84' 



Of any varieties lower in poiat of organisation 

 than the lowest of the present day, we have no un- 

 questioned geological evidence. The few cranial 

 fragments found in Western Europe (we refer to the 

 Neanderthal and other skulls) seem abnormal rather 

 than typical; and even were they more numerous, 

 and all of a type, they could not carry us back be- 

 yond times immediately post-glacial, nor could they 

 prove aught of the regions from which Europe evi- 

 dently derived, by way of descent, its flora and fauna. 



Sir John Lubbock at the Dundee meeting of tlie British Association, 

 in which, after an elaborate review of the whole argument, the 

 author arrives at the following conclusions : — 1. That existing 

 savages are not the descendants of civilised ancestors. 2. That the 

 primitive condition of man was one of utter barbarism ; and 3. That 

 from this condition several races have independently raised them- 

 selves. " These views," he goes on to say, " follow, I think, from 

 strictly scientific considerations. We shall not, however, be the 

 less inclined to adopt them on account of the cheering prospects 

 which they hold out for the future. If the past history of manhas 

 been one of deterioration, we have but a groundless hope of future 

 improvement ; but, on the other hand, if the past has been one of 

 progress, we may fairly hope that the future will be so too ; that 

 the blessings of civilisation will not only be extended to other 

 countries and other nations, but that even in our own land they will 

 be rendered more general and more equable, so that we shall not see 

 before us always, as now, multitudes of our own fellow-countrymen 

 living the life of savages in our very midst, neither possessing the 

 rough advantages and real, though coarse, pleasures of savage life, 

 nor yet availing themselves of the far higher and more noble oppoi> 

 tunities wliich lie within the reach of civilised man. 



