234 
THE DESCENT OF MAN. 
Part I- 
before he had spread step by step over the face of the 
eaith. The spreading ot man to regions widely sepa- 
rated by the sea, no doubt, preceded any considerable 
amount of divergence of character in the several races; 
tor otherwise we should sometimes meet with the same 
lace in distinct continents ; and this is never the case. 
Sir J. Lubbock, after comparing the arts now practised 
by savages in all parts of the world, specifies those 
which man could not have known, when he first wan- 
dered from his original birth-place; for if once learnt 
they would never have been forgotten. K He thus shews 
that ‘‘the spear, which is but a development of the 
knife-point, and the club, which is but a long hammer, 
‘ are the only things left.” He admits, however, that 
the art of making fire probably had already been dis- 
covered, for it is common to all the races now existing, 
and was known to the ancient cave-inhabitants of 
Lurope. Perhaps the art of making rude canoes or 
rafts was likewise known; but as man existed at a re- 
mote epoch, when the land in many places stood at a 
very different level, he would have been able, without 
the aid of canoes, to have spread widely. Sir J. Lubbock 
further remarks how improbable it is that our earliest 
ancestors could have “counted as high as ten, consider- 
ing that so many races now' in existence cannot get 
“ beyond four.” Nevertheless, at this early period, the 
intellectual and social faculties of man could* hardly have 
been inferior in any extreme degree to those now pos- 
sessed by the lowest savages ; otherwise primeval man 
could not have been so eminently successful in the 
struggle for life, as proved by his early and wide 
diffusion. 
iiom the fundamental differences between certain 
3r ‘ Prehistoric Times,’ 1809, p. 574. 
