316 The Antiquity of Mankind, [May, 
geologist and the biologist to that of the antiquary, the 
interpreter of sagas, and the historian. 
Now, therefore, whilst regretting that we can no further 
accompany Mr. Boyd Dawkins in his interesting survey, we 
may fitly record our opinion of the manner in which he has 
executed his task. It has rarely been our good fortune to 
meet so difficult a question treated with such indisputable 
acuteness, breadth of view, learning, and impartiality. Rash 
credulity and equally rash scepticism are equally avoided, 
and the result is a manual which the student and the cul- 
tured man of the world may each take up with full assurance 
that he will not be led astray. 
The other work which we have coupled with that of Mr. 
Dawkins is one of a diametrically opposite chara&er. 
Professor Dawson, at the very outset of his work, gives no 
doubtful sound. He utters his accustomed defiance to Evo- 
lutionists ; he takes care to assert his belief in the absolute 
distinction between man and the lower animals, above all ; 
he claims for the Hebrew Scriptures, by implication at 
least, the charaaer of a physical revelation, thus perpetu- 
ating that wholly gratuitous warfare between Religion and 
Science which less prejudiced minds are seeking to abolish. 
Finally, he ascribes to the human race an existence not 
dating farther back than from 6000 to 8000 years. In other 
words, he starts with the assumption that traditional chro- 
nology is correct, and then strains all the powers of his 
mind, and applies all the resources of his extensive learning, 
to interpret faCts so as to harmonise with this foregone con- 
clusion. This procedure is, we maintain, fundamentally 
illegitimate. The man who really writes, as Prof. Dawson 
claims to do, “from the point of view of the geologist and 
naturalist,” sees in traditions and cosmogonies merely a 
reflection of the beliefs current in early times, and starting 
from the faCts he seeks for them the most rational inter- 
pretation. In the work before us every faCt that tells for 
the long duration of the human race is questioned, and, if 
not denied, explained away. Because men in a certain low. 
stage of civilisation were found in Canada and Newfound- 
land, by Jacques Cartier, in 1534, we are asked to believe 
that the drift-men and cave-men of Europe have not long 
disappeared from the globe! With every respeCt for Prof. 
Dawson as an indefatigable and successful collector of faCts, 
we cannot accept as a guide in generalisation one who 
shows so strong a bias and so strong a determination to be 
guided by what we can only regard as perfectly foreign con- 
siderations. 
