conformation ;* thus forming a striking example of the permanence,
we might say, immutability of the primordial type of organization,
when this has not been modified by admixture with intrusive and
dissimilar races.
I have no doubt that Man will yet he found in the fossil state as
low down as the Eocene deposits, and that he walked the earth with
the Megalonyx and Paléothérium. His not having been hitherto
discovered in the older stratified rocks is no proof that he will not he
hereafter found in them. Ten years ago, the Monkey-tribes were
unknown and denied in the fossil state ; hut they have since been
identified,in the Himalaya mountains, Brazil, and England.f
[End of Morton’s MSS.~\ -
* Mémoire de la Soc. Roy. des Antiquaires du Nord, 1845-47, p. 73. See also Dr. Meigs’s
highly interesting communication on the Human Bones found at Santos, in Brazil, in Trans,
of the Amer. Philos. Soc. for'1830; and Lt. Strain’s Letter to me, in Proceedings of the
Academy for 1844.
t Proofs of the vast antiquity of the earth, and of man’s long sojourn upon it, multiply
every day. The Hebrew chronology is a human computation from the Book of Genesis,,
and while it falls far short' of the time requisite for the works of Man, is. infinitely contracted
when considered in reference to the creations of God. The Egyptian monuments,1
as we have seen, date far beyond the period allotted to the Deluge of Noah (which was evidently
a partial phenomenon) ; and, on the other hand, the irresistible evidence of Geological
Science realizes the sentiment of Plato — that Past-time is an eternity.
“ These views,” observes Sir Charles Lyell, “ have been adopted by all geologists,
whether their minds have been formed by the literature of France, or of Italy, or Scandinavia,
or England — all have arrived at the same conclusion respecting the great antiquity
of the globe, and that too in opposition to their earlier prepossessions, and to the popular
belief of their age.”
All human calculations of time are futile in Geological and Ethnological inquiries. Epochs
of vast duration are fully established by the nature of the organic remains of plants' and
animals that characterize the different formations ; while the very intervals that separate
these formations are evidences of other periods hardly less astonishing. In fact, Geological
epochs present some analogy to Astronomical distances : the latter have been computed ;
the former are beyond calculation — and the mind is almost as incapable of realizing the
one as the other. It cannot grapple with numbers which approximate to infinitude.
It is stated by Prof. Nichol, of Edinburgh, that “ light travels at the rate of 192,000
miles in a second of time, and that it performs its journey from the Sun to the Earth, a
distance of 95,000,000 of miles, in about eight minutes. And yet, by Rosse’s great telescope,
we are informed that there are stars and systems so distant, that the ray of light
which impinges on the eye of the observer, and enables him to detect it, issued from that
orb 60,000 years back.” ’Westminster Review, 1846.
“ In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth ” — a sublime exordium, that
points to an aboriginal creation, antedating the works of the Seven Days. Science has
| raised the veil of that ancient world, with all its numberless forms of primeval organization ;
but' these are not noticed in the text, neither man, nor the inferior animals. When, however,
we find the fossil remains of the latter so varied and so multitudinous, it is not inconsistent
with true philosophy to anticipate the disoovery of human remains among the
ruins of that primal creation. In fact, I consider geology to have already decided this
question in the affirmative.
[tJnavailable, owing to its unfinished condition, the Table mentioned
in the foregoing Memoirs is necessarily omitted. We cannot abstain,
notwithstanding, from recalling the reader’s attention — first, to the
unqualified emphasis with which Dr. Morton’s posthumous language
insists upon an aboriginal plurality of races ; and secondly, to the clear
presentiments (engendered by his extensive researches in Comparative
Anatomy) that- our revered President of the Academy of Natural
Sciences avows respecting the eventual discovery of Man in a fossil
state. . ; .
Palseontological investigation had not fallen within the specialities
of either author of this volume; and, in consequence, embarrassment
was long felt by both, whether to mould what materials they possessed,
concerning fossilized humanity, into a Chapter, or to relinquish
a task in itself so indispensable to the nature of their work, no Jess
than to the right understanding of Man’s position in Creative history.
The authors’ hesitancy ceased when an accomplished friend, familiar
with geological and other scientific literature, volunteered a digest
of the most recent discoveries: nor will the general reader fail to he
surprised, as well as edified, through the perusal of Dr. U s h e r I s
paper; which, with many acknowledgments on the part of J. C. N.
and G. It. G., is embodied in the ensuing pages.]
C H A P T E R XI.
GEOLOGY AND P ALÆONTOLOGY, IN CONNECTION "WITH HUMAN
ORIGINS.
{"Contributed by William U sher, M. D., or Mobile.]
E very discovery in modern science tends to enlarge our ideas of
the Universe, and to prove that the date of its creation is as far distant
in the past, as the probable consummation of its destiny is remote in
the future. Sir William Herschel has shown that there are stars in
the heavens so distant, that the light by which they are visible to us
has been myriads of years in its passage to the earth; and thé wonderful
powers of'Lord Rosse’s telescope have not, even yet, penetrated
to the circumference of the starry sphere. It is the glory of astronomy
to have demonstrated that the planetary bodies may retain their pre