Boswell's Life of Johnson gives an account of the lexicographer's visit to Burnett at Monboddo, and is full of references to the natural contemporary view of a man who thought that the human race could be descended from monkeys.
He asked for the secret contained in the conduct and sayings of this man which made him the hope of the human race.
The earliest social organization of the human race was characterized by the absence of the institution of marriage in any form.
After a lengthy development in the history of the human race a definite stage seems to have been reached about 5000 B.C., which step by step led on to those great ancient cultures (Egyptian, Aegean, Babylonian) which surrounded Palestine.
Through his sons he became the ancestor of the whole human race.