The Antiquity of Man

The Antiquity of Man

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Antiquity of Man, by Charles
Lyell #2 in our series by Charles Lyell
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: The Antiquity of Man
Author: Charles Lyell
Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6335] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on November 28,
2002]
Edition: 10

Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
ANTIQUITY OF MAN ***

This Project Gutenberg Etext Prepared Down Under In Australia by:
Sue Asscher [email protected] With the connivance of her
Californian co-conspirator Robert Prince [email protected]

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN BY CHARLES LYELL.
EVERYMAN I WILL GO WITH THEE & BE THY GUIDE IN THY
MOST NEED TO GO BY THY SIDE.
EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY
EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS.
SCIENCE.
LYELL'S ANTIQUITY OF MAN
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY R.H. RASTALL, M.A.,
F.G.S.
HOC SOLUM SCIO QUOD NIHIL SCIO.
THE GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
BY
SIR CHARLES LYELL, BT., F.R.S., ETC. ETC.
LONDON: PUBLISHED BY J.M. DENT & SONS LTD. AND IN
NEW YORK BY E.P. DUTTON & CO.
INTRODUCTION.
The "Antiquity of Man" was published in 1863, and ran into a third
edition in the course of that year. The cause of this is not far to seek.
Darwin's "Origin of Species" appeared in 1859, only four years earlier,
and rapidly had its effect in drawing attention to the great problem of
the origin of living beings. The theories of Darwin and Wallace brought
to a head and presented in a concrete shape the somewhat vague
speculations as to development and evolution which had long been
floating in the minds of naturalists. In the actual working out of
Darwin's great theory it is impossible to overestimate the influence of

Lyell. This is made abundantly clear in Darwin's letters, and it must
never be forgotten that Darwin himself was a geologist. His training in
this science enabled him to grasp the import of the facts so ably
marshalled by Lyell in the "Principles of Geology," a work which, as
Professor Judd has clearly shown,* contributed greatly to the
advancement of evolutionary theory in general. (* Judd "The Coming
of Evolution" ("Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature")
Cambridge 1910 chapters 6 and 7.)
From a study of the evolution of plants and of the lower animals it was
an easy and obvious transition to man, and this step was soon taken.
Since in his physical structure man shows so close a resemblance to the
higher animals it was a natural conclusion that the laws governing the
development of the one should apply also to the other, in spite of
preconceived opinions derived from authority. Unfortunately the times
were then hardly ripe for a calm and logical treatment of this question:
prejudice in many cases took the place of argument, and the result was
too often an undignified squabble instead of a scientific discussion.
However, the dogmatism was not by any means all on one side. The
disciples as usual went farther than the master, and their teaching when
pushed to extremities resulted in a peculiarly dreary kind of
materialism, a mental attitude which still survives to a certain extent
among scientific and pseudo-scientific men of the old school. In more
Recent times this dogmatic agnosticism of the middle Victorian period
has been gradually replaced by speculations of a more positive type,
such as those of the Mendelian school in biology and the doctrines of
Bergson on the philosophical side. With these later developments we
are not here concerned.
In dealing with the evolution and history of man as with that of any
other animal, the first step is undoubtedly to collect the facts, and this is
precisely what Lyell set out to do in the "Antiquity of Man." The first
nineteen chapters of the book are purely an empirical statement of the
evidence then available as to the existence of man in