orthern lands, which has been going on since
the tenth century, and which, about three centuries ago, closed the
Polar Sea, rendering Greenland uninhabitable. The juxtaposition, then,
of the bones of man and extinct animals is no proof of the remote
antiquity of either. And no proof has been made from the nature or depth
of the overlying deposits.

The shape, size, and general character of the skulls alleged to be of
such remote antiquity give no countenance to the theory of man's brutal
origin; which is the great thing to be gained by giving him a remote
antiquity. The Enghis skull is in no way inferior to many good modern
Indian skulls; and the man of Mentone stood six feet one in his stocking
soles (if he wore stockings), having a good John Bull head between his
shoulders, with a facial angle equal to that of Generals Grant or Von
Moltke; and in fact being a fine old Gallic gentleman, all of the good
old times.

Geologists, however, lay stress on the cumulative character of the
evidence they produce; owning that no single fact is conclusive, but
claiming that credence should be given to the accumulation of facts. But
no accumulation of ciphers will amount to anything. All the alleged
facts are found to be fatally defective either in authenticity or
definiteness. No multitude of doubts can assure us of the certainty of a
fact or assertion. The evidence for the pre-Adamite antiquity of man is
only a gathering of facts doubtful, and wholly indeterminate, without
any element of proof of remote antiquity.[128]

But there is a source of evidence of the most undeniable character, to
which we may appeal for a decision of the subject. The law of population
is as certain as any other law of nature; and it tends to the regular
increase of mankind. Population tends to double itself every twenty-five
years, as we see in the United States. In less favored countries the
rate is not so rapid. In Europe it doubles every fifty years; and
nowhere in less than two centuries. And the result is, that if the human
race had existed on this earth under existing laws of nature, as the
evolutionists allege, for one hundred thousand years, not only must they
have multiplied until their bones would have covered the earth, and
filled the sea, but, as Sir John Herschel shows, they would have formed
a vertical column, having for its base the whole surface of the earth,
and for its height three thousand six hundred and seventy-four times the
sun'