The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-12-10

Academy: :
AsI write with pain on account of a
partially disabled arm. necessity has
forced me to condense as compactly as
possible what am about to say on the
condition of primal man. To such as
have made ethnography study, hint
is sufficient to disclose the bearings of
long train of argument; while to such
as listen to the subject for the first
time l regret to say present them
with a meagre and, I apprehend, unin-
teresting outline skeleton.
OF all subjects which through the
long lapse of ages have presented them
selves for consideration, no one has &C.
cupied so much of the time-world
thought, or has had centered about 1t
such variety Of opinions or has evoked
such intense interest and concern as
the primeval history of our own race.
Owing TO discoveries, both linguistic
and geological, made within the last
half century, we are to-day enabled to
trace out mans descent with more sat
isfactory results than could have been
done at any former period. Egyptolo-
: sists had already carried back men
tai culture in Egypt to point OF time
ante-dating the old Testament; this
subject was interesting to the archeolo-
gist, but of little value to the ethnolo-
gist. They simply gave the outline his
tory of civilized race or nation ex'
tracted from remaining monuments; but
failed to touch upon that indefinite lapse
D of ages which runs back from the pyr-
t arnids and discovers the infantlle savage
brrrowing in the ground or sheltered in
e caverns, without fuel, agriculture or
t law, but procuring precarious subsls'
l. tence from the wild elements about him.
1t is truly marvellous what philology
l. has accomplished in kindling up a
l. beacon light which conducts us back
n ward through the stream of time for
thousands of years with unerring GER
il tainty. We now have in our libraries
;. the Rig Veda, the oldest book in the
world, and can read at our leisure the
thoughts, the hopes, the aspirations
- and fears of people that lie so far OF
- upon the misty horizon of time that We
identify them more readily with geo
J., logical strata than; with the human
- race. And yet when the Ved'
I'd was written man was already civilized
Philology has now disclosed TO US per
~ haps all that we may anticipate from
81 that quarter. We possess to-day wha
the Emperor Akbar $50 years ago wa
Of unable to procure-the Whole Of tn
~ sacred canon of the Buddhists; tn
Brahminical vedas; the doctrines o
of| Zoroaster; of CoEfucius and Loaf Sc
=, beside the sacred canons Of the III
~ brews. In fact we are enabled to trac
's' up the linguistic connections OF tn
Aryan, the Semitic, or Turanian race
OF but of course when We stop we are ST.
els within the bounds of civilization. Con
he paratively it may not be very hug
order Of civilization, but IN contra'
,rn with the lower order of savagery tt
"a difference is immeasuerable.
'e &c But in order to open the way to be
- ter understanding Of the theory oipr
gressive evolution, (which if permitt'
OF hope to make the subject Of futul
Iult paperD will this evening touch brief
DR.. only upon two preliminary points viii
] it is proper to have fairly stated. +
Il one IS legitimate subject for argumer
~ the other is simply fact. The argume
20 tative subject is what was the ment
~ ~ condition Of primeval man = 1
ID" subject of fact, as | shall show, is
high antiquity.
Big Some writer's maintain that in
ON earliest estate man possessed high
,out gree of mental culture. In fact
best field is open for them to fix. undisp
ed. the standard high or low. But
.h., sooner have they done this, than tn
'n are compelled to face most perpl
sgis- ing dilemma. If they fix it too
ro", man remains in bar barism; if they
81 oi it above this, and endow man witt
high grade Of civilization they must
ROM count for the whole the'
!. no of degradation. You
IL In Tcaully see IL IL uRSSaoAS va 1890
, the avoid meeting this question square
ar. If we admit into the highest civil
-. ton only that fragment Of the Ar.
SNIP race, which accepted tt
hogs logical doctrine rejected by
elght Semitic people, then seventy-ei
ugnt one-hundredths of the worlds
total ulation are still in = degraded st
reaching from the lowest savagery
are to limited degree Of civilization.
and is this all. The advocates Of the
ctnre radiation of the human family, fro
neha. higher to lower level. should be
ribed to give satisfactory reasons why, ST
ing the race with high order Of II
, lectual culture, it failed to make
gress in the line that progress Is n
! ma" - at the present day. The argumen
y; M =. Lyell, the geologist, IS certainly
!, M'ss put. His argument is that had
'ie1 .. original stock Of mankind been r
los u endowed with superior intellectual
ers, and possessing the same impro'
n now nature As their posterity, they
! ridi- have reached An extreme point o.
of Da- vancement. aInstead Of the n
E time pottery or flint tools, we should
.ls for be finding sculptured forms surPa
b day in beauty the master pieces o. n
and Praxitoles; lines Of buried