-18 CEANIA BßlTANNICA. [CBL^P. V. CHAP. V. ] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OP BRITAIN. 49
i J
concludes, " the whole dm-ation of time from the beginning (of the creation of man) must apparently
have been within moderate bounds, and by no means so vast and wide a space as the great
periods of the Indian and Egyptian fabulists."
The inquii-y as to the unity or diversity of the origin of the human race, carmot be regarded as
other than an open one. The more extended observation of the laws which govern and limit the
existence and diffusion on the earth's surface of other organized beings, animal and vegetable,
is, so far as analogy goes, in favoiu- of similar laws for the various types of the human species.
The celebrated Niebulir, insisting on the cautious use which should be made of the differences of
language as applied to the theory of races, and that more regai-d should be had to physical configuration
(which latter, for example, he correctly observes, is exactly the same in most of the
Indian tribes of North America), goes on to say, " I believe fui-ther, that the origin of the human
race is not connected with any given locality, but is to be sought everywhere over the face of the
cai-th; and that it is an idea more worthy of the power and wisdom of the Creator, to assume
that he gave to each zone and each climate its proper inhabitants, to whom that zone and that
clunate would be the most suitable, than to assume that the human species has degenerated in
such innmnerable instances*." There seems moreover no real objection, in connexion with
what is taught in Scriptui-e, to at least, suspending our judgment as to the decision of this
ultimate question of Ethnology. One distinguished diviue. Dr. Pye Smith, though himself
holding the opposite opinion, has expressed his conviction that if science should require the
admission of different origins or creations of the human race, such a conclusion would not be
inconsistent either with the doctrines of Christianity or with the actual statements of the book
of Genesis t.
The question as to the epoch of the fli-st appearance of man ia the British Isles, is one which
geological and archseological science has not solved. That it was not until subsequent to those
great revolutions iu the earth's surface already referred to, appears at least probable, nor until
after the formation, in the post-glacial period, of the Straits of Dover, by which Britain became
* Niebuhr's "Life and Letters." By the Chev. Bunsen,
1852, Tol. i. p. 39.
t " Relation between the Holy Scriptures and some parts of
Geological Science," 1852. Note E. As this writer observes, in
regard to geological science in general, so it maybe said of this
question in particular. " Let the inTestigation be sufficient, and
the induction honest, * * * religion need not fear, Christianity
is secure, and true science will always pay homage to the
Dii-ine Creator and Sovereign, ' of whom, and through whom,
and to whom are all things.'" We may also record the
sentiments of a devout Catholic, the Count de Gobineau;
who, acknowledging that he has " very serious doubts as to
the unity of origin" of the human race, observes that the
current interpretation of Scripture on this subject "might
perhaps be questioned without transgressing the limits established
by the church." "But is the Bible," he asks,
" really explicit on this point ? The sacred writings have a
much higher purpose than the elucidation of ethnological problems."
The conclusion, in fact, of this writer seems to be,
that " Scripture has been misunderstood in this particular."
—"Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races." By the
Connt A. de Gobineau; translated by H. Hotz, 1856, p. 337,
339, 367.
A clergyman of the English Church, who is also distinguished
as a teacher of physical science, has pointed out that
certain difficulties even in the explanation of the text of
Scripture would be removed by the admission of a diversity of
human origin.—"Genesis of the Earth and of Man," 1854,
Bvo, " printed for private distribution ; " and 1851), " edited by
Reginald Stuart Poole."'—A celebrated scholar and antiquary,
Edward King, at the close of the last century, held similar
views, which he maintained with much learaing and acumen, in
a " Dissertation concerning the Creation of Man." " There
are," says he, " many proofs and arguments that may be derived
from the Holy Scriptures themselves which tend to shew,
strange as the conclusion may appear at first sight to some
persons, that the commonly received opinion that all mankind
are the sons of Adam, is so far from being really founded in
Scripture, or necessary to be implied from the whole tenour of
the Divine Mosaic writings, that it is even directly contrary to
what is contained therein." See " Morsels of Criticism,"
1800, vol. iii. p. 69-1C9.
that "world by itself," that " other world beyond the ocean," the "penitus toto divisos orbe
Britannos" of the Latin writers of the Augustan and later ages*. That man's advent, however,
in the extreme part of the west of Europe is not so recent as often presumed, may be readily
admitted; but the doctrine, sometimes maintained, of an antiquity mounting up to the preglacial
period and the epoch of the extinct mammalia, of the Hyasna, Tiger, Elephant and
Rhinoceros of pliocene deposits, has no warrant in existing geological science. All the most
eminent geologists unite ia the statement, that throughout the entire series of the secondary and
tertiary formations, no traces of the human race have been discovered. It is only in the deltas,
estuaries, and aUuvial and turbary deposits of comparatively modern times, in the detritus
accumulating in the beds of the present seas, in the recent tracts of limestone forming on the
sea-shores—in strata, in fact, which belong to the pleistocene or the alluvium, that the remains of
man and his works have hitherto been found imbedded t. The occiu-rence of human bones in, what
may no doubt be truly eaUed, a fossil condition, is no proof whatever of that immense antiquity
which has sometimes been claimed for them. The bones of man, differing in no essential
respect in their structm-e and chemical composition from those of other mammalia, necessarily
undergo the same changes when subjected to like physical conditions. EossU human bones
therefore are often met with; in an earthy or porous state, when imbedded in loose sand or
earth; or of a dark brown colom-, from an impregnation of iron, when found in bogs and turbary
deposits. They may be permeated by carbonate of lime and have their cavities lined with
calcareous crystals, and even be invested with stalactite, in or beneath the stalagmitic floors of
limestone caverns. They may be thickly coated with travertin, when exposed to the action of
streams charged with carbonate of lime; as may be seen in the Roman skuU dredged up from
the Tiber, now in the British Museum; and Dr. Mantell has shown that, if deposited with
implements of iron, or in a soil charged with chalybeate waters, human, like other bones, may
become impacted in a ferruginous conglomerate, in a very brief period; and that a few years or
even months will often suffice for the formation of a compact mass, in which bones, pottery and
coins are firmly imbedded. The fossil human skeletons, found about forty years since in a sort of
hard limestone on the coast of Guadaloupe, often cited as of immense antiquity, are clearly
shown to be of recent date, and probably even to be the remains of some Indians of a Galibi
tribe, killed in a conflict with the Caribs near this spot, not more than one hundred and fifty
years since. Sir Charles Lyell tells us that the rock in which they are imbedded, notwithstanding
its great hardness, is known to be forming daily, and consists of minute fragments of
sheUs and corals incrusted with a calcareous cement resembling travertin, by wMch the different
grains are bound together. The fragments of coral still retain the same red colour with that of
the hving coral in the adjacent reefs ; the shells belong to species of the neighbom-ing sea,
intermixed with some terrestrial kinds now living on the island. This rook is identical in origin
and composition with the arenaceous limestone now forming, by the infiltration of water charged
with calcareous and ferruginous matter i, on the sea-shores of many countries, as for example,
the northern coast of Cornwall.
In many instances, the remains of man and Ms works have been found in limestone and
other caverns, in more or less intimate coimexion with the bones of extinct carnivora and other
* Virgil, Eclog. i. 65. Servius in toco.
sephus, Bell. .Tud. ii. 16.
t Lyell, " Principles," p. 182. Mantell,
See likewise Jo. Man and "Works of Art imbedded in Rocks," Sec. Archreological
Journal, 1850, vol. vii. p. 32G.
"On Remains of X Lyell, "Principles," p. 757. Mantell, loc. cit. p. 337.