56 



Origin and Primal Condition of Man. 



his infinite glory and dignity, as any living thing can be 

 beneath us. The Creator of the universe would not vio- 

 late the laws of that universe. I am treading, I know, on 

 the verge of a great mystery ; and I venture not rashly to 

 inquire further into the manner of the immaculate concep- 

 tion and birth of our Saviour, but I say only this that if it 

 were not derogatory to his glory to descend by birth from 

 an inferior species, neither should it be so to us, if indeed 

 we are thus descended. In fine, is it not quite as noble a 

 descent to have sprung from lower animal life, as from 

 matter wholly inorganic and previously dead ? Or rather, 

 may not man's inherent dignity consist in having so far 

 risen above and beyond the lowly conditions of his origin ? 



Let us inquire next what was man's condition in the 

 beginning. This also is one of the inquiries which now 

 agitate the world, and unfortunately one on which we know 

 comparatively little. On the one hand, the school to 

 which Sir John Lubbock belongs, and of which he is the 

 chief exponent, are laboring assiduously to demonstrate 

 that man's original state was one of savage barbarism, such 

 as he now finds in the lowest forms of savage life, scarcely 

 elevated in intellect above the brutes, and far below them 

 in morals. On the other hand, the Duke of Argyll, very 

 justly recognized several distinct matters of inquiry under 

 this general question of man's primal condition. He ad- 

 mits that man must have been at first very deficient in 

 knowledge, and probably also to some extent undeveloped 

 in intellect ; but claims for his moral nature at least an up- 

 right and virtuous disposition, though his soul like his 

 mind must have been undeveloped, yet also, like the mind 

 containing the capacity of indefinite development and 

 growth : thus agreeing with the Mosaic account of man's 

 original purity and virtue. In opposition to Lubbock's 

 view, that man has risen from heathen and savage vice, 

 such as the lowest tribes of men now exhibit, by reform, 



