Pic the Weapon-Maker

It has been the tendency of certain anthropologists, of most popular writers, and of most artists in Europe and America to represent the men of the Old Stone Age as scarcely raised above the level of the brutes. I have protested against this point of view on what I believe to be very good grounds, namely, that modern man could not have ascended from a group of brutes. There must have been from the very first, along the various lines of human ascent, a premium on the qualities of mind, on the rudiments of human character, and on the refined tendencies of the best of men as we know them to-day. Such a sprinkling of fine characteristics is observed by travelers who study the most primitive races of mankind with a sympathetic attitude of mind; many are discovered among the Malays, despite their head-hunting propensities, and delightful traits of character are found among the Polynesians, despite their occasional cannibalism.