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Show UNIFORMITY OF TilE SYSTEM• 154 I. sted with assemblages d d that our race co-ex . . it is never pretcn e h" h ll the snectes are extmct. of animals an d P1 a n ts ' of. w lC f a history r and trad 1' t.1 0n, we From the concurrent testlmonytho most fertile and most com-learn that par t s 0 f Europe, now e · h' 1 th • • f man were, wit m ess an plately subJ· ecte d t o the domremd iwOnit h° f orests', and the ab od eof w~' ld three thousand years, cove re I·n perfect accordance w1th beasts. The arch .t ves of nature a1 open the most super fi e·ta 1 hi.s tori.c al I.e cor ds.' and whe.n we fi ayd therem. the canoes of th e . f t we sometimes n . h covermg o pea ' tl s of the wild stag, or orns h 'th huge an er . . sav,a ge ' to.g et er1 1 Wl Of caves now op en to the day m vanou.s of the w1ld bu · f 1 ge beasts of prey occur m the bones o ar 1 d parts of Europe, . . th tat periods extreme y mo ern abundance ; and they mdlcathe, a ndancy of man, if he existed , f h 1 be t e asce in the history 0 t e g 0 ' t b the brutes*· at all, had scarcely been fel y ses himself to so many dangers No inhabitant of the lan hexp.o savage or a civilized state, on the waters as man, whhc l ~rna · . · al t ere1P ore, wh ose skeleton is . so hable to and there IS no am~ ' rine or submarine deposlts ; nor can become imbedded m lacu~t more perishable than those 'd h t h' remams are . h it be sal ' · t a1 £lS . . t fi lds of battle, as Cuvter as r m ancien e · of other amma s, 0 h suff'ered as little decompos1- h b of men ave observed, t e ones } . h were buried in the same grave. h f horses w nc · d tion as t ?se o lid arts of our species had dlsappeare ' But even If the more so p 'ned engraven on the rocks as . ld have remai . the impression wou d t 1 ves of plants, and the mtegu-f the ten eres ea d f have the traces o . Works of art, moreover' compose o ments of many ammals. . l uld have outlasted almost . d t'ble materia s, wo . d the most m es. truc I t nts of se d'n ne ntary rocks; edlfices, a.n d all the ~rga~I~ con e ithin the times of history' been bune even entlre Clties have, w b d beneath the sea, or en· • . t" ns or su merge b under volcamc eJeC 10 ' • d had these catastrophes ee~ gulphed by earthquake~' a~ . t la se of ages, the high antirepeated throughout an mde m ~ P.bed in far more legible ld have been mscn ~ quity of man wou k of the lobe, than are the lorms characters on the fram~-wor h' ch one: covered the isles of the of the ancient vegetatiOn w 1 . . h ter when treating of aro·m a 1 rematns atrnt "' We shall discuss in a subseq~ent c 1 af ~rtain human bones and works of . caves the probable antiquitr assftgnat~ e to a:imals in the cavern of Bize, and Ill ' . d . th emams o ex me found intermue Wl r rl t of Herault in France. several localities in the depa men ' RECENT ORIGIN OF MAN. 155 northern ocean, or of those gigantic reptiles, which at later periods peopled the seas and rivers of the northern hemisphere. Assuming, then, that man is, comparatively speaking, of modern origin, can his introduction be considered as one step in a progressive system by which, as some suppose, the organic world advanced slow I y from a more simple to a more perfect state? To this question we may reply, that the superiority of man depends not on those faculties and attributes which he shares in common with the inferior animals, but on his reason by which he is distinguished from them. If the organization of man were such as would confer a decided pre-eminence upon him, even if he were deprived of his reasoning powers, and provided only with such instincts as are .possessed by the lower animals, he might then be supposed to be a link in a progressive chain, especially if it could be shewn that the successive development of the animal creation had always proceeded from the more simple to the more compound, from species most remote. from the human type to those most nearly approaching to it. But this is an hypothesis which, as we have seen, is wholly unsupported by geological evidence. On the other hand, we may admit, that man is of higher dignity than were any pre-existing beings on the earth, and yet question whether his coming was a step in the gradual advancement of the organic world: for the most highly civilized people may sometimes degenerate in strength and stature, and become inferior in their physical attributes to the stock of rude hunters from which they descended. If then the physical organization of man may remain stationary, or even become deteriorated, while the race makes the greatest progress to higher rank and power in the scale of rational being, the animal creation also may be supposed to have made no progress by the addition to it of the human species, regarded merely as a part of the organic world. But, if this reasoning appear too metaphysical, let us waive the argument altogether, and grant that the animal nature of man, even considered apart from the intellectual, is of higher dignity than that of any other species; still the introduction at a certain period of our race upon the earth, raises no presumption whatever 'that each former exertion of creative power was characterized by the successive development of irrational |