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BEV. D. GATE WHITLEY, ON 



deductions from the facts, will anyone examine the facts 

 himself, and tell me how they are to be explained ? Will any- 

 one be good enough to go over all the facts I have adduced, and 

 to show me where and why I have been wrong, and to give the 

 true explanation ? 



But if I am right in mv conclusions, it follows that Primitive 

 Man was a far higher and nobler creature than many material- 

 istic theorists imagine. Religion, however debased it may be, 

 is the sign of Man's nobility and special nature. The possession 

 of religion is characteristic of Man alone. Its exi stance creates 

 an impassable gulf between Man and the lower animals, and 

 the presence of religious beliefs amongst the earliest men 

 proves that the first races of men who inhabited the earth 

 were no nearer to apes or ape-like creatures than are the men 

 who live on the earth to-day. 



Discussion. 



The Rev. J. J. B. Coles asked: "What in the judgment of 

 scientific men was the shortest period of time which they could 

 assign to the Quaternary period % 



Professor Hull replied that with geologists the question of time 

 did not hold the field : the geological periods were not defined as to 

 their duration in time ; time, as we understand it in our present 

 experience, was not for geologists and palaeontologists, but there were 

 clear indications of the presence of man in these islands before the 

 Glacial Period, when the British Isles underwent a great refrigeration, 

 and the country was elevated thousands of feet above the present 

 level of the ocean. The animals which, from their remains, we saw 

 to have been contemporary with primeval man, were driven south- 

 ward into Africa by the gradual uprise of the country and the 

 lowering of the temperature. This series of changes implied a 

 period of enormous duration, for it was no case of a sudden 

 volcanic outburst ; the changes involved were gradual in character, 

 and were part of a slow continual process. 



Mr. M. L. Rouse said that he believed that the relics of 

 Palaeolithic man were found only near Ipswich in this country. 

 Professor Boyd Dawkins, at the Meeting of the British Association, 

 held at Cambridge several years ago, regarded Palaeolithic man as 

 more recent than the Glacial Epoch. If so, we might consider that 

 Palaeolithic man represented the antediluvians. Thus Professor G. 



