32 PRIMEVAL MAN. 



from Cain and Abel, but of the individual men 

 who were the third and fourth human beings 

 upon earth, then we must suppose that the pos- 

 session of domestic animals and acquaintance 

 with artificial cultivation were either divinely 

 communicated to Man, or instinctively dis- 

 covered by him, at once. It may have been so, 

 and it may be the intention of the narrative 

 to assert it ; but, at all events, it is perfectly 

 conceivable, that beyond a knowledge of the 

 simplest arts which were necessary for the 

 sustenance of life, Man's primitive condition 

 may have been a condition of mere childhood. 

 As regards the third element in the whole 

 question — the element of Time — it is well 

 known that all calculations in regard to it 

 rest upon data respecting which there has 



