INTEODUCTOKY. 25 



of honest and careful observation; no infidelity so 

 gross as that which disbelieves the deductions of com- 

 petent and unbiassed judgments. There can be no 

 reverence more sacred than that which springs from 

 a knowledge of God's workings in nature ; no religion 

 more sincere than that which flows from the enlight- 

 ened understanding of the methods and laws of the 

 Creator. Th e more i nt,ima,tg_fn]r acquaintance with 

 the works of God, the stronger our convictions of his 

 power, wisdom, and goodness. The holiest beliefs 

 are those funded on informed reason; all besides is 

 little better than superstition and mechanical for- 

 mality. It is of no use, then, when new questions 

 like the present are mooted, for certain minds to work 

 themselves into a frenzy of " orthodoxy'' — to savagely 

 smear themselves with theological war-paint, and raise 

 the old war-whoop of the Bible in danger. These 

 questions, whatever they may be, will be agitated and 

 discussed, and men's convictions wiU ultimately take 

 their hue from that which most commends itself to 

 their understanding. 



Be it then clearly understood that in investigating 

 the natural history relations of man, we are dealing 

 with a question of science, and striving to ascertain 

 what light zoology, ethnology, geology, and the 

 allied sciences, can throw upon his origin, antiquity, 

 and destiny. We are merely seeking to apply to man 



