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438 WHEN DID ADAM MVK? Vol.. VII ii 1 II pestilence could lmvc prevented the over peopling of the world ages ago. Man, from the assistance of his superior intelligence, is not subject to extensivo diminution of his numbers by tho lower animals. Again, man has a natural tendency to ward civilization. Of tho meaning of this term, we all have an intuitive idea, though wrltors arc not agreed as to its exact dcf. tuition. It is suilicicnt for our purpose if we define it as an active working prin ciple, innate in man, and leading him to find and adopt that which promises to im prove his condition. This progressive principle scperateshim radically from the brute creation, and prevents him from re maining entirely stationary, If tnc ex treme age of the world bo admitted, we should expect to find extensive remains of very early civilization. Hut this, as we shall mention further on, does not appear. Philologists claim that language is at first monosyllabic, then by development to reach a highly inflected state, and finally through phonetic decay and loss of inflec tion, to retrograde to simpler forms. The Greek language was highly inflected; the Sanscrit still more so; yet both these be long to historic times. All tho phases therefore, which language assumes, do not require an extremely long period for their development. Tho considerations wo have thus far ad duccd go to show that tho race is compar atively young compared with the vast length of geological time. They have little weight, however, if tho arguments which are brought forward in opposition can be shown to contradict thorn. The other side of the question, therefore, now demands our attention. Archmology, appealing to geology for a support, oilers arguments in support of the claim for a great age to the race. But if tills claim ho admitted, civilizations must have nourished in cxtromcly remote times, and have left many traces of their existence. But this is not so evident, a period of a few thousand years being suf ficient to account for the ago uf all that arc known, and wo may well doubt the ah leged antiquity of a few relics that have been found hero and there. Thus, remains of human industry arc occassionally found at considerable depths in alluvial strata. One naturalist has found such a relic in rocks of the Miocene cpocli and confidently asserts that its age, and of course that of tho race, is to be reck, oned by millions of years. Now tho pres ence of these may often bo due to purely accidental causes. This is indeed known to he tho case in some instances, and when true, proves little as to their antiq uity. Yet even when geological causes have been the agency, the test is uncer tain and unteliablc. The operations of such causes, though, as a rule slow, are yet subject to many exceptions, and eigh ty feet, for instance, of superincumbent strata may as often indicate a moderate age for a relic as an immense one. Coins of the age of Edward IV of England have been lound in tho valley of the Deo of that country at adcptli of ton feet, proving an antiquity of but little more than two centuries at the furthest. In other cases twonty centuries have been claimed for the age of alike deposit, thus showing, in the absence of positive data, how little wo know of geological time. Skotches of extinct or extirpated anl mals do not necessarily possess a high an tiquity, but only show that animals ouco common in certain localities have, through tho agoncy of man disappeared. Some European writers speak much of tho Ages of " Stone" and " Bronze", and assign them to determinate periods of time in the distant past. Tho same is said of tho lake dwellings of Switzerland and the British Islands- These, which arc now gonorally under water, consist ed of scaffolds of wooden beams, support ed by piles driven into tho beds of tho lakes. The lako dwellings of Ireland continued in some cases to bo occupied within tho historic era. As wo know very little of northern Europe before the time of Ciusur, it is unnecessary to go much
