Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/138

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destrnetion or decay, and the Btiidy of lifeless relics is more difficult than that of ]iang forms. As the work which includes Mr. Howitt*H monograph is one of the most reeent which deals with Australian customs, it is nec^esaary to allude briefly to one or two points on which he dwells. He and his fellow-worker (Mr. Fison) in the **Kamilaroi and Kurnai" have expended nuiidi pains in an attempt to prove that the Australian customs confirm the theory that njan evolved from a brutal state the differences which now distinguish him from l)rutes. This is not the place in which to deal with the general question whether the Creator gave to man reason and speecli when He placed him upon the earth. On that question elaborate works exist in many languages; and Bome axioms have been laid down which experience does not confirm. '* Speech," said Hum- boklt, **is the necessary condition of the tbought of the individuab" 'et a deaf unite Australian was, within the author's ow^n knowledge, expert in all the arts necessary to his condition.^*^ If set down wheresoever the want of water would not cause speedy death from thnst, he could wrest ample living from the land in a manner which would have astonished learoetl linguists. But he had learned wisdom from his tribe. He had caught, in the words of Max Miiller, something of the rational behavionr of his neigh- bours," by whom he w-as called **the stupid one." But without passing that Eubicon of language which Max Miiller declares no brutes can cross, he was far removed from their sphere. There seems no need, and no jiistihca- tion, tor putting forward the Australian as autochthonous, and progressive to the state in which he was found in the eighteenth century. There are problems in Europe which might ])etter engage the attention of those who think that man evolveB his own faculties. Ample hterary evidence is at hand, and yet those problems are not solved in the sense demanded by believers in the capability of men to augment their mental powers. None will dare to assert that since the days of ^ Aa the tiibe eoiilil not appeaSG him by explanations they were careful not to provokes him to aiiger. Except when angry he was good-natured, unfit i^ t))e tri1>e were stuaionaly geutlo in their demeanour to him, he wfut B»idom ikiigry.