THE

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN.

PART III.

THE GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN, WITH REMARKS ON THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY VARIATION,

BY SIR CHARLES LYELL, F. R. L.

HAVING exposed the fanciful scheme of Mr. Darwin, and the illogical argument of Mr. Huxley, in the two preceding Parts of this Essay, we now come to the conclusion of our task, and propose to examine, critically, the views of Sir Charles Lyell, promulgated in his latest work on the "Antiquity of Man."

It is said that Napoleon Bonaparte rebuked the religious infidelity of Marshal Duroc, who had, on a certain occasion, expressed his belief in a very incredible story, by the remark, "there are some men who are capable of believing every thing but the Bible."

The three authors whose works are reviewed in this Essay, furnish an apt illustration of this remark. Mr. Darwin is unable to credit the Scriptures, which declare that all the forms of life were originated by a Divine Creator, and that all the laws of Nature emanate from a Divine Lawgiver; yet he has no difficulty in believing that all the distinct species of animals are the results of accidental variations of some common non-descript germ; and that the laws which govern their existence have been determined by some imaginary and impossible principle of Natural Selection, which they themselves have fortuitously given birth to, in their struggle for existence. He

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requires us to disbelieve the authoritative Revelation of the Creator, the authenticity of which is capable of verification,— and proposes, for our acceptance, the most improbable scheme of Creation which an unbridled imagination can devise, based solely on his own gratuitous assumptions. He rejects, as unreasonable, Moses' account of the successive acts of Creation, which is in perfect harmony with the disclosures of science, and his statement, that the distinct forms of animal life were created separately and independently, which also comports with all known facts: but he can see no difficulty in believing that all the distinct species of animals were produced by accidental transmutation, under the guidance of a physical divinity, itself accidentally developed,—although not a single fact in science can be adduced to prove even the possibility of such an occurrence,—or the probable existence in Nature of such a chimera as he designates under the name of "Natural Selection." Truly, the credulity of scepticism exceeds belief!

Next comes Mr. Huxley, a practical anatomist of distintuished merit, who believes that the suggestive and fanciful vagaries of Mr. Darwin furnish a sound basis for scientific theorizing. He accordingly lays down his scalpel, and takes up the pen, and by an argument founded on the differences of animals, which is not only illogical in itself, but absurd in its application, he endeavors to prove, in contempt of such "timehonored theories" as the Bible propounds, that Man is the lineal descendent of the gorilla.

Lastly, Sir Charles Lyell, who has devoted a long life, with renowned success, to practical and theoretical Geology, is infected with the same credulous scepticism, and renounces, in his old age, the firm convictions of his vigorous prime, which were then in accordance with Revelation. With garrulous prolixity, he has reproduced his accumulated store of facts, and written a book of 513 pages, to endorse the visionary notions of his friends, Darwin and Huxley, and to prove that man, if not of bestial origin, at least commenced his career as a brutal savage, and dwelt on this earth a hundred thousand years ago, the Bible to the contrary notwithstanding.

We shall deal with Sir Charles in the same manner that we have with his two friends. We will frankly admit, so far as possible, all his facts; but we will subject to rigid scrutiny the inferences which he draws from these facts, and will test, by a rigorous analysis, the soundness of his theoretical speculations.

It is important to state, at the outset, that Sir Charles Lyell's estimates in regard to time are to be taken with great allowance. From the commencement of his career as a Geologist, he has always been a strenuous advocate of the theory, that all the changes which this earth has undergone have been brought about gradually, by the uniform action of the same causes which are now at work, modifying its PRESENT surface. This theory, which is in direct antagonism to the more prevalent one of cataclysmic convulsions, requires, as a necessary element, illimitable periods of time, to account for successive geological formations. Consequently, this claim of epochs of immense duration, in connection with his pet theory of gradual change, became, and still is, a special hobby of Sir Charles Lyell. It governs all his geological speculations, and gives a bias to all his inferences.

On the other hand, many other geologists equally entitled to respect, and some who rank higher, such as Elie de Beaumont of France and Sir Roderick Murchison of England, maintain the opposite theory, of sudden changes, produced by paroxysmal convulsions. Lyell has satisfactorily demonstrated the probability, that certain formations have been gradually produced by existing causes, acting during immense periods of time, but he is constantly forced to admit that these causes may have acted with very different degrees of energy at different times. This admission is fatal to any dogmatic assertion in regard to absolute time; for the varying ratio of increase, being unknown, the time necessary for a formation must also remain unknown, even if we admit its present progress to be gradual and constant.

The advocates of the opposite theory give us equally good reasons for believing, that immense changes have been produced by convulsive agency, causing sudden great disruptions

and vast upheavals. Each theory, doubtless, contains a portion of the truth, and error lies in the extreme views of each. All speculations in regard to time, founded on either theory, can never amount to anything more than doubtful guesses, even when the speculator is free from the bias of extreme views. But, in regard to this element of time, Sir Charles Lyell is, and always has been, from the necessities of his theory, an extremist; and as such, he undertakes in this volume to determine the antiquity of man.

After a short Introductory, our author, in Chap. II., opens the consideration of his subject, by detailing the works of art found in Danish peat, in Danish shell-mounds, and in ancient Swiss and Irish lake-dwellings. These Danish deposits of peat occur in hollows, in the northern drift formation, which constitutes the most superficial matter of the earth's surface. The basins or depressions in which this peat has been formed, or rather deposited, show accumulations of this semi-fluid matter, varying in depth from ten to thirty feet. He states, that around their borders, and at various depths in them, lie trunks of the Scotch fir, (Pinus Sylvestris,) often three feet in diameter, and that "this tree is not now, nor ever has been in historical times, a native of the Danish Island." It appears clear to him, that this tree has been supplanted by the sessile variety of the common oak,-for many prostrate trunks occur in the peat, at higher levels than the pines or firs, and that this last, in its turn, has "been almost superseded in Denmark by the common beech." He admits that other trees, still flourishing in Denmark, occur at all levels of the peat, and that the shells, mammals and plants buried in it are all of recent species.

All these facts and statements are consistent with an explanation, which would assign to this peat deposit no very remote antiquity; but our author draws his first inference in favor of the immense antiquity of a pre-Adamite man, from the fact "that a stone implement was found under a buried Scotch fir, at a great depth in the peat." He asserts that Danish and Swedish antiquaries, by studying such implements, as well as

other articles of human workmanship preserved in peat, in sand dunes on the coast, and shell mounds, have succeeded in establishing a chronological succession of periods, which they have called the ages of stone, bronze and iron, under which they class their antiquarian relics, as illustrative of the early condition of the aboriginal inhabitants. This generalization, or rather assumption of these Northern antiquaries, which is convenient for classifying relics, is immediately adopted by our author, who appropriates it as an established and universal truth, considering it of general application to all other parts of the world, and using it as a basis for other assumptions and generalizations of his own.

The following quotation shows the immediate use to which our author puts this theory, and is a fair sample of the very quiet way with which, in a hundred instances, and on very slight grounds, he puts forward his own opinions, or the assumption of others, as if they were indisputable truths.

"The age of stone, in Denmark, coincided with the period of first vegetation, or that of the Scotch fir, and in part at least with the second vegetation, or that of the oak. But a considerable portion of the oak epoch coincided with the age of bronze,' for swords and shields of that metal, now in the Museum of Copenhagen, have been taken out of peat in which oaks abound. The age of iron corresponded more nearly with that of the beech tree."—p. 10.

He then proceeds to speculate in regard to the progressive advancement of the primeval savage of the stone period, toward the civilization of the age of iron.

He finds, in the Danish "shell-mounds," evidence of the remote antiquity and original state of the primeval man of the stone period. These mounds, or, as they are called by the Danes, "kitchen refuse heaps," are very similar to the Indian shell heaps, which occur along our coast, from Maine to Florida. They vary in height from three to ten feet, and are composed of oyster and other shells of the neighboring coast, interspersed with flint knives, rude pottery, implements of bone and wood, and the bones of various animals used for food. None of these animal remains are of extinct species, except the