100 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



the different families of man have passed through, under the 

 various conditions imposed upon them by geographical neces- 

 sities, conclusions, more or less satisfactory, may be drawn, 

 even where, as yet, little or no positi\ historical information 

 is available, to substantiate them by direct reference to written 

 authority. 



When, however, we endeavor to ascend up to the prii 

 period of man's creation, and the distribution of his species on 

 the surface of the earth, the resources already pointed out will 

 be found insufficient without the aid of geologv. particularly 

 whin on the subject of the tertiary and alluvial strata, which 

 contain organic remains of vertebrata; and, most of all, when 

 these are found to be of mammalia, whose orders and genera, 

 — nay, species, — are still existing in the same localities, or 

 in a more remote climate ; because it is in the same deposits 

 of bones that the remains of man occur, though rarely; and 

 their character and race is the subject of dispute. 



From the point of view wherein we propose to examine the 

 natural history of mankind, it will, perhaps, be found, like 

 geology, not wholly free from arguments that, to some, may 

 appear hazarded. In this class of researches, notwithstanding 

 the positive nature of a multiplicity of facts before us, while we 

 endeavor to abide by what we deem to be the truth, it is not 

 intended to push the inferences further than hypothetical 

 results, by means of which the phenomena of nature are best 

 explained, and deserve to become facts in science so far only 

 as they are warranted by the completeness of demonstration. 

 But as many points of research are, in their nature, not within 

 the reach of every test, much must remain partially speculative, 

 or possessed of that sole degree of probability which a compe- 

 tent judge may be disposed to award, upon dispassionate reflec- 

 tion, and the existing state of our knowledge. 



Man, being possessed of the highest privileges and endow- 

 ments in the whole domain of zoology, becomes the ultimate 

 standard of comparison to which all animated life is referred. 



