INTRODUCTION. 
3 
his development ; and thirdly, the value of the differ- 
ences between the so-called races of man. As I shall 
confine myself to these points, it will not be necessary 
to describe in detail the differences between the several 
races — an enormous subject which has been fully dis- 
cussed in many valuable works. The high antiquity of' 
man has recently been demonstrated by the labours 
of a host of eminent men, beginning with M. Boucher 
de Perthes ; and this is the indispensable basis for 
understanding his origin. I shall, therefore, take this 
conclusion for granted, and may refer my readers to 
the admirable treatises of Sir Charles Lyell, Sir John 
Lubbock, and others. Nor shall I have occasion to do 
more than to allude to the amount of difference between 
man and the anthropomorphous apes ; for Prof. Huxley, 
in the opinion of most competent judges, has conclu- 
sively shewn that in every single visible character man 
differs less from the higher apes than these do from the 
lower members of the same order of Primates. 
This work contains hardly any original facts in 
regard to man; but as the conclusions at which I 
arrived, after drawing up a rough draft, appeared to 
me interesting, I thought that they might interest 
others. It has often and confidently been asserted, that 
man’s origin can never be known : but ignorance more 
frequently begets confidence than does knowledge : it is 
those who know little, and not those who know much, 
who so positively assert that this or that problem will 
never be solved by science. The conclusion that man is 
the co-descendant with other species of some ancient, 
lower, and extinct form, is not in any degree new. La- 
b 2 
