100 GOSSIP ON ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 



isolated from the centre of civilization, and had lost all tradition of 

 it, except of one event; and were to it as unknown as was America, 

 (to which the human family had also gradually spread), until the days 

 of Columbus. The wonderful tales of the heathen mythology may 

 therefore be no longer myths when taken in connection with the 

 subject of the antiquity of man, and the discovery, in the north of 

 Europe, of a new country and a strange people, and the reclama- 

 tion of their millions to a state of half civilization, and an exchange 

 of stone for the more useful and ornamental bronze and gold and 

 silver. The time is too far distant to enable us to judge correctly 

 whether the intruders supplanted, as on this continent they are 

 gradually doing, or amalgamated v\dth, the aboriginal race. The 

 Fin, the Lap, and the Esquimaux, in the extreme north, in their 

 lineaments and stature, their customs and usages, seem to favour 

 the idea of a people retreating beyond the influence of manners 

 and modes of life which they could not appreciate, and were power- 

 less to withstand ; and the ancient painted Briton, clothed in the 

 skins of beasts, with his fishing corracle, so like the Indian, contrasted 

 with the war chai'iots and splendour of his chiefs, and the power 

 of the Druidical priesthood, leads us to believe that the advent 

 of a superior race was attended with consequences to the 

 aborigines of the old Avorld, very similar to those w^hich have 

 been produced in the new. That advent was certainly post-diluvian, 

 although no authentic record remains that can be depended on, of 

 the settlement or conquest by which it was made. 



One great cause of scepticism is the readiness m ith which man- 

 kind yield their belief to theories put forth with show of reason, 

 by those whom they regard as superior intelligences, and in whom 

 they repose implicit confidence. Let a man do some great thing 

 which will bear the test of enquiry in every possible shape, 

 and become famous thereby, and he may afterwards commit a 

 thousand vagaries, and find multitudes to uphold him. A Lyell, 

 a Darwin, or a Huxley, may go a long way in the path of human 

 Ivnowledge, make important discoveries, and satisfy the world that 

 all they do is right and just and proper — and that therefore their 

 theories, (■qually with th(>ir facts, may be received with faith 

 equal to that which should follow plain demonstration. But there 

 is no reason why we should respect their speculations as we do 



