20 MAN : 



sceptic and infidel is he who refuses facts and rejects 

 the conclusions of enlightened reason ; the dogmatist 

 and bigot'is he who, overestimatiag his own opinions, 

 .undervalues those of others and obstinately resists all 

 conviction. What may Tje accepted by one mind 

 under the bias of early training, may be insufficient 

 to induce belief in another differently trained but 

 equally earnest to arrive at the truth. " To faith,'' 

 says Bunsen, " it is imniaterial whether science dis- 

 cover truth in a spirit of scepticism or belief ; and 

 truth has been really found by both courses, but 

 never by dishonesty or sloth."* Arguments may 

 prevail ; abuse never wins over converts. Bad words 

 never make good arguments ; and we may rest assured 

 that he who is in the habit of using them is by no 

 means in a fitting spirit to enter as a worshipper into 

 the great temple of truth. 



The subject to be considered in the following 

 pages is one purely of natural history. We intend to 

 inquire into the zoological, geographical, ethnological, 

 and functional relations of man, which constitute his 

 present position in nature, or his wliere ; we go on 

 to his historical, geological, and genetic relations, which 

 indicate liis origin or his wlwnce ; and knowing his 

 past and present, science is surely entitled to speculate 

 with some degree of certainty as to man's future, 



* Egyjot's Place in Universal Sistory, toL i. p. 164. 



