Origin and Primal Condition of Man, 



45 



even now, though very little studied as yet, the source of 

 much information touching the condition of man in pre- 

 historic times, and the kinship of nations now widely 

 severed ; while ethnology, and archaeology, by the revela- 

 tions already made, show how much we have yet to hope 

 for in their more thorough prosecution. Nay, even studies 

 not apparently cognate must be considered, such as cos- 

 mogony, which by declaring the evolution of the universe 

 to have progressed through almost infinite duration, may 

 indicate by the analogy which pervades all nature that the 

 creation of species proceeded on the same plan of growth 

 and evolution ; and psychology, no longer mere metaphy- 

 sical transcendentalism, but the study of mind as it is 

 known to us in intimate and all-pervading connection with 

 corporeal structure and function. The unity of all sciences, 

 long since announced, is more profoundly evident with 

 every new advance. Could the study of physics but 

 advance to a knowledge of the ultimate nature and form 

 of atoms, and chemistry to that of molecules, it is proba- 

 ble that such knowledge would furnish a deep insight into 

 the nature and constitution of the universe, and correc- 

 tively into that of the microcosm which we have now to 

 discuss, namely, man. For this discussion the discoveries 

 in all departments of science furnish us, as it were, with a 

 telescope, through which we may discern the distant periods 

 of man's existence at a range, where, history furnishing 

 no traditions, we might once have despaired to look. 



Although many questions about primeval man must still 

 be considered open, and some of them perhaps must always 

 remain so, yet there are others in which investigation has 

 now proceeded to the extent of conviction, more or less 

 positive with reference to them. 



First of all, we are met by the question of man's anti- 

 quity. As regards this, evidence has been steadily accu- 

 mulating to show that man had existed on the earth for a 



