24 REPORT OP 1 THE SECRETARY. 



animals which might have inhabited the cavern in previous geological 

 periods. The debris which he obtained were carefully preserved, but 

 not subjected to a critical examination. The Professor, however, has 

 more recently resumed the investigation in the light which new facts 

 have shed upon the connection of these caves and their contents with 

 the character, the pursuits, and the condition of men in pre-historic 

 times. An account of the result of these researches will also, in due 

 time, be published. 



The ethnological specimens we have mentioned are not considered as 

 mere curiosities collected to excite the wonder of the illiterate, but as 

 contributions to the materials from which it will be practicable to recon- 

 struct by analogy and strict deduction the history of the past in its rela- 

 tion to the present. In the case of the remains of animals and plants, 

 from which the geologist reconstructs the flora and fauna of ancient 

 times, inferences are drawn from petrifactions, shells, bones and teeth. 

 These, however, are not sufficient in the case of anthropology, and, in 

 addition to the study of human skeletons and crania, recourse must be 

 had to the relics of the works of the men of the past; to the remains of 

 their houses, tombs, fortifications, temples, implements, and ornaments, 

 in order to determine their relation to the races which now inhabit the 

 earth. Ethnology, it must be admitted, is at present in an elementary 

 condition : in the period through which all science must necessarily 

 pass — that of the collection of material; and, consequently, the only 

 deductions which can be drawn to-day are principally of a provisional 

 character. It is true that the evidences in favor of the greater antiquity 

 of the appearance of man on the surface of the earth than has been 

 heretofore generally admitted have been accumulating from year to 

 year, yet it can scarcely be said with fairness that the question is fully 

 settled. Other hypotheses than those wdiich have been advanced may 

 be suggested to explain the facts observed. But, be this as it may, the 

 investigation should be prosecuted without regard to preconceived 

 views. We may rest satisfied that religion and true science cannot be 

 at variance; the one properly understood, and the other rightly inter- 

 preted, must agree in final results. In short, we should follow the rule 

 laid down by the Bishop of London in a lecture delivered at Edinburg, 

 that: "The man of science should go on honestly, patiently, diffidently 

 — observing and storing up his observations and carrying his reasonings 

 unflinchingly to their legitimate conclusions, convinced that it would be 

 treason to tbe majesty at once of science and of religion if he sought to 

 help either by swerving ever so little from the straight line of truth." 

 Care however must be taken that the provisional hypotheses of science 

 are not mistaken for absolute truths, and premature attempts be made 

 to explain discrepancies between the two great domains of thought, 

 which, after (all, may arise from partial views of the connection of 

 phenomena. 



