"Generation has followed generation, and the children are as like
their fathers as the successive generations of apes."
To this we can have nothing to object; especially in view of what the
writer goes on to say, and that on his own side of the hedge--
somewhat qualified though his admission may be:--"The whites, it is
likely enough, succeeded one another with the same similarity for a
series of ages." Our speculator grows profoundly philosophic here;
and in this mood thus entertains his readers in a strain which,
though deep, we shall strive to find clear:--
"It is now supposed that human race has been on the planet for a
hundred thousand years at least; and the first traces of civilization
cannot be thrown back at furthest beyond six thousand. During all
this time mankind went on treading in the same steps, century after
century making no more advance than the birds and beasts."
[131] In all this there is nothing that can usefully be taken
exception to; for speculation and conjecture, if plausible and
attractive, are free to revel whenever written documents and the
unmistakable indications of the earth's crust are both entirely at
fault.
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