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Polygenous Theory , which, without descending quite so low for 
an ancestor, nevertheless propounds that the primitive men 
were savages, hut lower than any known race of savages, 
inasmuch as, according to the theory, men originally could not 
even speak. 
There may be minor distinctions and sub-theories perhaps, 
but still it will be convenient to keep to this classification. 
There may be polygenists, for instance, whose imagined 
primitive men were not all of the same low caste, — all merely 
speechless savages of different colours, white, yellow, red, and 
black. And it is surely not worth while to have a polygenous 
theory at all, if merely physical differences are all it can 
account for. There would certainly be a greater similarity 
between men of all the existing varied races, while in the 
same savage, low condition, than between men of identical 
race when savage and when civilized. The physical race- 
characteristics of a people might not much differ, through such 
a change in their mental character, — or rather, let me say, 
the physical differences would be only and literally superficial, 
— whereas the differences, between savage and civilized races, 
when regarded in a mental, moral, and social point of view, 
are well-nigh infinite. But then, the polygenist, who would 
make only some of his primitive men to be low-caste savages, 
and others an elevated race of superior clay and capacity, 
would be involved in contradictions as to his very theory of 
creation, or, if he denies creation, in his theory of man's 
origin and development. And, in point of fact, no such 
theory has yet been, propounded, at least not in such a 
way as to lay hold upon men’s minds, or to call for further 
examination. Some, who have not studied the whole question, 
may vaguely speak as if they held such a theory. They may 
have been puzzled at seeing the marked differences between 
the various races of mankind as now developed ; and, 
influenced by the persistency with which a diverse origin 
for each has been urged by some eminent physiologists upon 
scientific grounds, they may not have inquired what science 
and equally eminent physiologists have said upon the other 
side. 
But here Darwinism comes to the aid of the religious 
theory, and decides in favour of a monogenist hypothesis, 
professedly upon scientific grounds. Not that there may not 
be, again, a sub-class here, who are Darwinians and yet 
polygenists. At one time I thought that not possible ; but 
on arguing before the Anthropological Society of London,* 
* Anthropological Review, vcl. II. p. cxv et seq. 
