The Descent of Man

eady become somewhat advanced. Looking to
a very remote period in the history of the
world, we find, to use Sir J. Lubbock's wellknown
terms, a paleolithic and neolithic period;
and no one will pretend that the art of
grinding rough flint tools was a borrowed one.
In all parts of Europe, as far east as Greece, in
Palestine, India, Japan, New Zealand, and Africa,
including Egypt, flint tools have been discovered
in abundance; and of their use the existing
inhabitants retain no tradition. There is
also indirect evidence of their former use by the
Chinese and ancient Jews. Hence there can
hardly be a doubt that the inhabitants of these
countries, which include nearly the whole civilised
world, were once in a barbarous condition.
To believe that man was aboriginally civilised
and then suffered utter degradation in so
many regions, is to take a pitiably low view of
human nature. It is apparently a truer and more
cheerful view that progress has been much
more general than retrogression; that man has