Present State of the Inquiry into the Origin and Piimal 

 Condition of Man. By Wm. H. Hale, Ph. D. 



[Read before the Albany Institute, May 26, 1871.] 



The past few years have witnessed a great increase in 

 our knowledge of the prehistoric condition of mankind, 

 and have excited a deep and growing interest in the pro- 

 secution of still farther researches in this direction. "We 

 are indeed hut just learning the true method of investiga- 

 tion in these studies, and are beginning practically to 

 apply it. Geology at length free from all shackles, and 

 able to proceed confidently in its own scientific method, 

 knowing that there can be no real conflict between the 

 truths of nature and those of revelation, does not hesitate 

 to regard man from the -same stand point from which she 

 considers the rest of the universe, and to pronounce upon 

 him her verdict according to observed facts, and not ac- 

 cording to preconceived bias. Natural history, too, while 

 justly assigning man the proud preeminence in the animal 

 kingdom, still holds him liable to the same philosophical 

 method of classification which she applies to his inferiors. 

 Philology, in turn, since its emancipation from the puer- 

 ilities of ancient and medieval word-quibbling by the 

 discovery and development of the comparative method, 

 has proceeded from strength to strength, laying open at 

 each step in its progress new and constantly expanding 

 fields of thought and history, and discerning with greater 

 power and clearness the fossil remains of human history 

 and progress which so long lay latent in human speech. 

 And, latest born of all the sisterhood of anthropological 

 science, must be named comparative mythology, which is 



