io Prehistoric Races. 



be nowise ape-like, but entirely human, like our- 

 selves. Finally, touching the biological question 

 of the transformation of species, he affirmed that it 

 is not yet possible to give any certain proofs of 

 man's tertiary origin in the world. 



2. Such a statement of the question, coming 

 from such a quarter, seems to be a propitious 

 augury that the great fight of evolution, after last- 

 ing for more than thirty years, is, like other wars of 

 long duration, approaching a final issue. Many 

 signs of the same coming event have been discerned 

 elsewhere. And, taking this state of things as our 

 point of departure, we may review the anthropo- 

 logical question, as it has stood thus far, and as it 

 seems to be nearing its solution to-day. Subse- 

 quently we shall take up the question in biology. 

 The manner of treatment which recommends itself 

 is not that of the specialist, but that of the philo- 

 sophical critic, who gauges the value of scientific 

 proofs by the general laws of reason and philosophy. 

 Leaving, then, the German and other specialists 

 aside, it is with this school of criticism that we 

 venture to range ourselves. 



3. To apprehend the prehistoric difficulty which 

 attaches itself to anthropology, I would invite you 

 The Prehis- to ta ^ e a stan d upon some commanding 

 toric Dim- spot, whence the whole field of the con- 

 culty * tention may be surveyed. We can thus 



conceive, too, some preliminary notions on the pre- 



