176 



MAN 



higher stages. These differences, if they mean any- 

 thing, refer to periods — periods of time, each char 

 racterised by its own variety of man, just as they are 

 palseontologically characterised by their own special 

 floras and faunas ; and of course conforming to the 

 great law of cosmical progress, by which the latest is 

 ever in ascent of that which preceded it. Losing 

 sight of this law, and of the immense differences that 

 exist between the different varieties of mankind, other 

 theorists, and among them Professor Agassiz, " tliink 

 it can be shown by anatomical evidence that man is 

 not only the last and highest among the living beings 

 of the present period, but that he is the last term of 

 a series, beyond which there is no material progress 

 possible in accordance with the plan upon which the 

 whole animal kingdom is constructed ; and that the 

 only improvement we can look for upon earth for the 

 future must consist in the development of man's 

 intellectual and moral faculties."* Where, however, 

 is the anatomical evidence 'i Can we believe that the 

 adaptive modifications of the vertebrate skeleton have 

 been exhausted in the structure of man ? Are there 

 no structural differences between the Negro and the 

 Caucasian t Were there no differences between the 

 innate powers and conceptions of the races who 

 raised earth-mounds and those who piled up pyramids? 

 * Essay on Classification, pp. 3^, 35. 



