Zealand, and Africa, including Egypt, flint tools have been discovered
in abundance; and of their use the existing inhabitants retain no
tradition. There is also indirect evidence of their former use by the
Chinese and ancient Jews. Hence there can hardly be a doubt that the
inhabitants of these countries, which include nearly the whole
civilised world, were once in a barbarous condition. To believe that
man was aboriginally civilised and then suffered utter degradation in
so many regions, is to take a pitiably low view of human nature. It is
apparently a truer and more cheerful view that progress has been much
more general than retrogression; that man has risen, though by slow and
interrupted steps, from a lowly condition to the highest standard as
yet attained by him in knowledge, morals and religion.
CHAPTER VI.
ON THE AFFINITIES AND GENEALOGY OF MAN.
Position of man in the animal series The natural system
genealogical Adaptive characters of slight value Various small points
of resemblance between man and the Quadrumana Rank of man in the
natural system Birthplace and antiquity of man Absence of fossil
connecting links Lower stages in the genealogy of man, as inferred,
firstly from his affinities and secondly from his structure Early
androgynous condition of the Vertebrata Conclusion.
Even if it be granted that the difference between man and his nearest
allies is as great in corporeal structure as some naturalists maintain,
and although we must grant that the difference between them is immense
in mental power, yet the facts given in the earlier chapters appear to
declare, in the plainest manner, that man is descended from some lower
form, notwithstanding that connecting-links have not hitherto been
discovered.
Man is liable to numerous, slight, and diversified variations, which
are induced by the same general causes, are governed and transmitted in
accordance with the same general laws, as in the lower animals. Man has
multiplied so rapidly, that he has necessarily been exposed to struggle
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