That there are evidences of an antiquity of the human race, as such, immensely disproportionate to that indicated in the absolutely unreliable and useless ‘received’ chronologies, it would be folly to doubt and immorality to neglect. It is evidenced by man’s works, which are shown, without question, to be of indefinitely vast antiquity; and correspond, in the main, with the works of races of men still living. It is shown by the enormous antiquity of races of men as we know them; by the vast age of languages, made evident, by a deep analysis of their structure, as sister and parent languages; as well as by the great age of even human remains.
Now all this, taken in connection with the anatomical structure and embryological development of man, makes it impossible to suppose that man’s physical nature was not a product of the same great creative laws, the same vital processes, as those that gave origin to the chimpanzee or the gorilla; a slow creation, through a long line of varied life, from ‘the dust of the ground,’ the elements of the earth. There is in this relation an almost marvellous insight in David’s song:—
‘I will give thanks unto Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
Wonderful are Thy works;
And that my soul knoweth right well.
My frame was not hidden from Thee,
When I was made in secret,
And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see mine unperfect substance;
And in Thy book were all my members written,