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central point of dispersion, wherever that may have been. He 

 had also time to develop that amount of manipulative skill 

 sufficient to enable him to fabricate tools of a material so hard 

 and intractable as flint. We may fairly assume that this was 

 not his first-formed implement or weapon ; and, doubtless, many 

 others were, from time to time, formed from other materials, 

 such as wood, or bone, that perished by the lapse of time ; and 

 the worked flints, even of the most ancient and rudest forms, 

 mark a comparatively advanced stage in the culture of the 

 human race — the capacity for this culture indicating a distinct 

 difference between man and his companions, the lower animals. 



Was this culture the result of developed instinct, such as is 

 found amongst many of the lower animals ? or, was it the result 

 of a superior intelligence bestowed on man, and not possessed 

 by any other creature in the animal world ? The worked flint 

 demonstrates that its maker, man, differed from the brute, and 

 it is the first evidence, and a fitting emblem, of those im- 

 pressions of the Deity — the creative skill, and intellectual 

 power — that in man has grown with the ages, and culminates 

 in the highest achievements of literature, science, and art. 



In the infancy of mankind, as with individuals, the develop- 

 ment of intellectual culture was very slow, and the progressive 

 steps of human experience were weak and faltering, because of 

 the absence of that stimulating influence, the struggle for 

 existence. Man's wants were then few, and were readily 

 satisfied by the abounding rich provisions of nature. As the 

 family increased and spread over large areas, the struggle for 

 existence became more acute. In the competition between man 

 and man, as well as between man and the beasts of the forest, 

 new wants were created, and new difficulties arose, to tax the 

 ingenuity, and develop the skill of the increasing human family. 



It was this struggle that brought man into closer contact 

 with nature, and induced, if not compelled him to study and 

 become acquainted with its varied phenomena, that he might 

 gather from its exhaustless resources the materials required to 

 satisfy his increasing wants. As a hunter after fish, flesh, and 



