i8o The Descent of Man. I'aut I. 



thus shews that " the spear, which is but a development of the 

 " knife-point, and the club, which is but a long hammer, are the 

 " only things left." He admits, however, that the art of making 

 iire probably had been already discovered, for it is common to 

 all the races now existing, and was known to the ancient cave- 

 mhabitants of Europe. Perhaps the art of making rude canoee 

 or rafts was likewise known; but as man existed at a remote 

 epoch, when the land in many places stood at a very different 

 level to what it does now, he would have been able, without the 

 aid of canoes, to have spread widely. Sir J. Lubbock ftirther 

 remarks how improbable it is that our earliest ancestors could 

 have " counted as high as ten, considering that so many races 

 "now in existence cannot get bejond four." Nevertheless, at 

 this early period, the intellectual and social faculties of man 

 could hardly have been inferior in any extreme degree to those 

 possessed at present by the lowest savages ; otherwise primeval 

 man could not have been so eminently successful in the struggle 

 for life, as proved by his early and wide diffusion. 



From the fundamental differences between certain languages, 

 some philologists have inferred that when man first became 

 widely diffused, he was not a speaking animal ; but it may be 

 suspeotid that languages, far les-s perfect than any now spoken, 

 aided by gestures, might have been used, and yet have left no 

 traces on subsequent and mo"e highly-developed tongues. With- 

 out the use of some language, ho«'ever imperfect, it appears 

 doubtful whether man's intellect could have risen to the 

 standard implied by his dominant position at an early period. 



Whether primeval man, when he possessed but few arts, and 

 those of the rudest kind, and when his power of language was 

 extremely imperfect, would have deserved to be called man, must 

 depend on the definition which we emfiloy. In a series of forms 

 graduating insensibly from some ape-like creature to man as he 

 now exists, it would be impossible to fix on any definite point when 

 the term " man " ought to be used. But this is a matter of very 

 little importance. So again, it is almost a matter of indifference 

 whether the so-called races of man are thus designated, or are 

 ranked as species or sub-species ; but the latter term appears the 

 more appropriate. Finally, we may conclude that when the 

 principle of evolution is generally accepted, as it surely will be 

 before long, the dispute between the monogenists and the poly- 

 genists will die a silent and unobserved death. 



One other question ought not to be passed over without notice, 

 namely, whether, as is sometimes assumed, each sub-species or 

 race of man has sprung from a single pair of progenitors. With 



