142 PRIMEVAL MAN. 



I do not agree, therefore, with the late 

 Archbishop of Dublin, that we are entitled 

 to assume it as a fact that, as regards the 

 mechanical arts, no savage race has ever 

 raised itself. The other assertion that no 

 such race ever could so raise itself, is 

 confessedly a theory, and a theory the truth 

 of which is by no means self-evident. In 

 the first place, when the possibility of 

 progress is admitted, provided some elemen- 

 tary instruction is supposed as a foundation 

 on which to work, it is evident that we are 

 dealing with a proposition altogether hazy, 

 unless there be some clear definition of the 

 nature and amount of this elementary 

 instruction which is demanded. Whately says 

 that "the earliest generations of mankind 



