A Manual of the Antiquity of Man Part 11

The following answers may be given to these objections, or arguments: 1.

It is just as reasonable to suppose that man is affected, as well as the animals, by climate, food, or peculiar condition. It is well known that animals have undergone more or less change by their situation or position. Elephants and rhinoceroses are almost hairless. As certain extinct species, which formerly lived under an arctic climate, were covered with hair or long wool, it would appear that the present species of both genera had lost their hairy covering by exposure to heat. This is confirmed by the fact that the elephants of the elevated and cool districts of India are more hairy than those on the lowlands.[112] A wonderful change is wrought by the influence of climate on turkeys. In India "it is much degenerated in size, utterly incapable of rising on the wing, of a black color, and with long pendulous appendages over the beak, enormously developed." "In the English climate an individual Porto Santo rabbit recovered the proper color of its fur in less than four years."[113] Observers are convinced that a damp climate affects the growth of the hair of cattle. The mountain-breeds always differ from the lowland breeds; in a mountainous country the hind limbs would be affected from exercising them more, which would also affect the pelvis, and, then, from the law of h.o.m.ologous variation, the front limbs and head would probably be affected.[114] One of the most marked distinctions in the races of man is that the skull in some is elongated or dolichocephalic, and in others rounded or brachycephalic. Mr. Darwin has observed that a change takes place in the skulls of domestic rabbits; they become elongated, while those of the wild rabbit are rounded. He took two skulls of nearly equal breadth, the one from a wild and the other from a large domestic rabbit, the former was only 3.15, and the latter 4.3 inches in length. Welcker has observed "that short men incline more to brachycephaly and tall men to dolichocephaly; and tall men may be compared with the larger and longer-bodied rabbits, all of which have elongated skulls."[115] The argument from language is of great weight, especially in considering the differences in color.

Professor Max Muller has stated this clearly: "There was a time when the ancestors of the Celts, the Germans, the Slavonians, the Greeks and Italians, the Persians and Hindus, were living together beneath the same roof." "The evidence of language is irrefragable, and it is the only evidence worth listening to with regard to ante-historical periods. It would have been next to impossible to discover any traces of relationship between the swarthy natives of India and their conquerors, whether Alexander or Clive, but for the testimony borne by language."[116] When the great lapse of ages is taken into consideration, since man originated, it will be seen that sufficient time is given to produce the white, black, yellow, red, and brown varieties of man.

2. The argument from geographical distribution would hardly seem valid, as it is known that the ocean can be and has been navigated by frail crafts. Lieutenant Bligh, of the ship Bounty, in a small boat, twenty-three feet long from stem to stern, deep laden with nineteen men and one hundred and fifty pounds of bread, twenty-eight gallons of water, twenty pounds of pork, etc., started from the island of Tofoa (South Pacific) for the island of Timor, a distance of three thousand six hundred miles. In this voyage he encountered a boisterous sea, and great perils, but finally reached his destination.[117] When men began to dwell on the sea-coast they made their small vessels and carried on a limited navigation. Many a frail craft has been driven out to sea with its human freight, some of which landed on uninhabited islands. This has often happened among the South Sea islanders.[118] If it had been a.s.serted, a few years ago, that man's distribution might have been partly caused by the agency of ice, it would have received no attention.

And yet, Captain Tyson and his party, consisting of twelve men, two women, and five children, being a portion of the crew of the ill-fated Polaris, drifted about from the 15th of October, 1872, to the 30th of April, 1873, on an ice-floe, and in the midst of an arctic winter.

Besides the provisions saved from the Polaris they subsisted on the flesh of seals, birds, and bears that they were able to kill. Every member of this party was rescued off the coast of Labrador. It must be further noticed that the surface of the earth was not always the same.

The continents have changed more or less, and during these changes man must have become more or less separated.

3. In respect to the disparity it may be replied that the two extreme points are observable in all the nations of the earth. Even in single families there have been those who were highly cultured and refined, while other members have been very low in organization, habits, and tastes. In these days it is manifest that all the races are capable of a very high degree of improvement. On the other hand, nations have retrograded. The ignorant, wretched nomads who pitch their tents amid the ruins of Babylon, are the descendants of the ancient mixed races who successively occupied Mesopotamia: the a.s.syrians, Babylonians, Medes, and Persians, who were ruled by such renowned monarchs as Shalmaneser, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and others. The wild marauding Arabs are the descendants of a people who invented algebra and introduced the numerals. So the list might be extended.

4 and 5. The fourth and fifth amount to the a.s.sumption that no race will amalgamate with another. The statements embraced under these two heads are not warranted by facts. Dr. Prichard says, "Mankind of all races and varieties are equally capable of propagating their offspring by intermarriages, and that such connections are equally prolific whether contracted between individuals of the same or of the most dissimilar varieties. If there is any difference, it is probably in favor of the latter."[119] He then gives a short account of several examples of new or intermediate stocks which have been produced and multiplied. They are Griquas, descended from the Dutch and Hottentots, who occupy the banks of the Orange River, and number five thousand souls; the Cafusos of Brazil, a mixture of native Americans and African Negroes; the Papuas of the island of New Guinea, a mixture between the Malays and Negroes. One of the best examples yet furnished is that of the Pitcairn Islanders.

This colony originated in this way: The British government had sent a vessel, called the Bounty, commanded by Lieutenant Bligh, to gather bread-fruit trees at Otaheite and introduce them into the West Indies.

Bligh was an overbearing, tyrannical, and cruel officer. Driven to fury, and out of patience with the superior officer, Mr. Fletcher Christian and others mutinied, and turned Bligh and his eighteen companions adrift. The mutineers proceeded to Tahiti; here they took on board provisions and live stock, nine Tahitian men, twelve women, and eight boys who had secreted themselves, and then proceeded to Toubouai, where they founded a settlement. Owing to dissensions the colony broke up and removed to Tahiti. But Mr. Christian, with eight other of the mutineers, three Toubouaians, three Tahitian men with their wives, and one child, and nine other women, left in the Bounty and landed at Pitcairn's Island, and there burned the Bounty on the 23d of January, 1790. In less than nine years afterward, owing to strifes, the men were reduced to two in number, both whites, and one of them died the succeeding year. In the year 1808 the American ship Topaz touched at the island. The colonists then numbered thirty-five. In 1856 they had increased to the number of one hundred and ninety, and as the produce of the island was barely sufficient to support them they were removed by the British government to Norfolk Island. There are only eight surnames among them--five of the Bounty stock and three new-comers. They are a fine, healthy race of people; the men of a bright copper color, but the women are scarcely distinguishable from English women. If reports be true concerning them, they are the most remarkable people on earth. They never allow the sun to go down on their wrath, and are noted for their honesty, truth, chast.i.ty, industry, benevolence, reverence, simplicity, and all the virtues which combine to form true religion.

The law of hybridity, which has been so strongly urged against the unity of the race, has proved an argument in favor. The offspring of birds as much alike as the domestic goose and the large Muscovy duck will not propagate their species. Mules cannot perpetuate their kind. The different varieties of the horse, such as the little black Shetland pony and the tall white Arabian, will not only breed together but these hybrids will continue to perpetuate their kind, thereby proving their ident.i.ty of species. The same may be said of the cross between the most perfect and the lowest type of mankind. If some of these mixtures die out in a few generations, it is not owing to their hybridity, but to the plain violation of natural laws. When the contracting parties to a marriage are of the same const.i.tution, there will be no issue; if the const.i.tutions, or rather, temperaments, are in substance too nearly the same, the issue, if any, will be either still-born, or die very soon after birth; if the contracting parties shall have an adjunctive element, the issue will be short-lived, although they may arrive at the years of maturity.[120] These laws apply to both the mixed and the unmixed types of mankind.

The close affinity of all the races, their subjection to the same general laws, their capacity for mental and moral improvement, and the virtual unity of their languages lead to the conclusion that one birth-place was common to all. If that place be Central Asia, or any other locality, it must have been long before traditional times, when the one tribe was broken up and nations formed.

Races change so slow that they seem to be stationary. On the ancient Egyptian monuments are representations of the Negro, having exactly the same features which characterize that race at the present time; and some of these paintings date as far back as 2000 B. C.

Then from the unity of the race and the persistency in type, an almost incredible length of time must be a.s.signed to permit of the great disparity as exhibited by the different types of mankind.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE.

No book has caused so much controversy as the Bible. It has been made to answer for the folly of both its friends and foes. The fierce a.s.saults made by the sceptic have been the legitimate result of the preposterous claims made by its ignorant but too zealous friends. The Bible makes no such claims for itself as have often been made for it. Its meaning has been perverted, sentences distorted, and words changed in order to suit the caprice of its advocates. If it were a living, speaking existence, it would certainly beg to be delivered from its friends. It has been made to conflict with the investigations of science, and those engaged in interpreting the laws of nature have been branded as infidels, although they may have devout and reverent spirits. The Bible is not and makes no pretensions of being a book of science. It is designed to be a book of religion, and a history of the ancient Jews, and its references to scientific questions are only incidental. If the references to science, or the account of Creation be radically wrong, its teachings on questions of morals and religion would not be thereby invalidated. The Christian, or the Jew, has nothing to fear from the results of scientific investigation. But there is a duty devolving on him, and that is to leave his fanciful interpretations and come to the true meaning of the Scriptures, and there learn how the words were understood by those to whom they were originally addressed. The meaning of words, as used in the nineteenth century, is not to be connected with their signification as used in the past. There is a great distance that divides the present from the times of the Hebrews, and their language and thoughts from the English language and modern thought. The ancient Hebrews were not given to scientific pursuits, and could have been but comparatively little advanced in civilization.

It is not the design here to enter upon an investigation of the points raised between the Scriptures and science, but to confine the inquiry to such questions as the previous chapters have demanded.

_Creation._--The first and second chapters of Genesis not only teach that G.o.d is the Creator of heaven and earth, but also the order of succession is given. It is not stated that the world was created out of nothing. The word "bara," translated "created," has a variety of meanings. According to Gesenius it means _to cut_, _to cut out_, _to carve_, _to form_, _to create_, _to produce_, _to beget_, _to bring forth_, _to feed_, _to eat_, _to grow fat_, _to fashion_, _to make_.[121] The idea presented seems to be this: The author a.s.serts that heaven and earth owe their origin to G.o.d. Then he goes back and explains the successive stages of creation. At the commencement of the work the earth was formless and void, or in a nebulous condition, and from this preexisting ma.s.s the worlds were evolved. When this ma.s.s was created, if ever, the author of Genesis does not state.

Six periods, or "days," are given for the formation of the earth. The use of the words "evening and morning" naturally leads to the conclusion that the _days_ were each twenty-four hours in length. But doubt is thrown over this conclusion by the use of the word _day_ in the second chapter and fourth verse, where the whole creative week is called a _day_. The word translated "day" also means _time_, but it is to be generally taken in the sense of the civil day--from sun up to sun down.

Hugh Miller held to the opinion that the creation was represented to Moses in a vision. The periods pa.s.sed before his mind in succession and had the appearance of days. The evening was the closing of one and the morning was the beginning of another period of time.[122] If a description of the different orders of life had been given, it would have been beyond the comprehension of that primitive people. It was not the design to teach geology. The people were not prepared for such scientific knowledge. But the simple statement that G.o.d is the author of all things, could be and was understood by the Israelites.

On the sixth day man appears; but there are two records, and in them he is presented in different ways and for different purposes. In the first account man is made in the image of G.o.d, and to him is given dominion over the living things, and he is commanded to subdue the earth. The second account states that there was no man to till the ground, and the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. The second account cannot be, as has been a.s.sumed, a repet.i.tion of the first. The two accounts are radically different. One account makes man to have dominion over the beasts, birds, and fishes; the other, to till or cultivate the soil. This agrees with archaeo-geology. Men were hunters many ages before they were agriculturists. The one account has man made in the image of G.o.d, the other, a _living soul_. The "image of G.o.d" and "living soul" may be the same, but why the change? There may be a cause for it. If the theory of the vision be the true one, then Moses saw man in two capacities, differing one from the other. Man may be in the "image of G.o.d," and yet in a low, savage condition--subsisting on the chase. Man may be awakened from that condition, the "image of G.o.d" may a.s.sert its majesty, and make man a religious, worshipful being.[123]

That there were two cla.s.ses the record implies. Cain goes out into the Land of Nod, where his wife conceives, and he builds a city. Where did Cain get his wife, and why did he build a city? No account is given of the birth of his wife, but the natural inference is he obtained her in the Land of Nod.[124] It has been contended that Cain married his sister. If this be true it would certainly have been mentioned. It is too important a matter to have escaped notice. If he married his sister he was guilty of a heinous crime. If it was right then, it is right now.

The city he built must have been more than an _encampment_, or a _small fortification_. (The word translated "city" bears this meaning also.) It would have been of no moment. It must have been a place of some consequence, and designed for more persons than Cain, his wife, and son.

Taking all the circ.u.mstances together, including Cain's dread "of every one that findeth me shall slay me," it would seem that the object of this city was to provide for individuals of the pre-Adamic family dwelling on the east of Eden, and possibly to ingratiate himself into their favor.

Then, again, in the sixth chapter, "The sons of G.o.d saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." This was followed by great wickedness, in consequence of which the world was destroyed by a flood. Who were the "sons of G.o.d," and who the "daughters of men"? Why not the daughters of G.o.d? The "sons of G.o.d"

must have been the lineal descendants of Adam, and the "daughters of men" the offspring of the pre-Adamic race. The mongrel race produced were monsters,[125] and their minds were bent continually on doing evil.

These sons of Adam must have retrograded, or else they would not have sought wives from among a lower people. By the laws of nature their offspring was lower than either of the races, from the fact that to the brutish natures of the pre-Adamic type would be added the natural wisdom of the Adamic, thus producing cunning and craft in their wickedness.[126] If stringent moral laws had been enforced upon them the result would have been reversed.

_Chronology._--The chronology given in the margins of the Bible is a mere invention, and has worked much mischief. There is nothing to warrant it, and no excuse can be made for it. The Bible gives no definite chronology for those early times. That no dependence can be placed in these chronologies is shown from the discrepancies between the Septuagint and the Hebrew texts.[127] The Septuagint dates the Flood eight hundred years farther back than the common Bible. "A margin of variation amounting to eight centuries between two versions of the same doc.u.ment, is a variation so enormous that it seems to cast complete doubt on the whole system of interpretation on which such computations of time are based."[128]

_The Deluge._--Allowing the date of the Deluge to have been 3149 B. C.

instead of 2349 B. C., still there is not sufficient time to repopulate the earth, and form those mighty empires recorded in ancient history.

The Duke of Argyle has very justly remarked that, "The founding of a monarchy is not the beginning of a race. The people among whom such monarchies arose must have grown and gathered during many generations."

The peopling of Egypt is not the only difficulty. "The existence, in the days of Abraham, of such an organized government as that of Chedorlaomer shows that two thousand years B. C. there nourished in Elam, beyond Mesopotamia, a nation which even now would be ranked among 'the Great Powers.'"[129] Then the characteristic features of the Negro, one of the most strongly marked among the varieties of man, were as greatly marked 2000 B. C. as at present.

These statements lead to the conclusion that the Flood was not universal. Most nations have a tradition of a flood, but "the monuments of the two most ancient civilizations of which we have any knowledge--the Egyptian and Chinese--contain no account of, or allusion to, Noah's Deluge."[130] Many of these traditions doubtless refer to some local flood. The pa.s.sages of Scripture seem to teach the universality of the Deluge, but the same expressions which convey the idea of universality, are sometimes used in a limited sense, and refer only to the Holy Land, and to bordering regions. The question is one of doubt whether or not the sacred historian means the Noachian Deluge to have been universal, or only a local cataclysm.

_Monarchies._--The Scriptures do not state that Nimrod was the first monarch, but "the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh." Nor is the statement made that he founded these cities. He was a mighty hunter, and these cities were the _beginning of his kingdom_.

_The Dispersion._--The building of the tower of Babel is no myth, but a veritable reality. A portion of the mighty fabric still stands, a mountain of ruins, attesting to the vast amount of work it required in its construction. The story is told in few words, and those words cover centuries. The people engaged in its construction spoke one language, but when this language was confounded the empire was rent asunder. The narrative seems to teach the use of but one language on the whole face of the earth. Dr. F. H. Hedge, in his sermon on "the Great Dispersion,"

says, "Moreover, the phrase 'the whole earth,' as commonly used in the Bible, is not to be taken in an absolute or scientific sense. It is not intended to include the entire globe, or even the greater part thereof, but is loosely employed to designate the whole of that particular portion which the writer or speaker has in his mind at the time. In the present case it denotes the country bordering on the Tigris and the Euphrates."[131] If the views of this eminent theologian be correct, then, by the same principle of interpretation the unity of language spoken of, is limited to the country bordering on the Tigris and the Euphrates.

There is no necessity of a supernatural aid for the origination of language. Under the view already advanced, when the animals were brought to Adam, he readily gave them names, for he had received language from his predecessors, and now, being an especially chosen person, his endowments would lead him to a more vigorous application of its use.

It is not incredible that G.o.d could have fashioned the world and peopled it with myriads of beings in a period of six days of twenty-four hours each. It is not incredible that a cataclysm could destroy every living creature, save an appointed few, and cover the remotest boundaries of the earth. It is possible for G.o.d to do anything save that which is inconsistent with his character. What is possible for G.o.d to do, and what He does, are two very different things. What He has done can only be told from the evidences which He has left. What He might have done is only speculation. Man can only judge from the facts presented to him. He observes the course of nature, and from these observations his conclusions are drawn.

The world of nature and the spirit of revelation, when properly understood, are seen to be in harmony. Man is not to close his eyes and refuse to be guided by science, and with blind credulity accept the tales and prejudices of his grandfathers.

NOTE.--Dean Stanley, an eminent divine of the Church of England, in his discourse at the funeral of Sir Charles Lyell, takes unusual grounds for a theologist. He is reported as saying that there were and are two modes of reconciling the letter of Scripture with geology, but each has totally and deservedly failed. One of these attempts to wrest the words of the Bible from their real meaning, and force them to speak the language of science; the other attempts to falsify science to meet the supposed requirements of the Bible. But there is another reconciliation of a higher kind, or rather an acknowledgment of the affinity and ident.i.ty which exist between the spirit of science and the spirit of the Bible. First, there is a likeness of the general spirit of the Bible truths; and, secondly, there is a likeness in the methods. The frame of this earth was gradually brought into its present condition by the slow and silent action of the same causes which we see now operating through a long succession of ages beyond the memory and imagination of man. We do not expect this doctrine to agree with the letter of the Bible.

The early biblical records could not be literal, prosaic, matter-of-fact descriptions of the beginning of the world. It is now clear that the first and second chapters of Genesis contain two narratives of the Creation side by side, differing from each other in almost every particular of time and place and order. It is now known that the vast epochs demanded by scientific observation are incompatible both with the six thousand years of the Mosaic chronology and the six days of the Mosaic Creation. The discoveries of geology are found to fill up the old religious truths with a new life, and to derive from them in turn a hallowing glory.

GLOSSARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND DIFFICULT TERMS USED IN THIS VOLUME.

Adjunctive, having the quality of joining.

Alluvial, pertaining to the deposits of sand, clay, or gravel, made by river action.

Amalgamate, to mix or blend different things or races.

Antero-posterior, in a direction from behind forward.

Aphelion, that point of a planet's or comet's...o...b..t which is most distant from the sun.

Archaeo-geologist, one versed in pre-historic remains, or familiar with both archaeology and geology.

Archives, public records and papers preserved as evidence of fact.

Aryan, a term applied to all the nations who speak languages derived mainly from the Sanskrit, or ancient Hindoo.

Atomic, a system of philosophy which accounted for the origin and formation of all things by a.s.suming that atoms are endowed with gravity and motion.

Auditory, having the power of hearing.