Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1871-09-28
aisfellanfuns.
The Rev. Charles Kingsley on the
Origin of Man. 7

1
| Origin of Man.
The Rev. Canon Kingsley presided
on August I5, at the inaugural meeting
of the Devonshire Association for the
Advancement of Science. In the course
of his address the President said:
." fully accept the immense antiqui-
| ty ofthe human race. even accept as
possible the guess ofa certain very dis
tinguished scientific friend of mine,
that before all is done we may stumble
vet on the remains offs Silurian man.
But [ say, the older man is proved to
be, the more likely hei tohave changed
meanwhile. AS for the Esquimaux
like savages, whose implements of flint
or bone are found in caves and river
gravels, they may have been the earli-
est human race which appeared, or
reappeared, in Europe, when it recev-
cred from the great catastrophe of the
glacial epoch. That it seems to me, is
all that we can say of them. AS for
their being the original type of man, as
for our being able to argue from their
habits what were the habits of our re-
motest ancestors, that must deny. as
utterly as / deny it of any and every
savage now existing.
(" In the first place, man, hairless,
feeble, and possessed ofno natural Wea-
pons, must have begun his career in
the tropics, probably in some part OF
the tropics where there were no large
or dangerous beasts Of prey, and no vio-
| lent inclemencies of weather. In a
! word he must have commenced his
career, as Mr.. Darwin allows, in some
earthly paradise. But once being there,
with food and comfort ready to his
hand, he would stay there as long as
he could. The hunters OF reindeer, and
bison, and rhinOceroS, and mammoth,
on the then barren mOOrs OF France,
! Belgium, and England, must have
come thither against their natural IN
cIination. Not of their own choice did
they face the lion, the bear, and the
hysena, but because they were driven
north, as their probable descendants,
the Iaplanders and Esquimaux, the
Samofedes and Tungoos, have been
driven northward since into the arctic
ice. If so they were probably ofa lower
type. For it is a general rule that in
| the extreme north and south, OF cont1-
nents, or amid the most mclement
mountain ranges the lower and older
races of a5country a. are to be found.
Stronger and more courageous invaders
take possession of the rich and warm
loWlands, and driven them to the
mountains or to the arctic shores. i
should say, thereto e, that the mere tact
of these poor people having pushed
northward is firm reason for suppoSing
| that there were even then, down south
of them, strong and, it may be, civiliz-
ed races, from the face of whom they
were fleeing, to take refuge among
the northern SHOWS. And it is on the
ground of this very possibility that /
am led morea nd more todOubt wheth-
er we can ever know anything certain
Iy about primeval man at all. For see;
the more ancient you confess the hu-
man race to be, the more time you al
low for whole peoples to have risen
become great, strong, civilized; and
the more time too for whole peoples tC
have fallen again, and become weak
base, barbarous.
!" For civilization may fall as well as
rise. Those who talk of continual pro-
gress upward in man forget how many
! facts are against them. Has Greece
risen or fallen in the last two thousand
wears? Has the whole East risen OF
fallen in the last thousand years? Has
Spain risen or fallen in the last tive
hundred wears? In America alone
have not two great civilizations, thai
of Mexico and that of Peru, sunk into
savagery again during the last three
hundred years? And how many times
NAV not the same thing have happen
ed on the earth? If I am to believe
las think we must not believe) thai
the human race is Ofimmense antiquity
then I shall see more likelihood, more
reasonableness, in those magniticen
Arab legends of whole dynaSties fpre'
Adamite sultans, and all the gorgeous
fables of vanished greatness and glory
of which the East is full; than in thu
theory that man craWled on as a savage
or semi-savage, for countless ages.
A reporter of the Cincinnati Gazette
has been reviewing Long John Went
worth, who has been taking the ad
vice of his friend Horace, on farming
He declared himself sr. -,,-....
A RUINED MAN.
: You ask me 'How SOP" Go an'
! look at Summit Farm. 1t looks llk
: the alkaline desert, a bowling wilder
ness dotted with skeletonsi Greeley,
, said /, what do you think of my Me
, rino sheep?' I have-that is had-a
bOut 900 of them, worth about $175
niece. sMerino HE'LL said Greeley
mildly; why the devil don't yo1
! cultivate silk-bearing sheep? Merlin
! is played out. have tried thousand
l of times to get my sheep to bear Meri
: No understanding. have tried irriga
!, ting. Mulching, Top-dressing, Sub
: soil blowing, Wood ashes, Muck
LOAN. Guano,-all was Of no avail
|. They will lay nothing but raw cotton
Now raw cotton costs thirty cents
: Mound. and when to this yoI
add interest, wages, insurance, manu-
!, featuring, bad debts &C., you see tina
J. YOU cannot compete in the breeding
J Merino underwear with the paupe
: nations of Europe. On the other han
: Silk is heavily protected, and the pre-
duct is limited this year. In Assam
d THE CROP HAS PROVED A TOTAL FAIl
, URE.
If owing to the failure of rain, the fros
r the harvest will not yield more tha
s thirty bushels to the acre. Silk wi
, therefore advance in price. In Is
It YOU could buy a woolen dress for $50
: In 1871 silk dress costs but $500.
1t will be seen therefore that by maxim
2, your sheep spawn silk you make 50 4
st times more profit / was thunde
IS struck with this and could only Al
l. swer sHow?' The hoary headed sag
J. answered: by grating, of course. IN
sheep can weave cocoons like sil
worms if they only give their min
e to it, and the man who denies 1t Is
lie liar and a horse-thief. Little she'
that can spin and wont spin ought
le ha ,oada m snfn The fact il Wen