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Show 1:16 EARLY HISTORY OF M .. -\.NKIND. .1 t 'b blicred bv fear of the fact of t!\eir being a s.rr;t~t.L n e, l~ i;{ a' perm anent their more numerous enemies, to s~tt vat1 · 0n "By village, so forti.f ied as to ensui.e th edu precsee1d· furthel·' in the t 1H ·S means, " says h e, "they have a rv adn their lodges more arts of manufacture, and have supdp Ie n luxuries of life a b un d ant1 y ~~· th tll ~ comforts ' anf eTvhe e conseque' nce of than any Indwn n~twn I lhnwt~; ·have taken many steps this ' " he adds ' "' bIS th. at t e e11r s ea nd ts " These refir~emen . ahead of other tn es In mann turallaws aftecti rw conditions can on~y be. regardtedbas d~afficult taking the~ . 'l' t' d lt mlcrht no e I ' ClVI 1za wn, an . o f ly settled country its int? accou?t, to pre~t~t ~d ~;~~ ~~~ eman's land might soctal destiny. An 18 a · dly to good manners fairly ~e de~petc.ttedt_to g~h~~ ~o~iJ:~~gion like Australia. and soon Ins .1 u 1ons d t 1 great The United States micrht be expecte o rna {e no · · · ·1· t' till 0way Ill CIVI IZa they be fully peopled to the Pa- lOll l t t th t eific. and it might not be unreasonab e o. ~x.pec. a ~ whe~ that even has occurred, th~ greatest ~lVIhzahons ~: that vast territory will be found In the penmsula of Call c • · d the narrow stripe of country beyond the Roek Y 1Mor n1a taanin s. This however, . d' · T . turn · IS a 1gress10n. o 1 e . · it 1:~lso necessary for a civilization that at least a portwn of the community should be placed above mean 3:nd engrossing toils. Man's mind becomes subdued, hl~e the dyer's hand to that it \Yorks in. In rude and difficult circumstan~es we unavoidably become rude, because then only the inferior and harsher faculties of our natur~ a1:e called into existence. When, on the contrary, theie IS leisure and abundance, the self-seeking and self-preser~inO' instincts are allowed to rest, the gentler and mOle ge~erous sentiments are evoked, ~nd tnan. becomes that courteous and chivalric being w h1ch ~1e. ~s found to. be among the upper classes of almost all civ!lized countnes. These, then, may be said to be the clu~f .n?-tu1:al laws concerned in the moral phenomenon. of ~IVIhzatwn. If I am right in so considering them, 1t w1ll of course be readily admitted that the earliest familie~ of the humad 1·ace, although they mig~t be_ simple. a_n~ Innocent, co?l not have been in anythwg l1ke a ClVthzed state, seeing that the conditions necessary for that state coul~ not have then e~sted. Let us only for a ~om~n.t _consider ~orne of the things requisite for the!r being CIVIllze.d, namel.y, a set of elegant homes ready furnished for the1r reception, ~ARLY HISTORY OF .MANKIND HS7 fields ready cultivated to yield them food without labor, stores of luxurious appliances of all kinds, a complete social enginery for the securing of life and property ,-and we shall turn from the whole conceit as one worthy only of the philosophers of Utopia. Yet, as has been remarked, the earliest families tnight be sitnple and innocent, w bile at the same titne unskilled and ignorant, and obliged to live merely upon such substances as they could readily procure. The traditions of all nations refer to such a state as that in which mankind were at first: perhaps it is not so much a tradition as an idea which the human mind naturally inclines to form respecting the fathers of the race; but nothing that we see of mankind absolutely forbids our entertaining this idea, while there are some considerations rather favorable to it. A few families, in a state of nature, Jiving near each other, in a country supplying the means of livelihood ab1tndantly, are generally simple and innocent; their instinctive and perceptive faculties are also apt to be very active, although the higher intellect may be dormant. J f we, therefore, presume India to have been the cradle of our race, they might at first exemplify a sort of golden age; but it could not be of long continuance. The very first movements from the primal seat would be attended with degradation, nor could there be any tendency to true civilization till groups had settled and thiekened in particular seats physically limited. The probability may now be assumed that the human race sprung from one stock, which 'vas at first in a state of simplicity, if not .barbarism. As yet we have not seen very distinctly how the various branches of the family, as they parted off, and took up separate ground, became marked by external features so peculiar. Why are the Africans black, and generally marked by coarse features and ungainly forms? Why are the Mongolians generally yellow, the Americans red, the Caucasians white? Why the flat features of the Chinese, the small stature of the Laps, the soft round forms of the English, the lank features of their descendants, the Americans ? All of these phenomena appear, in a word, to be explicable on the ground of development. We have already seen that various leading animal forms represent stages in the embryotic progress of t~e highest-the human being. Our brain goes through the various stag~s of a fish's, a reptile's, and |