

1 08 Evolution 



groups, but the social form we can only conjecture to 

 have been an extension of the family circle. What used 

 to be called the " commander's batons," that are found 

 in some caves, were most probably implements for 

 sharpening pointed weapons. 



The earlier three-fourths of the history of humanity 

 (dating from Neanderthal) shows therefore a very slow 

 and gradual evolution of intelligence and institutions. 

 Dr. Russel Wallace and Dr. St. George Mivart, and 

 some of the older anthropologists used to say that though 

 man's frame was evolved from that of the lemur, his 

 higher powers had not been so developed. Clearly this 

 is quite at variance with the abundant evidence we now 

 have. All the remains and works of early man fit at 

 once in the scheme of gradual evolution. In fact, it is 

 the slowness of the evolution that chiefly surprises one 

 on a review of the whole evidence. 



However, this Paleolithic race is now somewhat 

 brusquely superseded by the Neolithic (New Stone) men 

 that overrun Europe with polished stone weapons, bows 

 and arrows, tombs and monuments, and rough weaving, 

 pottery, and agriculture. In older works on the subject 

 one reads of an unintelligible chasm separating the two 

 races, and the Neolithic men seem to spring up as if by 

 magic. In England and other countries this is a fair 

 statement. The old race died out — whether by ice age, 

 plague, or inundation we cannot say — and the new came 

 on with a much higher culture. But we must remember 

 that men were developing during this whole period in the 

 north of Africa and the south-east of Asia, and we have 

 good reason to look there for the connection. The 

 successive invasion from the south of higher types is one 

 of the familiar processes in the biological record, which 

 has been curiously reversed in our time. We have, in 

 fact, good ground in the character of some of the 



