dweller, a finer and less heavy skin would naturally be gradually developed, thus necessitating clothing in the case of those who had wandered away from tropical regions into colder ones. In the strata of a still later period than the Paleolithic, admirably proportioned lancet-shaped implements of flint have been found, suitable for arrows, javelins, and lances. And, later still, arrows, darts of deer's horn, and bone appear; also stone and flint tools, evidently used for making the above. But not one polished implement or fragment of pottery has been found within that period. "The mammoth

still tenanted the valleys, and the reindeer was the common article of food; they (paleolithic men) were hunters and possessors of the rudest modes of existence, and with but little of what is now called civilization."*

In Kent's cavern, near Torquay, in England, has been found the fossil of a human jaw buried in stalagmite, containing four teeth. This was found lying in the strata of the Paleolithic age, below remains of extinct animals; while below all were bone and (unpolished) stone implements of human workmanship. In the cave of Engis, in the valley of the Meuse, has been found part of a skull of a man of low degree of civilization, and of limited intellectual faculties. And in the cave of Neanderthal, in Belgium, a skeleton was found which has attracted much attention by its singularly brutal appearance; it appears to be the nearest approach yet found to the missing link between man and the anthropoid ape; the cranium is human, but the super-orbital ridges are thick, prominent, and ape-like. A human skull has also been found beneath four different layers of forestgrowth, dating at least 50,000 years ago.

In the Neolithic or New Stone Age, the implements and weapons of man which have been discovered are polished; pottery has been found, and evidences of the use of fire, showing that man was gradually adopting some form of social life. In this age are found lake dwellings, which would lead us to infer that his intellect was not sufficiently developed to enable him to protect himself from the invasion of wild animals in a simpler manner.

It is not surprising that so few specimens of primeval human remains have been discovered, when we consider the

* S. Laing, Human Origins.

enormous lapse of time through which the evolution of man has proceeded, and the natural tendency to the extinction of the various grades of life between them, by the irresistible pressure of civilized man. The Caribs of Tasmania have, for instance, become extinct; while Australians, New Zealanders, aboriginal Americans, Eskimos, and others, are also becoming extinct. A far greater physical and mental interval is found to exist between a Hottentot-whose language consists of a series of clicks, or a hairy Ainu of Yesso, who are described as being "hardly above wild beasts," and a cultivated European, than exists between the Hottentot or the Ainu and the anthropoid ape.

Man, in his primitive condition, was a tree-dweller; from this he became, as his intellect further developed, a cavedweller; and, later, a lake-dweller and builder of huts and houses. In the Old Stone Age (the Paleolithic) we find traces of his stone implements with which he protected himself and obtained food; in the New Stone Age (the Neolithic) we find his flint implements. In his primitive condition his head was long (dolichocephalic) and small, containing within it an ill-developed brain, his jaws prognathous, and his orbital ridges prominent. He was of medium stature, having bones of great thickness, which denoted great muscular strength. From this condition he was further evolved until he acquired a round medium-sized (mesocephalic) head, a well-developed brain, less prominent chin and mouth, and shorter arms-long arms being no longer necessary for clinging to branches of trees. His head, though weighted with a heavier brain, does not droop forward; and it is probably due to this fact that he has a perfect development of vocal mechanism.

The consciousness of superiority naturally suggested to man, in an early stage of civilization, that he was the object of a special creation, separate from other animal life; but, as we have seen, though the highest form of animal evolution, he had not the least grounds for such a supposition. He was too ignorant and superstitious to understand that it was by his superior intelligence, and the faculty of speech alone, that he gained his ascendancy. As he acquired the habit of protecting himself from foes and from the inclemency of weather-exemplified in his building shelters and by co-operation with his fellows, living in com

MAN'S BIRTHPLACE AND DISPERSION.

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munity, his intelligence and ingenuity developed in accordance with the requirements of his environment; at the same time, aided greatly by his prolonged infancy which is characteristic of the human offspring, were evolved gentleness, affection, sympathy, etc.; co-operation favouring the development of emotional as well as intellectual strength. And the same process of development may be observed at the present day going on among the ape species, who have already acquired many of the habits of man, such as building shelters, living in community, and forming distinct societies.

In considering the evolution of life, of man, and of the species, as of human society, the universe, and everything contained in it, we must bear in mind that the great axiom of evolution is, that "there is nothing in the end which was not also in the beginning."

The next point we have to consider is: Where was man first evolved, and how-after his evolution, which we have seen must have been very gradual-did he become dispersed over the face of the earth?

Primitive man is believed to have been evolved in the submerged continent, called by us Lemuria, which was supposed to have existed where the Indian Ocean now is, and to have joined Africa and the island of Madagascar to the continent of Arabia and Hindostan.

Primitive man separated into two families:-I. The woolly-haired, all dolichocephalic, migrated west and south, and evolved the Papuans of New Guinea and Tasmania; (1) the Hottentots of South Africa, who even now differ but little from the anthropoid apes, having dark yellow hairy skins, long thin arms, short ill-developed legs, and largelydeveloped buttocks, are semi-erect, and have inarticulate, clicking speech; (2) the negro of higher development than the Hottentot; and (3) the Caffre of higher development again than the negro, but having imperfect speech. All are savages. II. The straight-haired; migrated south and east, and evolved (1) the Australians, dolichocephalic and prognathous, with dark brown skins, but articulate speech. These gradually separated into (2) Mongolian or Turanian, and (3) Caucasian or Iranian. The Mongolians occupied the North and East of Asia, Polynesia, and America; were brachycephalic (short-headed) and prognaThese subdivided into Mongols of China, Japan,

Lapland, Finland, Hungary, and the Malays or Dyaks of Borneo, with brownish-yellow skins, and the Mongols of America, with red skins-both classes remained brachycephalic, but lost the prognathous character. The Caucasians, with dark skins, occupied Western Asia and most of Europe, were mesocephalic (medium length of skull), prognathous, and cave-dwellers, becoming subsequently agriculturalists. These latter subdivided into the Semites of Arabia and Syria, and the Aryan or Indo-European, both being mesocephalic, but not prognathous.

The opposite state to life is DEATH. Death is simply a change of form, the change from the heterogeneous to the homogeneous-the final equilibration which precedes dissolution, the bringing to a close of all those conspicuous integrated motions that arose during evolution. "Precisely where evolution ends, dissolution begins, and their point of impact [or collision] is equilibration," says Herbert Spencer ; and he defines dissolution as being "the absorption of motion and the concomitant disintegration [or separation of particles] of matter.” The conspicuous effects of the changes that occur at death are :-" First, the impulsions of the body from place to place cease; then, the limbs cannot be stirred; later, the respiratory actions stop; finally, the heart becomes stationary, and, with it, the circulating fluids."

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Life then ceases to exist in its active and corporate form, but in its corporate form only, for matter is indestructible, and, therefore, eternal. When the animating principle, vital force, or breath leaves the body, the point of equilibration being reached, dissolution and disintegration commence; and the transformation of molecular motion into the motion of masses comes to an end, each of the motions of masses disappearing into molecular motions. The body, or aggregate of masses of matter, breaks up into molecules, which, assuming the gaseous form, disperse themselves into the ethereal medium, leaving a residue of ashes which returns to the earth whence it originated. As life feeds upon life, so do these particles become part of other forms of life; and so the process goes on-molecules aggregating to form masses, masses to form bodies; bodies returning again to

* H. Spencer, First Principles.

masses, and masses to molecules; continual change and ceaseless life going on all through nature.

It is thus easy to be seen that no conduct on our part can in any way affect the future of the breath or corporate life, which ceases at what we call death; and that, having absolutely no knowledge of the possibility of any reincorporation and reanimation of the identical molecules and aggregated masses, which made up our bodies as human entities during life, whatever rewards or punishments that may be ours, are of this world and during the continuance of our lives only. Of spiritual or any other life beyond human life, we know nothing.

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It is not unusual to hear people talk very glibly about rushing into eternity," as if they knew all about it and had been there, though the only eternity they really know, or can know, anything about is the eternity of matter and power, or the forces of nature. Such a thing as eternity, or future life, for them as corporate masses or entities, is, of course, absurd, and not what they intend to convey. What they have in their minds is the spirit or ghost world, which was invented, as we shall see further on, by primitive man to explain events of daily occurrence in nature which he could not understand, and the eternity of the spirits, ghosts, or souls as the modern term is-who are believed to be received there after death. Such meaningless expressions are part of the ambiguous religious phraseology of the day, and are of the same value as "God dwelling in you," "finding Jesus," etc.