HIS ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONS. 83 



dealing' with matters of science, however, we must 

 abide by scientific methods, and all that can be natur- 

 ally drawn from tradition, from history, from archaeo- 

 logical relics and from geological remains, as to the 

 earliest conditions of mankind, points unmistakably 

 to rude and primitive beginnings. It is impossible, 

 indeed, that it could be otherwise, for man's moral 

 sentiments — that is, his whole notions of right and 

 wrong — spring out of his relations to other men, and 

 grow as a necessity with the growth of society ; and 

 we cannot conceive of their presence without such 

 relationships to call them into existence and exercise. 

 Whatever his origin, man's first condition, as well as 

 that of his immediate descendants, must have been 

 of a lowly and primitive nature, with everything to 

 acquire, and no accumulated experience to assist. 

 Even the source from which those who hold a con- 

 trary opinion profess to derive their beliefs, refers in 

 the plainest language to men covering themselves 

 with leaves and sMns, subsisting on fruits and flocks, 

 sheltering themselves in caves and tents, prone to 

 disobedience, guilty of fratricide, and in no ways 

 difi'ering in condition, physically or mentally, from the 

 rudest races of the present day. If we admit pro- 

 gression, we must of necessity consent to the lower 

 state from which the progress has been effected. * 



* These opinions find ample coirolDOration in a paper read by 



