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Show 1M EARLY HISTOR"I :>F MANKIND. generally barbarous. A stn· k.. ng I· ns t ance 1·s describe.d in the laborious work of Mr. Catlin on the North-~mel'!can tribes. Far placed amono- those w hI.C h I· n h ab I t the vast 0 region of the north-west, and qtu· te b eyon d the re_a c·h . bo f any influence from the whites, he found .a small tn e living in a fortified village, where they cultlv~ted the arts of manufacture, realized comforts and luxunes: and had attained to a remarkable refinement of manners, Insomuch as to be generally called the polite and frien~ly Ma?dans. They were also more than usually elegant 1n the1r persons, and of every variety of com~lexion between t~at of thei compatriots and a pure white. Up to the hme of Mr. Catlin's visit, these people had been able .to defend themselves and their possessions against the roving bands which surrounded them on all sides; but, soon after, they were attacked by small-p~x, whi~h cut then: aU off except a small party, whom their enemws rushed 1n ~ron and destroyed to a man. What is this ?ut a r~petlt1?n on a small scale of phenomena with whtch ancient history familiarizes us-a nation rising in arts and elegances am.idst barbarous neighbors,. but at length nverpowered by the rude majority, leaving only a Tadmor or a Luxor as a monument of itself to beautjfy the waste? V.f hat can we suppose the nation which built Pal~nque ~nd Copan to have been, but only a Mandan tnbe, which chanced to have made its way further alon~ the path ?f civilization and the arts, before the barbanans broke In upon it? The flame essayed to rise in many parts of the earth; but there were always consideraf:>le c~ances against it, and down it accordinglr w~nt! h!fies wtthout number; but there was always a vitality In It, n~vertheless, and a to.ndency to progress, and at length 1t seems to have attained a strength against which the powers of barbarisrn can never more prevail. The state of our knowledge of uncivilized nations is very apt to make us fall into error on this subject. They are gener~lly .supposed to be all at one point in b~rbarism, \Vhich IS far from being the case, for in the m1dst of every. great re .. gion of 11ncivilized men, such as North Amenca., therEr are nations partially refined. The J olofs, Mand1ngoes, and Kafirs are African examples, where a nat~ral.and independent origin for tile improvement which exists IS a! unavoidably to be pre~umed as in the case of th~ ~and~n~ The most conlusive argument against the ong1nal ClVl· EARLY HISTORY OJ' MANKI:ND. lizatton of mankind is to be founc in the fact that we do not now see civilization existing anywhere except in certain conditions altogether different from any we ~an suppose to have existed at the commencement of our race. To have c.ivilization it is necessary that a people should be numerous and closely placed; that they should be fixed In their habitations, and safe from violent external and internal disturbance; that a consjderable number of them should be exempt from the necessity of drudging for immediate subsistence. Feeling themselves at ease about the first necessities of their nature, including self-preservation, and daily s bjected to that intellectual excitement which society pro ces, men begin to manifest what is called civilization; but never in rude and shelterless circumstances, or V\rhen widely scattered. Even men who have been civilized, when transferred to a wide wilderness, where each has to work hard and isolatedly for the first requisites of life, soon show a retrogression to barbarism ; witness the plains of Australia, as well as the backwoods of Canada and the prairies of Texas. Fixity of residence and thickening of population are perhaps the prime requisites for civilization, and hence it will be found that all civilizations as yet known have taken place in regions physically limited. That of Egypt arose in a narrow valley hemmed in by deserts on both sides. That ot Greece took its rise in a small peninsula bounded on the only land side by Inountains. Etruria and Rome were naturally limited regions. Civilizations have taken place on both the eastern and western extremities of the elder continent-~~ina and Japan, on the one hand; Germany, Holland, Bnta1n, and France on the other-while the great unmarked tract bet:ween. contains nations decidedly less advanced. Why 1s this but because the sea, in both cases, has imposed limits to further migration, and caused the population to settle and condense-the conditions most necessary for social improvement.* Even the simple case of the Mandans affords an illustration of this principle, for .Mr. Catlin expressly, though without the least regard to theory, attrib11tes their improvement to • The problef!l of Chinese civilization, su~h as it is-so puzzling when _we consider thn.t they are only, as will he pr~sently seen, the ch1.l~ race of m.ankm~-1s solved when we look to geographi· cal pos1tlon pxoducmg fix1ty of residence and d~nsity of population |