62 
REVIEWS. 
THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN * 
H OW vast this subject seems to one who has suddenly wakened from the 
old Biblical faith in the world of six thousand years. How wonderful 
must appear to him the manner in which the geologist builds up from the 
most varied sources a chronology compared with which that of the Bible is 
but ephemeral. And yet how simple is the entire question to anyone who 
will impartially look first on the one picture and then on the other. Of 
course we do not mean to suppose that the subject is not surrounded by 
difficulties, for many of the questions which Sir Charles Lyell raises in this 
present volume are most vast and varied, and will probably take a genera- 
tion at least for their final solution. But who, if he has any scientific 
power of mind, can even cursorily read this splendid treatise on man’s age 
in the world without rising up with the solid conviction, that the tale of the 
Bible as told by most is as empty and as shallow, as incomprehensive and 
as unphilosophical, as it is possible to be. We trust that many will take up 
the book, and if so we vouch for it that few will lay it down fruitlessly : it 
is inevitable that it must rouse the mental apathy, which, alas ! too many 
of us unhappily possess. For it is a book which any person of ordinary 
intelligence can read with profit, and a very little knowledge of geology is 
requisite for its complete digestion. 
When we ask ourselves what has the author done in this edition that he 
has not already performed, we find an answer that completely justifies the 
production of a new edition, even so soon after the last one. We shall refer 
to but a few of the points of novelty in the book before us, as we imagine 
all geological readers will get the work if they do not already possess it. 
We see, for example, that Sir Charles Lyell has profited by the perusal of 
Evans’ splendid work on ancient stone implements, which has come out 
since his last edition, and hence this part of his book is rich in facts relating 
to flint instruments and such like. Then, again, he has completely recast 
the chapter on Kent’s Hole and the Brixham Cavern, and has added a 
considerable mass of novel evidence regarding the former. This part of the 
work is of considerable importance, for the vast researches of Mr. Pengelly 
* u The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man, with an Outline of 
Glacial and Post-Tertiary Geology, and Remarks on the Origin of Species 
in the special reference to Man’s first Appearance on the Earth.” By Sir 
Charles Lyell, Bart., M.A., F.R.S. 4th Edition, revised. London : John 
Murray, 1873. 
