Some Salient Points in the Science of the Earth

by Sir John William Dawson

[CHAPTER XVII.]

EARLY MAN.

T

The science of the earth has its culmination and terminus in man; and at this, the most advanced of our salient points, as we look back on the long process of the development of the earth, we may well ask, Was the end worthy of the means? We may well have doubts as to an affirmative answer if we do not consider that the means were perfect, each in its own time, and that man, the final link in the chain of life, is that which alone takes hold of the unseen and eternal. He alone can comprehend the great plan, and appreciate its reason and design. Without his agency in this respect nature would have been a riddle without any solution—a column without a capital, a tree without fruit. Besides this, even science may be able to perceive that man may be not merely the legatee of all the ages that lie behind, but the heir of the eternity that lies before, the only earthly being that has implanted in him the germ and instinct of immortality.

Whatever view we may take of these questions, it is of interest to us to know, if possible, how and when this chief corner stone was placed upon the edifice of nature, and what are the precise relations of man to the later geological ages, as well as to the present order of nature, of which he is at once a part, and its ruler and head. Let us put this first in the form of a narrative based on geological facts only, and then consider some of its details and relations to history.

The Glacial age had passed away. The lower land, in great part a bare expanse of mud, sand, and gravel, had risen from the icy ocean in which it had been submerged, and most of the mountain tops had lost their covering of perennial snow and ice. The climate was ameliorated, and the sun again shone warmly on the desolate earth. Gradually the new land became overspread with a rich vegetation, and was occupied by many large animals. There were species of elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, bison, ox and deer, multiplying till the plains and river valleys were filled with their herds, in spite of the fact that they were followed by formidable carnivorous beasts fitted to prey on them. At this time, somewhere in the warm temperate zone, in an oasis or island of fertility, appeared a new thing on the earth, a man and woman walking erect in the forest glades, bathing in the waters, gathering and tasting every edible fruit, watching with curious and inquiring eyes the various animals around them, and giving them names which might eventually serve not merely to designate their kinds, but to express actions and emotions as well. When, where, and how did this new departure, fraught with so many possibilities, occur—introducing as it did the dexterous fingers and inventive mind of Man upon the scene? The last of these questions science is still unable to answer, and though we may frame many hypotheses, they all remain destitute of certain proof in so far as natural science is concerned. We can here only fall back on the old traditional and historical monuments of our race, and believe that man, the child of God, and with God-like intellect, will, and consciousness, was placed by his Maker in an Edenic region, and commissioned to multiply and replenish the earth. The when and where of his introduction, and his early history when introduced, are more open to scientific investigation.

That man was originally frugivorous, his whole structure testifies. That he originated in some favourable climate and fertile land is equally certain, and that his surroundings must have been of such a nature as to give him immunity from the attacks of formidable beasts of prey, also goes without saying. These are all necessary conditions of the successful introduction of such a creature as man, and theories which suppose him to have originated in a cold climate, to struggle at once with the difficulties and dangers of such a position, are, from a scientific point of view, incredible.

But man was introduced into a wide and varied world, more wide and varied than that possessed by his modern descendants. The earliest men that we certainly know inhabited out continents in the second Continental age of the Kainozoic Period, when, as we know from ample geological evidence, the land of the northern hemisphere was much more extensive than at present, with a mild climate, and a rich flora and fauna. If he was ambitious to leave the oasis of his origin the way was open to him, but at the expense of becoming a toiler, an inventor, and a feeder on animal food, more especially when he should penetrate into the colder climates. The details of all this, as they actually occurred, are not within the range of scientific investigation, for these early men must have left few, if any, monuments; but we can imagine some of them. Man's hands were capable of other uses than the mere gathering of fruit. His mind was not an instinctive machine, like that of lower animals, but an imaginative and inventive intellect, capable of adapting objects to new uses peculiar to himself. A fallen branch would enable him to obtain the fruits that hung higher than his hands could reach, a pebble would enable him to break a nut too hard for his teeth. He could easily weave a few twigs into a rough basket to carry the fruit he had gathered to the cave or shelter, or spreading tree, or rough hut that served him for a home; and when he had found courage to snatch a brand from some tree, ignited by lightning, or by the friction of dry branches, and to kindle a fire for himself, he had fairly entered on that path of invention and discovery which has enabled him to achieve so many conquests over nature.