6 
if possible, even more ignorant of the arts and sciences than now, ! mt 
with mental qualities not inferior to our own. Savages they consider 
be the degenerate descendants of far superior- ancestors. 
8 It will be observed that Sir John but slightly glances at 
the “ missing link ” between men and apes, m the allusion which 
he makes “ to the primitive condition of the first men, or beings 
worthy to be so called and he only ventur^tojomissue 
upon the somewhat less monstrous proposition, that “an . 
at first a mere savage.” This at least evidences some discretion 
but it cannot be regarded as, m the best sense, very va °r°n > 
we consider that Sir John Lubbock not long ago avowed him- 
self°“ an humble disciple of Mr. Darwin’s,” and “ventured to 
claim for that gentleman’s theory, that it is the only one which 
accounted in any way for the origin of man; for (he adds) 
“ all the other theories were, in his judgment, no tbe °*“ s a . , a ’ 
but simply confessions of ignorance, and did not ^ 
definite ideas to the mind which were conveyed by the theory 
0 T r s?ch were Sir John Lubbock’s words at Nottingham on 
25th August, 1866, when I read my paper “On the various 
Theories of Man’s Past and Present Condition. In it 1 had 
said • “ The difficulties of Darwinism begin long before we have 
got to man,”— inasmuch “ as Darwinism begins with a human 
infant which had not human parents But long before 
arrive at that development under this theory, we are forced to 
ask in our endeavour to realize what it professes to expL , 
< How possibly the first young mammal was nourished in its 
struggle for existence, if its immediate progenitor was not a 
mammal?’ ” Nay, “ passing over that, with all other difficulties 
which lie against Darwinism long before we come to its appli^ 
cation to the origin of man,” I also pointed out, t a * 
physiological difficulty there is added one that is psycholo ica , 
for even if we see no difficulty as to the physical rearing and 
training of the first human baby which some favoured ape 
brought forth, we are forced to ask the transmutatiomst to 
favour us with some hint of the educational secret by which 
monkeys trained and elevated their progeny into men, when we 
ourselves are scarcely able, with all our e nll S bt ““ e “ t : . 
educational efforts, to prevent our masses falling back to a state 
rather akin to that of monkeys and brutes. 
10. Apparently Sir John Lubbock had intended to clear 
away and explain all these difficulties, by the definite ideas 
which he then professed Darwinism conveyed to his mind. But 
unfortunately he has failed to do so. He has not even attempted 
* Journ. of Trans, of Viet. Inst vol. i. p. 216. 
