Page:Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man.djvu/123

Rh 1797, found flint weapons, of the same type as those of Amiens, in a fresh-water formation in Suffolk, in conjunction with elephant remains; and nearly a hundred years earlier (1715), another tool of the same kind had been exhumed from the gravel of London, together with bones of an elephant; to all which examples I shall allude more fully in the sequel.

I may conclude this chapter by quoting a saying of Professor Agassiz, 'that whenever a new and startling fact is brought to light in science, people first say, "it is not true," then that "it is contrary to religion," and lastly, "that every body knew it before."'

If I were considering merely the cultivators of geology, I should say that the doctrine of the former co-existence of man with many extinct mammalia had already gone through these three phases in the progress of every scientific truth towards acceptance. But the grounds of this belief have not yet been fully laid before the general public, so as to enable them fairly to weigh and appreciate the evidence. I shall therefore do my best in the next three chapters to accomplish this task.