Year: 1875

From the Galaxy for Feburary.l


The necromancers Of the middle ages


used to teach that wisdom came from the


east, and that in the center of Africa


there was a tribe of white men who pos
sessed marvellous knowledge and magical


powers: belief, nor does it bid fair to do


SO. Still this doctrine NAV have some


obscure foundation in the history of


man. Geology teaches that man has oc-


cupied northern countries for a very


long period-more than $4,000 years,


but how much more is unknown. Pro-


badly he was not an original creation Of


the soil, but was an immigrant. At least


this is the most plausible solution of the


evidences that remain of his occupation


Taking, for instance, the archaeological


remains of the first race of men known


in Great Britain, and considering them


in the light of the geological evidences
of the deposits in which they occur, we


learn that it was precisely at a time when


England was united to the continent by
an uprising OF the country, that the ear
ly men entered the country. There is
nothing to forbid his earlier appearance


it is true, but his remains are not found !
in earlier deposits, so that the known
evidence carries us back to time when |
he could have come from the SOUTH |
After an occupation that doubtless ex-
tended through a long period-perhaps
some thousand Of vears--he was driven /
out by increasing cold, which finally be- |
came so intense as to bring on an arctic /
condition of things. This age passed |
away, and temperate took the place Of |
the winter cold, another long interval |
being occupied in this change. When it |
ended man reappeared in his former
home, but not the same man. He had /
increased his powers. and his powers
show marked evidences of development
during his absence. Such is the conclu-
sion which DIR. Gerikie reaches from his
study Of the glacial deposits in England
which contain the first signs of man
furnished by that country.


According to this reasoning, man has
lived longer ir southern countries than
in-northern. The countries lying near
est the poles were, during the glacial
period, suffering from prolonged periods
of Arctic cold and barrenness; and ifthe
human race was in existence, it was ne
cessarily confined to a middle region,
from which it could make excursions
only during those warmer periods which
alternated with the cold seasons. What
lands he occupied during these cold sea-
sons is entirely unknown; and though
this is one Of the questions which make
the study of the native African and his
neighbors so important, it is very doubt
fnl if the inquiry will ever progress so
far as to afford any clue TO a race which
preceded by an immense period Of time
the man OF the present day. Still, if
the discoveries of CHECKLISTS are to be
depended upon, the southern man is the
oldest, or rather the home of the first
man was in southern country; and for
So t'iN HOhhAAi1iA man iAluHl lldNt bcEll
superior in development to his northern
brother. This is the support which
geology gives to the dogma Of the mys-
tics, though their story of a superior
race living in Central Africa was unsup-
ported by even the least evidence. 1t
may have arisen in a feeling akin to in
stinct, leading man to recognize a gener-
al fact in his history; or, what is more
probably, the home of this marvellous
race was placed in Africa partly because
that country was an absolutely unknown
land, and partly because the limited
knowledge Of chemical phenomena, on
which mysticism is founded, was the
product of Eastern Egyptian and Ara
bian) civilization.