It may not come amiss to briefly notice the main points thus far made in our investigation of the past. As to the epoch of man’s first appearance, we found he could not be expected to appear until all the animals lower than he had made their appearance. This is so because the Creator of all has apparently chosen that method of procedure in the development of life on the globe. According to our present knowledge, man might have been living in the Miocene Age, and with a higher degree of probability in the Pliocene. But we can not say that the evidence adduced in favor of his existence at these early times is satisfactory to the majority of our best thinkers. All agree that he was living in Europe at the close of the Glacial Age, and we think the evidence sufficient to show that he preceded the glaciers, and that as a rude savage he lived in Europe throughout the long extended portion of time known as the Glacial Age.
We also found evidence of either two distinct races of men inhabiting Europe in the Paleolithic Age, or else tribes of the same race, widely different in time and in culture. The one people known as the men of the River Drift apparently invaded Europe from Asia, along with the species of temperate animals now living there. This people seem to have been widely scattered over the earth. The race has probably vanished away, though certain Australian tribes may be descendants of them. They were doubtless very low in the scale of humanity, having apparently never reached a higher state than that of Lower Savagism. The second race of men inhabiting Europe during the Paleolithic Age were the Cave-dwellers. They seem to have been allied to the Eskimos of the North. They were evidently further advanced than the Drift men, but were still savages.
The Paleolithic Age in Europe seems to have terminated with the Glacial Age. But we are not to suppose it came to an end all over the earth at that time. On the contrary, some tribes of men never passed beyond that stage. When the light of civilization fell upon them they were still in the culture of the old Stone Age. We are to notice that in such cases the tribes thus discovered were very low in the scale. The probable data for the Paleolithic Age have formed the subject of this chapter. While claiming in support of them the opinions of some eminent scholars, we freely admit that it is not a settled question, but open to very grave objections, especially the date of the close of the Glacial Age, which seems to have been comparatively recent, at least in America. We think, however, that these objections will yet be harmonized with the general results. Neither is this claimed to be an exhaustive presentation of the matter. It is an outline only—the better to enable us to understand the mystery connected with the data of Paleolithic man.
In these few chapters we have been dealing with people, manners, arid times, of which the world fifty years ago was ignorant. Many little discoveries, at first apparently disconnected, are suddenly brought into new relation, and behold, ages ago, when the great continents were but just completed, races of men, with the stamp of humanity upon them, are seen filling the earth. With them were many great animals long since passed away. The age of animals was at an end. That of man had just begun.
The child requires the schooling of adversity and trial to make a complete man of himself, and it is even so with races of men. Who can doubt that struggling up from dense ignorance, contending against adverse circumstances, compelled to wage war against fierce animals, sustaining life in the midst of the low temperature which had loaded the Northern Hemisphere with snow and ice, had much to do in developing those qualities which rendered civilization possible.
As to the antiquity of man disclosed in these chapters, the only question that need concern us is whether it is true or not. Evidence tending to prove its substantial accuracy should be as acceptable as that disproving it. No great principle is here at stake. The truth of Divine Revelation is in no wise concerned. There is nothing in its truth or falsity which should in any way affect man’s belief in an overruling Providence, or in an immortality beyond the grave, or which should render any less desirable a life of purity and honor. On the contrary, we think one of the greatest causes of thanksgiving mortals have is the possession of intellectual powers, which enable us to here and there catch a glimpse of the greatness of God’s universe, which the astronomer at times unfolds to us; or, to dimly comprehend the flight of time since “The Beginning,” which the geologist finds necessary to account for the stupendous results wrought by slow-acting causes.
It seems to us eminently fitting that God should place man here, granting to him a capacity for improvement, but bestowing on him no gift or accomplishment, which by exertion and experience he could acquire; for labor is, and ever has been, the price of material good. So we see how necessary it is that a very extended time be given us to account for man’s present advancement. Supposing an angel of light was to come to the aid of our feeble understanding, and unroll before us the pages of the past, a past of which, with all our endeavors, we as yet know but little. Can we doubt that, from such a review, we would arise with higher ideas of man’s worth? Our sense of the depths from which he has ascended is equated only by our appreciation of the future opening before him. Individually we shall soon have passed away. Our nation may disappear. But we believe our race has yet but fairly started in its line of progress; time only is wanted. We can but think that that view which limits man to an existence extending over but a few thousand years of the past, is a belittling one. Rather let us think of him as existing from a past separated from us by these many thousand years; winning his present position by the exercise of God-given powers.
REFERENCES
- The manuscript of this chapter was submitted to Prof. G. F. Wright, of Oberlin, for criticism.
- Wallace’s “Island Life,” p. 113.
- Nordenskiold’s “American Journal of Science,” vol. 110, p. 58.
- Wright’s “Studies in Science and Religion,” p. 307, where a map of this moraine is given.
- There is, however, a small area in the south-west part of Wisconsin where, for some reason, the ice passed by.
- Dane’s “Manual of Geology,” p. 538.
- Wright’s “Studies in Science and Religion,” p. 308.
- “Men of the Drift,” p. 71.
- Geikie’s “Great Ice Age,” p. 93.
- “Men of the River Drift.”
- Abbott’s “Primitive Industry,” p. 545; Quoted from “Geology of Minnesota.” Report, 1877, p. 37.
- Geikie’s “Great Ice Age,” p. 97.
- The astronomical theory, which we will first examine, was first enunciated by Mr. Croll, following a suggestion of the astronomer Adhemer. Mr. Croll’s views were set forth in many able papers, and finally gathered into a volume entitled “Climate and Time in their Geological Relation.” The ablest defense of these views is that by Mr. James Geikie, in his works “The Great Ice Age,” and “Prehistoric Europe.”
- Geikie’s “Great Ice Age,” p. 114.
- Lubbock’s “Prehistoric Times,” p. 420, Table 4.
- Ibid., Table 5.
- Geikie’s “Great Ice Age,” p. 123.
- Wallace’s “Island Life,” p. 143.
- Ibid., p. 124.
- “Geology of New Hampshire,” Vol. II, p. 5.
- Wallace’s “Island Life,” p. 99.
- Geikie’s “Great Ice Age,” p. 103.
- Wallace’s “Island Life,” p. 149. Hitchcock’s “Geology of New Hampshire,” Vol. II, p. 7, gives a map showing what immense areas in that section would be raised to the surface by a raise of three hundred feet.
- American Journal of Science, 1871, p. 329.
- Wallace’s “Island Life,” p. 184.
- Wallace’s “Island Life,” p. 182.
- Ibid., p. 157 and note. Prof. Wright thinks this statement doubtful. He refers to the date of the Glacial Age in the Southern Hemisphere.
- Wallace’s “Island Life,” p. 200; Dawkins’s “Early Man in Britain,” p. 119; Geikie’s “Great Ice Age,” p. 256; Quatrefages’s “Human Species,” p. 288.
- For these results, see McFarland’s Calculations in “American Journal of Science,” 1880, p. 105.
- “Island Life,” p. 153.
- See chart, p. 124, Wallace’s “Island Life.”
- “Ancient Society,” p. 39.
- “Island Life,” p. 201.
- “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 312.
- On this point consult Wright’s “Studies in Science and Religion,” pp. 232-347; also Prof. Lewis in “Primitive Industry,” pp. 547-551.
- “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 560.
- See any isothermal map.
- Wallace’s “Island Life,” p. 154, note.
- “Geology of New Hampshire,” Vol. III, p. 327, referred to in Wright’s “Studies in Science and Religion,” p. 327.