was so slight,—there 
was so little of it, that it was very easy to argue for conclusions which 
were at variance with the one they had thrown over. Hence it was difficult 
to arrive at finality on a subject like this, where there were no certain data, 
at least very little certain data to go upon. He thought the advocates of 
primitive savagery in the race had failed, and had singularly failed of late 
years, for recent discoveries strengthened the conclusion that the race 
must have been far more learned and accomplished in its origin than 
any savages with whose history we are acquainted. Setting aside the 
