17 MARCH 1883, Page 15

'CANON RAWLINSON ON THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.

FT0 THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."'

'Sts.,—Canon Rawlinson says, on page 25 of his tract, "There is no evidence that the primeval savage ever existed." He makes -this assertion, not of Babylonia or Egypt only, but of the whole world. Here, he seemed to me, and still seems, "to go beyond his brief." The weight of opinion among geologists goes to establish the fact that remains of savage man have been found in Europe and elsewhere, associated with natural formations of great antiquity. These discoveries must be considered "evid- ence," while the negative evidence that no such discoveries have been made in the regions which "tradition makes the cradle of -the human race" may be allowed its weight on the other side.