no PHYSICAL BASIS OF CIVILIZATION 



of pregnancy, have stored food in places of conceal- 

 ment ; then the reply is, that this either takes a per- 

 fected instinct for granted, which is contrary to the 

 facts, or else assumes a degree of systematized 

 knowledge and planning out of the question in brute- 

 man or woman. 



Having ascertained the utter futility of every 

 other alternative, we are now face to face with this 

 most remarkable conclusion, that the " genus homo," 

 when still in its earlier brute condition, escaped 

 extinction only because food was placed within the 

 hiding places of the pregnant females by some arti- 

 ficial agency outside their own persons ; that a race 

 has survived, multiplied, and become supreme mas- 

 ter of the earth, harnessing even the almighty forces 

 of nature to the chariot of civilization, which is the 

 offspring of a helpless brute that could not possibly 

 have escaped extermination if its hiding females 

 had not, during a portion of their period of preg- 

 nancy, lasting several days, weeks or months, been 

 artificially provided with food within their retreats. 



Miracles are by their nature excluded from any 

 discussion which lays the least claim to being rational. 

 The hypothesis that some non-human brutes had 

 regularly, for many generations, gathered food fit 

 to nourish human females, and brought it to them 

 within their asylums, may, therefore, be unhesitat- 

 ingly rejected. For it postulates a marvel without 

 precedent, a miracle greater far than any the inge- 

 nuity of the theologians has ever invented. No 



