This goes to prove the immense antiquity of
the story, which is not affected by the fact that the actual inscription
of it which we at present have, dates only about 670 B.C. The point
here, however, interesting in the legends, is that they contained the
idea of a special connection of one particular race with the Creator,
and of other races, or of one other race, besides.
As far as the possibility of bringing forward the history of mankind as
any aid to the theory of Evolution is concerned, I might have very well
let the subject alone, or even noticed it more briefly than I have done.
For, in truth, there is no _evidence_ whatsoever, and all that the
denier of creation can resort to is a supposed analogy and a probability
that the peculiarities of man could be accounted for in this way or in
that. But the main purpose of my brief allusion is to introduce the fact
that, as far as any evidence to the contrary goes, we have an absolutely
sudden appearance of man on the scene, and no kind of transitional form.
Not only so, but there is no trace of any gradual development of man
when he did appear. There was the first palaeolithic man; then a
considerable geologic perturbation of the earth's surface, resulting in
the upheaval of the cliffs in which the caves of remains occur, and in
the alteration of the gravel beds in which the human remains are found;
and then the neolithic age, with its evidently greater civilization (as
evidenced by pottery, &c.
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