Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-09-28
Tho AntiouIty of Man.


 The question of mans antiquity has been again brought to the trout through the alleged discovery of his fossilized remains in @ geological formation II Colorado, which is supposed to have been evolved q million years or more Ggo. If the discovery were authentic, it woulc carry the origin of man far be- yond any previously conceived ideas re- gsrdipg his antiquity. There Is pcs siblhty, of course, that these so called fossil remains may turn out to be Rn- other of those clumsy frauds with which designing persons have repeatedly tried to humbug the scientific world. Be that 8s it may, the well-authepticateo discoveries of the latter half of the nine tesnth century have lifted the question of mans antiquity euiil ely out of the restricted domain of scri ipturul chronol- ogy as established by Biblical commen- tators. in so doing, it has changed the current of theological thought regard iDg the significance of Biblical dates, so as to ac-ept them in figurative rather than in a literal sense.
 The ruins of Thebes and Balbec, tbe great pyramids of the Nile delta, the gigantic figures CD Easter island, the mysterious ruins and monuments III Yucatan, not to speak of the relics of prehistoric man which have been found with the boues of animals in the caves and alluvial formations of Europe all cast discredit upon tbe formerly accept ed theory that mans existence on earth extended 70 further back than 600U years or SO.
 What is more important, perhaps, IL its bearings upon the antiquity of man than the reported discovery in Colorado is the recent finding in the heart of Gen. tral Asia of the ruins of buried cities where neither record ncr tradition pre- vioueiy suggested their existence.
 Modern thought has been of late turn ing into a new channel regarding man'e past history. "No man," remarked 8 distinguished divine and archaeo!og St recently, "can look upon the gates of Nlneveh, which are now in the Archae- | ologlcal Museum of Berlin, without be- ing convinced that not only is scriptuTal ! chronology in error regarding the time man has been On earth, but that our civilization has been equal ed, if not surpassed by civi- lizations innumerable that have preceded it." He unconsciouily gave | expression to the new channel into which modern thought is being diverted regarding mans hlstory-a study oi civilizations. Perhaps 1t is through ( better understanding of them that the | human race may yet acquire a correct | knowledge of its own history. Geolo | gists have veinly endeavored to read the story of human origin and development in the testimony of the rocks. They 1 find the footprints of animals. but not | of man, in the sandstones and the coa measures, and the wreckage of marine | life encased in the limestones. They | find signs of man in the slluvial deposits and in rocky caves, but these are merely | evidences of human existence iu say | age state. The ruins of the buried citle and the remains of the great monument
 which are still standing bear testimon! of man as an enlightened and cultivated being, possessing a knowledge in som' respects equal, if not superior. to the | which the race now possesses. AnC | when the civilization renotest from us | of which we have ocular evidence, i
 scrutinized, we are led to the belief tha