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TO THE

AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

FOR FOReign misSIONS

This Work

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,

BY THE AUTHOR.

TESTIMONIAL.

THE following testimonial was adopted at the close of the author's twelve lectures, as expressive of the opinions of the auditors respecting their interest and value:

“We, the ladies and gentlemen of the city of Boston, who have attended the valuable and highly instructive course of lectures on the Antiquity of Man, delivered at the Lowell Institute, by the Rev. E. Burgess, do hereby express our hearty thanks and unqualified appreciation of the same.

"We would also express the hope that our worthy and much esteemed friend, the Rev. E. Burgess, will at an early day publish the said lectures, in order that all may have the benefit of the important facts therein contained.

"Ordered, That the foregoing resolutions be published in the daily papers in the city of Boston.

"BOSTON, February 23, 1867.”

PREFACE.

A DISTINGUISHED American scholar has recently put forth the following declaration respecting the subject discussed in the present volume:

"It has been supposed that the first introduction of man into the midst of this prepared creation was distant six or seven thousand years from our day, and we had hoped to be able to read the record of his brief career even back to its beginning; but science is now accumulating so rapidly, and from so many quarters, proofs that the current estimate of his existence must be greatly

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lengthened out, — even perhaps many times multiplied, — that universal acceptation of this conclusion is not, it appears, much longer to be avoided."

The opinion here expressed is-it may be safely said— that entertained by a large class of professedly scientific, semi-scientific, and literary men of the day; that is, judging from the yearly reports of the meetings of the various scientific bodies, American and European, and papers

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frequently found in certain prominent quarterlies and other periodicals.

The object of the present volume is to show what science does teach in regard to the antiquity of man on earth.

Science, in its true sense, is based on actual facts and established principles; and a scientific conclusion is one that is fairly deduced from such facts and principles, though it is admitted that the words "science" and "scientific" have an appropriate use in connection with supposed facts, or in reasoning about things that are confessedly only probable, or possible. And there is no objection to the phrase "scientific speculation;" for every science has connected with its true domain a marginmore or less wide within which all things are, to say the least, not settled, and in which she must be allowed to speculate with the utmost freedom. It is only by allowing this freedom that the domain of true and real science can be enlarged. But always and everywhere great caution is to be observed in regard to taking a fact or principle belonging to this doubtful margin within the field of true science. The non-observance of this caution, it is well known, has been the occasion of endless and bitter disputes among scientific men.

In ad

Another caution is needed in this connection. ducing scientific evidence in any discussion, it should be kept. in mind that it makes a difference whether the

alleged facts are derived from the speculative margin of the science concerned, or from its positive domain; e. g., when a demonstrated fact in astronomy or chemistry is brought forward, it should have the weight of scientific truth; but when the alleged fact is a part of some theory or hypothesis not yet established, it certainly is not entitled to the same weight. Is not this principle, though so very obvious, often overlooked in so-called scientific reasoning?

Has it not especially been overlooked in the discussions of the subject treated of in this volume ?

This suggests another important fact, viz., that indicated by the very common and trite remark,—so common that an apology almost is required for introducing it,that all the sciences harmonize among themselves; that one science can not conflict with another; that a truth in one of her departments is consistent with all truth in every other department.

Science! Scientific KNOWLEDGE! Not supposition! Knowledge of things in heaven above, in the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth! Knowledge of God, of angels, demons, and men! Knowledge of matter and spirit! Knowledge, in short, of whatever can be known in this wide universe, whether connected with matter or mind, or the abstract principles of things! It is true that there are things in the universe or it is probable there are respecting which so little is known that

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