Chapter 1850

[←1840]

The Cyclic Law of Race-Evolution is most unwelcome to Scientists. It is sufficient to mention the fact of “primeval civilization” to excite the frenzy of Darwinians; it being obvious that the further culture and science is pushed back, the more precarious becomes the basis of the ape-ancestor theory. But as Jacolliot says: “Whatever there may be in these traditions [submerged continents, etc.], and whatever may have been the place where a civilization more ancient than that of Rome, of Greece, of Egypt, and of India, was developed, it is certain that this civilization did exist, and it is highly important for science to recover its traces, however feeble and fugitive they be.” (Histoire des Vièrges; les Peuples et les Continents Disparus, p. 15.) Donnelly has proved the fact from the clearest premises, but the Evolutionists will not listen. A Miocene civilization upsets the “universal Stone age” theory, and that of a continuous ascent of man from animalism. And yet Egypt, at least, runs counter to current hypotheses. There is no Stone age visible there, but a more glorious culture is apparent the further back we are enabled to carry our retrospect.