'-'I i>
 
 IRENE D. PACE 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 TOIVERSITY OF C
 
 THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SOCIETY 
 
 BARBAROUS AND CIVILIZED STATE 
 
 AN ESSAY 
 
 TOWARDS DISCOVERING THE ORIGIN AND COURSE OF 
 HUMAN IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. COOKE TAYLOR, ESQ. LL.D. M.R.A.S. 
 
 OF TEINITT COLLEGE, DUBLIN. 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 HOMO SUM: HLMANI NIHIL A ME ALIENUM PUTO. TERENCE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS. 
 
 1840.
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY MANNING AND MASON, 
 IVY-LANE, PATERNOSTER-BOW.
 
 Stack 
 Annex 
 
 5 
 053 
 
 3 
 v.a. 
 
 THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, 
 
 RICHARD, 
 
 LORD ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN, 
 
 AND 
 
 PRIMATE OF IRELAND. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THIS book is yours; you suggested, encouraged, 
 and to a great degree directed it, you may therefore 
 claim its patronage as matter of right. Were the case 
 otherwise, I should scarcely have ventured to obtrude 
 my homage, because I should fear my power to control 
 my feelings. To your Grace's friendship I owe in- 
 centives to exertion, motives for confidence, and fresh 
 grounds of hope, inexpressibly precious to the labourer 
 in the field of literature, who must pass through many 
 dark and stormy days before he can expect the seed 
 he has sown to produce even a scanty harvest. The 
 language of gratitude, if warm, would savour of adula- 
 tion, and be rejected by you; if cold, it would too 
 closely resemble ingratitude to be adopted by me. I 
 
 2040289
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 lay my work before you therefore with such silent and 
 reverential feelings as best beseems the position of the 
 obliged and the benefactor; but I cannot abstain from 
 uttering my ardent prayer that you may long continue 
 to be the ornament and the hope of our common church, 
 our common country, and our common nature. 
 
 I have the honour to be 
 
 Your GRACE'S 
 Grateful and obliged servant, 
 
 W. COOKE TAYLOR. 
 
 34, Arlington Street, Camden Town, 
 Sept. 25th, 1840.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS work was suggested by the Archbishop of Dublin, 
 and it has had throughout the benefit of His Grace's 
 assistance and superintendence. It is necessary that 
 this should be emphatically stated, in order that the 
 Author may escape the imputation of presumption in 
 discussing a subject to which His Grace had already 
 directed his attention in his Lectures on Political 
 Economy. He would not have attempted "to bend 
 the bow of Ulysses/' had he not been invited to the 
 task by its legitimate owner, and taught by him how 
 to draw the string and aim the shaft. His Grace, how- 
 ever, is not responsible for more than general directions; 
 he has strong claims on the merits of the work, but all 
 its imperfections rest on the Author's head. 
 
 The design of it is to determine, from an examination 
 of the various forms in which society has been found, 
 what was the origin of civilization ; and under what 
 circumstances those attributes of humanity which in 
 one country become the foundation of social happiness, 
 are in another perverted to the production of general 
 misery. For this purpose the Author has separately 
 examined the principal elements by which society, under 
 all its aspects, is held together, and traced each to its
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 source in human nature ; he has then directed attention 
 to the development of these principles, and pointed 
 out the circumstances by which they were perfected on 
 the one hand, or corrupted on the other. Having thus 
 by a rigid analysis shewn what the elements and con- 
 ditions of civilization are, he has tested the accuracy 
 of his results by applying them to the history of civil- 
 ization itself, as recorded in the annals of the earliest 
 polished nations, and has thus been led to consider the 
 principal moral causes that have contributed to the 
 growth and to the decline of states. He has in this 
 way applied recorded facts as a test of the accuracy of 
 his reasoning, and if in any part he may have erred, he 
 has supplied the reader with the means of detection. 
 
 The descriptions of the usages and customs of savage 
 life have been taken from the travellers, ancient and 
 modern, whose narratives have best stood the test of 
 experience and criticism. Where it was necessary to 
 make a choice, preference has been given to those whose 
 views of the nature and tendency of barbarism differed 
 most from those advocated by the Author. Viewing 
 barbarism as a degradation of our nature, it has been 
 an object to point out the tendencies to corruptions, 
 similar in kind, if not in degree, which exist in civilized 
 life, and to shew how necessary it is that society should 
 always keep in action its two great conservative principles 
 intelligence and virtue. 
 
 In the chapter on the Evidences of Lost Civilization 
 the Author hazarded a conjecture that further investi- 
 gations of the American continent would strengthen 
 the evidence he had collected, to prove that, previous 
 to its discovery by Columbus, it had possessed a greater
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 share of the arts and sciences than could be deduced 
 from the present condition of the Indian races, or from 
 the accounts given of them by their early conquerors. 
 Scarcely had the sheet containing this conjecture gone 
 through the press, when it was singularly confirmed by 
 the following announcement in the daily papers : 
 
 " Messrs. Stephens and Gatherwood, of New York, 
 now in Guatemala, have sent home accounts of their 
 latest antiquarian discoveries between Quirche and Pa- 
 lenque. They have found ancient temples and statues, 
 varying from' ten to twenty-six feet high, similar to 
 those in Palenque. Some of the monuments resemble 
 the Phoenician or Carthagenian remains. Thus it will 
 doubtless be proved that America, instead of being a 
 ' New World/ is one of a very ancient character." 
 
 Two chapters have been devoted to an examination 
 of the Scriptural Account of the Origin of Civilization ; 
 in these the Author has been anxious that the spirit of 
 reverence should regulate but not check the spirit of 
 investigation and inquiry. He has throughout con- 
 sulted the records in the original language ; not because 
 he undervalues our authorized version, but because there 
 is a suggestive simplicity in the Hebrew forms of speech 
 which no translation could preserve, but which is of 
 great value in pointing out fresh paths of research, and 
 guiding the way to discovery. He has, however, given 
 only results ; for his object was not to parade learning^ 
 but to simplify and condense, for general readers, the 
 information accumulated by the meritorious labours of 
 Biblical scholars and critics. 
 
 In the historical investigations connected with the 
 subject, the Author has endeavoured to shew that the
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 principal delusions which have at different times exer- 
 cised a pernicious influence over humanity, were founded 
 not on absolute falsehood, but on misconceived truths ; 
 and therefore should be viewed, not with anger, but 
 with pity and tenderness for the frailties of our fellow- 
 mortals. He has laboured to deduce from the records 
 of mistaken opinion, lessons of mutual toleration, 
 mutual forbearance, and brotherly kindness, derived 
 from our sharing a common nature ; so as in all things 
 to maintain the influence of Christian charity, which 
 "thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth 
 in the truth." 
 
 The examination of the diversified elements which 
 have contributed to form our modern system of civili- 
 zation has led the Author over ground already traversed 
 by the most eminent publicists of modern times ; they 
 have shewn how opinions embody themselves in forms 
 and institutions, and how these institutions necessarily 
 influence actions. He could scarcely hope to add any 
 thing to the researches of such men as Lieber, Guizot, 
 Jouffroy, and Victor Cousin, but he has endeavoured to 
 condense and unite their several disquisitions, so as to 
 form an outline of the philosophical history of opinions, 
 and their influence on life an action. 
 
 Viewing indigence and vice as the great destructive 
 agents in human society, he has deemed it necessary 
 to examine the means adopted by public and private 
 benevolence for their condition, and to test their efficacy 
 by new recorded experience. This may be termed an 
 inquiry into the conservative principles of society a 
 subject naturally suggested by the history of civilization, 
 but one of too great extent and importance to be fully
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 discussed in a single chapter. The author has there- 
 fore laboured rather to point out what should be the 
 subjects of inquiry than to answer the doubts and solve 
 the difficulties which such a wide and tangled field of 
 investigation must necessarily present. 
 
 It would be not only presumptuous, but absurd, to 
 assert that he has executed such a task perfectly and 
 completely ; it would be saying in other words, that he 
 had detected all the wrongs and errors of humanity, 
 and had provided their appropriate remedies. He is 
 aware that he has done little more than collect the 
 scattered materials which eminent moralists and philan- 
 thropists have produced, and formed them into a kind 
 of map, which may be both a convenient record of what 
 has been already accomplished, and perhaps a guide to 
 future discovery. To use the illustration of an Ameri- 
 can poet, he has been anxious to leave " foot-prints on 
 the sands of time" 
 
 Foot-prints, that perhaps another 
 
 Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
 A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 
 
 Seeing, shall take heart again. 
 
 In the discussion of such a variety of topics as neces- 
 sarily enter into the complicated histories of barbarism 
 and civilization, many of which have been the themes 
 of bitter dispute and angry controversy, the Author, 
 without at all compromising his own opinions, has been 
 anxious to avoid saying anything which could reason- 
 ably offend persons of any creed, sect, or party. In one 
 instance he regrets to find that he has violated the rule; 
 he has spoken of the Socialists and their plans with 
 more flippancy than he could wish, not because he has
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 changed his opinion respecting the folly or the mischief 
 of their schemes, but because he deems that every 
 proposal purporting to be designed for the benefit of 
 humanity should be heard with respectful attention, and 
 answered in terms of kindness and courtesy. 
 
 The Author has gratefully to acknowledge his very 
 extensive obligations to the Archbishop of Dublin, and 
 to his distinguished Chaplain, the Rev. Dr. Dickenson. 
 Many other friends have supplied him with valuable 
 hints and information for all to whom he communi- 
 cated his design evinced a sincere interest in its com- 
 pletion. He feels deeply grateful for their kindness, 
 and trusts that the work to which they have contributed 
 will not prove unworthy their assistance. 
 
 He has made it a point of conscience to acknowledge 
 so far as was in his power his obligations to the various 
 authors of whose labours and researches he has availed 
 himself, particularly American and Continental writers 
 whose works are not known in this country. But in 
 this respect he fears that he may have committed in- 
 voluntary injustice; memory is often treacherous in an 
 unsuspected way, it lays hold on some beautiful idea, 
 sentiment or expression, and imprints it so indelibly, 
 that the mind mistakes it for its own, and claims as* its 
 original invention the merits that should be ascribed to 
 others. Conscious of such a failing, the author humbly 
 apologizes to those whose thoughts he may appear to 
 have stolen, and assures them that wherever and when- 
 ever the offence is pointed out, it shall be confessed, 
 and the obligation acknowledged.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION ------------ 1 
 
 II. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES OF BARBARISM AND 
 
 CIVILIZATION ----------- 20 
 
 III. 
 
 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES OF BARBARISM AND 
 
 CIVILIZATION ------------ 43 
 
 IV. 
 
 SOCIAL RELATIONS PROPERTY ------- 68 
 
 V. 
 
 SOCIAL RELATIONS PERSONAL PROPERTY ----- 90 
 
 VI. 
 
 STATE OF NATURE WAR --------- 107 
 
 VII. 
 
 INDIGENCE ------------ 132 
 
 VIII. 
 
 SUPERSTITIONS AND DETACHED CUSTOMS ----- 164
 
 CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PAGE 
 VARIETIES OF SAVAGE LIFE --------- 190 
 
 X. 
 
 THE ARTS OF SAVAGE LIFE -------- 204 
 
 XI. 
 
 EVIDENCES OF LOST CIVILIZATION ------- 217 
 
 XII. 
 
 FURTHER EVIDENCES OF LOST CIVILIZATION - 246 
 
 XIII. 
 
 IDENTITY OF THE REMAINS OF CIVILIZATION IN NORTH AND 
 
 SOUTH AMERICA ---------- 279 
 
 XIV. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION - 206 
 
 XV. 
 
 ON THE STATE OF CIVILIZATION DESCRIBED IN THE BOOK 
 
 OF JOB ------------ 331
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SOCIETY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 WHEN we attempt to take a comprehensive survey of 
 the actual condition of humanity, our attention is not 
 less forcibly arrested by the moral than by the physical 
 differences which offer themselves to our view. One 
 race is in a state of continuous and progressive im- 
 provement : it has exchanged rude paths for smooth 
 roads, it is again changing these for railroads ; every 
 day of its existence produces some new discovery tend- 
 ing to increase the comforts and conveniences of life ; 
 intellectual advancement seems to keep pace with 
 material improvements; problems which in a past 
 generation were the pride of philosophers, are now 
 familiar as household words in the mouth of school- 
 boys ; to want an amount of knowledge, the possession 
 of which would once be esteemed a glory, is now 
 regarded as a disgrace. In fact, a progressive advance 
 is manifest, to which imagination can scarcely assign 
 limits. 
 
 A second race appears to have set bounds to itself; 
 the evidences of former progress are abundant, but no 
 traces of a tendency to further and future improve- 
 ment can be discovered. Every thing in the physical 
 and moral condition of society seems to have assumed 
 

 
 2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a stereotype character, from the model of the meanest 
 domestic utensil to the highest social institution, there 
 is a permanent uniformity. Such, for instance, is the 
 great empire of China, where thought and action are 
 equally forced to accommodate themselves to an un- 
 changing system devised in remote ages. 
 
 Passing over many intervening varieties, we arrive 
 at a race which appears little raised above the brute 
 creation; it has few evidences of having ever made 
 progress, and none either of the power or will to 
 advance itself beyond its present condition. There is 
 neither memory of the past, nor foresight of the future : 
 such is the stationary aspect of barbarism, as it is pre- 
 sented to our notice by the aboriginal inhabitants of 
 Australia. 
 
 We usually describe these differences as indicating 
 a higher or lower degree in the scale of civilization, 
 and sometimes as the result of different systems of 
 civilization. In either case we speak of civilization as 
 a fact which may not only be understood, but applied 
 as a test, whilst we cannot at the same time fail to 
 recognise that it is a fact exceedingly complex, diverse 
 in its aspects, developing itself sometimes in one 
 direction, sometimes in another, and thus hiding the 
 central principle of its unity, which few can see though 
 all can feel. Moral science does not admit of the same 
 precise and rigorous definitions, as those which are 
 connected with matter and its forms ; the facts which 
 its terms express, are not invariable existences; they 
 have arisen from varying circumstances ; by these cir- 
 cumstances they have been modified and enlarged ; our 
 ideas of them are constantly progressive, receiving fresh
 
 INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 accessions from every day's experience. To compre- 
 hend the term civilization, we must have recourse to 
 the history of the fact civilization, and see what are 
 the ideas which, by a kind of universal consent, men 
 have agreed to combine in the word. 
 
 It has been said, that on some estates in the West 
 Indies the negroes were better treated by their masters 
 than independent labourers in Europe by their em- 
 ployers; that every care was taken to supply their 
 physical wants, that they were protected in all their 
 domestic relations, and that all the rules of justice were 
 strictly enforced. Yet even such a condition of slavery 
 was universally declared adverse to civilization : though 
 oppression was absent, still there was compression, a 
 direct restraint on the moral and intellectual develop- 
 ment of existence. 
 
 Among the Hindoos, provision was made for moral 
 and intellectual culture ; the wants of the mind were to 
 a certain extent supplied like those of the body : but it 
 was an established rule, that man should not labour to 
 procure this moral food for himself, but should receive 
 it from the Brahmin as the negro did physical sus- 
 tenance from his master. The common sense of man- 
 kind has declared Brahminism hostile to civilization, 
 because it produces a stagnancy in the moral life, and 
 fixes limits to the exercise of intellect. 
 
 Feudalism a condition of society with which we 
 are perhaps better acquainted was not on the whole 
 unfavourable to individual progress, for it nurtured a 
 spirit of independence and enterprise; but it exercised 
 a blighting influence on the internal economy of society. 
 Of individual and social progress it may justly be said,
 
 4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 "utumque per se indigenus, alterum alterius auxilio 
 eget;" now feudalism loosened the bands by which 
 society is held together, it tended to produce universal 
 anarchy, and to prevent the development of those prin- 
 ciples which are universally recognised as essential to 
 the well-being of a state. We do not simply mean 
 government a state is no more a government than a 
 helm is a ship, or a mahout an elephant; a state is an 
 organized society, whether of few or many, and its per- 
 fection depends on the security it affords. Under the 
 feudal system, the guilty escaped punishment and the 
 innocent could not find protection. The social state 
 was therefore defective ; and the peculiar independence 
 fostered by feudalism, tended not only to perpetuate, 
 but to extend these defects. While the march of the 
 individual was to a certain extent onwards, that of 
 society was retrograde ; and had such a state of things 
 continued, Europe must have sunk in barbarism to the 
 level of Africa. It is sufficiently obvious that when the 
 relations between men are not advanced in the same 
 ratio as man himself, all improvement must be isolated, 
 and can leave no trace in a future generation.* 
 
 Comparing all these different conditions, we find that 
 they have one common defect stagnancy : they tend 
 to keep every thing in one fixed position, to check 
 advance and improvement; and hence we may fairly 
 conclude that the primary element of civilization, 
 according to the common sense of mankind, is progress, 
 
 * Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not 
 apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest 
 innovator, and if time of course alter all things to the worse, and 
 wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, where shall be 
 an end ? Bacon's Essays.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 not from one place to another, but from one condition 
 to another, and always in advance. The idea of pro- 
 gress, development, amelioration, or extension, appears 
 to be the predominant notion (logically speaking, the 
 genus] in the definition of civilization; and the most 
 prominent attribute is, that the progress should be 
 made in social life. 
 
 It may be objected that this definition would cease 
 to be applicable if perfect civilization were allowed; 
 but we can see no bounds or limits to the advance- 
 ment of knowledge ; 
 
 The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before us; 
 But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it. 
 
 Every advance that has yet been made, shews an 
 equally distant horizon placed beyond us. It is not 
 necessary to discuss the question of the perfectibility 
 of the human species, but should humanity attain per- 
 fection, we doubt if civilization would be the proper 
 term to describe its condition. Who has ever dreamed 
 of speaking of the civilization of the kingdom of 
 heaven ! 
 
 Civilization is progressive, and barbarism stationary; 
 hence many have been led to infer, that the latter is 
 the state of nature, or natural condition of man, an 
 inference which perhaps may be traced to the vulgar 
 notions of motion and rest ; for even philosophers find 
 it difficult to divest themselves of the habit of regarding 
 the vis inertia of matter as more naturally displayed 
 in rest than in motion. 
 
 Before investigating the question whether civilization 
 or barbarism be the more natural, we should inquire, 
 what is the true state of nature of any person or thing ?
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A simple instance will suffice to shew that this is not 
 so easy a matter as is generally imagined. Pine trees 
 are found on the high Alps near the confines of per- 
 petual snow; but they are stunted in their growth, 
 they scarce put forth any branches, and their leaves 
 are not fully developed. Pine trees are also found in 
 too luxuriant soils, which give them a precocious exube- 
 rance, leading to a deranged organism and early decay. 
 In either case, can the trees be said to be in their 
 natural state ? Assuredly not; we know that there 
 are fundamental laws of the life and being of the tree, 
 and that the state most natural to it is that in which it 
 fulfils most completely the end and object for which it 
 is made, according to its organization and the principles 
 of its vitality. Man, in a state of nature, must there- 
 fore be man in the state for which nature has fitted 
 him. Is there a definite mould and form to which his 
 faculties are irrevocably predestined and predetermined? 
 then nature has designed him to remain stationary, and 
 the natural man is the savage. On the other hand, are 
 his faculties expansive, his capacities progressive, and 
 his moral endowments susceptible of cultivation ? If 
 so, nature has organized him for progress ; civilization 
 is the natural state, and barbarism the artificial. 
 
 The erroneous belief that the savage form of life 
 was the natural state, led to the general belief that it 
 was the original condition of man : a belief which 
 branched into two distinct theories, the first describing 
 the solitary and savage life as miserable and wretched, 
 the second asserting that it was a golden age of inno- 
 cence, virtue, and happiness. The first theory is thus 
 stated by Horace,
 
 INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 When the first mortals crawling rose to birth, 
 Speechless and wretched from their mother earth, 
 For caves and acorns, then the food of life, 
 With nails and fists they held a bloodless strife ; 
 But soon improved, with clubs they bolder fought, 
 And various arms which sad experience wrought, 
 Till words to fix the wandering sense were found, 
 And names impress'd a meaning upon sound. 
 
 This theory has been much extended by a modern 
 school of zoologists, at the head of which stands 
 Lamarck : he asserts that the ape was the original type 
 of humanity, and that the varieties of the species are 
 determined by their greater or less departure from the 
 original stock; he even goes farther, and asserts that 
 the existing mammalia were gradually developed from 
 marine types, shewing, as one of his reviewers has 
 quaintly observed, that the exclamation, " 0, ye gods 
 and little fishes!" is a phrase pregnant with meaning; 
 and that the origin of mankind, like his own theory, is 
 "mighty like a whale." Without entering into any 
 investigation of the physiological difficulties of this 
 theory, it will be sufficient to say that none of these 
 animals have ever been taken in the state of transition ; 
 no one has yet discovered a talking race of monkeys, 
 or a mute race of men. The exaggerated accounts 
 given of the intelligence displayed by the chimpanzee 
 and the ourang-outang, have been sufficiently exploded 
 by the exhibition of these animals in the Zoological 
 Gardens; there was no difficulty in discovering the 
 limits within which their faculties ranged, and it was 
 manifest that many other animals, such as the dog and 
 elephant, possessed a more extended scale of intelli- 
 gence. The erect posture was manifestly painful to
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 these animals, more so perhaps than to other species of 
 the monkey tribe ; and it was adopted not for the pur- 
 pose of walking but climbing, as it is by the bear and 
 other animals. A theory contradicted by all existing 
 facts, supported by no past experience, and resting 
 only on doubtful analogies, may safely be dismissed 
 without further examination. 
 
 The golden dream of savage innocence and original 
 happiness can be traced to equally erroneous views. 
 Men saw on the one hand the perfect laws of nature, 
 and on the other the imperfect institutions of society; 
 they also saw mankind producing enervation, degeneracy 
 and moral evil, by the adoption of customs obviously 
 contrary to nature, and thence they concluded that all 
 evil arose from abandoning or counteracting nature. 
 In the age of Louis XV, when the body was disfigured 
 by the most cumbrous and unsuitable dresses, corre- 
 sponding to shorn trees, denaturalized parks, clipped 
 hedges and formal gardens, when profligacy was 
 deemed a suitable distinction of rank, and prostitution 
 elevated to an order of the state, it is not wonderful 
 that Rousseau, like Juvenal in a similar age, should 
 turn from the depravity of his own times to a fancied 
 age of primeval innocence. It is, however, surprising 
 that he did not discover the obvious fallacies in his very 
 first statements. 
 
 "All is good," says the author of Emile, "as it 
 came out of the hands of the Creator: every thing 
 degenerates in the hands of man. He forces one land 
 to nourish the productions of another, one tree to bear 
 the fruits of another; he mixes and confounds the 
 climates, the elements, the seasons; he mutilates his
 
 INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 dog, his horse, his slave ; he overturns every thing, dis- 
 figures all; he loves deformity, monsters; he wishes 
 nothing to be such as nature made it, not even man ; 
 he must be drilled like a horse in the riding-school ; 
 he must be tortured according to fashion, like the tree 
 of his garden." Rousseau appears not to have known, 
 or else to have forgotten, how much the beauty and 
 fertility of the material world depend upon the industry 
 and operations of man. Our eyes, accustomed to survey 
 land on which ingenuity and labour have been exerted 
 for centuries, do not easily distinguish between that 
 which is actually produced by nature and that which 
 is the result of continued art. When we look at the 
 velvet lawn, the green sward of the pasturage, or the 
 rich grass of the meadow, we too readily give nature 
 credit for a soil whose fertility has been increased a 
 hundred-fold by the continuous care of successive gene- 
 rations. Where, but on cultivated ground, do we see 
 the wheat heavy with its bending ear, or any Cerealia 
 affording abundant food ? Does any virgin soil afford 
 trees bearing such fruit as bends the boughs in our 
 orchards ; what wild vine has rivalled the grapes in our 
 vineyards? Looking merely to beauty, has nature 
 produced the lovely varieties of roses, or the colours of 
 dahlias ? Is it quite certain that much of the beauty of 
 the field has not been indirectly derived from the garden ? 
 Look again to the animal creation : where is the 
 type of our present race of sheep, and even of our 
 domestic fowl ? Is the wild horse a finer animal than 
 the racer at Newmarket, or the hunter at Melton- 
 Mowbray? Has the wild canary bird the plumage or 
 the notes of that which is bred in an artificial state ?
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Man has triumphed over the defects and disadvantages 
 of climate; and if any one believes the conquest an 
 evil, let him discard his bread and meat for one month, 
 and support himself on mast and acorns. 
 
 It would be very difficult to determine what Rousseau 
 and such philosophers mean by their state of nature. 
 " Does man," says Lieber, " live in it only for a 
 moment after his creation ? or does the tattooed savage 
 who beautifies, as he supposes, the body of his child 
 with a variety of artificial and tormenting punctures, 
 live still in a state of nature ?" Assuredly the South- 
 sea islander, with his paint, his punctures, his feather, 
 and his fish bones, is just as much disfigured as the old 
 French courtier with his periwig and powder, his cuffs 
 and his ruffles. What test shall be applied, to deter- 
 mine which is the natural and which the artificial ? 
 
 The only reason for believing that barbarism was the 
 original condition of mankind, is the supposition that 
 it was the natural state, which we have shewn to be 
 utterly groundless. It is then asked, whence arise all 
 those differences in civilization discovered by travellers ? 
 and many philosophers ascribe them to specific differ- 
 ences in the human race. Capacity of civilization is 
 declared to depend on organization; and the organic 
 differences between the several races of men are declared 
 to be sufficient to constitute them distinct species. 
 This is a subject too important to be summarily passed 
 over, but at the same time it could not be fully discussed 
 without entering more deeply into philosophical re- 
 searches than would be consistent with the character 
 and design of this work. A selection of the most 
 important facts necessary to the formation of an opinion,
 
 INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 will perhaps be sufficient to justify us for treating all 
 the varieties of the human race as belonging only to 
 one species. 
 
 Dr. Lord's admirable work on physiology, one of the 
 best popular treatises on science that has ever been 
 published, has shewn that the varieties of form, colour, 
 and organization in the different races of men are not 
 greater, nor indeed so great as those which occur in the 
 lower orders of creation within the limits of the same 
 species. The term of duration, and nearly all the 
 periodical changes of life, vary but slightly in all races 
 of men.* All human contagious and epidemic diseases 
 are capable of exerting their pernicious influence on all 
 the tribes of men, though some suffer more than others. 
 Dissection exhibits more unity of type in the most 
 discrepant varieties of man than is to be found in the 
 unquestionable varieties of species among the lower 
 animals. It is therefore contrary to anatomy, physi- 
 ology, and analogy, to consider the existing varieties 
 of the human kind as different species. 
 
 All are aware of the fact, that changes are wrought in 
 the form, colour, and constitution of organized bodies 
 by culture, food, and alterations in the mode of life. 
 This is particularly the case with fruits, flowers, and 
 vegetables ; the potatoe, for instance, is now a very 
 different plant from that which Sir Walter Raleigh 
 brought from South America. Similar changes, from 
 like causes, take place in animals, but the process is 
 slower : " animals," says Boerhaave, " have their roots 
 
 * Fceminis omnibus communis videtur fluxus menstruus ; ita ut 
 rccte Pliniura mulierem solum animal menstruale vocasse putcm. 
 BLUMENBACH.
 
 12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 within their bodies," and consequently the changing 
 cause is generally nutrition. It may also be remarked 
 that the higher the organization the more difficult is the 
 development of a peculiarity, and also the more perma- 
 nent is the peculiarity when formed. The variegated 
 holly will return to the common green holly when pro- 
 pagated by seed, and can only be preserved as a variety 
 by grafting; but very little care is requisite to per- 
 petuate a peculiar breed of swine or sheep. 
 
 Mankind is not exempt from such influences : want 
 of light and air, act very injuriously on the race : it 
 was found that an immense proportion of monstrous 
 births occurred in France among those who had taken 
 some deserted quarries for their residence, and in con- 
 sequence the caverns were destroyed by order of the 
 government. Cretins are produced in some parts of 
 Switzerland, from the operation, probably, of some 
 atmospheric peculiarity; and Albinos are so frequently 
 produced in the isthmus of Darien, that some travellers 
 regarded them as a distinct tribe. 
 
 Dr. Lord has minutely examined the modes in which 
 peculiarities may be produced and propagated : it will 
 be sufficient for us to shew the fact of their being 
 perpetuated. Frederick I. of Prussia collected tall 
 men from all parts of the globe to form a regiment 
 of gigantic guards at Potsdam, and Dr. Forster assures 
 us that the greater part of the present inhabitants of 
 the town and its vicinity are remarkable for their extra- 
 ordinary height. Major Henry Bevan declares that 
 he could distinguish the several castes in India by 
 their respective peculiarities of countenance. "We are 
 all familiar with the marked traits that characterize
 
 INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 the physiognomy of the Jews and Parsees; and finally, 
 the thick lip first introduced into the house of Haps- 
 burgh by intermarriage with the Jagellons, has been 
 hereditary in the reigning family of Austria for 
 centuries. 
 
 We can trace very marked peculiarities in men 
 unquestionably descended from the same stock. In 
 America, how different is the tall, lank, gaunt Virginian 
 from the squat, plump, round-faced New Englander. 
 The children of the settlers in New South Wales are 
 tall, thin, and weaker than the European average; they 
 are therefore regarded by Europeans as a depreciated 
 race, and nick-named Currency, while the Europeans 
 proudly call themselves Sterling. The Currency lads 
 and lasses are distinguishable at a glance, and in the 
 course of time no doubt their peculiarities will be as 
 strongly marked as those of the Virginian or New 
 Englander. 
 
 Constitutional peculiarities are well known to be 
 hereditary in families ; but it is of importance to ob- 
 serve that the peculiarities thus propagated are con- 
 genital and not accidental. No one expects to see a 
 child born with a glass eye or a wooden leg, because the 
 parent has been forced to use such substitutes ; and it 
 would be equally absurd to expect that children would 
 be deficient in limbs because the parent was maimed : 
 but tendencies to gout, consumption, insanity, affec- 
 tions of the stomach or liver, unquestionably descend 
 by inheritance. There is family disease as well as 
 family likeness ; " a nose," as Washington Irving 
 pleasantly observes, "repeats itself through a whole 
 long gallery of family pictures ;" and ' ( ditto repeated,"
 
 14 INTKODUCTION. 
 
 says Sir Astley Cooper, "is no uncommon entry in 
 the ledger of the family apothecary." 
 
 In the Philosophical Translations for 1813, Colonel 
 Humphreys has given the facts connected with the 
 origin of a new variety or breed of sheep, which throw 
 some light on this curious subject. In the year 1791, 
 one of the ewes on the farm of Seth Wright, in the 
 state of Massachusetts, produced a male lamb, which, 
 from the singular length of its body and shortness of 
 its limbs, received the name of Otter breed. From 
 the curvature of its fore-legs, which caused them to 
 appear like elbows when the animal was walking, Dr. 
 Shuttack termed it An con. 
 
 This physical conformation incapacitating the animal 
 from leaping fences, appeared to the neighbouring 
 farmers so desirable that they wished it continued. 
 Wright determined on breeding from this ram, and the 
 first year obtained only two, with the same pecu- 
 liarities. The following years he obtained greater 
 numbers, and when they became capable of breeding 
 with one another, a new and strongly-marked variety, 
 before unknown to the world, was established. 
 
 The perpetuation of this variety of sheep appears 
 a sufficient answer to those physiologists who deny the 
 unity of the human species because there are differ- 
 ences between the skeleton of the Negro and that of 
 the Caucasian ; but we have instances of more marked 
 varieties being propagated. The Dorking breed of 
 fowls have five toes each, the Hungarian hogs do not 
 divide the hoof, and families are known in which most 
 of the individuals are born with six fingers. The 
 anatomical differences between the Negro and Cau-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 casian are at the best very minute, indeed they can 
 only be discovered by a practised anatomist; but they 
 would disappear altogether if, instead of taking the 
 most marked extremes of the type, the comparison were 
 made between the intermediate and approximating 
 varieties. Anomalies, produced accidentally, may be 
 perpetuated artificially, and circumstances may produce 
 the artificial state no less efficiently than design. 
 
 Such a result could hardly be produced arbitrarily in 
 the human race, but it might be brought about by the 
 force of circumstances. Dr. Pritchard has shewn that 
 there is in all animals a tendency to the repetition of a 
 variety which has once occurred ;* " thus there are 
 generally more albinos than one in the same family." 
 Among the animals which exhibit varieties perfectly 
 analogous to those of the human albinos, this tendency 
 is very remarkable, particularly, with pets, such as cats, 
 rabbits, and guinea-pigs. 
 
 Dr. Lord adds, " were a family in which any of these 
 peculiarities had a tendency to occur, isolated from the 
 general stock, so as to necessitate frequent inter- 
 marriage of its members, their peculiarities would be 
 repeated, propagated, and in a few generations ren- 
 dered permanent. ' [The female members of the noble 
 family of Gordon have long been distinguished by 
 a peculiar and beautiful formation of the neck and 
 shoulder.] But this isolation could only take place 
 when the world was thinly inhabited, and a wide space 
 intervened between family and family. Any pecu- 
 
 * Dr. Lord observes, " The existence of this tendency was strongly 
 exemplified in the mare, which having once conceived by a quagga, 
 had afterwards no less than three or four foals, begotten by different 
 horses, yet all exhibiting more or less of the quagga form."
 
 16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 liarity occurring now-a-days speedily merges by inter- 
 mixture, and returns to the common standard/' 
 
 Medical statistics enable us to go farther, and shew 
 that intermarriages of consanguinity have a tendency 
 not only to perpetuate, but also to produce pecu- 
 liarities ; it is found that the greater number of 
 children born with some natural deficiency, idiotic, 
 blind, deaf and dumb, etc., are the issue of marriages 
 between near relatives. Now, one of the commonest 
 causes of monstrosity, as laid down by Halle, and since 
 illustrated by Meckel, is what Doctor Lord calls 
 " arrest of development ;" that is, " the cessation of 
 growth in any particular organ, while the rest advance 
 towards their usual standard." 
 
 The Caucasian, the Mongolian, and the Negro, are 
 the three primary or best marked varieties of the 
 human species, and the difference appears strongest in 
 the size and shape of the brain and its integument, the 
 cranium. Let us now examine Dr. Lord's history of 
 the brain, in his work on Popular Physiology. " The 
 brain of man excels that of any other animal in com- 
 plexity of organization and fulness of development. 
 But this is only attained by slow and gradual steps. 
 Examined at the earliest period that it is cognizable 
 to the senses, it appears a simple fold of nervous 
 matter, with difficulty distinguishable into three parts, 
 while a little tail-like prolongation towards the hinder 
 part is the only representation of a spinal marrow. 
 Now, in this state it perfectly resembles the brain of 
 an adult fish, thus assuming in transitu the form that 
 in the fish is permanent. In a short time, however, 
 the structure is become more complex, the parts more
 
 INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 distinct, the spinal marrow better marked it is now 
 the brain of a reptile. The change continues : by a 
 singular motion certain parts (corpora quadrigemina) 
 which had hitherto appeared on the upper surface, now 
 pass towards the lower; the former is their permanent 
 situation in fishes and reptiles, the latter in birds and 
 mammalia. This is another advance in the scale, but 
 more remains yet to be done. The complication of the 
 organ increases cavities termed ventricles are formed, 
 which do not exist in fishes, reptiles, or birds ; 
 curiously organized parts, such as the corpora striata 
 are added, it is now the brain of the mammalia. Its 
 last and final change seems alone wanting, that which 
 shall render it the brain of MAN." 
 
 " But we have not yet done with the human brain. 
 M. Serres has made the still more singular observa- 
 tion, that in the advance toward the perfect brain of 
 the Caucasian, or highest variety of the human species, 
 this organ not only goes through the animal transmi- 
 grations we have mentioned; but successively represents 
 the characters with which it is found in the Negro, 
 Malay, American, and Mongolian nations. Nay further, 
 the face partakes in these alterations. One of the 
 earliest points in which ossification commences, is in 
 the lower jaw. This bone is consequently sooner com- 
 pleted than the other bones of the head, and acquires 
 a predominance, which, as is well known, it never loses 
 in the Negro. During the soft pliant state of the bones 
 of the skull, the oblong form which they naturally 
 assume, approaches nearly the permanent shape of 
 the American. At birth, the flattened face and broad 
 smooth forehead of the infant, the position of the eyes
 
 18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rather towards the side of the head, and the widened 
 space between, represent the Mongolian form; while it 
 is only as the child advances towards maturity that the 
 oval face, the arched forehead, and the marked features 
 of the true Caucasian become perfectly developed. 
 
 Arrest of development might take place that is, the 
 brain might cease to grow from accidental pressure, 
 from an impediment to the vessels carrying it nutrition, 
 or from many other causes. If this arrest took place 
 during any of the later phases we have described, man 
 would be born with either the Negro or Mongolian 
 cerebral formation. There is a tendency to produce 
 such peculiarities in marriages of consanguinity, and 
 there is no doubt that they would be perpetuated by 
 family intermarriages. 
 
 "To the want of renovation," says Dr. Hancock, 
 " I conceive we may chiefly attribute the barbarism 
 which for unnumbered ages has reigned in Africa, and 
 probably in the South-sea Islands, and amongst the 
 aboriginal tribes of North America, and a jealousy of 
 strangers has kept the Chinese stationary for many 
 hundreds of years. The Arowahs and other American 
 tribes roam at liberty through their native forests and 
 savannahs, but, as it were by one universal magic spell 
 or enchantment, they all kept most strictly to their 
 respective tribes, and by such isolation, through a 
 succession of ages, they have dwindled into pigmies, 
 compared with those whose races are renovated and 
 refreshed by inosculation, or grafting of other varieties." 
 The American and Negro types disappear by inter- 
 mixture with the Caucasian. In the time of Herodotus, 
 the Colchians had the black skin and curled hair of the
 
 INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 Negroes, peculiarities which have been lost by inter- 
 marriages ; and it is established beyond a doubt, that 
 the taint of Negro or Indian blood is gradually effaced 
 in American families. A similar wearing away of the 
 Negro type may be observed among the descendants 
 of black servants who have married. We have had an 
 opportunity of observing the continuous process through 
 three generations, and can aver that not a trace of the 
 Negro peculiarities could be found in the great-grand- 
 child of the African. 
 
 These considerations are sufficient to justify us in 
 asserting the unity of the human species : though we 
 cannot tell when and how varieties have arisen, we can 
 see the possibility of their having originated, and being 
 perpetuated, when men were few and families widely 
 separated from each other. We can also see a cause 
 for the non-appearance of new and strongly-marked 
 varieties after population became more dense, because, 
 as we have shewn, peculiarities are effaced by inter- 
 mixture. It is not necessary to carry the inquiry 
 further : the law of variation in human development, 
 is still regarded as an open question by physiologists, 
 and no one has yet ventured to assign its limits ; but 
 the existence of a very extensive variation has been 
 established beyond the possibility of doubt, and is con- 
 firmed every day by facts within the range of ordinary 
 experience. 
 
 It follows then that the capacity of becoming civilized 
 belongs to the whole human race that civilization is 
 natural to man that barbarism is not " a state of 
 nature," and that there is no prima facie evidence for 
 assuming it to be the original condition of man.
 
 20 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES OF BARBARISM 
 AND CIVILIZATION. 
 
 INTIMATELY connected with the fallacy that barbarism 
 is the natural state of man, is the equally erroneous 
 belief that such a condition is one of purity, virtue, 
 and happiness. Civilization has been described as a 
 progress -, but in the opinion of some, the direction of 
 this progress is towards physical and moral degradation. 
 This is an inquiry which spreads over a very wide field, 
 and to conduct it with accuracy, we must lay aside 
 systems, and confine ourselves exclusively to facts. Is 
 the physical condition of the savage superior to that of 
 the civilized man ? Let us apply the ordinary tests. 
 In the islands of the Pacific Ocean, where quadrupeds 
 are few, and where the earth yields her productions 
 almost spontaneously, the constitution of the natives, 
 neither strengthened by labour nor invigorated by the 
 chase, has been always found feeble and languid. The 
 dynamometer, an instrument with a graduated scale for 
 measuring muscular force, has been applied as a test, 
 and the sailors of British ships are able to carry the 
 index some degrees farther than any of the various 
 tribes of the South-sea islanders on whom the experi- 
 ment has been tried. The tribes on the continent 
 that supported themselves by hunting, acquired greater
 
 BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 21 
 
 firmness of body, but yet they were more remarkable 
 for agility than strength. They were for the most part 
 incapable of continuous labour: during the Canadian 
 wars, the Indian allies of Europeans, though formid- 
 able in any single and rapid expedition, were unable 
 to endure the fatigues of a campaign. Indeed, the 
 triumph of the white men over the red men in America, 
 is owing more to perseverance and continuous exertion 
 than to superiority in intelligence or military weapons. 
 
 Another test of the physical constitution, is the 
 capability of enduring varieties of climate. Although 
 in some cases the North American Indian can journey 
 longer with his heavy burthens across the portages 
 than a white man, he assuredly would not stand the 
 fatigues of an Egyptian or Russian campaign. Far 
 the greater number of the savages who have been at 
 various times removed from their homes to a different 
 climate for the purpose of gratifying the cupidity of 
 curiosity, have sunk by premature decay, in spite of all 
 the care bestowed on their preservation. 
 
 Longevity is however the best test of the physical 
 constitution of man ; and that the duration of human 
 life has been increased by advancing civilization, is 
 abundantly proved by all bills of mortality. We have 
 no means of determining the average duration of life 
 in countries wholly uncivilized, but in Europe it has 
 been indisputably established that longevity has in- 
 creased with the gradual improvement of society. 
 
 It is generally remarked that the senses of savages 
 are peculiarly acute ; not only the romances of Cooper, 
 but the grave statements of intelligent travellers, assure 
 us, that the North American Indians will track game,
 
 2 CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES 
 
 pursue an enemy, discover the traces of a stranger, and 
 find their way through the woods by minute observa- 
 tions which escape the notice of Europeans. Every 
 person who has read the Last of the Mohicans, which, 
 though a fiction, is distinctly stated to embody only 
 authentic facts respecting the manners and customs of 
 the Indians, must have been delighted with the descrip- 
 tion of the quickness of observation and certainty of 
 inference displayed by the Indians in following a trail. 
 But with the savage, this capacity is limited in its 
 objects; it is a faculty purely mechanical, and in its 
 greatest extent is far surpassed by the development of 
 the senses which we daily witness in civilized life, 
 among mechanicians of every kind, and particularly 
 among the cultivators of the fine arts. The acute 
 intelligence of the savage is only applied to the pur- 
 suit of prey or the discovery of an enemy; with the 
 civilized man it has an universality of application. 
 There are many instances of the same cultivated quick- 
 ness of perception being displayed in finding coveys of 
 partridge, detecting the beauties or defects of a statue 
 or picture, and discovering the symptoms of latent 
 disease. With the civilized man the acquisition of 
 such a power in one direction, facilitates its exercise in 
 another; with the savage, superior skill as a hunter or 
 warrior disqualifies the possessor for every thing else. 
 
 Many circumstances contribute to lead voyagers and 
 travellers into mistaken notions of the physical con- 
 dition of savages. They see only the best specimens 
 of the race. From the very nature of a barbarous 
 state, it requires great original strength of constitution 
 to survive the stages of helpless infancy. When chil-
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 23 
 
 dren, born with any original taint or weakness, are not 
 immediately destroyed by their parents, they are sure 
 to sink under severity and privation. We have reason 
 to believe that the population of America was not pro- 
 gressive when first it was discovered by Europeans; 
 but there is positive evidence that several of the Indian 
 tribes have not kept up their number, even in localities 
 where they were not exposed to the intrusion of the 
 whites. Among the hunting tribes the care of the 
 children devolves entirely on the women, and is univer- 
 sally regarded as a grievous addition to their domestic 
 toils. Many of them procure frequent abortions by 
 the use of certain herbs, and extinguish the first sparks 
 of that life which they are unable to cherish. All are 
 more or less incapacitated, by other pressing and toil- 
 some avocations, from bestowing that maternal solicitude 
 on helpless childhood which is necessary to counteract 
 any original frailty. As none but the most healthy 
 arrive at maturity, there can consequently be very little 
 variety in the average appearance of savage nations. 
 Hence travellers are always struck by the uniformity 
 of the external figure in these rude tribes, and are led 
 to regard this uniformity as symmetry and perfection. 
 It appears then that the average physical condition 
 of barbarous tribes is inferior to that of civilized nations, 
 and that even this average is attained by a lamentable 
 waste of life in its earliest ages. Those who imagined 
 that the children of savages were all born healthy and 
 sound because the parents were not exhausted by the 
 severe labours of civilized life, can have very imperfect 
 knowledge of the toils and privations entailed by bar- 
 barism. And those who ascribe the uniformity or
 
 24 CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES 
 
 symmetry of the savage form, to the absence of artificial 
 restraints on the development of the body in its earlier 
 stages, have not taken into account the multitudes who 
 necessarily perish in so harsh a course of training. 
 
 Another source of error, is the absence of indigence 
 and disease in savage tribes. But a brief examination 
 will shew that this absence is more apparent than real, 
 and that in this case also uniformity has been mistaken 
 for perfection. 
 
 It is generally agreed, that indigence consists in the 
 want of some things absolutely necessary to existence. 
 Such a state cannot exist in barbarous life ; the savage 
 either lives or dies; he is never precisely rich or poor; 
 whilst the means of subsistence are afforded, he exists 
 from hand to mouth ; when they fail, there is no one 
 from whom he can beg or borrow, and few whom he 
 can plunder. With him, destitution is death. It is 
 true that he can support hunger, thirst, pain, to a 
 degree which we cannot approach; that he will feed on 
 substances from which we shrink with horror. But 
 there are limits to his powers of endurance when these 
 are passed, he sinks unnoticed and unknown; there is 
 no one to record that a unit has been subtracted from 
 the amount of human existence. The uniformity which 
 travellers and voyagers have discovered in savage life, 
 is a condition but one degree higher than absolute 
 starvation. Those who sink below it, disappear instan- 
 taneously, and are as if they never had been. 
 
 For a similar reason, severe diseases are rarely seen 
 by the casual visitors of savage tribes. Death is their 
 doctor, and the grave their hospital. Those who have 
 resided amongst them testify that diseases are produced
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 25 
 
 by the privations endured at one period, and the re- 
 pletion in which they indulge when a time of plenty 
 arrives. But unless the cure is rapid, the termination 
 of the disease must be fatal. When patients are left 
 entirely to nature, it is found that nature presses very 
 hard for an immediate payment of her debt. 
 
 As there are different degrees of barbarism, it is not 
 easy to give a precise description of the intellectual 
 condition of savage life. The native of Van Diemen's 
 Land seems little, if at all, elevated above the brute ; 
 the New Zealander displays some share of ingenuity ; 
 in the Moluccan Archipelago, the inhabitants of islands 
 within sight of each other, are found to exhibit the 
 greatest diversity in mental power; and the red men 
 of North America were far superior to their brethren 
 of the south. There are, however, some tests of general 
 application, the most obvious of which is the display 
 of Providence in making some provision for the future. 
 All travellers have noticed the improvidence of savage 
 life : some will sell for mere trifles the fishing and 
 hunting implements necessary to their support, others 
 refuse to exchange their rude weapons for those of 
 European manufacture, even when the superiority 
 was obvious. No price could tempt the Carib to 
 sell his bed in the evening, when he was disposed 
 to go to rest; but in the morning it might be had 
 for the merest toy that caught his fancy. The strong 
 huts necessary for protection in winter are seldom 
 erected until the cold season is considerably ad- 
 vanced. It is rare to find provisions stored against the 
 chances of scarcity or even the certainties of changing 
 seasons. Like a mere animal, the savage is affected 
 
 c
 
 26 CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES 
 
 merely by what is before his eyes ; every thing beyond 
 escapes his observation or is perfectly indifferent to 
 him. Consequences ever so slightly removed from 
 immediate apprehension are entirely disregarded. Food, 
 clothing, residence wants which all mankind feel to 
 be the most pressing, are neglected in a barbarous 
 state of society, until the necessity is so urgent as to 
 threaten extinction. 
 
 The inferiority of uncivilized nations is very obvious 
 in their adaptation of means to an end. It has been 
 customary to admire the ingenuity of their contrivances, 
 and to wonder at the perfection of the workmanship 
 executed by such rude tools as they possess : some of 
 the specimens are no doubt surprising, but what is 
 still more wondrous, is the failure of the workman to 
 discover obvious deficiencies in his tools, and the in- 
 creased efficiency they would obtain from very slight 
 alterations. The mechanical powers are rarely exercised; 
 and when some of the more simple are brought into play, 
 there is a waste of time and strength which might have 
 been saved by a very little attention. Thus those tribes 
 who pass beyond the improvident instinct of animals, 
 continue to display the thoughtless levity of children. 
 
 The number of languages in any given district is 
 generally in the inverse proportion of the intellectual 
 culture of the inhabitants. Messrs. Spix and Martius 
 collected the vocabularies of sixty different languages 
 in Brazil alone. It is utterly impossible to classify 
 those of Australia ; and to add to the complexity, there 
 is reason to believe that unwritten languages are con- 
 stantly fluctuating. The vocabularies collected by one 
 voyager rarely correspond with those of another ; each
 
 OP BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 27 
 
 lays the blame on the ignorance or carelessness of his 
 predecessor, but there can be no doubt that many of 
 the discrepancies are to be assigned to the unsteadiness 
 of those by whom uncultivated languages are spoken. 
 As language is the instrument of thought, the nature 
 of a language is in some degree a guide to the in- 
 tellectual condition of those by whom it is spoken. 
 All barbarous languages err both in excess and defect : 
 by a very extravagant use of suffixes and affixes they 
 multiply what may be called synonymns to an almost 
 incredible and very perplexing extent, while the number 
 of objects for which they have names is very limited. 
 Captain Freycinet informs us, that the inhabitants of 
 the Marian or Ladrone islands have different series of 
 numerical names varying according to the objects 
 counted. The following are the series : 
 
 English n Animated Inanimate Measures of ,-,. , 
 
 Names. "**' Beings. Beings. Length. 
 
 One .. hatcha ... maissa... hatchiyai... tak-hatichoun .. hatitip. 
 Two .. hougoua hagoua .. houghiyei .. tak-hougouan .. asgan. 
 
 Three . toulo .... tatto tourghiyei . tak-touloun tato. 
 
 Four . fafat fatfat .... fatfatai .... tak-fatoun fatfat. 
 
 Five., lima ... latima ... limiyai tak-liman latima. 
 
 Six .. gounoum gounoum gounmiyai . tak-gounoum ... gounoum. 
 
 Seven, fitgoua... fit! fitghiyei .... tak-fitgonon .... fiti. 
 
 Eight, goualo... gonagolo gouarghiyai tak-gouarghoun gouagalo. 
 
 Nine . sigoua ... sigoua ... sighiyai .... tak-sigouon sigoua. 
 
 Ten .. nianot ... raannot . manotai .... tak-maonton ... mannot. 
 
 Captain Freycinet adds that these islanders fre- 
 quently count by pairs, and that they then use the 
 numeration belonging to days, with the addition of the 
 word asgun, which signifies " a pair," but ten pairs are 
 called hioussau. The numeration of the days is also 
 applied to months and years, but in the latter case, 
 seven is always expressed tyfiti.
 
 28 CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES 
 
 This tendency to multiply names is found in every 
 form of life where attention is fixed on a limited 
 number of objects, and thus the same cause may pro- 
 duce the same effects in the two extremes of barbar- 
 ism and civilization. In examining the manufactories 
 at Birmingham, we found that the artisans had distinct 
 names for tools, which we at first sight could scarcely 
 distinguish from each other. In the old treatises on 
 hunting, we find a corresponding variety in the words 
 applied to beasts of venery and chase. Thus, the 
 Book of St. Alban's, written in the fifteenth century by 
 the Lady Juliana Barnes, prioress of Sopwell, informs 
 us that in speaking of numbers or flocks we must say 
 a herd of deer, a bevy of roes, a sounder of swine, a rout 
 of wolves, a richess of martens; a brace of bucks, foxes, 
 or hares, and a couple of rabbits. 
 
 There are also terms for their lodging : a hart is 
 said to harbour, a buck lodges, a roe beds, a hare seats 
 or forms, a coney sits, a fox kennels, a marten trees, an 
 otter watches, a badger earths, a boar couches. Hence 
 there are also separate terms to express their dis- 
 lodging ; we should say, unharbour the hart, rouse the 
 buck, start the hare, bolt the coney, untree the marten, 
 vent the otter, dig the badger, rear the boar. There 
 were also appropriate terms for the different parts of 
 the body, the foot-marks, dung, breeding, etc., of the 
 several beasts. These names are more appropriate 
 and picturesque than general terms, and hence a 
 language in its earliest stages is better adapted to 
 discriptive poetry than when it is more extensively cul- 
 tivated. We shall have occasion to examine language 
 more minutely in a future chapter, and it will perhaps
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 29 
 
 be sufficient here to say, what the examples we have 
 quoted sufficiently shew, that an abundance of synonyms, 
 or what are usually called synonyms, in a language 
 with a limited vocabulary, is a proof of its intellectual 
 poverty, shewing it to be confined to a narrow range 
 of objects and ideas. 
 
 Arithmetic, among savage tribes, is equally limited 
 and cumbrous. Among some of the American Indians 
 there were those who could not reckon further than 
 three, and had no name for numbers beyond it; several 
 could proceed as far as ten, but commonly the utmost 
 limit was twenty. The Australians, where they are 
 not in immediate contact with the British, exhibit 
 similar deficiencies in numeration. 
 
 Savage languages are deficient in general terms : 
 they are destitute not only of such abstractions as time, 
 space, substance, but of such generic names as tree, 
 plant, quadruped, bird, fish, etc. This has given rise 
 to endless confusion in the vocabularies of barbarous 
 languages : one traveller, pointing to a particular 
 animal or tree, received the specific, not the generic 
 name ; another fell into precisely the same error, but 
 accidentally selected different objects; the names 
 received by each could not be reconciled, and half the 
 labour of collecting the vocabulary was consequently 
 thrown away. Many of the zealous missionaries em- 
 ployed in the conversion of the heathen have formed 
 grammars of several Polynesian, African, and American 
 languages, and, different as are all these tongues, they 
 have one common peculiarity, a cumbrous and clumsy 
 system of construction to disguise the poverty of their 
 several vocabularies.
 
 30 CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES 
 
 In the lowest scale of barbarism there is no effort 
 made to record incident, because all the incidents of 
 such a state have a sad uniformity ; the history of 
 to-day is that of yesterday, and will be that of to- 
 morrow. But as we have not confined our views to 
 the extremes of barbarism and civilization, we may 
 slightly glance at the deficiencies and inconveniences 
 of the efforts made by barbarous nations to acquire a 
 system of records. 
 
 When we survey the history of nations ignorant of 
 letters, we find generally that both in the Old and New 
 Continent men have attempted to paint the objects 
 which strike their imagination to represent things by 
 a symbol, or rather by putting a part for the whole ; 
 to compose pictures by uniting figures, or the parts 
 that represent them, and thus to perpetuate the 
 memory of some remarkable fact. Thus picture- 
 writing is partly direct representation, partly meta- 
 phor, and partly metonymy, as we shall see when 
 we come to consider some of the specimens found 
 in uncivilized tribes. This invention appears to have 
 co-existed with other mnemonic methods, such as 
 erecting heaps of stones, graving figures on rocks, and 
 in one instance making various knots on cord. The 
 Peruvian mode of " dropping a line," either to one's 
 friends or to posterity, is not very intelligible, and 
 the traditions attached to heaps of stones are liable 
 to great variations in the course of time.* Picture- 
 
 * In the south of Ireland, near Fermoy, is a remarkable cavern, 
 called, in Celtic, Grian Becht, which, signifies the Sun's-house, and 
 was probably connected with solar worship. By the corruptions of 
 tradition the name is metamorphosed now into Granny's-bed, and 
 associated with a strange tale of a man who married his grandmother !
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 31 
 
 writing^ on the contrary, is obviously an improvable 
 art ; we find it more or less imperfect in proportion to 
 the advancement of the people by which it is cultivated ; 
 it passes, by almost insensible degrees, from simple 
 to composite painting, and thence to symbolic, where 
 it displays a tendency to become an alphabetic cha- 
 racter. It is almost impossible to make a distinction 
 between symbolic and composite painting, for the one 
 runs naturally into the other, and they are only distin- 
 guished by the greater or less abundance of symbolic 
 signs. The rude paintings of the Patagonians, described 
 by Narborough ; those found amongst the natives of 
 Norfolk-bay, on the north-west coast of America; and 
 all the paintings, more or less rude, which have been 
 discovered by travellers among the Indians of the New 
 Continent, in a greater or less degree, unite symbolic 
 signs with direct representation. They exhibit great 
 and marked shades of difference : the highest eminence 
 appears to have been attained by the Aztehs or Mexi- 
 cans, the Zoltedes, and the Ilascalans. Next to these 
 we may rank the sagkokok of the natives of Virginia, 
 the historical paintings of the Iroquois, the Hurons, 
 and the numerous tribes inhabiting the central table- 
 land of the Alleghanies. 
 
 The sagkokok of the Virginian Indians represented 
 symbolically the events which took place in a cycle 
 of sixty years ; each cycle was represented by a wheel 
 divided by its radii into sixty equal parts. Lederer 
 relates that in the Indian village of Pommaoomek he 
 saw one of these cycles, in which the epoch of the 
 arrival of Europeans on the coast of Virginia was indi- 
 cated by the figure of a white swan, vomiting forth
 
 32 CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES 
 
 fire; thus at once symbolizing their colour, their 
 arrival by water, and the effects which their fire-arms 
 had produced on the Americans. This, however, is a 
 far more comprehensive symbol than any other which 
 we find among the American Indians, and it obviously 
 has the defect of not immediately telling its own story. 
 A clear idea of the historical painting of the Americans 
 may be formed from a pictorial narrative of a warlike 
 expedition, undertaken by some Frenchmen against 
 a tribe of the Iroquois, before Canada was occupied by 
 the English. It is written symbolically in ten lines, 
 figured as follows : 
 
 The first line contains the arms of France, sur- 
 mounted by a hatchet, and near are eighteen symbols 
 of decades. The hatchet, or tomahawk, being the 
 Indian symbol of war, as the calumet is of peace, this 
 signifies that " a hundred and eighty Frenchmen under- 
 took some warlike expedition/* 
 
 The second line contains a mountain, with a bird 
 springing from its summit, and a stag with a moon on 
 its back. The mountain was the cognizance of Mon- 
 treal, and the bird signifies departure; so that this line 
 reads, " they departed from Montreal in the first quar- 
 ter of the stag-month, corresponding to our July." 
 
 The third line, a canoe, with twenty-one huts : that 
 is, " they went by water, landing every night to rest, 
 and were twenty-one days on their journey " 
 
 The fourth line, a foot with seven huts or wigwams, 
 intimating " they then marched seven days." 
 
 The fifth line, a hand and three wigwams, over one 
 of which are two pendent branches, and a figure of the 
 sun. This means that "they had come within three days.*
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 33 
 
 march of the Sonontuan tribe of the Iroquois, whose 
 cognizance was two bending branches, and that they 
 were coming on the east of the village," which is shewn 
 by the relative positions of the hand and the cogni- 
 zance. 
 
 The sixth line, twelve symbols of decades, a hut with 
 the same cognizance as before, and a man asleep. 
 " There were one hundred and twenty Sonontuans sur- 
 prised in their beds." 
 
 The seventh line, a club and eleven heads, five figures 
 of men over as many symbols of decades. "Eleven 
 Sonontuans were killed, and fifty taken prisoners." 
 
 The eighth line, a bow containing nine heads, with 
 eleven marks beneath. " The victors had nine killed 
 and eleven wounded/' 
 
 The ninth line, showers of arrows hustling in the air 
 from opposite directions. "The battle was obstinate 
 and well contested." 
 
 The tenth line, arrows coming from one side only. 
 " The vanquished fled, without any further attempt at 
 resistance." 
 
 The whole story may be told in a few words. " One 
 hundred and eighty Frenchmen set out from Montreal 
 early in July; after sailing twenty-one days and march- 
 ing seven, they surprised one hundred and twenty 
 Sonontuans on the east side of them ; after an obsti- 
 nate resistance, they killed eleven, captured fifty, and 
 put the rest to flight, with the loss to themselves of 
 nine killed and eleven wounded." 
 
 It is obvious that such a record is very clumsy, 
 uncertain, and cumbrous ; however we may admire its 
 ingenuity, we must at once see its utter inapplicability 
 
 c 2
 
 34 CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES 
 
 to any great historical work, and still more to any 
 philosophical or imaginative purpose. It appears, then, 
 from the nature of barbarous language, when it is 
 merely spoken, and from the attempts made at record- 
 ing events in a more advanced stage, that the intel- 
 lectual condition of the savage is far inferior to that of 
 the civilized man. 
 
 Hitherto we have considered the state of savage 
 nations in man as an individual : but such a condition 
 is confessedly unnatural, all agree that some form of 
 association is necessary to humanity. The first and 
 most simple form is the domestic state. A general 
 state of promiscuous intercourse between the sexes 
 never existed but in the fanciful imaginings of poets, 
 or in the wild speculations of philosophers, who pos- 
 sessed the madness of poetry without the inspiration. 
 Such persons, whose notions of the state of nature 
 appear to have been derived from the brutes, inform 
 us that no permanent unions are formed by the lower 
 animals. The reason is obvious : with them the season 
 of infancy is short ; the young soon acquire vigour and 
 agility; the tenderness of the mother, with little, and 
 sometimes with no assistance, is adequate to the care 
 of the brood. But even among animals, we find the 
 union continued so long as it is necessary to the con- 
 servation of the young. Few observers of nature have 
 failed so see the male bird sharing the task of incuba- 
 tion ; and when the young are clamorous for food, 
 
 He hears their cry, he grants their hoarse request, 
 And stills the clamour of the craving nest. 
 
 Even the denizens of cities may have observed the 
 sparrows teaching their young to make the first trial
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 35 
 
 of their wing, and both parents sharing the task of 
 guiding them to food. Among animals, the length of 
 union between the parents is directly proportioned to 
 the duration of the state of infancy. But the infancy of 
 man is more protracted, feeble, and helpless than that 
 of any other animal; he is dependent for a much 
 longer period on the care and foresight of his parents ; 
 their desires and unions do not depend on the extrinsic 
 circumstances of times and seasons. If a state of 
 promiscuous intercourse ever existed, it could not be 
 protracted beyond one generation, for the race would 
 become extinct. 
 
 Domestic union being natural and necessary to man, 
 we have next to inquire what are the conditions that 
 render it most advantageous. Judging from all expe- 
 rience, we should say, mutual confidence, and mutual 
 respect based on mutual equality. The relations be- 
 tween master and slave are equally disastrous to both; 
 the blighting effects of bondage are discoverable in the 
 taskmaster as well as in the serf; the experience of 
 America too fatally shews that the social inferiority of 
 the negro is reflected in the moral degradation of the 
 planter. Many of the more dark and severe pictures 
 of the American slave-owners may be exaggerated, but 
 strong features of resemblance still serve to identify 
 the caricature. 
 
 The more intimate and close are the relations, the more 
 pernicious is the result of great inequality. Domestic 
 slavery existing as rigidly as predial slavery is a fearful 
 aggravation of the evil. So obvious is this truth, that 
 among all slave-holding communities, we find the lot 
 of the domestic slave rendered less onerous. Horace,
 
 36 CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES 
 
 for instance, threatens it as a severe punishment to an 
 insolent slave, that he would be transferred from the 
 house to the farm. But communities have existed, in 
 which the tyranny of the dwelling rivalled, or even 
 surpassed, the tyranny of the field; and in such cases, 
 vice and misery held joint sway to an extent of which 
 it is scarcely possible to form a conception. In the 
 married state of savages some differences may be 
 observed. When provisions are scanty, and the means 
 of procuring subsistence not easily attainable, the man 
 confines himself to one wife. In warmer regions, where 
 food is more abundant, and nutritious vegetables grow 
 spontaneously, several wives are often taken by one 
 husband. The permanence of the tie also varies: in 
 some countries, marriages are deemed permanent; in 
 others divorces are common on the slightest pretext, 
 and often without any assignable cause. 
 
 But, however the obligation of the contract is viewed, 
 whether as confined to one or extended to more, whether 
 as permanent or perpetual, the condition of women in 
 barbarous nations is equally humiliating and miserable. 
 Her very first step in life is one of suffering and 
 degradation; she is either stolen, or sold like the beast 
 of the field. 
 
 The Hon. Mr. Murray, in his very interesting travels, 
 gives us the following account of the daily labours of an 
 Indian woman among the Pawnees of North America: 
 " She rises an hour before daylight, packs up the 
 dried meat, the corn, and other bales, strikes the tent, 
 loads and saddles all the horses and mules, and at 
 dawn the march commences; they generally go from 
 twelve to fifteen miles before their mid-day halt; the
 
 OP BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION, 37 
 
 husband I'ides; some animals are loaded, many run 
 loose; she travels on foot, carrying on her back either 
 a child or a package of a considerable size; in one 
 hand a bundle or can of water, with the other leading 
 one or two packhorses. On arriving at the camping- 
 place, she unpacks the animals and proceeds to pitch 
 the tent or lodge as before described. But, in order to 
 appreciate the extreme labour of this apparently simple 
 operation, it must be borne in mind that she has to 
 force eight or ten poles, sharpened at the point, into 
 ground baked nearly as hard as brick by a vertical sun, 
 they requiring to be driven nearly six inches deep by 
 the mere strength of her arms, as she is not assisted 
 by the use of any iron-pointed instrument, or any 
 mallet. As soon as the tent is pitched and arranged, 
 she goes in search of wood and water; the latter is 
 generally within half a mile of the camping-place 
 selected, but the former, I can positively affirm from 
 my own observation, she frequently has to seek and 
 carry on the back three or four miles. From mingled 
 commiseration and curiosity, I once or twice raised 
 these wood bundles thus brought in, and am afraid to 
 hazard a conjecture as to their weight, but I feel confi- 
 dent that any London porter would charge high for an 
 extra load, if he was desired to carry one of them half- 
 a-mile: she then proceeds to light the fire, cut up the 
 meat, and pound the corn, for which latter purpose she 
 is obliged to use a heavy club, round at the extremity, 
 and a mortar hollowed by herself from the trunk of a 
 walnut tree. As soon as the meal is finished, she has 
 to strike the tent, reload the horses, and the whole 
 foregoing work has to be repeated, except that the after-
 
 38 CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES 
 
 noon walk is generally not more than eight or nine 
 miles. 
 
 " This is the ordinary routine of a travelling day; but 
 on the day of a hunt, and on its successor, her labour 
 varies in kind, not much in degree, as besides bringing 
 wood and water, cooking, etc., she has to cut up all the 
 meat into thin flakes or layers to be dried in the sun; 
 to dress the skins or robes, the mode of doing which I 
 shall have to notice presently; to make the mocassins, 
 leggins, and in short whatever clothing is wanted by 
 any part of the family. To perform this incredible 
 labour, there were only three women in our lodge, and 
 I never saw any of the three either grumble or rest 
 a moment, although plagued with the additional care 
 and ceaseless crying of the two before-mentioned brats. 
 Lest it may be supposed, that in the permanent or 
 winter lodge, they enjoy more rest, it is as well to 
 mention, that in addition to their domestic duties, the 
 whole of the agricultural labour, in their coarse system 
 of raising maize, falls to their share." 
 
 A courtship in Australia is a very striking affair. 
 The lover selects for his mistress the maiden of another 
 tribe, and watches her incomings and outgoings with 
 all the pertinacity of affection. At length he tracks her 
 to some retired spot, the solitude of which seems to 
 afford a favourable opportunity for the declaration of 
 his passion; he rushes forward, strikes her to the 
 earth with a club or wooden sword, and continues beat- 
 ing her about the head, until repeated blows have 
 rendered her senseless. After this very impressive and 
 feeling commencement, he drags the victim, streaming 
 with blood, to the haunts of his own tribe, where she is
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 39 
 
 forced to confess herself vanquished by such strong 
 proofs of love, and to become his wife. The course of 
 the union is quite consistent with the commencement : 
 the wife of the Australian savage is a degraded slave; 
 to her share fall the meanest and most toilsome func- 
 tions of subsistence, while life and limb depend on the 
 caprice of her savage master. 
 
 Where wives are purchased they are scarcely better 
 off than where they are plundered; they become the 
 absolute property and the slaves of those who buy 
 them. They are not bound to the offices of domestic 
 economy alone, but are compelled to perform every 
 laborious and fatiguing service as beasts of burden. 
 So grievous is the lot of the female among savage 
 tribes, that some women in a wild emotion of female 
 tenderness, have destroyed their daughters in infancy, 
 in order to rescue them from the painful and inevitable 
 bondage to which they were destined. Hence, popu- 
 lation is almost always stationary in a savage state; 
 the vigour of the female constitution is easily broken 
 down by toil ; the nurture of a numerous progeny is 
 too severe an aggravation of other labours; infanticide 
 becomes almost a necessary evil, and it is practised with- 
 out the slightest compunction or remorse. This fear- 
 ful slaughter of innocent children, whether in barbarous 
 or semi-civilized lands, has a strange tendency to per- 
 petuate itself. When once the emotions of parental 
 tenderness are stifled in a mother's bosom, it would 
 seem as if they could be restored by nothing short of a 
 miracle. It is notorious, that the British government 
 has made great efforts to abolish female infanticide 
 among the Rajpoots in India, and that they have
 
 40 CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES 
 
 failed more from the resistance of the wives than of the 
 husbands. Mrs. Postans, in her excellent work on 
 Cutch, adds what may well be deemed an aggravation 
 of the horror. The mother commits the murder by 
 rubbing poison on her breast, and the infant drinks 
 the potion of death from the source where nature had 
 planted the streams of life.* 
 
 Not less remarkable is the moral degradation of 
 females in other respects: chastity in most savage 
 tribes is little regarded; the early voyagers in the 
 South Seas found the Polynesian islanders utterly 
 regardless of female honour, and the same remark is 
 applicable at the present day to the women of Australia. 
 Cruelty is also too general an attribute of savage 
 females. Though Ledyard and Mungo Park received 
 kind attention at their hands, yet Holden's Narrative of 
 his Adventures in Lord North's Island, declares " the 
 female portion of the inhabitants outstrip the men in 
 cruelty and savage depravity, so much so that we were 
 frequently indebted to the tender mercies of the men 
 for escapes from death at the hands of the women." In 
 all the accounts of the horrid tortures and mutilations 
 inflicted by the Indians of North America on their 
 unfortunate prisoners, we find the squaws the principal 
 agents in the work of torture, instigating the men both 
 by exhortation and example to increase the bitterness 
 of death by the most bitter insults and agonizing 
 inflictions. 
 
 * See " Ellis's Christian Researches" for a description of the great 
 change wrought on maternal feelings by the beneficial influence of 
 Christianity. Nothing can be more affecting than the picture of the 
 converted mothers turning from the assembly to hide their tears for 
 the loss of those children whom they destroyed during their state of 
 heathenism.
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 41 
 
 It has been questioned whether man has been im- 
 proved by the progress of arts and civilization in 
 society; but never have philosophers in the wildness 
 of their speculations and the wantonness of their dis- 
 putations raised a doubt on the advantages that women 
 have derived from every advance in civilized life. Con- 
 tempt, degradation, harshness, and neglect, are the lot 
 of the female sex among barbarous nations in every 
 part of the globe. These demoralizing influences have 
 produced their necessary effects, in infanticide, infidelity 
 and ferocity. On such a picture it is painful to dwell : 
 it would be easy to add many darker and deeper shades, 
 but the fact of female degradation and demoralization 
 in the barbarous state of society is so well known and 
 universally acknowledged, that the horrors of further 
 illustration may well be spared. 
 
 Unequal to the civilized man in his physical powers, 
 far his inferior in intellectual capacity, and still more 
 decidedly in his knowledge and use of the first great 
 element of social happiness, the domestic relations, it is 
 difficult to comprehend how the savage, rather than 
 the brute, became the subject of eulogy with admirers 
 of what they were pleased to call the state of nature. 
 Indeed, the lowest animals would seem to have a 
 better claim to the sensibility of this school of philo- 
 sophers, for with them there is no decided inequality 
 between the female and the male; but in the savage 
 state of humanity, the comforts of one sex are based on 
 the misery of the other, and to call such a condition a 
 state of nature is to assert that nature was at enmity 
 with one half of the human species. There can be no 
 doubt that the domestic union is a state to which all
 
 42 ON BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 
 
 are naturally prompted; civilization tends to render 
 that union equal, to form habits of gentleness and 
 tenderness, to raise woman without humbling man. 
 Barbarism establishes a cruel distinction between the 
 sexes; renders the one harsh and unfeeling, consigns 
 the other to servility and subjection. It is conceded on 
 all hands that the union is natural; can it then be 
 doubted which of the two conditions of union are most 
 in accordance with nature ? 
 
 "There is a place on the earth," says St. Lambert, 
 " where pure joys are unknown, from which politeness 
 is banished, and has given place to selfishness, contra- 
 diction, and half-veiled insults. Remorse and inquie- 
 tude, like fumes that are never weary of assailing, 
 torment the inhabitants. This place is the house of 
 a wedded pair who have no mutual love, nor even 
 esteem. There is a place on the earth to which vice 
 has no entrance, where the gloomy passions have no 
 empire, where pleasure and innocence live constantly 
 together; where cares and labours are delightful where 
 every pain is forgotten in reciprocal tenderness where 
 there is an equal enjoyment of the past, the present, 
 and the future. It is the house, too, of a wedded pair, 
 but who in wedlock are lovers still."
 
 43 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES OF 
 BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 
 
 FROM the preceding considerations, it sufficiently 
 appears that barbarism is not the natural state of 
 man, that it is not the state best suited to the 
 development of his physical or intellectual powers, and 
 that it is not calculated to form, promote, or preserve 
 his moral purity or domestic felicity. It is necessary, 
 however, to carry the investigation farther; and to 
 shew that civilization gives effect to another and not 
 less important principle natural to man, which bar- 
 barism tends to weaken, if not to destroy namely, his 
 sociality. From the fallacies which we have laboured 
 to expose, many able writers have deduced very erro- 
 neous views of the origin of society, and ascribed to 
 the free action of ripe judgment and forecast, the for- 
 mation of all states and communities. Horace, in a 
 passage already quoted, declares that the first men 
 united into societies for the purpose of mutual protec- 
 tion and assistance, and the same opinion has been 
 strenuously maintained by the celebrated economist, 
 M. Say. Such a proceeding would infer a most extra- 
 ordinary degree of sagacity and foresight, and a vast 
 amount of knowledge antecedent to experience in each 
 and all of the individuals who thus formed a social
 
 44 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 compact. But we have seen that the most striking 
 and marked characteristic of the savage is improvi- 
 dence, and this feature is one of the last that dis- 
 appears as he ascends in the scale of civilization. 
 How, it may be asked, could these isolated individuals 
 learn the advantages of society? To what miracle or 
 accident are we to ascribe the fact, that these advantages 
 were discovered simultaneously by persons previously 
 unconnected ? How were the conditions of the com- 
 pact framed ? Was there a marvellous unanimity in 
 the acceptance of the terms; if not, what became of 
 the dissidents ? These are a few, and only a few, of 
 the difficulties which must be removed before we can 
 be persuaded that society was the work of man an 
 institution adopted with preference, purpose, and after 
 mature reflection. 
 
 A very little exertion of thought is necessary to shew 
 that the advantages of society could only have been dis- 
 covered by experience : destitute of all previous know- 
 ledge, the isolated man would more reasonably have 
 expected outrage than protection, injury than assistance, 
 from associating with his fellows. In the very few 
 authentic accounts of perfectly isolated individuals 
 such as that of Peter the wild boy we find no trace of 
 anything like a desire for society, and still less anything 
 like the wisdom necessary to the formation of a social 
 compact. Men united because they could not help it; 
 they did not discover the advantages of association, but 
 they found them out after they had been associated. 
 It is probably in this sense that we are to understand 
 the remarkable expression of Aristotle, that " the state 
 existed before the individual ;" for man undoubtedly is
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 45 
 
 led to promote the final ends of society before he dis- 
 tinctly perceives them or knows the advantages that 
 they will bring to himself. 
 
 This is far different from the assertion that man is 
 ingtfstinctively a gregarious animal, an error into which 
 Cicero and several of the ancient philosophers have^^Wr 
 fallen. Sociality is not an attribute of the physical',, 
 but of the moral constitution of man. Bees congre- S #*-> 
 gate now for the purpose of constructing a honeycomb <x^"/ 
 in precisely the same forms and under the same con- ?.-* 
 ditions that they ever did ; the principle of cohesion in ^ ' 
 their community is not one whit greater or less than 
 it was when they were first noticed by man ; but the 
 social principle in humanity is infinitely developed and 
 extended by every advance in civilization. 
 
 Sociality is first manifested in the domestic union, 
 which, as we have already seen, has a tendency to be- 
 come perpetual in the human species, because conjugal 
 attachment is not, as with other animals, limited to 
 certain seasons. This principle is still further ex- 
 tended and developed in the relations of the family, 
 the ties between parent and child, brother and sister, 
 etc. The practice of infanticide, which we find in 
 almost every barbarous country, necessarily hardens 
 the hearts of parents against the children who are 
 spared. It is true that we find in voyages and travels 
 many examples of outbursts of paternal or maternal 
 tenderness, but these are only momentary ebullitions; 
 there is no permanent or abiding love of offspring, no 
 care or forethought for future welfare of children. In 
 KolfFs Voyage of the Dourga, we find that the Papuans, 
 or natives of New Guinea, will not hesitate to sell their 
 own children into slavery.
 
 46 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 " Natives worthy of belief have assured me," says 
 Lieut. Kolff, "that if a Papua of the coast is struck 
 by a desire to obtain any articles brought by the foreign 
 trader, for which he has no productions to give in ex- 
 change, he will not hesitate to barter one or two of his 
 children for them ; and if his own are not at hand, he 
 will ask the loan of those of his neighbour, promising 
 to give his own in exchange when they come to hand, 
 this request being rarely refused. This appeared to 
 me to be almost incredible, but the most trustworthy 
 natives were unanimous evidence to its truth. The 
 mountaineers themselves sometimes sell their children 
 also. In other places, I have known parents sell their 
 children when their maintenance became too heavy a 
 burthen for them to bear, without heeding whether 
 they would ever see them again. Such a total absence 
 of feeling certainly brings these savage people below 
 the level of dumb animals ! " 
 
 The slave-dealers of the last century relate countless 
 anecdotes of similar barbarity among the African tribes, 
 and their account is fully confirmed by the missionaries. 
 Father Labat mentions one instance of this worse than 
 brutal disregard of natural ties, which is too curious to 
 be omitted. He tells us that being one day, during 
 the year 1654, in his convent of St. Salvador, a native 
 of Congo came into the church and made such loud 
 and doleful lamentations, that he gathered round him 
 all the inhabitants of the convent. They eagerly in- 
 quired what dreadful calamity had befallen him, but so 
 extreme was his affliction that he was long unable to 
 make an answer. After much labour, and many kind 
 attempts at consolation, he at length unfolded the
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 47 
 
 nature of his grief. He told them that he was reduced 
 to the extreme of misery and despair; he had sold his 
 children, his wives, his only sister, his younger brothers, 
 and finally his father and mother; he was therefore in 
 great distress, because there was not one of his family 
 left whom he could turn into money. The worthy 
 Capuchins were astounded; at first they could not 
 forbear from laughing at so strange a complaint ; they 
 then endeavoured to shew him what an unnatural 
 monster he was, and how justly he merited sufferings 
 far more severe than those he endured. He coolly 
 replied that he had done nothing but what had been 
 constantly practised in that country, and there could 
 be no crime in reducing them to that slavish condition 
 to which he himself had run the risk of being reduced 
 by them. 
 
 It may be said that this unnatural conduct should 
 be attributed to the blighting influence of slavery and 
 the slave trade rather than to barbarism. Undoubtedly, 
 if there were not purchasers, children and relatives 
 could not be sold as slaves : but it would be going too 
 far to say that the mere demand produced the supply; 
 or, if that were conceded, it would be still evident that 
 those ties must be weak which could be so easily broken 
 at the first appearance of temptation. 
 
 But parental love is a subject on which very great 
 and injurious errors are made, not only in relation to 
 savage, but also to civilized life. It is, in its origin, 
 an animal sensation a blind instinct, which belongs 
 to the insect, the bird, the quadruped, as well as the 
 man; an immutable law of nature, and nothing more. 
 " In beings inferior to man," says Aime Martin, " we
 
 48 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 see the operation of this instinct associating itself with 
 the passions, doubling their power, and raising them 
 almost to intelligence. The bird forms its nest before 
 it knows that it is about to produce anything of which 
 it must take care; it lines that nest with a delicate 
 down, before it knows the delicacy of its brood ; it sits, 
 that is to say, the most restless of beings sits unmove- 
 able, during several weeks, upon a lifeless egg, before 
 it knows that it encloses beings like itself. At length, 
 the young ones being hatched, it brings their food, it 
 drives away their enemies, is anxious for their preser- 
 vation, and all these labours, painful or pleasurable, 
 are to remain without a recompense : no filial tender- 
 ness will ever respond to this parental tenderness. 
 One day the little ones try their wings, another they 
 take their flight, and wing their way into the plains of 
 air. The animals have no family they have none of 
 the true parental affection they are the servants of 
 nature." 
 
 That this tenderness, so affecting to witness, is 
 purely instinctive, and all but mechanical, appears 
 from the fact that animals will bestow the same atten- 
 tion on a substituted progeny as on their own offspring. 
 The hen is not less fond of ducklings than of chickens; 
 the wild bird, though sometimes sorely perplexed by 
 its ravenous appetite, bestows the same care on the 
 intrusive cuckoo as on her own young : a cat, deprived 
 of its kittens, has been known to bring up a leveret, a 
 rat, and even a chicken. Among rational beings, the 
 extraordinary love shewn by childless persons for pets 
 may probably be referred to the same instinct; for 
 many, whose sensibilities towards favourite animals are
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 49 
 
 so acute as to become absurd, are far from exhibiting 
 tenderness of heart in the other relations of life. It 
 has passed into a proverb, that the sympathy wasted on 
 a dead ass was refused to a living mother. Whether 
 this imputation on Sterne be true or false, we can our- 
 selves aver that we have seen expensive luxuries wasted 
 on a pampered cat by those who refused the slightest 
 relief to starving relatives. 
 
 " A fact, worthy of remark," continues Aime Martin, 
 " is that maternal (or parental) love only lasts in each 
 animal the time necessary for the preservation of the 
 species ; so soon as the little ones have ceased to need 
 their mother, their mother abandons them. In the 
 morning the parent would have waged furious war for 
 those young ones whom in the evening she cannot 
 recognise. And this indifference awakens no regret, 
 leaves no remembrance, enters the mind at the very 
 time when gratitude and habits long formed seem 
 to render it impossible. "When we reflect that the 
 order and harmony of the world are maintained by 
 this double law of love and indifference, we are asto- 
 nished that it does not excite more attention. Let us 
 only imagine what a new order of things the durable 
 affection of animals would introduce upon this globe, 
 what a power added to their exterminating instincts ! 
 Let the war-cry be heard, and twenty generations rally 
 round one female, whole families will be armed, and 
 all these armies will work in the labour of destruction. 
 To prevent this destruction, to establish the balance be- 
 tween life and death, the law of indifference suffices."* 
 
 * See " Woman's Mission," chapter viii., for a beautiful application 
 of these principles to the moral training of a family. 
 
 D
 
 50 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 Parental love, as distinguished from instinctive im- 
 pulse, begins where that of the animal terminates. 
 Nature seems to have provided for its gradual for- 
 mation and development as a moral principle, by 
 protracting the infancy of man to a longer period than 
 that of other animals, and consequently extending the 
 time during which the instinctive impulse acts. To 
 animals the instinct is valuable merely for the preser- 
 vation of the species ; to man it is still more valuable, 
 from its tendency to produce a moral obligation, the 
 most binding principle of sociality, the rational affection 
 between parent and child that is, an affection for 
 which both can assign a cause.* 
 
 It is obvious that time is wanting to form this 
 desirable principle, and that if parental care cease alto- 
 gether with the stage of helplessness, or nearly so, the 
 moral tie can be but faintly established. Among all 
 barbarous nations, parental care is rarely extended 
 beyond the early stages of childhood. Even in their 
 infancy the children are subjected to no coercion or 
 corrective discipline; which some very unwise reasoners 
 have ascribed to the indulgent and fond disposition of 
 the parents. An indulgent parent is not a fond parent, 
 he is nothing more than a negligent one : children are 
 not spoiled by too much affection, but by the want 
 of affection; true affection will not grudge toil nor 
 trouble; the cruel parent, and the indulgent parent 
 equally want active affection ; the blow and the bribe 
 
 * Experience has taught us that children, in earlier infancy than is 
 generally imagined, can distinguish between instinctive and moral 
 affection ; and that even when the former is the more indulgent, the 
 latter is the more respected, and far the more beloved.
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 51 
 
 are both base means of avoiding the labour of care, 
 watchfulness, and corrective discipline. The savage does 
 not chide his child; but this forbearance arises not 
 from love, but from that recklessness which shews the 
 weakness or absence of love. He suffers the children to 
 be absolute masters of their own conduct, because he is 
 too lazy to watch and superintend their actions. Such 
 a course of education, we are told, tends to render the 
 children " independent," which is true enough, if the 
 word be taken in the sense given to it by Denzil Holies, 
 " not to be depended upon." 
 
 " In an American hut," says Father Charlevoix, " a 
 father, a mother, and their posterity, live together like 
 persons assembled by accident, without seeming to feel 
 the obligation of the duties mutually arising from this 
 connexion." Similar remarks are made respecting 
 the families of the New Zealanders, by the mission- 
 aries; in Australia, the bonds of domestic attachment 
 are scarcely known; and throughout the South Sea 
 islands the greatest difficulty which the various mis- 
 sionaries have had to overcome is the habitual and 
 mutual neglect of parents and children from the 
 moment that the latter approached maturity.* Justly 
 then has Dr. Robertson remarked, " the ideas which 
 seem to be natural to man in his savage state, as they 
 result necessarily from his circumstances and condition, 
 affect the two capital relations in domestic life. They 
 render the union between husband and wife unequal. 
 They shorten the duration, and weaken the force of the 
 connexion between parents and children." 
 
 * See " Ellis's Polynesian Researches," passim.
 
 52 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 The fraternal relations are not less weak and uncer- 
 tain than the parental. Fratricide is just as common 
 as any other species of murder. Theodore Irving, a 
 professed admirer of what he is pleased to call the 
 chivalry of savage life, relates the following anecdote of 
 the lotan, a chief of the Otoe Indians, and his brother, 
 as an illustration of Indian revenge. " The Otoe Indians 
 having procured several kegs of whiskey, resolved to 
 have a grand carousal, and aware of the fury to which 
 their passions would be stimulated by intoxication, 
 removed all weapons beyond their reach. When the 
 whiskey began to work, a fearful brawl commenced, and 
 in the frenzy of strife the brother bit off a part of the 
 chieftain's nose. The lotan was sobered in a moment, 
 he paused, looking intently in the fire, without utter- 
 ing a word; then drawing his blanket over his head, 
 walked out of the building, and hid himself in his own 
 lodge. On the following morning he sought his 
 brother, and told him that he had disfigured him for 
 life : ' to-night/ said he, ' I will go to my lodge and 
 sleep ; if I can forgive you when the sun rises you are 
 safe, if not you die.' He kept his word; he slept 
 upon his purpose, but sleep brought no mercy. He 
 sent word to his brother that he had resolved upon his 
 death, that there was no further hope for him ; at the 
 same time he besought him to make no resistance, but 
 to meet his fate as a warrior should. 
 
 " His brother received the message and fled from the 
 village. An Indian is untiring in his pursuit of re- 
 venge, and though years may elapse, yet he will obtain 
 it in the end. From the time that it became the fixed 
 purpose of the lotan to slay his brother, his assiduity
 
 OP BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 53 
 
 never slept ; he hunted him for months. He pursued 
 his trail over the prairies ; he followed his track from 
 one thicket to another, he traced him through the 
 friendly villages, but without success ; for although he 
 was untiring his brother was watchful, and kept out of 
 his way. The old warrior then changed his plan of 
 action. He laid in wait for him in the forest, crouch- 
 ing like a tiger, in the paths which he thought he 
 might frequent in hunting, but he was for a long 
 time unsuccessful. At length, one day when seated 
 on a dead tree, he heard the crackling noise of a 
 twig breaking beneath a cautious footstep. He in- 
 stantly crouched behind the log, and watched the 
 opposite thicket. Presently an Indian emerged from 
 it, and gazed earnestly around. The lotan recognised 
 his brother instantly. His care-worn face and ema- 
 ciated form evinced the anxiety and privations that he 
 had suffered. But this was nothing to the lotan ; as 
 yet his revenge was unsated, and the miserable appear- 
 ance of his brother touched no chord of his heart. 
 He waited until he was within a few feet of him, then 
 sprang from his lurking-place and met him face to face. 
 His brother was unarmed; but met his fiery look 
 with calmness, and without flinching. 
 
 "'Ha, ha! brother/ cried the lotan, cocking his 
 rifle, ' I have followed you long in vain, now I have 
 you you nrnst die.' 
 
 "The other made no reply, but throwing off his 
 blanket, stepped before him, and presented his breast. 
 The lotan raised his rifle, and shot him through the 
 heart !" 
 
 Many anecdotes equally revolting might be collected
 
 54 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 from the missionary registers, shewing that the ties 
 of relationship and friendship are so feeble as to be 
 snapped in sunder by trivial events, and former amity 
 changed into deadly hatred. We are, however, to con- 
 sider on the other hand, anecdotes, just as well authen- 
 ticated, of the strong feelings exhibited by barbarous 
 tribes when they meet their friends or relatives, after a 
 long journey or a distant voyage. As an illustration, 
 we may quote Cruise's description of their reception by 
 their relatives of the nine New Zealanders, who came 
 along with him in the Dromedary from Port Jackson. 
 " When their fathers, brothers, etc., were admitted 
 into the ship," says he, " the scene exceeded descrip- 
 tion; the muskets were laid aside, and every appear- 
 ance of joy vanished. It is customary with these 
 extraordinary people, to go through the same ceremony 
 upon meeting and taking leave of their friends. They 
 join their noses together, and remain in this position at 
 least half an hour ; during which time, they sob, and 
 howl in the most doleful manner. If there be many 
 friends gathered around the person who has returned, 
 the nearest relation takes possession of his nose, while 
 the others hang upon his arms, shoulders, and legs, 
 and keep perfect tune with the chief mourner (if he 
 may be so called), in the various expressions of his 
 lamentation. This ended, they resume their wonted 
 cheerfulness, and enter into a detail of all that hap- 
 pened during their separation. As there were nine 
 New Zealanders just returned, and more than three 
 times that number to commemorate the event, the howl 
 was quite tremendous, and so novel to almost every 
 one in the ship, that it was with difficulty our people's
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 55 
 
 attention could be kept to matters at that moment 
 much more essential. Little Repero, who had fre- 
 quently boasted during the passage that he was too 
 much of an Englishman, ever to cry again, made a 
 strong effort when his father Shungie approached him, 
 to keep his word, but his early habit soon got the 
 better of his resolution, and he evinced if possible more 
 distress than any of the others." 
 
 We could not call this a scene of affection: if affec- 
 tion be understood in an active sense, it was a mere 
 display of passionate emotion, which began and ended 
 with the feelings. There is no mistake more common, 
 than the confusion between good feelings and good 
 actions; generous sensibility and generous deeds, pious 
 emotions and pious conduct. To excite the passion 
 is easy, for to feel it is pleasant ; to change the passion 
 into action is about one of the most difficult things in 
 the world, especially as every repetition of the passion 
 weakens the tendency to action. Sensibility, as the 
 word is generally used, is a mere animal instinct, use- 
 less when it does not immediately lead to active bene- 
 volence ; and in such a case not only useless but per- 
 nicious, because it has a tendency to produce a resting 
 satisfied with the emotion and a neglect of the action. 
 
 Mr. Cruise does not tell us that this scene of passion 
 led to any interchange of mutual kindness, the pas- 
 sengers from Sidney did not produce any of the novel- 
 ties they had procured in the British colony to offer to 
 these affectionate relatives, and the welcoming party 
 brought no fresh provisions to comfort those who had 
 grown weary of naval cookery. The whole scene of 
 affection was written in and with water ; when it was
 
 56 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 over, not a trace of it remained, all returned to their 
 occupations as usual. 
 
 All barbarous nations evince great respect for the 
 dead, and the length of time that their mourning for 
 the deceased lasts has been frequently adduced as a 
 proof of the strength of their natural affection. A 
 recent traveller in Australia gives us the following 
 curious account of the lamentations of the natives 
 over a grave : 
 
 " Nothing can be more pitiable, nothing more strik- 
 ing, than to witness the lamentations of the natives 
 over the dead. They appear terror-stricken by a power 
 they know not of, and cannot account for. At the 
 natural decease of one of their tribe, the men appear 
 bewildered in their imaginations, they shout furiously, 
 and make wild exclamations. By fierce countenances 
 and violent gestures, they seem to defy and threaten 
 the spirit or enemy who had come amongst them, while 
 the women, on the other hand, assembling together, 
 rend the air with their pitiful and lamenting yells. 
 
 " The above scene I can only describe as I witnessed 
 it, which struck me as being a most melancholy spec- 
 tacle. I had left my camp one morning to reconnoitre 
 some ground near Mount Wayo, in Argyle, and after 
 travelling for an hour, I crossed a rather steep grassy 
 ridge, and descended into a rich forest-flat, between the 
 hills, of some extent. Bent on following the valley 
 upward, I had proceeded about a quarter of a mile, 
 when my attention was attracted by sounds of human 
 voices, wailing in wild and melancholy strains. I 
 listened attentively, and the more I was struck with 
 the peculiarity of the noise. Having made for the
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 57 
 
 direction from which the sounds proceeded, I soon 
 perceived before me three native black women, and 
 rode up to them. They were sitting round a mound of 
 earth, with their heads depressed and nearly touching 
 one another, nor did my presence at all disturb them 
 or rouse their attention, but they remained in the same 
 posture, and did not even look up. 
 
 " I waited some time in astonishment observing their 
 actions, and listening to their horrid lamentable yells. 
 They were each of them striking their heads with a 
 tomahawk, holding that instrument in their right hand, 
 and wounding particularly the upper part of the back 
 of the head. Their hair was besmeared with blood, 
 which I could perceive trickling down behind their 
 neck and ears. I called to them loudly, but in vain. 
 Determined, if possible, to find out the cause of the 
 extraordinary scene before me, I dismounted, and 
 tethered my horse at a little distance, and allowed 
 them to remain undisturbed, while I took notice of the 
 tomb and place around. The mound of earth might 
 have been about three feet high; it was shaped as a 
 dome, and built of a reddish clay; it was surrounded 
 by a kind of flat gutter or channel, outside of which 
 was a margin, both formed of the same material. The 
 staves of the women were leaning upon it, and their 
 nets, with their contents, thrown aside. 
 
 " The appearance of the place was agreeable, though 
 lonely and sequestered, and trees of various descrip- 
 tions ornamented the rich pasture on the ground. The 
 trees all round the tomb were marked in various pecu- 
 liar ways, some with zigzags and stripes, and pieces of 
 bark curiously cut.
 
 58 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 "Having satisfied myself with the appearance and 
 locality of the place, I went up and pulled one of them 
 by the cloak, and succeeded in making her look up. 
 But when she did, I may safely assert, that it would 
 be impossible to behold a more miserable, and I may 
 add frightful, creature. She was the picture of utter 
 wretchedness, anguish, and despair. Her face was 
 covered with blood, and tears were falling fast in suc- 
 cession down her cheeks, as was the case with the 
 others. She muttered something to me which I could 
 not understand, then dropped her head again, and 
 commenced wailing as before, in all the bitterness of 
 agonizing grief. 
 
 " Such excessive weeping could only arise from 
 natural affection, and regret for the loss of a departed 
 relative. But what they utter, or for what reason 
 they wound their heads, is yet a mystery and unknown 
 to us. It is impossible to say, therefore, whether they 
 invoke the dead, as able to hear beyond the grave, or 
 whether the gashes in the head are intended to soothe 
 the departed spirit. 
 
 " These tombs, or raised graves, of the natives are 
 but seldom seen in the interior, and it is very probable 
 that they are intended only to honour the burial-place 
 of a chief on some particular occasions. 
 
 " It is a custom, however, among the women at par- 
 ticular times, to weep over these graves, which they 
 invariably do in the manner above stated, and they are, 
 no doubt, the relatives of the dead. 
 
 " In some instances these graves have been of a neces- 
 sity removed by settlers, but the spot is always remem- 
 bered and wept over in the same manner. As a proof
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 59 
 
 of this, I sometime afterwards saw some women weep- 
 ing as described, by the corner of a garden near a 
 gentleman's house on Mulwaru Plains, who informed 
 me that there had been the grave of a native at that 
 spot. 
 
 " The method of their disposing of their dead is gene- 
 rally as follows (and although few have ever witnessed 
 the burial of a native, still, the spot having been 
 known, the corpse has been seen in the grave after 
 burial) : The body is removed to the place appro- 
 priated for its burial ; the head is then bound down by 
 strings of bark, close and nearly between the knees ; 
 the two hands are fastened behind each ancle, so that 
 the body is forced into a crouching form, and takes up 
 as little space as possible. The grave, or hole, is made 
 just large enough to admit the body, and deep enough 
 to allow rather more than a foot of earth above it when 
 interred. The body is buried naked, with the excep- 
 tion of the bandages of bark with which it is confined, 
 and the cloak, spears, and other weapons of the deceased 
 are claimed, and become the property, I believe, of the 
 chief." 
 
 The very intelligent gentleman to whom we are 
 indebted for this description ascribes this apparent ex- 
 travagance of grief to intensity of affection, but as the 
 Australians are remarkable for their apathy to living 
 relatives it would be indeed singular if they were to 
 display such strong attachment to the dead. If the 
 traveller had ever witnessed a funeral in the remote 
 districts of the west and south of Ireland, he would 
 have known that loud lamentations are very often a 
 mere mockery of woe. Often have we seen women
 
 60 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 run out, join in the train of a passing funeral, raise 
 that dismal of all human cries the keen, with every 
 outward appearance of the most bitter affliction, and 
 when their breath was exhausted, very coolly ask, " who 
 is dead?" 
 
 Theodore Irving relates an anecdote which illustrates 
 the precise value of this mourning over the grave. 
 When entering an Indian village, " our attention," he 
 says, " was attracted by a low mournful cry, from the 
 midst of a number of small mounds, at a short distance, 
 the burial ground of the village. We approached the 
 spot so cautiously, as not to disturb the person who 
 was seated there. Upon the top of one of the graves, 
 a large mound covered with grass, was lying an Indian 
 girl. Her buffalo robe had escaped from her shoulder, 
 and her long dishevelled black hair was mingled with 
 the grass of the prairie. Her bosom was resting upon 
 the sod, and her arms extended as if embracing the 
 form of the being who was mouldering beneath. 
 
 " Believing that she was some female belonging to 
 the tribe, singing a dirge over the grave of some 
 departed friend, we listened attentively to her song. 
 At one moment it would rise in the air with a plaintive 
 sound, as if she was dwelling with mournful tenderness 
 upon the virtues of the deceased. At times she would 
 seem to speak of the feelings of his heart ; at others 
 the note would seem to be one of war, of battle ; and 
 then her song would burst from her, with the startling 
 energy of a person who was in the midst of the scene 
 itself, and was acting over the feats of the silent dead. 
 At these moments she raised her head, and her whole 
 frame seemed swelling with the inspiration of the
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 61 
 
 theme ; but in the very midst of this energetic burst of 
 enthusiasm, the chord of some more mournful recollec- 
 tion would be touched, and the song would sink from 
 its high and ardent tone, to a note of woe, so despair- 
 ing, that it appeared as if the sluices of her heart were 
 opened, and the deep hidden stream of her affection 
 was flowing out in the mournful melody ." 
 
 Interested and excited by the scene, Mr. Irving and 
 his companions hasted to inquire the history of this 
 lonely mourner, from "the half-bred interpreter," a 
 man of great gravity and experience. " If it had been 
 in the nature of his face to wear a more scornful ex- 
 pression than it usually did, the smile of contempt 
 which passed over his weather-beaten features as we 
 told the story, would have added to it. For a moment 
 he seemed surprised, then added that she was a squaw 
 who resided in the adjoining lodge, and but a short 
 time before he had heard her say to her mother, that 
 as she had nothing else to do, she believed she would 
 go and take a bawl over her brother's grave. He had 
 been killed five years before."* 
 
 Mr. Irving' s narrative shews how easy it is to mis- 
 take passionate emotion for abiding principle ; and to 
 the influence of this error we must ascribe the very 
 opposite pictures of domestic affection in savage life, 
 presented to us by travellers. When a father, husband, 
 
 * A distinguished clergyman of the Church of Ireland has fur- 
 nished the author with the following anecdote illustrating this subject. 
 " A servant of mine who had lost a brother some months past, was 
 to go with us to the part of the country where his brother was in- 
 terred ; he said to one of my children with great joy in his counte- 
 nance : "O sir, what fine shoutin' and bawlin' I'll have when I go 
 to my brother's grave. 'Tis I that'll play murther over it !"
 
 62 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 or brother is attacked by painful disease, no tender 
 cares watch over his couch, no kindness soothes his 
 pain, 
 
 For him no hand the cordial cup applies, 
 Nor wipes the tear that stagnates in his eyes ; 
 
 application is perhaps made to some enchanter to try 
 the influence of magical charms, but laborious atten- 
 tion is refused to his wants and his sufferings. His 
 agonies excise no sympathy, and even his last agony is 
 viewed with indifference. But his funeral is celebrated 
 with the howls of passionate grief; weeping and wail- 
 ing are abundant; the passing stranger sees these 
 bursts of sorrow and exclaims, " Behold the proofs of 
 sincere affection !" Experience might have shewn him 
 that these bursts of passion may indicate animal in- 
 stincts, not moral feeling ; that these lamentations when 
 genuine, are worth very little, and that the appearance 
 of grief is very easy to be assumed. In civilized life 
 a widow's tears are sometimes an untaxed advertise- 
 ment for another husband, and despairing melancholy 
 the herald of joyous indulgence. In barbarous coun- 
 tries the nearest relations are mutually afraid to make 
 any demand or solicit any service : there is no inter- 
 change of good offices, no effort to increase the com- 
 fort and happiness of another; for the labour necessary 
 to alleviate the cares and ills of life, is substituted the 
 luxury of a bawl over the grave. 
 
 It is now more than a century since Bishop Butler 
 pointed out the distinction between passive and active 
 habits, and the danger of confounding emotions with 
 principles. Though the lazy indulgence of the emotion 
 is absolutely destructive of the active principle, there
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 63 
 
 are still people who confound them together. One 
 man blindly bestows alms on those who appeal to his 
 compassion, thereby gratifying the mere impulse of 
 pity or of pride, and is honoured as benevolent and 
 charitable ; another exerts himself to discover the cause 
 of the misery for the purpose of removing it before 
 giving his money, he gives what is still more valuable, 
 his time and his trouble, and has the moral certainty 
 of being called cold-blooded and hard-hearted for his 
 pains. In the pictures of savage life, we find invariably 
 bursts of passion described as instances of affection; but 
 when we come to the analysis of the picture, reason, 
 like the half-bred interpreter, dispels the romance, and 
 the whole ends in self-indulgence, for yielding to a 
 passion is as much a selfish gratification as any other 
 form of sensuality. 
 
 The Family obtains a higher importance with every 
 advance in civilization, for though the family is natural 
 to man, and essentially human, barbarism, as we have 
 seen, raises obstacles in every direction to the develop- 
 ment of its relations. It is scarcely possible to overrate 
 the importance of the family in the formation and pre- 
 servation of human society. Within its hallowed circle 
 sympathy and disinterested affection are first evolved; 
 patriotism, as all languages testify, springs from " the 
 hearth;" a good son has given a pledge that he will 
 be a good subject, and there is a moral certainty that 
 a good brother will be a good citizen. Sympathy and 
 disinterested affection the refreshing dew that renders 
 the arid fields of life both fruitful and lovely are 
 first evolved in the family; and every thing that dis- 
 turbs the domestic relations, or weakens the domestic
 
 64 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 affections, destroys the sources of those feelings and 
 principles that best adorn and dignify humanity. 
 
 Some philosophers, whose tenets have been adopted 
 by the Jesuits, condemn the love of relatives as a carnal 
 inclination. They praise those ascetics who trample 
 on all natural ties; they contrast an unbounded and 
 universal benevolence with an affection limited to per- 
 sons and localities, and insinuate that attachment to 
 individuals generates indifference to the species. To this 
 conclusion the Jesuits and the Owenites equally arrive, 
 though starting from very different principles; and when 
 they do agree, of course, "their agreement is wonderful." 
 It is of some importance, at the present day, to shew 
 that the principle of sociality by no means leads to the 
 anomalous institution denominated socialism, and that 
 the monastic rules adopted by the ascetics and the New 
 Harmony institutes of the Owenite are adverse to the 
 present happiness and future progress of humanity. 
 
 To begin with the Jesuits; they declare that the 
 domestic affections are carnal. Nobody denies that they 
 are so in their origin; for it is a principle of our nature, 
 that the first impulses are given by the physical world: 
 parental love is carnal; it is in its origin a mere animal 
 instinct, but without it the race would become extinct : 
 the whole machinery of industry is chiefly set in motion 
 by the wants of man to satisfy his natural appetites; * 
 but who ever said that on this account all parental love is 
 animal passion, or all industry a mere matter of the belly ? 
 There is probably no such thing as perfect purity in 
 the most exalted instance of virtue, or perfect depravity 
 
 * "C'estla fairn, c'est le petit venire qui fait mouvoir le monde," 
 said Napoleon at St. Helena.
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 65 
 
 in the worst exhibition of vice; human life is a " tangled 
 yarn," good and ill together; the slave who accompanied 
 the victor of yore in his triumphal chariot, typified a 
 principle of degradation within the conqueror's bosom 
 though "Nero fiddled when Rome was burning," 
 there were softer feelings mingled in his character, for 
 humble gratitude flung flowers on his tomb: when we 
 come to the analysis of the best or the worst of 
 characters, we find equally the apologue of Beauty and 
 the Beast. 
 
 The spiritual is not essentially hostile to the carnal; 
 it springs from it, and is supported by it. Our duty is 
 not to eradicate natural feeling, but to develope, perfect, 
 transform, purify, ennoble, and spiritualize them. The 
 love of those with whom we are connected by natural 
 ties, so far from being adverse to the formation of 
 universal benevolence, is the only permanent foundation 
 on which it can be based, and the only valid pledge 
 which can be given for its existence. " He that loveth 
 not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love 
 God whom he hath not seen?" The apostle's argument 
 is irresistible. 
 
 But, say some of these universalists, " those who make 
 charity begin at home, frequently make it end there." 
 The sentence is a pretty antithesis, and nothing more : 
 those who quote the hackneyed proverb, "Charity begins 
 at home," as an excuse for hardness of heart abroad, 
 neither begin charity at home nor anywhere else. Follow 
 them to their families and their homes; you will find 
 them exhibiting the same coldness and callousness in the 
 domestic circle which they evince to general humanity. 
 Every generous emotion is in its nature elastic, and
 
 66 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 naturally labours to widen the sphere of its influence: 
 the first impulse 
 
 Serves the virtuous mind to wake, 
 As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake ; 
 The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds, 
 Another still, and still another spreads; 
 Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace, 
 His country next, and next all human race. 
 
 But there are minds like stagnant pools whose surface 
 has never been moved, where the undisturbed waters 
 grow putrid and corrupt, until they taint the air with 
 a moral miasma. To such a one, quoting the proverb, 
 " Charity begins at home," it was once justly replied, 
 " Sir, I should be glad to learn that your charity began 
 anywhere." 
 
 To the rational Owenites, if such exist, it would be 
 sufficient to say that the aggregate happiness of a 
 community must be exactly equal to the sum of the 
 separate felicities of the individuals that compose it. 
 The sophism by which they impose upon themselves is, 
 that society has a right to benefit at the expense of the 
 individual. This is by no means a cruel proposal ; it 
 was an acknowledged principle of action in all the 
 Greek republics. Now it would be easy to shew that 
 society has no such right, but it is more important to 
 observe that such a principle would confer no benefit. 
 Suppose a society thus constituted, and every thing 
 must be made to yield to its original institutes. There 
 can be no progress, for enthusiasm and character are 
 equally banished. Enthusiasm can only be generated 
 by freedom of individual action ; character can only be 
 formed by spontaneous development. The Owenite 
 tells us that his community will be held together by
 
 OF BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 67 
 
 social love, and at the same time proceeds to banish all 
 natural love, kindliness, and generosity; that is, he 
 proposes to hold mankind in union by a chain, every 
 link of which he has previously unfastened. This is 
 the exact converse of the fable of the old man and the 
 bundle of sticks, for the sticks are to be broken sepa- 
 rately before the attempt is made to unite them into 
 a whole. 
 
 We trust that this little digression will be pardoned, 
 for in shewing the importance of the family in the com- 
 parison of barbarism and civilization, it was scarcely 
 possible to avoid noticing the preference shewn for the 
 barbarous usage by some who call themselves civilized 
 men. Unfortunately this preference is not confined to 
 the domestic relations; we shall find, as we proceed, 
 that many of the essential principles of barbarism are 
 advocated by persons who profess to be apostles of 
 civilization.
 
 68 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SOCIAL RELATIONS PROPERTY. 
 
 WE have already seen that the State is simply or- 
 ganized society, without any reference to the legislative 
 or executive power, by which that society is regulated. 
 Government is an additional contrivance to facilitate 
 the execution of the purposes for which society was 
 instituted, and thus it becomes an essential part of the 
 state, but not the state itself. We often see eleven 
 rowers manage a boat without the aid of a helm or 
 steersman, but we know that their labour is lightened, 
 their safety secured, and their certainty of reaching 
 their destination increased by the addition of a rudder. 
 No one, however, asserts the rudder to be the boat, or 
 the pilot the crew. It is of importance to keep this 
 distinction constantly before us, because most writers 
 have confounded the origin of the government with the 
 origin of the state, and have reasoned as if the form 
 came into existence at the same moment with the 
 substance. 
 
 We have seen that the principle of sociality, natural 
 to man, is first developed in the family; that a little 
 society is formed within the hallowed precincts of the 
 domestic circle, the advantages of which are the more 
 appreciated the more they become the objects of ex- 
 perience and reflection. The prevailing idea in the 
 family, that which renders its association so admirable
 
 SOCIAL RELATIONS. 69 
 
 and so holy, is love ; not the sentiment or passion 
 known by that name, but the continued action of 
 sacrificing personal and individual considerations to 
 promote the happiness of the beloved object or objects. 
 A very little consideration will shew that any wide ex- 
 tension of such sacrifices is impracticable ; their moral 
 loveliness arises from the sphere in which they are 
 exercised, and common sense would stigmatise the man 
 as unjust who would do no more for his own child than 
 he would for a stranger. 
 
 When the principle of sociality extends beyond the 
 family, as it naturally tends to do, it developes a new 
 idea that of justice, or securing to every person his in- 
 dividual right. In the state every obligation is mutual; 
 no duty is exacted from a member for which he does 
 not receive an equivalent, obedience to social law is 
 rewarded by social protection, and every extraordinary 
 exertion for the common good is rewarded by the hope, 
 if not by the enjoyment of fame. 
 
 The state and the family, therefore differ, not only 
 in size, but in the essentials of their constitution ; at 
 the same time, however, it is undeniable that there 
 have been stages in the history of humanity, when the 
 ideas of state and family were closely interwoven, and 
 almost blended together. They were mixed up in the 
 patriarch, they were continued when the family grew 
 into a tribe, they were not always formally separated 
 when the tribe became a nation. But the idea of 
 justice is not the only one that first acquires a distinct 
 existence when it is developed and enlarged; every 
 institution, every art, and every science begins in an 
 undefined state, mixed up with others, and is not sepa-
 
 70 SOCIAL RELATIONS : 
 
 rated or distinctly developed until carried to a consider- 
 able distance from its source by the onward progress of 
 civilization. Were the same person in our days to hold 
 the offices of Astronomer Royal, Architect to the Board 
 of Works, and Archbishop of Canterbury, he would be 
 assailed by a storm of indignant ridicule, which would 
 drive him out of society ; yet, the uncontrolled direction 
 xjf physical science, architecture, and theology, was 
 committed to the Egyptian priesthood. Painting and 
 writing were originally the same art, they are now 
 very different arts. All the parts of the oldest watches 
 were made by the same artist : there are now distinct 
 trades for the manufacture of almost every individual 
 piece. 
 
 The confusion between a family and a state has 
 been the source of much evil. Dr. Copleston, the 
 present bishop of Llandaff, has very ably shewn the 
 danger of arguments from analogy : there is a natural 
 tendency in the human mind to infer a similitude 
 between things themselves from a similitude between 
 their relations, and when once the first step in error 
 has been made, the discovery of the fallacy becomes a 
 matter of considerable difficulty. A monarch is fre- 
 quently represented as the father of his subjects, and 
 there is sufficient similarity in the mutual relations of 
 king and father to justify the metaphor, but assuredly 
 there is not such an identity in their conditions as 
 to justify monarchs in treating their subjects like 
 children who had not reached the years of discretion. 
 The Athenian republic was called the mother of the 
 citizens; and from the title it was inferred that the 
 republic might compel rich citizens to provide enter-
 
 PROPERTY. 71 
 
 tainments and theatrical shows for the people, to fit 
 out vessels of war for common defence, and support 
 other public burthens, on the principle of a mother 
 compelling a child to share a large plumcake with its 
 brothers and sisters. This fallacy of paternal and 
 maternal government has not been less mischievous 
 in its love than in its cruelty and caprice ; it generated 
 a mischievous spirit of meddling, which would not allow 
 people to be happy or to become prosperous in their 
 own way. Bounties, protecting duties, and monopolies 
 were devised with the best intentions; regulations 
 were issued, directing what processes should be used 
 and what avoided, until merchants and manufacturers 
 combined in the common request, " Let us alone !" 
 Nor has the fallacy on the other hand failed to in- 
 fluence subjects and citizens ; they very commonly 
 expect from ministers and parliaments, what neither 
 ministers nor parliaments can bestow ; nations, like 
 individuals, have sometimes taken fits of sulkiness, and 
 assailed their rulers for inactivity when they had de- 
 prived them of all means of exertion ; the Romans of 
 old refused to enlist, and at the same time accused 
 their rulers for not repelling the incursions of the 
 Volsci. If the fallacy has occasionally made rulers 
 appear as injudicious parents on the one hand, it has 
 exhibited the subjects as pettish children on the other. 
 The state is a society founded upon the relation of 
 right. We have next to inquire, what is right? We 
 have seen that man is a moral being, that is, a free 
 agent, and yet that he is bound to live in society, 
 which of necessity must limit his freedom of action. 
 For, as all his fellows have the same claims, it is
 
 7Z SOCIAL RELATIONS : 
 
 necessarily a condition of society, a law of its existence, 
 that the use of freedom by one should not contravene 
 the enjoyment of liberty by another. Man does not 
 create the relation of right, it conies into existence 
 at the same instant with society; the upholding and 
 enforcing that right is the object of society, constituted 
 as a state. 
 
 There is no error more common than confounding 
 what society has unfolded and promulgated, with what 
 society has called into existence. The most striking 
 example of this is the right of property, which, from 
 its acquiring, additional strength and security by the 
 progress of society, is very commonly supposed to have 
 been an invention of society. The golden age, when 
 all things were common, has been celebrated by poets 
 and philosophers without number ; even grave divines 
 have asserted, that the division of property was a 
 consequence of the iniquity of man. It is not easy 
 to discover whether this community of property so 
 lauded, was an attribute of men individually, or of men 
 in society, but in either case the theory rests on an 
 obvious fallacy ; namely, that things which were not 
 owned by any individual were the property of all, the 
 fact being that they were the property of none. 
 
 Who is the owner of the uncaught fish in the ocean, 
 or the unplucked fruit in a pathless forest ? They 
 become the property of him by whom they are first 
 taken : " this fish is mine, for I have caught it ;" 
 " these berries are mine, for I have plucked them," 
 are claims at once recognised, but they should at once 
 be rejected, if the fruits and fishes were the property of 
 all mankind. Their title is established by the most
 
 PROPERTY. 75 
 
 forcible and conclusive of arguments the exclusion 
 of all the contraries " to whom should this fish or 
 fruit belong if not to me 1" 
 
 Appropriation being universally recognised as a title, 
 the notion of community of property must be aban- 
 doned. But appropriation, so far from being a super- 
 induced attribute of man, is natural to him in every 
 stage of society and in every age of life. " Property/' 
 says Lieber, "is nothing else than the application of 
 man's individuality to external things, or the realiza- 
 tion and manifestation of man's individuality in the 
 material world." The desire of appropriating objects 
 making them, as it were, a part of the individual self 
 and thus rescuing them from undefined generality, 
 meets us everywhere. A child, only two years old, 
 calls one hyacinth hers, and another her brother's, 
 although she knows that neither will be permitted 
 to touch the glasses in which they are growing. 
 Children, looking together at passing clouds, at leaves 
 floating on a stream, or even at waves breaking on the 
 shore, will single out one of these objects as their 
 own ; will dispute whether the favoured cloud is the 
 brighter, the chosen leaf the best swimmer, or the 
 selected wave loudest in its roar. In our foundling 
 hospitals and charity schools, every child is desirous to 
 have something which it may call its own ; the galley- 
 slave, toiling at the oar, and the monarch seated on his 
 throne, equally desire to impress their individuality 
 upon some species of property, some object that may 
 be called " mine." 
 
 We do not always meet with the notion of landed 
 property among uncivilized tribes ; but every savage is 
 
 E
 
 74 SOCIAL RELATIONS: 
 
 " monarch of his shed," the fish-hook he has made, 
 the beasts he has hunted, and the canoe for which he 
 has bartered, are his own. The notion of community 
 has never entered into his head, he would resent every 
 attempt to deprive him of these objects as a gross 
 outrage. 
 
 Private property must necessarily exist so long as 
 man possesses individuality; no complaint of the very 
 poets who loudly celebrate the imaginary community 
 of goods is more melancholy, than that no harvest is 
 reaped by their own sickle. But an attempt has been 
 made in our own days to realize this poetic dream, 
 which has excited no small share of public attention, 
 and which therefore requires more examination than 
 either its merits or its novelty could reasonably demand. 
 The social system as this effort to revive forgotten 
 folly is designated professes to abolish all the crimes 
 resulting from the possession of property, by establish- 
 ing a community of goods. Such a proposal has often 
 been made before, and is not unlikely to be frequently 
 revived so long as society can be divided into what Sir 
 E. L. Bulwer felicitously terms "the Have-nots" and 
 " the Haves." It is therefore worth while to inquire 
 whether such a scheme be practicable, and if practicable, 
 whether its adoption would be beneficial to mankind ? 
 The two questions are very distinct in their nature, but 
 it is scarcely possible to discuss one without taking 
 some notice of the other. 
 
 The first objection to the schemes of the Socialists, 
 as they choose to call themselves, is that they do not 
 abolish private property. Corporate possessions are 
 as much private property as individual acquisitions.
 
 PROPERTY. 75 
 
 Robert Owen does not assert that all property should 
 be common, but merely that all property belonging to 
 the denizens of some square or parallelogram, some 
 species of social barrack, should be common to the 
 members of that community. He . does not assert, 
 though he is careful not to deny, that the property 
 of said community should not be shared by other 
 communities. The property, therefore, of the social 
 barrack is as much private, as the property of an 
 English municipality or a Franciscan monastery. At 
 the best his proposal is merely to establish a Mutual 
 Assurance Company, and he has so far succeeded that 
 the stock of assurance possessed by himself and his 
 followers is of very remarkable amount. But we may 
 be told that this objection would be obviated if an 
 entire nation adopted the barrack, or, as it is falsely 
 called, the social system. This does not mend the 
 matter; for that nation would undeniably have a right 
 to insist on its joint-stock property, against the claims 
 of any other nation. There is a significant hint in one 
 of Robert Owen's pamphlets, recommending that the 
 young should be instructed in the manual and platoon 
 exercise; so that these social barracks are, like older 
 establishments, to be not merely civil, but military. 
 It is then a mere delusion, if not a downright fraud, 
 to talk about the abolition of private property, when 
 at most it is only proposed to transfer the right of 
 property from an individual to an association. 
 
 Again, it is untrue that the right of property is ever 
 abolished with regard even to the individuals in any 
 social barrack. Not to speak of that monopoly of talk 
 and of time which every socialist desires to establish in
 
 76 
 
 SOCIAL RELATIONS 
 
 his own favour, it is certain that men cannot be equal 
 in their physical and mental acquirements. Nature 
 herself has bestowed capacity, as private property, on 
 every individual, and that property is inalienable and 
 incommunicable. The clever and skilful artist will 
 execute his task in a shorter time than he who is not 
 gifted with the same powers ; he will, therefore, have 
 more leisure in the barrack : but time is property, 
 leisure is property, enjoyment is property. Here then 
 is inequality arising from the inevitable laws of nature. 
 The barrack arrangement is to supersede that of the 
 family; but if a person is not to have a pet child, is he 
 to be prevented from having a pet bird, or a tame 
 rabbit ? Is there to be a common snuff-box, a steam- 
 smoking apparatus with branch pipes, and a universal 
 shaving machine to run down the ranks when the 
 members are paraded for the manual exercise, brushing 
 the faces and mowing the beards with the speed of 
 a locomotive ? " These little things are great to little 
 men," comforts and conveniences will always be 
 adapted to the taste of individuals, and the variety of 
 taste will of necessity generate private property in some 
 direction or other. The socialists have been fortunate 
 in finding antagonists who can keep their countenances : 
 had they not been libelled as knaves, they would have 
 been laughed at as fools. 
 
 Let us not be understood to deny that there are cases 
 in which great benefit may be derived from co-operative 
 labour, and co-operative expenditure. Grant to the 
 socialists the benefit of their favourite example of the 
 bee there may be associations that will collect honey, 
 but there may also be associations with nothing of the
 
 PROPERTY, 77 
 
 bee but the sting. Gil Bias was introduced to such 
 a social barrack, established by Captain Rolando, an 
 eminent professor of community of property. More- 
 over the bees turn the drones out of the hive, while 
 the socialists propose that drones and working bees 
 should share alike. But the co-operative principle has 
 been known since the creation of the world ; "Abel was 
 a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground :" 
 it exists in every united family, in every banking and 
 commercial company but, so far from being averse to 
 private property, it is actually founded upon it; for 
 individual exertion preceded united exertion, and led 
 the way to the discovery of its advantages. 
 
 But socialism, we are boastingly told, has made 
 many converts, no doubt of it : there are two ways 
 of gratifying vanity and self-love, raising one's self 
 up, or pulling others down, the latter plan appears 
 generally the easiest of accomplishment. In those 
 preeminently social compacts, trade-unions, the great 
 object of the regulations is to prevent the intelligent 
 artisan gaming a higher rate of wages than the botch ; 
 the barrack system is the mere application of the same 
 principle on a larger scale. 
 
 But we are told that the barrack system will destroy 
 covetousness, avarice, and their consequent train of 
 evils. We should be glad to know if these eminent 
 moralists have ever given themselves the trouble of 
 inquiring what covetousness is. It is nothing more 
 than the vitiated excess of a principle originally inno- 
 cent and even laudable. We have shewn that the desire 
 of property springs naturally and necessarily from our 
 constitution as human beings ; it is, as we have said.
 
 78 SOCIAL RELATIONS : 
 
 an inevitable result of individuality. As the desire is 
 universal, its vitiated excess must be common. But to 
 propose the destruction of that vice by the abolition of 
 private property, is not one whit more sensible than to 
 recommend the disuse of food as a check to gluttony, 
 or the abolition of language as a prevention to socialists 
 talking nonsense. 
 
 Finally we are told that a community of property 
 existed among the first Christians. The fact is ques- 
 tionable (see " Hind's Rise and Progress of the Chris- 
 tian Religion") ; but supposing that it were ever so well 
 established, the early Christians found it practicable 
 only so long as they remained a small sect and an 
 oppressed church ; they were held together by the bond 
 of mutual love, not mutual advantage, and having a 
 further uniting force the pressure from without the 
 physical force of persecution. 
 
 If we are asked when was property divided? we 
 answer by the previous question, when was it common ? 
 for if it was never common, the necessity for supposing 
 a division ceases. If it be inquired when was it first 
 appropriated? the answer is, when the first man breathed 
 the first breath of air, and appropriated a portion of the 
 atmosphere to the exclusive use of his own lungs ; the 
 process was then continued by his plucking fruit for 
 food, sewing fig-leaves together for aprons, and using 
 the skins of beasts for clothing. To a certain extent 
 private property is recognised even by the lower 
 animals ; birds have their own nests, beasts their own 
 lairs, and are ready to do battle against all intruders. 
 
 Having shewn that individual property, not com- 
 munity, is natural to man ; it remains to point out the
 
 PROPERTY. 79 
 
 advantages of its existence. In the first place, it is 
 absolutely essential to the individuality of man, to his 
 continuing a moral being, personally responsible for 
 his actions. Men, united in society, are not like drops 
 of liquid, merged into a single and uniform mass ; they 
 are united, but not amalgamated. The greatness, the 
 goodness, the energy and the activity of each, are 
 manifested only in the individuality of each, and all 
 these manifestations are associated with the acquisition 
 of property, which is nothing more than the extension 
 of man's individuality to the material world. Man 
 strives to gather property that he may see his own, his 
 personal skill, industry and perseverance, visibly and 
 palpably represented. " It is a fixed law of nature, 
 that industry working either with the hand or with 
 the mind the application of the powers to some task, 
 to the achievement of some result, lies at the founda- 
 tion of all human improvement/' 
 
 Though the notion of property is natural to man, 
 and not only beneficial, but absolutely essential to his 
 well-being, yet it does not suggest itself to his mind at 
 once, perfect in all its bearings. It is a notion pre- 
 eminently capable of progressive and continuous deve- 
 lopment. We have already shewn that every thing 
 which characterises man as man, every condition 
 essential to his humanity, appears clearer and more 
 distinct, with every advancing stage of civilization, 
 which consequently must be the true end, and not the 
 artificial aim of human society. This is preeminently 
 the case with respect to property: and no instance 
 more strongly shews that, on the one hand, all that is 
 natural to man, all that is essentially characteristic of 
 him, unfolds itself more perspicuously with the pro-
 
 80 SOCIAL RELATIONS: 
 
 gress of civilization ; and on the other, whatever shews 
 itself in a steady gradation more perspicuously with the 
 progress of civilization, is truly natural. 
 
 Looking at the differences between barbarous and 
 civilized life in their relations to property, we find that 
 they differ not as to the matter but the means. The 
 processes of the individualization of things with us are 
 few and simple, they may all be reduced to production, 
 appropriation, and occupancy by recognised tenure; 
 interference with the possession is at once seen and 
 confessed to be not merely a trespass against the 
 arbitrary enactments of society, but a violation of that 
 natural equity which is independent of all political 
 arrangements. Simple as these notions appear, it is 
 by civilization that they have been simplified; among 
 all savage tribes they are overwhelmed by a multitude 
 of devices, which have falsified and perverted the prin- 
 ciples of rectitude. Theft or robbery is not considered 
 disgraceful by the savage : all the early voyagers found 
 these children of nature ready to pilfer every thing on 
 which they could lay their hands; and the crews of 
 several ships have been cruelly massacred for the mere 
 sake of the plunder. In fact, a savage scarcely deems 
 theft or robbery a moral crime, unless it is accompanied 
 with a breach of hospitality, confidence, or friendship. 
 They are strong adherents to what has been called 
 
 The good old rule, the simple plan, 
 That they should take who have the power, 
 And they should keep who can. 
 
 Assuredly the poet of freebooters was mistaken in 
 ascribing to this "good old rule" the merit of sim- 
 plicity; on the contrary, it is one of the most compli- 
 cated plans in the world : there is, on the one hand,
 
 PROPERTY. 81 
 
 a constant appetite of aggrandizement not unfrequently 
 directed to objects of doubtful or even impracticable 
 attainment, there is, on the other, an equally restless 
 apprehension of losing what has been attained. The 
 action of both feelings necessarily generates a multitude 
 of artifices and contrivances, compared with which the 
 most complex problems in the law of property are the 
 very perfection of simplicity. The study of " Fearn's 
 Contingent Remainders" is a mere joke compared with 
 the remainders contingent on the forays of plundering 
 tribes. 
 
 It is evident that the barbarian recognises property; 
 he only differs from the civilized man respecting the 
 mode of acquisition ; he recognises force and fraud as 
 legitimate forms of acquisition, in fact, as branches of 
 industry; he believes power, courage, or cunning, suffi- 
 cient to establish a title, not that every thing belongs 
 promiscuously to every one. Even when civilization 
 has advanced, we find traces of the barbarous title of 
 power and courage being recognised among men. 
 When Telemachus is described in the Odyssey as visit- 
 ing Pylos, and receiving the rites of hospitality from 
 Nestor, the old host, after feasting and praying with 
 him, very coolly inquires whether his guests were mer- 
 chants or pirates ? 
 
 Now, gentle guests ! the genial banquet o'er, 
 It fits to ask you, what your native shore, 
 And whence your race? on what adventure say, 
 Thus far ye wander through the watery way? 
 Relate if business, or the thirst of gain, 
 Engage your journey o'er the pathless main : 
 Or are ye pirates, who through seas unknown, 
 Seek others' lives, and peril thus their own !
 
 82 SOCIAL RELATIONS: 
 
 Telemachus answers the question with the same cool- 
 ness, without feeling at all offended at the suspicion of 
 piracy. We have only to look at the history of the 
 Middle Ages to find robbery by land and sea held not 
 merely innocent but laudable. A proclamation of the 
 English Edward III. sets forth that, " Whereas certain 
 right noble lords and right honourable ladies, do ac- 
 custom themselves to robbery on the high roads, and 
 piracy on the high seas," it had become necessary to 
 check these fashionable amusements, not so much on 
 account of their criminality, as because they diminished 
 the returns to the royal exchequer, by deterring foreign 
 merchants from visiting the country. Roderick Dhu 
 logically argues his right to seize with the strong hand, 
 and brings nature herself to support the argument: 
 
 Ask we the savage hill we tread, 
 
 For fatten'd steer or household bread, - 
 
 Ask we for food those shingles dry, 
 
 And well the mountain might reply : 
 
 " To you, as to your sires of yore, 
 
 Belong the target and claymore ; 
 
 I give you shelter in my breast, 
 
 Your own good blades must win the rest." 
 
 In the reign of Elizabeth and the first James, buc- 
 caneering was no dishonourable profession; men of 
 noble rank, high bearing, and even some who laid 
 claim to religious principle Sir Walter Raleigh for 
 instance recognised "no peace south of the line." 
 Even within our own memory privateering was deemed 
 innocent, and soldiers were considered fairly entitled 
 to the plunder of a town taken by storm. The slave- 
 trade is still deemed a legitimate traffic by nations call- 
 ing themselves civilized and Christian; the protection
 
 PROPERTY. 83 
 
 of aborigines from the violence of settlers, is a duty 
 only just beginning to be acknowledged by statesmen.* 
 
 The natural notions of property are sufficiently plain, 
 and yet we find them warped and perverted by such 
 monstrous devices as those we have described. So far 
 as they at least are concerned, the work of civilization 
 consists in the abolition of the numerous devices by 
 which barbarism has falsified and perverted the natural 
 dispositions of the human heart and understanding, 
 and in the reformation of society upon principles more 
 consistent with their unsophisticated dictates. 
 
 The right of property, leads immediately to the con- 
 sideration of the important question, whether there is a 
 necessary increase of crime in proportion to the progress 
 of civilization? This is merely an inquiry into facts; 
 and yet, practically, it will be found to turn in a great 
 degree on the definition of terms. The word crime is 
 vaguely used for three very distinct classes of offences : 
 violations of natural equity, violations of moral opinion 
 confessedly an arbitrary and variable standard, 
 and violations of conventional rules devised for the con- 
 venience of society. There is a further source of con- 
 fusion, chiefly found in religious writings, a tendency 
 to confound crime with sin, and thus further perplex 
 the subject by introducing a consideration of the divine 
 law; nay more, to increase indefinitely the enactments 
 of that law by exaggerated comments. These varieties 
 of crime differ so much in the amount of their intensity, 
 that millions of one class would not equal a single unit 
 of another. For instance, it is by law a crime for any 
 householder in London not to have the space before his 
 door, after a fall of snow, swept clean at a certain hour 
 
 * See Howitt's History of Colonization and Christianity.
 
 84 SOCIAL RELATIONS : 
 
 before noon, and the penalty for neglect is equally 
 severe with that usually levied for rioting, intoxication, 
 and sometimes for aggravated assaults. Everybody, 
 however, will confess that there is more moral turpitude 
 in any one act of physical violence, than in leaving the 
 snow undisturbed from one end of London to the 
 other. Here then we see that the number of criminals 
 is far from being a correct measure of the amount 
 of criminality. 
 
 The law declares that a gambling debt cannot be 
 recovered; society stigmatises a refusal to pay such a 
 debt, when fairly incurred, as dishonourable. Now 
 suppose a man, or a set of men, regularly taking 
 advantage of the law of opinion to recover when they 
 win, and sheltering themselves under the law of the 
 land to avoid payment when they lose, there would 
 clearly result a large amount of moral, though not of 
 technical crime, which would never form an item in a 
 table of criminal statistics. 
 
 Adultery and seduction are atrocious crimes by 
 divine and moral law, but they are not crimes in the 
 statute book. Breaking a window is a legal offence, 
 but breaking a heart escapes the cognizance of the 
 legislator. There are it seems, sinful, or as they are 
 sometimes termed criminal actions, that are not crimes, 
 and crimes that are not sins or criminal actions. Hence 
 necessarily arises an immense source of error in esti- 
 mating the amount of criminality in any given age or 
 country. It is no doubt true that every advanced stage of 
 society offers new opportunities for crime ; this indeed, 
 is only saying, that when the relations between men 
 are multiplied, the possibility of violating such relations 
 is multiplied in the same proportion. A periodical
 
 PROPERTY. 85 
 
 writer lately assailed railroad travelling, and asserted 
 that the amount of casualties on the road between 
 Birmingham and London was greater than in the days 
 of stage-coaches. Granting that this were the case, 
 the inference would still be in favour of the safety and 
 security of railroad travelling, because the number of 
 passengers travelling by the trains, bears a far greater 
 proportion to the amount who travelled by coaches 
 than the causualties under the new system does to the 
 old. The proper business of the state is to protect and 
 regulate the relations of society, to foster the use and 
 prevent the abuse ; but a possibility of abuse is inherent 
 in every new relation, and hence the number of punish- 
 able and indictable offences necessarily increases with 
 the progress of civilization. But to prove that crimi- 
 nality increases, it is necessary not only to shew an 
 additional per centage in reference to the population, 
 but also to the relations established between the mem- 
 bers of that population. There can be no forgery 
 where there is not the art of writing, and no picking 
 of pockets where everybody goes naked. 
 
 Mr. C. "W. Dilke has directed our attention to 
 another very important consideration. We must na- 
 turally expect most lapses where there is most tempta- 
 tion; but on the other hand a greater amount of virtue 
 is exercised, or called into being, by resistance to 
 temptation. Criminal returns give us only the number 
 of those who have fallen, but where are we to seek for 
 the records of that unbending integrity which has 
 triumphed over countless trials of which the barbarian 
 and the rustic are wholly ignorant ? The entire system 
 of commercial credit and confidence, is an exhibition of 
 virtue the merits of which are rarely appreciated. It
 
 86 SOCIAL RELATIONS : 
 
 was an intimate knowledge of human nature, that 
 dictated the petition, " Lead us not into temptation !" 
 it is a prayer which should teach us the duty of 
 charitable judgment. "Whenever I hear of transgres- 
 sion," said an eminent divine, " I do not say, thank 
 God that I have not so fallen ! but thank God that I 
 have riot been so tempted !" In all fairness the amount 
 of virtue in resisting temptation should be taken into 
 account, as well as the amount of vice in yielding to 
 temptation, when we proceed to investigate the crimi- 
 nality produced by civilization. 
 
 Some writers, misled by M. Guerry's " Criminal 
 Statistics of France," have not hesitated to infer that 
 education in France is the parent of crime. Taking 
 his returns as they stand, and omitting the very im- 
 portant corrections which Mr. Porter has shewn to be 
 necessary, let us see what is really the inference to be 
 deduced from his tables. The greatest amount of 
 offences against property is to be found in those dis- 
 tricts where intelligence is most generally diffused. 
 But those are also the departments in which there are 
 most branches of industry, most activity of commerce, 
 and the greatest accumulation of wealth, so that in fact 
 the only justifiable inference would be that there is 
 most crime against property wherever there is most 
 property ; an assertion which nobody will be disposed to 
 controvert. Pockets cannot be picked where there is 
 nothing in them, nor frauds practised where there is no 
 traffic. There is no poaching where there is no game.* 
 
 * It is said that an intelligent artisan of Manchester, whose experi- 
 ence of life was limited to the precincts of the manufactories, ex- 
 pressed his surprise that poaching should be considered as a crime, 
 since he found it an excellent mode of dressing eggs !
 
 PROPERTY. 87 
 
 Mr. Francis Clarke, of Birmingham, has pointed out 
 another source of error. An increase in the criminal 
 returns may prove, not an increase in crime, but in the 
 vigilance of the police. Many offences are winked at 
 in one state of society, which are strictly repressed in 
 another. Faction-fighting, at Irish fairs, was, until very 
 recently, permitted, or at least connived at by the 
 magistrates, and the number of persons now punished 
 for the offence swells the criminal calendar, but adds 
 nothing to the real amount of crime in the country. 
 There is an old saw applied to sportsmen, 
 
 What is hit is history, 
 
 But what is mist is mystery. 
 
 It is no less applicable to criminal returns; it is a very 
 conceivable state of things, to have the gaols most empty 
 when crime is most abundant. At the last meeting of 
 the British Association, a document was read, tending 
 to shew that the mining districts are the most moral in 
 England; but before admitting the inference, it was 
 proposed that it be referred to the geological section, 
 to determine at what distance beneath the surface of 
 the earth the Queen's writ ceased to run. 
 
 The number of offences against law must necessarily 
 be modified by the number of offences created by law. 
 Now, there is a tendency in human nature to multiply 
 these offences beyond what the necessity of the case 
 requires. Whatever people have a right to do they will 
 do, especially if it involves some privilege. Luther, 
 enumerating " the nine qualities and virtues of a good 
 preacher," gives as the sixth, "that he should know 
 when to stop." In the same way as preachers, lawyers 
 and parliamentary orators speak too much, legislators
 
 88 SOCIAL RELATIONS: 
 
 are found to legislate a little too much. " I could 
 never obtain a grant of sixpence/' said a celebrated 
 statesman, " but I could always carry a felony without 
 benefit of clergy." In almost all acts of police, there 
 is more or less of vexatious and interfering legislation, 
 because those who undertake to direct the morals of 
 the poor, are generally ignorant of the habits of the 
 poor, and consequently frame enactments that provoke 
 their own violation. 
 
 It is with morality as with vitality; the forms of vice 
 and the forms of death are multiplied, but criminality 
 and mortality are not increased. We may look on our 
 criminal statutes as on the boxes and bottles of an 
 apothecary's shop; remedies are provided for diseases 
 of which our ancestors never heard, or to which they 
 submitted as trifling inconveniences unworthy of notice. 
 On the first appearance of a cough we hasten to gargles, 
 pills, mixtures, and all the combinations of drugs that 
 can be expressed in bad writing and worse Latin. 
 With them, the cough often continued to the coffin. 
 In spite however of the multitudinous diseases, and in 
 spite or in consequence of the still more multitudinous 
 drugs, there is no statistical fact better ascertained, 
 than that the average duration of human life has been 
 increased by the progress of civilization. 
 
 Let the tables of criminality be examined like the 
 tables of mortality look not to the numerical amount 
 of diseases or of crimes, but to the absolute amount of 
 guilt and of death. Thus viewed, the official returns 
 which have been published, and which seem to prove 
 an increase in the number and variety of crimes, are 
 far from being discouraging: they do not justify the
 
 PROPERTY. 89 
 
 feelings of apprehension, with which the progress of 
 humanity is so often viewed, nor the cry of alarm that 
 is so often raised;* they do indeed hold out motives 
 for continued exertion and increased energy for mea- 
 sures of prevention and vigilance not to stop the 
 progress of degradation, but to accelerate the advance 
 of amelioration. 
 
 It has been necessary to depart a little from the 
 usual order of viewing the social relations of the state 
 to its members, and to consider protection of property 
 before protection of person, because the two most 
 common errors respecting civilization are connected 
 with property: the first, that property is the creature 
 of society; and the second, that violations of property 
 are produced by civilization. Though few hold these 
 opinions in their extremes, they are found very com- 
 monly mixed up with most speculations and reasonings 
 on the subject, and it was therefore necessary to remove 
 difficulties which lay at the very threshold of our 
 inquiries. 
 
 * " Alarm/' says Dr. Dewey, " appears to he one of the epidemic 
 diseases of the age. Every religious association, every little spiritual 
 coterie, every school of sect, speculation, and philanthopy, is trembling 
 for the fate of the world. Aow, the philosophy of the world is 
 going to ruin it; then, its extravagance, intemperance, licentiousness, 
 is to do the work; then popery, heresy, infidelity, is elevated to this 
 bad eminence in mischief. The danger from some of these quarters 
 I freely admit; but is it really worth while to observe through how 
 many prophecies of ruin, through how many critical and doomed 
 periods, the world has lived. Truly, one is sometimes tempted to say 
 to these alarmists Good sirs, have a little patience, the world is likely 
 to last our time; the purposes of Providence will stand, though you 
 be disappointed in some of your favourite theories and projects." 
 
 Moral Views of Commerce, etc., p. 215.
 
 90 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SOCIAL RELATIONS PERSONAL SECURITY. 
 
 WE have shewn that the State is natural to man, and 
 exists of necessity; but there remain two points to be 
 examined, which are very commonly misrepresented. 
 It is often said, that " every man, coming into society, 
 abandons a portion of his natural rights to protect the 
 remainder." No man ever did any such thing; the 
 state exists, not to absorb individuality, but to enable 
 each individual to obtain the true ends of his existence. 
 It takes away no natural right, it only requires that 
 each right should be advantageously exercised. It does 
 not necessarily deprive a man of freedom, it only pre- 
 vents each from injuring the other. A man is not 
 robbed of his gun when he is forbidden to shoot his 
 neighbour, nor is he deprived of the use of his limbs 
 when prevented from committing an assault. The 
 dream of a social compact, that is of individual men 
 agreeing to form a society, has perplexed a very simple 
 subject, and led to the sophism, that the prohibition of 
 the abuse is a restriction on the use. But the laws of 
 nature would be as great restraints as the laws of 
 society were this the case: a man may walk as he 
 pleases, but if he throw the centre of gravity back- 
 ward or forward too much, he will get a severe fall; 
 he may exercise his hands as he pleases, but if he
 
 PERSONAL SECURITY. 91 
 
 cut the carotid artery he will die; he may eat what 
 he likes, but he will not find arsenic safe food, nor 
 Prussic acid wholesome drink. The state, in direct- 
 ing the use and preventing the abuse of the human 
 faculties and powers, does no more than what nature 
 itself has done. Hence the eminent Selden, in his 
 notes to Fortescue, truly says, "But in truth, and to 
 speak without perverse affectation, all laws in general 
 are originally equally ancient. All were grounded upon 
 nature, and no nation was, that out of it took not their 
 grounds; and nature being the same in all, the begin- 
 ning of all must be the same." Victor Cousin, in his 
 History of Philosophy, takes a more extensive view. 
 " That which men have been pleased to call society, in 
 a state of nature is nothing more than a state of war, 
 where the right of the strongest reigns, and the idea 
 of justice comes not at all, or comes only to be trodden 
 under foot by passion Justice established, con- 
 stitutes the state. The use of the state is to cause 
 justice to be respected by means of force; and it acts 
 in conformity with an idea which is inherent in that of 
 justice, to wit, that injustice ought not only to be 
 
 repressed but punished The state takes no 
 
 notice of the infinite variety of human elements which 
 were conflicting amidst the chaos and confusion of 
 natural society; it does not embrace the whole man; 
 it considers him only in the relations of the just and 
 the unjust that is to say, as capable of committing or 
 receiving an injury that is to say again, as capable of 
 impeding or being impeded by others, by fraud or 
 violence, in the exercise of that agency which, so far as 
 it is inoffensive, ought to be voluntary and free. Hence
 
 SOCIAL RELATIONS: 
 
 are derived all legal duties and all legal rights. The 
 only legal right is that of being respected in the peace- 
 able exercise of liberty; the only duty I speak now 
 only of civil order is that of respecting the liberty of 
 others. Justice is no more than this; justice is the 
 maintenance of reciprocal liberty. The state then does 
 not put a limit to liberty, as has been sometimes said, 
 for it only developes and confirms it." 
 
 It appears from these considerations, that man sacri- 
 fices no right to society or the state; it remains then to 
 consider, whether man derives right from the state. 
 This would undoubtedly be the case if we accepted the 
 common definition of right, that it is " nothing but 
 lawfulness, or that which the law permits." But that 
 this is an erroneous account of right, must appear 
 evident on a very little reflection. If law be antecedent 
 to right, where did the legislator acquire his right to 
 make laws? It is not positively enacted by English 
 law, that a man may do every thing which is not pro- 
 hibited by law, but the principle is universally recognised. 
 Where then does this right come from ? If we were to 
 regard law as conventional the mere expression of the 
 arbitrary will, either of a legislator or of society we 
 should deprive it of its highest sanction; but all law- 
 givers have appealed to an authority superior to all con- 
 ventional establishments. " GOD spake these words and 
 said," is the introduction to the decalogue Lycurgus 
 sought a confirmation to his code by an appeal to the 
 Delphic oracle. To the imprint stamped on all created 
 things by their Creator, every code refers as its ultimate 
 source; even the Atheist bows to this authority, while 
 he tries to deceive himself by calling it nature.
 
 PERSONAL SECURITY. 93 
 
 The theory that laws are merely conventional, that 
 the rights of humanity exist only in consequence of a 
 social compact, we have shewn to be a mere poetic 
 fiction ; for had not society previously existed, no com- 
 pact could have heen framed. Even as a conventional 
 formula, it is an awkward circuitous way of arriving at 
 a truth, M'ithout the previous belief of which, the con- 
 tract itself would be nugatory. The very notion of a 
 contract assumes original rights in the community, 
 inherent in the very nature of man, and independent 
 of all social institutions. The feigned contract adds 
 nothing, and presupposes every thing, whether it exist 
 or not : we must still, as men, have the rights which 
 mankind, simply as mankind, possessed. The fiction, 
 then, is only an indirect mode of asserting original 
 rights which the very contract takes for granted in the 
 contractors. It is not by the sacrifice of rights, but 
 for the preservation of rights, that society exists. 
 
 The doctrines of the divine right of kings, passive 
 obedience, and non-resistance, are not based, as many 
 have endeavoured to prove, on absolute falsehood, but 
 on a mistaken view of a simple truth. The state is, as 
 we have said, a society founded on right, existing 
 naturally and necessarily, and therefore designed for 
 man by his Creator. It may consequently be said to 
 be of divine institution. Being a natural, that is, a 
 divine institution, every member singly must owe some 
 duties to the members collectively ; and of course, all 
 members collectively must have certain rights, and 
 consequently certain duties towards each man singly. 
 Some machinery must exist for enforcing the fulfilment 
 of these duties ; the government is the instrument by
 
 94 SOCIAL RELATIONS : 
 
 which the state fulfils its functions ; and hence the 
 divine rights belonging to the state have been some- 
 times believed inherent in the government. It is a 
 simple transfer of the attribute of the substance to the 
 accident. 
 
 It is scarcely a digression to add a few words on a 
 subject so deeply important, and so open to misrepre- 
 sentation. Many persons believe, that though the 
 theory of the divine right of governments is not an 
 absolute truth, yet that it ought to be kept as a con- 
 venient formula for expressing the duty of obedience. 
 But the formula is liable to the same objection as the 
 fiction of the social compact it is unnecessary, and it 
 is an obscure mode of stating a very simple truth. The 
 duty of obedience arises from the very nature of society. 
 " It is our duty to obey, because mankind, or at least 
 that large portion of mankind which we term our 
 country, would suffer in its rights if we were not to 
 obey." Hence, even imperfect governments are found 
 to possess a powerful hold on the obedience of the 
 wise and good; hence the tendency to insurrection is 
 found to diminish with the progress of civilization. 
 Knowledge is the great conservative principle of society. 
 A constable with his simple staff, claims and receives 
 that obedience in England which an Oriental despot 
 cannot enforce without the presence of an army. Popu- 
 lar ignorance is perilous to every government, but 
 especially to a representative government. In the 
 remarkable words of Dr. Dewey, "A representative 
 government represents the character of the people, and 
 that government which represents prevailing ignorance, 
 degradation, brutality, and passion, has its fate as cer-
 
 PERSONAL SECURITY. 95 
 
 tainly sealed, as if from the cloud that envelopes the 
 future, a hand came forth and wrote upon your moun- 
 tain-walls the doom of utter perdition." 
 
 Security of obedience cannot safely be based on any 
 fiction, neither on the contract to which we were not 
 parties, nor on the imaginary transfer of right from the 
 state to the government. Its sure foundation is the 
 knowledge, that obedience is essential to the public 
 weal, to the general happiness of the community, to 
 the maintenance of the rights of each individual sepa- 
 rately, and the rights of society collectively. Edmund 
 Burke, with his usual force and truth, says, "The 
 speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought 
 to end, and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, 
 and not easily definable. It is not a single act, or a 
 single event which determines it. Governments must 
 be abused and deranged indeed, before it can be thought 
 of; and the prospect of the future must be as bad 
 as the experience of the past. When things are in 
 this lamentable condition, the nature of the disease is 
 to indicate the remedy to those whom nature has qua- 
 lified to administer, in extremities, this critical, ambi- 
 guous, bitter potion to a distempered state. Times, 
 and occasions, and provocations, will teach their own 
 lessons. The wise will determine from the gravity of 
 the case ; the irritable from sensibility to oppression ; 
 the high-minded, from indignation at abusive power in 
 unworthy hands ; the brave and bold, from the love of 
 honourable danger in a generous cause : but with or 
 without right, a revolution will be the very last resource 
 to the thinking and the good." 
 
 In another passage we find this great statesman
 
 96 SOCIAL RELATIONS: 
 
 pointing out, with similar clearness, the true conser- 
 vative principles of human society. " In every arduous 
 enterprise/' says he, " we consider what we are to lose, 
 as well as what we are to gain; and the more and 
 better stake of liberty every people possess, the less 
 they will hazard in a vain attempt to make it more. 
 THESE ARE THE CORDS OF MAN." 
 
 The same great authority observes, that it is not by 
 forms or by statutes, but by pervading principle, that 
 the framework of society is held together. " Do you 
 imagine," he asks, " that it is the land-tax which raises 
 your revenue ? that it is the mutiny-bill which inspires 
 your army with bravery and discipline ? No ! surely no ! 
 It is the love of the people; it is their attachment to 
 the government, from the sense of the deep stake they 
 have in such a glorious constitution, which gives you 
 your army and navy, and infuses into both that liberal 
 confidence, without which your army would be a base 
 rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten timber." 
 
 Right being natural, and not conventional, it follows 
 that the state does not create original rights ; but that, 
 in order to protect them, it modifies their mutual ope- 
 ration, publicly acknowledges, limits and sanctions them. 
 In the same way the state does not create value, it 
 merely recognises its existence, stamps coin to represent 
 it, and makes regulations for its exchange. "Chris- 
 tianity" has been declared, on high authority, "part 
 and parcel of the law of England ;" but no one would 
 assert that therefore the Christian religion is the 
 creature of English law. One of the Lateran councils 
 proclaimed the necessity of believing in the immor- 
 tality of the soul, but assuredly it was not the vote of
 
 PERSONAL SECURITY. 97 
 
 the assembled fathers that rendered the soul immor- 
 tal. The French Convention decreed their belief in a 
 Supreme Being, but this was only recognising a belief 
 which previously existed. 
 
 Right being natural, that condition of society must 
 be most accordant with nature, in which human rights 
 are most fully developed, and best protected. This 
 principle immediately leads to the exposure of the 
 fallacy, that the barbarian possesses more liberty than 
 the civilized man. Absolute liberty a total freedom 
 from all restraints save those imposed by the conscience 
 and understanding can only exist in the exceptional 
 cases of individuals totally isolated from society. Of 
 such liberty no estimate can be formed a standard of 
 comparison is wanting : one thing, however, is clear ; 
 that such a state can neither be very desirable, nor 
 very valuable; because the few who have been found 
 in such a condition, differ little, if at all, from beasts 
 in their lair. Wherever there is society, there must of 
 necessity be law ; there must be restraint. 
 
 Political liberty the liberty belonging to man in 
 his natural, that is to say, in the social state has been 
 justly defined, by Lord Plunket, to be protection in 
 doing every thing not prohibited by law. Obedience to 
 law is, consequently, a necessary element of freedom ; 
 for law being instituted to protect the exercise of indi- 
 vidual rights, a violation of law is not so much an 
 exercise of individual freedom as an intrusion on the 
 rights of others. Let us take fiscal regulations as 
 an example : the smuggler evades the payment of 
 duties on certain articles of consumption, and argues 
 his right to purchase what he requires as cheap as he 
 
 F
 
 yo SOCIAL RELATIONS: 
 
 can ; but nothing is more clear, than that his exercise 
 of this right violates the rights of others. It sounds 
 harsh, but it is nevertheless true, that the smuggler 
 robs his neighbours ; for they must be taxed to make 
 good the deficiency which he causes in the revenue : 
 a right is not destroyed when its exercise is modified; 
 on the contrary, it may be thus rendered more valu- 
 able and perfect. We are not prevented from eating 
 and drinking because disease is attendant on gluttony 
 and intoxication : the rules for regulating riding and 
 driving on the public road do not prevent travelling ; 
 on the contrary, they enable all to travel with ease and 
 safety. 
 
 The misconceptions which prevail on this subject 
 arise from the primary error, of a natural state of man 
 and a natural liberty having no reference to society. 
 Civil liberty is falsely judged by an imaginary and 
 negative standard. It is believed that the less you 
 are required to give up of your supposed original 
 liberty, the greater will be the amount of civil liberty. 
 Such a notion is radically wrong. It assumes society 
 to be a human institution, a conventional contrivance ; 
 whereas we have shewn that it is not only natural, but 
 absolutely necessary to the existence of man, since, 
 without it, he would be a naked rover of the forests, 
 a miserable fugitive before its other savage tenants, 
 and the most helpless of all living things. 
 
 Liberty, then, is not to be measured by the greater 
 or less absence of restraint; unless, indeed, we take 
 the account of it said to have been given by a heated 
 partisan of faction. " I wish I were free, I wish I 
 were free !" exclaimed this worthy gentleman. " And
 
 PERSONAL SECURITY. 99 
 
 are you not free ?" asked a friend. " Can you not do 
 as you please ?" " Ay," he replied, " but I cannot 
 make you do as I please !" Is this what is meant by 
 original liberty ? 
 
 Restraint is not inconsistent with liberty, because 
 there is no giving up of any thing which we formerly 
 possessed. We are forbidden to bear false witness 
 against our neighbour. But as Lieber justly asks, "had 
 we ever the right to speak against our neighbour ?" 
 In the supposed state of original liberty, man had no 
 neighbours. He might, of course, mutter to himself 
 what he chose, and we may say against our neighbour 
 any thing we like, provided we take care that no one 
 overhears the calumny. Designing and intending the 
 death of the sovereign or the overthrow of the govern- 
 ment is highly penal in every civilized society ; but in 
 the imaginary original condition, the natural man is 
 his own sovereign and his own government ; if he be 
 guilty of designing and intending against himself, he 
 will assuredly have to pay the penalty. 
 
 Liberty, then, exists in the degree in which a man's 
 action and activity in all just and right things are un- 
 fettered by the action and activity of others. Hence 
 the absence of law and government, in so far as these 
 restraints are really wanting in the savage state, is not 
 favourable to liberty, or the source of happiness, but is 
 the great curse and blight of a barbarous condition. 
 In truth, it is only of the protecting power of the laws 
 that the people are deprived, of their controlling and 
 oppressive efficacy they feel more than enough. What- 
 ever of independence exists, belongs to the chiefs alone, 
 and they are generally subject to the caprice of a more
 
 100 SOCIAL RELATIONS : 
 
 powerful head, the only constitutional check on whose 
 tyranny, is the dread of assassination. The character 
 of a barbarous sovereign the only kind of monarch 
 found in the savage state is forcibly drawn by the 
 prophet Samuel: 
 
 "This will be the manner of the king that shall 
 reign over you : he will take your sons, and appoint 
 them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horse- 
 men; and some shall run before his chariots. And he 
 will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains 
 over fifties ; and will set them to ear his ground, and to 
 reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, 
 and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your 
 daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to 
 be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vine- 
 yards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and 
 give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth 
 of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his 
 officers and to his servants. And he will take your 
 menservants, and your maidservants, and your good- 
 liest young men, and your asses, and put them to his 
 work. He will take the tenth of your sheep : and ye 
 shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out on that 
 day because of your king which ye have chosen you ; 
 and the LORD will not hear you in that day." 1 Sam. 
 viii. 1118. 
 
 Nor is the state of society better when the royal 
 authority is either weak or wanting. The condition 
 of Palestine under its worst tyrant was not so bad as 
 when "there was no king in Israel, and every man did 
 that which was right in his own eyes." As there is 
 nothing fixed and nothing defined, every savage is
 
 PERSONAL SECURITY. 101 
 
 almost constantly interfering with his neighbour. The 
 sower is not sure that he will be the reaper; the 
 hunter having run down the chase, is not sure that 
 another man will not start fresh from the bush, and 
 intercept his prey. Ere Latium became civilized, the 
 same word, hostis, signified both an enemy and a 
 stranger. Kidnapping and slavery, in their worst 
 forms, are invariably found in savage life. There is, 
 unfortunately, no doubt that slavery has existed in 
 countries claiming a high degree of civilization; but 
 this remnant of barbarism has always been restricted, 
 both by positive law and by the force of public opinion. 
 Even in the slave-states of America, a tyrannical and 
 cruel master is an object of general odium. There are 
 times, indeed, when the cowardice of fear prompts the 
 whites to measures of sanguinary precaution, as, indeed, 
 must always be the case, wherever there is a legalised 
 ascendency; but except when influenced by such a 
 passion, civilized society resents the infliction of wanton 
 cruelty. But in barbarous nations, slavery is unre- 
 stricted; there are no limits to the power of the 
 master and there is no definition of his relations to 
 the slave. A New Zealand chief puts a cookee to death 
 with as little compunction as a European brushes away 
 a fly. Captain Cruise informs us that when a son of one 
 of the chiefs died in Mr. Marsden's house in New South 
 Wales, it required the interposition of that gentleman's 
 authority to prevent some of the boy's countrymen 
 who were with him from killing a few of their slaves 
 in honour of their deceased friend. 
 
 That civilization is more favourable to personal 
 liberty than barbarism, appears evident from the fact,
 
 102 SOCIAL RELATIONS: 
 
 that all who have aided the progress of civilization, as 
 legislators and reformers, have directed their attention 
 to a mitigation of the horrors of slavery whenever they 
 found its complete abolition impossible, under existing 
 circumstances. The humane institutions of Moses are 
 generally known. Theseus prohibited cruelty to slaves 
 when he began a constitution in Attica; and, ever 
 afterwards, those who fled from the cruelty of their 
 masters, found an asylum in his temple. Even Mo- 
 hammed extended his care to this oppressed class, in 
 a chapter revealed at Medina, and, consequently, 
 belonging to the later and triumphant portion of his 
 career, when his object was rather to confirm his 
 authority than to gain favour. " Unto such of your 
 slaves," says he, "as desire a written instrument allow- 
 ing them to redeem themselves on paying a certain 
 sum, write one, if ye know good of them; and give 
 them of the riches of God, which he hath given you." 
 Al Beidawi, in his Commentary, declares, on the 
 authority of tradition, that the Prophet extended this 
 precept to all Moslems, whether masters or servants, 
 requiring them to aid slaves in making up the amount 
 of their ransom, and to assist those who had purchased 
 freedom in obtaining the means of honest livelihood.* 
 It is not easy, under any circumstances, to reconcile 
 
 * That the horrors of slavery were mitigated by every advance in 
 civilization, is also evident from the preference which slaves themselves 
 hare always evinced for servitude in a city rather than in a rural dis- 
 trict. When Horace wanted to check the insolence of a slave, his 
 most formidable threat was, that he would send him to work on his 
 Sabine farm. In America, slavery is not found in the commercial 
 and manufacturing states, but only in the agricultural states of the 
 union.
 
 PERSONAL SECURITY. 103 
 
 the existence of slavery with that of political liberty. 
 In the indignant words of Lord Brougham, " What is 
 freedom where all are not free, where the greatest of 
 God's blessings is limited by the most paltry of all 
 distinctions a difference of colour ? . . . The existence 
 of slavery in America is an atrocious crime a crime 
 which makes the name of liberty half suspected, and 
 the boast of it disgusting/' . . . But there is another 
 aspect under which it is of importance that this subject 
 should be viewed ; we must look not only to the yoke 
 imposed upon the slave, but to the moral servitude 
 inflicted upon the master. The dread of a servile Avar, 
 or at least of a domestic insurrection, is almost ever 
 present to his mind ; the cowardice of fear drives him to 
 precautions which only aggravate his danger ; for there 
 is a point where excess of weakness passes into excess 
 of strength ; it is the point where endurance abandons 
 hope, and grasps despair. 
 
 Most persons have heard of a form of insanity once 
 common in the islands of the Indian Archipelago, 
 which was called " running a muck;" but it is not 
 generally known that this perilous madness was engen- 
 dered by servitude. " The old accounts of Java," 
 says Count Hagendorp, "teem with stories of the 
 Amokspewers, who, in their blind rage, ran through 
 the streets, killing or wounding all they met, until 
 they even cut down themselves. These displays have 
 become exceedingly rare since the abolition of the 
 slave-trade. They were chiefly the recently-imported 
 Bouginians or Bolinians, who, regretting their country, 
 their parents, a wife or a child, became desperate ; or 
 who, unable to execute commands which they did not
 
 104 SOCIAL EELATIONS : 
 
 comprehend, and fearing punishment, felt a disgust 
 for life, which rapidly passed into madness. They 
 seized the first weapon on which they could lay their 
 hand, and struck at random all who came in their way, 
 knowing beforehand that they would themselves fall 
 in turn, and that death would terminate their suffer- 
 ings." How can a man be said to enjoy liberty, when 
 the energies of despair are every hour developed around 
 him ; when his personal safety requires incessant vigi- 
 lance, and when his life is at the mercy of those who 
 have learned to place no value on their own. 
 
 Every account we have received of barbarous society 
 is decisive in its statement of the fact, that there is 
 very little protection for person or property. So much, 
 indeed, is this the case, that in many instances it would 
 seem as if total isolation were a preferable condition. 
 This furnishes an additional argument against those 
 who believe society to be a mere human institution, for 
 the advantages of society are not perceptible in what 
 have been called its earliest stages ; they are only deve- 
 loped when society has considerably advanced. 
 
 Nobody has described slavery as a natural condition 
 of society ; its origin is usually ascribed either to pro- 
 gress, or to a corrective principle applied to a super- 
 induced evil. Slaves were probably at first captives 
 taken in war, and their services were deemed a ransom 
 given for life. This was certainly an improvement on 
 indiscriminate massacre, but it was an improvement 
 which suggested making war for the sake of obtaining 
 captives, and this naturally led to piracy and kidnapping. 
 Though there are no natural principles in humanity 
 which lead to barbarism, we shall find that men have
 
 PERSONAL SECURITY. 105 
 
 the power of so perverting natural principles as to de- 
 rive from them the very opposite of the purposes for 
 which they were implanted. The love of power is not 
 necessarily bad in its origin ; it is connected with the 
 desire or urgency of action which is inherent in our 
 nature, and which, like the love of acquisition, urges 
 man to individualize the objects by which he is sur-. 
 rounded, and to stamp on the external world the 
 imprint of himself. The difference between men is 
 not about the end, but the means. In the anecdote 
 already quoted, of the father who said to his son, 
 " Take your physic, master Tommy, and you shall 
 have the dog to kick/' is embodied all the sophistry 
 with which tyrants, whether in wide or contracted 
 spheres, have deluded their supporters, since the crea- 
 tion of the world. Master Tommy was tempted by 
 an opportunity for exercising his love of activity ; his 
 anxiety to act, to produce, to exert his faculties in 
 short, to display power. The father's error was not 
 the giving an opportunity for the exercise of power, 
 but it was the direction of the power to an improper 
 object : had he promised a top to spin, instead of a dog 
 to kick, the bribe would, in all probability, have been 
 equally effectual. 
 
 There can be no doubt that barbarism has a ten- 
 dency to generate a state of slavery; for we find such 
 a condition among all uncivilized nations, save where 
 it is limited by the difficulty of procuring subsistence ; 
 for it is the essential attribute of power that, if un- 
 checked, it will continue to increase. Civilization alone 
 supplies the check, and, consequently, civilization is 
 necessary, not merely to the enjoyment, but even to the
 
 106 SOCIAL RELATIONS. 
 
 possession of freedom. Liberty arises out of the deve- 
 lopment of society; it is indeed a natural principle, 
 but then it is a principle which requires both sanction 
 and protection. Like property, it has been acknow- 
 ledged, in some form or other, from the earliest ages ; 
 as civilization advanced it became more clearly denned, 
 more distinctly recognised in the various spheres of 
 human activity and enterprise, spheres which could 
 not have existed or been maintained without civiliza- 
 tion.
 
 107 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 STATE OF NATURE WAR. 
 
 ONE of the strangest, and at the same time one of the 
 most common misrepresentations respecting a state of 
 barbarism is, that it is a scene of universal love and 
 harmony. The dreamers who have published their 
 visions of an original condition of ignorance and inno- 
 cence, averred that the union which bound man to man 
 under such circumstances, was a spirit of spontaneous 
 love, leading each to delight in the brotherhood of his 
 kind, and thus gathering together all the members of 
 the tribe into one affectionate and harmonious family. 
 A close examination of savage life has reversed the 
 picture ; instead of being a state of universal love and 
 harmony, it is commonly one of perpetual discord and 
 violence. We have shewn that the feeling of right is 
 natural to man, and that the efficacy of civilization 
 is most sensibly experienced in defining, strengthening, 
 and securing the rights both of the individual and the 
 community; but where rights are unsettled and unde- 
 fined, wrongs must be frequent, and recourse must be 
 had to violence for that redress which no law exists to 
 afford. 
 
 When the right of redressing his own wrongs is left 
 to every individual, injuries are felt most deeply, and 
 revenge is sought with unrelenting rancour. In civi- 
 lized life we too frequently see the fatal influence of
 
 108 STATE OP NATURE : 
 
 such a principle; the worst outrages are usually per- 
 petrated by those who " take the law into their own 
 hands," a servile war, a Jacquerie, or an agrarian 
 insurrection, are far more to be dreaded than plague, 
 pestilence, and famine. But these horrors, which are 
 found occasionally in civilized states, constitute almost 
 the entire history of savage existence : no time can 
 obliterate the memory of an offence, and no expiation 
 can be received for injury but the blood of the offender. 
 It is not altogether to the encroachments of the Whites 
 that we must attribute the rapid disappearance of the 
 Red men from America; at least as destructive a cause 
 is the inveterate passion of the Indians for war, and 
 their insatiate thirst for vengeance. In a future chap- 
 ter, we shall see that there is strong evidence to prove 
 that depopulation had commenced among the abori- 
 gines of North America long before the New World 
 was visited by Europeans, and since that period, tribes 
 have disappeared from the interior, which never were 
 brought into contact with the white intruders. 
 
 Mr. Kolff, in his recent examination of the Indian 
 Archipelago, found the islanders invariably engaged in 
 war, and, conscious of the mutual sufferings they in- 
 flicted on themselves, most of them expressed anxiety 
 that the Dutch would establish their supremacy over 
 all parties, and become umpires in their quarrels. One 
 example will shew from what trifling causes a series of 
 sanguinary feuds may arise and be perpetuated. The 
 following is his account of the enmity which had arisen 
 against the people of the Romian, in the Tenimber 
 islands : 
 
 "The people of Romian happened to have more
 
 WAR. 109 
 
 success in the Trepang fishery than the people of the 
 other villages during two successive years, which gave 
 rise to an envious feeling on the part of their neigh- 
 bours, which was increased by a Chinese vessel having 
 remained at Eomian to trade, while only one of the 
 China-men belonging to her proceeded to Ewena to 
 barter with the inhabitants. These circumstances gave 
 rise to distrust and estrangement, and the people of 
 both villages began to avoid each other, though with- 
 out coming to an open rupture. 
 
 " A third accidental circumstance which occurred, 
 tended to enlarge the breach. While the children 
 belonging to the two villages were playing with small 
 bows and arrows, a child from Ewena happened to 
 wound slightly one of those from Romian. The inha- 
 bitants of the latter place, viewing the accident as an 
 intentional offence, demanded satisfaction, and when- 
 ever parties from each village met, they proceeded from 
 words to blows, and at length broke out into open war 
 with each other. Each party robbed the other of their 
 women, destroyed their fisheries, and put a stop to 
 their agriculture, becoming more embittered at the 
 occurrence of every deed, until at length, a few weeks 
 before my arrival, a downright skirmish ensued, in 
 which the people of Ewena had one man killed and 
 nine wounded, while ten belonging to the other party 
 were wounded also. 
 
 " The people of Ewena being the less powerful of 
 the two, demanded assistance from the inhabitants 
 of Aweer. The parties now became so exasperated, 
 that there existed no possibility of those who had not 
 entered into the quarrel being able to pacify them, and
 
 110 STATE OP NATURE : 
 
 the strife soon extended to Larrat, and even to the 
 more distant Serra, where individuals influenced by 
 family connexions took up the cause of one or the other 
 party." 
 
 The New Zealanders, in many respects the most 
 remarkable barbarous nation with which we are ac- 
 quainted, do not yield to any other in savage ferocity; 
 their wars are incessant, and frequently arise from the 
 most trivial causes. A feud, which Mr. Marsden had 
 the good fortune to reconcile just as it was about to 
 lead to sanguinary outrages, will give a very good idea 
 of their propensity to war on the most trivial occasion. 
 
 " When Mr. Marsden visited the neighbourhood of 
 the Shukehanga in 1819, he found a quarrel about 
 to commence between two of the principal chiefs whose 
 lands lay contiguous, and who were also, as it appeared, 
 nearly related in consequence of the pigs of the one 
 having got into the sweet potato grounds of the other, 
 who had retaliated by shooting several of them. The 
 chief whose pigs had committed the trespass, and whom 
 Mr. Marsden was now visiting, was an old man, appa- 
 rently eighty years of age, named Warremaddoo, who 
 had now resigned the chief authority to his son Ma- 
 tanghee : yet this affair rekindled all the ancient enthu- 
 siasm of the venerable warrior. The other chief was 
 called Moodeewhy. The morning debate, at which 
 several chiefs spoke with great force and dignity, had 
 been suddenly interrupted; but it was resumed in the 
 evening, when Mr. Marsden was again present. On 
 this occasion, old Warremaddoo threw off his mat, took 
 spear, and began to address his tribe and the chiefs. 
 He made strong appeals to them against the injustice
 
 WAR. Ill 
 
 and ingratitude of Moodeewhy's conduct towards them 
 recited many injuries which he and his tribe had 
 suffered from Moodeewhy for a long period, men- 
 tioned instances of his bad conduct in the time that 
 his father's bones were removed from the Aboodu Pa 
 to their family vault, stated acts of kindness which he 
 had shewn to Moodeewhy at different times, and said 
 that he had twice saved his tribe from total ruin. In 
 the present instance, Moodeewhy had killed three of 
 his hogs. Every time he mentioned his loss, the recol- 
 lection seemed to nerve afresh his aged sinews ; he 
 shook his hoary beard, stamped with indignant rage, 
 and poised his quivering spear. He exhorted his tribe 
 to be bold and courageous, and declared that he would 
 lead them in the morning against the enemy, and 
 rather than submit, he would be killed and eaten. All 
 that they wanted was firmness and courage; he knew 
 well the enemies they had to meet their hearts did 
 not lie deep ; and if they were resolutely opposed, they 
 would yield. His oration continued nearly an hour, 
 and all listened to him with great attention. This 
 dispute, however, partly through Mr. Marsden's inter- 
 cession, who offered to give each of the indignant 
 leaders an adze if they would make peace, was at last 
 amicably adjusted, and the two, as the natives expressed 
 it, were made both alike inside. But Mr. Marsden was 
 a good deal surprised on observing old Warremaddoo, 
 immediately after he had rubbed noses with Moodee- 
 why in token of reconcilement, begin, with his slaves, 
 to burn and destroy the fence of the enclosure in which 
 they were assembled, belonging to Moodeewhy, who, 
 however, took no notice of the destruction of his pro-
 
 112 STATE OP NATURE : 
 
 perty thus going on before his face. Upon inquiry, he 
 was told that this was done in satisfaction for a fence 
 of the old man's, which Moodeewhy had destroyed in 
 the first instance, and the breaking down of which had 
 in fact given rise to the trespass. A New Zealander 
 would hold himself guilty of a breach of the first prin- 
 ciples of honour, if he ever made up a quarrel without 
 having exacted full compensation for what he might 
 conceive to be his wrongs." 
 
 When we find such trifles as a quarrel between chil- 
 dren, the breaking down of a fence, or a trespass com- 
 mitted by pigs, giving rise to sanguinary wars, we can 
 easily believe that causes for hostility must be abundant, 
 and consequently wars incessant. 
 
 The desire of vengeance is the first, and almost the 
 only principle, which a savage instils into the minds 
 of his children. It grows with their growth, and 
 strengthens with their strength ; and as their attention 
 is directed to a few objects, it naturally acquires an 
 intensity unknown in countries where the mind is occu- 
 pied by a variety of avocations and pursuits. The 
 revenge of a savage resembles the blind rage of an 
 animal, rather than the passion of a man; it is often 
 directed against inanimate objects, the stone upon 
 which he falls, the arrow by which he is wounded, 
 the implement which, from his own awkwardness, has 
 failed to accomplish his purpose. But when directed 
 against enemies, the vengeful passions of a savage 
 know no bounds. He neither pities, nor forgives, nor 
 spares. The duration of his vengeance is equal to its 
 intensity; the anecdote already quoted by the lotan's 
 deadly pursuit of his brother, is a fair specimen of the 
 unrelenting vengeance displayed in savage life.
 
 WAR. 113 
 
 Unreflecting persons may, perhaps, be ready to con- 
 clude that when the motives for war are personal, and 
 when the warriors act individually, we should find 
 examples of chivalrous daring and heroic courage, 
 instances of gallant exploits, more ennobling than all 
 the " pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war." 
 No such deeds relieve the ferocity of savage warfare. 
 Its general nature is well described in the following 
 narrative, recorded by Theodore Irving : 
 
 " The black chief (of the Pawnee Indians) had, by 
 some means or other, fallen into disgrace with his 
 people. They shunned him, and refused to admit him 
 into their councils, until by some heroic action he 
 should wipe oiF the stain upon his name. He knew 
 that there was no resource ; that the blood of an enemy 
 would alone retrieve his fame. He determined there- 
 fore to shed it, in a manner which even the most des- 
 perate of his own tribe would not have dreamed of, 
 and which would strike a salutary terror of his name 
 into the hearts of his hostile neighbours. 
 
 " Early one morning, taking his bow and quiver, he 
 left his lodge, and started on foot for the Crow village, 
 about two hundred miles distant. He set out upon his 
 journey without attendants, and singing his death-song. 
 His tribe watched till he was out of sight; they knew 
 not where he was going ; he might return soon, in a 
 day, in a month, and perhaps never. They knew his 
 desperate character; they knew that his errand was of 
 blood; and they doubted not that if he returned, he 
 would bring home trophies sufficient to place him once 
 more at the head of their councils. 
 
 " On the evening of the fourth day, he reached the
 
 114 STATE OF NATURE : 
 
 Crow village ; but waited at a short distance, concealed 
 in a prairie, until it was completely dark. He then 
 entered the village, and passed through its very centre. 
 Several of the inhabitants were stirring, but the dark- 
 ness was so great, that they did not regard him par- 
 ticularly, and he passed on undetected. At length 
 he came to a lodge a little apart from the rest, with a 
 horse standing at the door, tied by a halter of buffalo 
 hair. Peering over the bear-skin, which hung before 
 the inner entrance, he beheld two Indians reclining in 
 front of a fire. A few feet from them, a squaw was 
 pounding corn, in a large wooden mortar; and at a 
 little distance was a child sleeping on the floor. The 
 backs of all were turned towards the warrior, and he 
 hesitated a moment how to act. Drawing forth his 
 knife with his left hand, and grasping his tomahawk 
 in his right, he dashed into the building. With two 
 blows he clove the skulls of the men ; he sheathed his 
 knife in the heart of the woman, and dashed out the 
 brains of the child. Having scalped his victims, he 
 mounted the horse at the door and started off. He 
 had gone but a few paces, before he observed an Indian 
 making for the lodge. He felt a strong hankering after 
 his scalp also ; but there were several other Indians at 
 hand, and he feared detection. Resisting therefore the 
 powerful temptation, he turned away, and galloped for 
 the prairie. Scarcely had he got clear of the village, 
 when it rang with yells and screams; and in a few 
 minutes he heard the clattering of hoofs, and the sound 
 of voices, in hot pursuit. In a night chase, however, 
 the pursued has always the advantage ; he has but to 
 dash forward, while his foes must either stop to keep
 
 WAR. 115 
 
 his trace, or follow at random. So it was with the 
 black chief; and long- before morning, his horse had 
 borne him beyond the sound of pursuit. 
 
 "He reached his village in safety; related his tale, 
 and displayed his scalps. They hesitated not a moment 
 to believe him ; for in recounting his exploits an Indian 
 never lies. He was received with honour, and once 
 more resumed his place in the councils of his nation. 
 
 " This is a picture of Indian warfare to steal like 
 an assassin upon an unarmed enemy, and butcher him 
 without the slightest chance of resistance. Blood is 
 what he seeks no matter whether from the veins of 
 man or woman, infancy or age. A scalp is his trophy; 
 and is alike glorious, whether silvered with age, or torn 
 from the reeking head of a youthful warrior. With the 
 savage, a hankering for blood is ambition; a relentless 
 fury in shedding it, renown." 
 
 In his description of the lotan, the most favourable 
 specimen of an Indian chief he had seen, Mr. Irving is 
 again compelled to record the horrible features of savage 
 warfare. " His countenance, though calm and grave, 
 had a mild expression not usually met among Indians. 
 His whole demeanour was prepossessing, and when he 
 spoke, his voice was like soft music. He was a favourite 
 with most of the wild traders in that part of the coun- 
 try, on account of his generous character. If a stranger 
 entered the village, he was the first to welcome him to 
 his lodge, and to protect him from the insults of the 
 meaner spirits of his nation. Yet even with this 
 chivalrous nature, he was an Indian warrior; and an 
 Indian warrior is little better than a murderer. He 
 had counted as many scalps as any of his nation; but
 
 116 STATE OP NATURE: 
 
 those of hoary age, of the woman and the child, were 
 hanging in the smoke of his lodge, in companionship 
 with those of the war-worn warrior ." 
 
 Baron Meyendorff's narrative of his journey from 
 Orenburgh to Bokhara, published some years ago at 
 the expense of the Russian government, contains many 
 striking illustrations of the barbarity displayed in the 
 wars between the wild tribes of Central Asia. As the 
 book is little known, we shall translate a short extract, 
 omitting some details unfit for publication. 
 
 " I saw several examples of the inhumanity of the 
 Kirghiz, one particularly attracted my attention. Several 
 of those who accompanied us, having imagined that 
 they recognised in a beggar, a person who had been 
 engaged in the plunder of their horde, seized his horse 
 and clothes, tied his hands behind his back, and would 
 have cut off his head, only for the interference of the 
 chief. The mendicant was released, but he had great 
 difficulty in escaping from the injuries and insults with 
 which he was overwhelmed. 
 
 " I was witness to another scene, still more illustra- 
 tive of their ferocity. The sultan, Harun Ghazi, who 
 accompanied us, sent on some hundreds of his men in 
 advance, who, without our knowledge attacked the aoul 
 (village) of the sultan Manem-beg Janghaze, one of his 
 enemies, attached to the party of the Khan of Khiva. 
 The prudent Manem-beg, forewarned in time of his 
 adversary's intentions, had escaped; but his wives, his 
 brother Yakash, and all his flocks, became the prey of 
 the Kirghiz of Harun Ghazi. We saw them near the 
 Sir-deria (the ancient Juxartes). The flocks were 
 driven to Bokhara; and the women, lodged in three
 
 WAR. 117 
 
 tents, were exposed to the brutality of the brothers of 
 
 the Sultan The Kirghiz, so far from pitying 
 
 their fate, spoke of it as a good joke. ' It is the con- 
 queror's right/ said they, ' and no one can gainsay 
 it/ Yakash, guarded by five Kirghiz, followed Harun 
 Ghazi, mounted on the worst horse that could be found. 
 Unfortunately, Yakash had, some months before, acted 
 as a guide to a party of Khivians, who had pillaged the 
 aoul of Harun Ghazi. The poor young man was about 
 twenty-two years of age, handsome and finely formed; 
 but now, foreseeing the fate that awaited him, he was 
 cast down and broken in spirit. 
 
 "An old Kirghiz went up to the Sultan and said 
 to him ' my children were massacred during the late 
 incursion of the Khivians; Yakash was their destroyer; 
 God and man ordain that I should avenge their death/ 
 Harun Ghazi was constrained to deliver up the captive 
 though he was his cousin-german, and the young man's 
 fate was decided. The old Kirghiz came behind Yakash, 
 who was on horseback, and fired at him but missed 
 him. In an instant the other Kirghiz threw themselves 
 on the unfortunate man, stripped off his dress for fear 
 of soiling it, and, deaf to the prayers of the victim, cut 
 his throat as mercilessly as if he were a sheep, with one 
 of the small knives which they usually carry about them; 
 they then spurned his corpse, and gashed it with their 
 lances, to glut their rage against this unfortunate 
 young man/' 
 
 The treatment of captives is one of the most revolt- 
 ing features in savage warfare, and it is the custom 
 which has most obstinately been maintained, in spite 
 of the exertions of missionaries. When the Jesuks
 
 118 STATE OF NATURE : 
 
 first undertook the conversion of the Canadian Indians, 
 they honourably exerted themselves to lessen the hor- 
 rors of the incessant wars they witnessed, but in gene- 
 ral they found that they only exposed themselves to 
 danger, without effecting anything in favour of the 
 unhappy victim. We shall quote one of their narra- 
 tives, from the old English translation; simply pre- 
 mising that the war to which it refers had commenced 
 long before that part of America was visited by any 
 European nation. 
 
 " One day, the Hurons having advantage in a skir- 
 mish, made an Iroquois chief captive, and he was 
 brought to one of the Huron villages, where the Jesuit 
 fathers were assembled. No sooner was he arrived 
 than it was decreed in an assembly of the ancient 
 savages that he should be presented to one of their old 
 chiefs, to replace his nephew, who had been killed in 
 war, or to be disposed of as he should think proper. 
 Brebeuf, one of the Jesuits, immediately resolved to 
 convert him to Christianity. The captive was clothed 
 in a new beaver habit, and his temples were circled 
 with a kind of diadem. He was surrounded by a troop 
 of triumphant warriors, and seemed to be quite uncon- 
 cerned at his fate. When Brebeuf approached him, he 
 perceived that he had been tortured even before his 
 fate was determined. One of his hands had been 
 crushed between two flints, and had lost a finger. His 
 other hand had lost two, which had been cut off by a 
 hatchet. The joints of his arms had been burned, and 
 a great gash appeared on one of them. All this had 
 been inflicted on the poor wretch before he entered the 
 Huron village ; for he no sooner arrived there than he
 
 WAR. 119 
 
 was treated with tlie greatest endearments, and a young 
 woman was assigned him for his wife. Such was this 
 barbarian's situation when he was converted by Bre- 
 beuf; and he is esteemed to be the first adult convert 
 that ever was made of the Iroquois nation, being bap- 
 tized by the name of Joseph. 
 
 " All this while the captive was loaded with caresses, 
 and Brebeuf was permitted to take him to his tent 
 every night ; but his sores now became putrid and full 
 of worms. To increase his misery, he was carried in 
 triumph from village to village, and wherever he came 
 he was obliged to sing, so that sometimes his voice 
 entirely failed him; nor had he the least respite, but 
 when he was alone with Brebeuf and the other mission- 
 aries. At last he was conveyed to the village where 
 the chief lived who was to decide upon his fate. The 
 captive presented himself with a perfectly unconcerned 
 air to his supposed uncle, who, after surveying him, 
 talked to him in the following strain : f Nephew, you 
 cannot imagine the joy I conceived, when I understood 
 that you were to supply the place of him I have lost; 
 I had already prepared a mat for you in my cabin, and 
 it was with the utmost satisfaction that I resolved to 
 pass the rest of my days with you in peace : but the 
 condition in which I see you, forces me to alter my re- 
 solution. It is plain that the pains and tortures you 
 endure must render your life insupportable to yourself, 
 and you must think that I do you a service in abridging 
 its course. Those who have mangled you in this manner 
 have caused your death. Take courage, therefore, my 
 dear nephew, prepare yourself this evening to shew you 
 are a man, and that you are superior to the force of
 
 120 STATE OF NATURE: 
 
 torments.' The captive heard this discourse with the 
 greatest indifference, and only answered with a resolute 
 voice that it was well. The sister of the deceased then 
 served him with victuals, and caressed him in the most 
 affectionate manner, while the old chieftain put his 
 own pipe into his mouth, with the most tender demon- 
 strations of parental love. Towards noon, the captive, 
 at the expense of his supposed uncle, made his funeral 
 feast, and while the inhabitants of the village were 
 assembled around him, he harangued them as follows : 
 ' Brethren, I am about to die; divert yourselves boldly 
 around me; be convinced that I am a man, and that I 
 neither fear death, nor any torture you can inflict.' He 
 then began a song, in which he was joined by the war- 
 riors who were present. He was then presented with 
 victuals, and when the feast was ended he was carried 
 to the place of execution, which is called the cabin of 
 blood (or, heads cut off), and always belongs to the 
 head of the village. About eight o'clock in the even- 
 ing, all the savages of the village being assembled, the 
 young men who were to be executioners of the tragedy, 
 forming the first row round the prisoner, were ordered 
 by one of their infernal elders to behave well, meaning 
 thereby to put him to the most excruciating tortures. 
 The prisoner was then seated on a mat, where his hands 
 were tied, and then rising, he danced round the cabin, 
 singing his death song all the time, and then replaced 
 himself upon the mat. One of the elders then took 
 from him his robe, which he said was destined for 
 a chief whom he named, adding that such a village was 
 to cut off his head, and that another should have his 
 arm, with part of his body, for a feast. Father Brebeuf
 
 WAR. 121 
 
 having vainly interceded for mercy, receiving no reply, 
 but threats of a like fate if he continued to interfere, 
 encouraged the victim to suffer with the sentiments of 
 Christianity, which he did with the most surprising 
 firmness, without dropping the least reproachable word. 
 He even talked of the affairs of his nation with as much 
 indifference as if he had been at home with his family. 
 Eleven fires had been kindled to torment him ; and the 
 elders said it was of consequence that he should be 
 alive at sun rising, for which reason his tortures were 
 prolonged to that time, when the barbarians, fearing 
 that he would expire without iron (another of their 
 barbarous superstitions), carried him out of the village, 
 and cut off one of his feet, a hand, and his head, which 
 were disposed of as proposed, while his body was 
 thrown into a cauldron." 
 
 It would be easy to multiply anecdotes of the exe- 
 crable tortures inflicted by the Indians on their pri- 
 soners, but there is a horrid sameness in all the 
 narratives, which renders the task repulsive and dis- 
 gusting. There is, however, a still more revolting 
 practice connected with the subject, on which a few 
 words must be said, cannibalism, the feeding on human 
 flesh, is found in most barbarous tribes ; a practice so 
 revolting to our nature, that its existence anywhere was 
 denied, until it was established by irrefragable evidence. 
 
 We find in every part of the New World, on the 
 continent and in the islands, entire communities, tribes, 
 and nations, remarkable for this practice. It prevailed 
 in both the Americas, in the Oceanic Archipelago, and 
 in many of the clusters of Polynesia. Even where 
 circumstances had abolished the practice, traces of its 
 
 G
 
 122 STATE OF NATURE : 
 
 former existence were preserved in the language. " Let 
 us go and eat that nation," was the phrase by which 
 the Iroquois announced their purpose of making war, 
 though they had ceased to be cannibals before they 
 became known to Europeans. It subsisted in the 
 comparatively civilized empire of Mexico, and relics of 
 it were discovered among the mild inhabitants of Peru. 
 In New Zealand, the eating of human flesh is not 
 merely an excess of occasional revenge, but is actually 
 a luxurious gratification of appetite. Sir Stamford 
 Raffles has given a more complete account of the can- 
 nibalism practised by the Battas, an extensive and 
 populous nation of Sumatra, than we possess of the 
 practice among any other people, and we shall therefore 
 extract a portion of the account from his letter to Mr. 
 Marsden. 
 
 " I have found all you say on the subject of canni- 
 balism more than confirmed. I do not think you have 
 even gone far enough. You might have broadly stated 
 that it is not only the custom to eat the victim, but to 
 eat him alive. I shall pass over the particulars of all 
 previous information which I have received, and endea- 
 vour to give you, in a few words, the result of a deli- 
 berate inquiry from the Batta chiefs of Tappanooly. 
 I caused the most intelligent to be assembled, and in 
 the presence of Mr. Prince and Dr. Jack, obtained the 
 following inform'ation, of the truth of which none of us 
 have the least doubt. 
 
 " It is the universal and standing law of the Battas 
 that death by eating shall be inflicted in the following 
 cases: 1st, for adultery; 2nd, for midnight robbery; 
 3rd, in wars of importance, that is to say, one district
 
 WAR. 123 
 
 against another, the prisoners are sacrificed; 4th, for 
 intermarrying in the same tribe, which is forbidden, 
 from the circumstance of their having ancestors in 
 common; and, 5th, for treacherous attacks on a house, 
 village, or person. 
 
 " In all the above cases it is lawful for the victims to 
 be eaten ; and they are eaten alive, that is to say, they 
 are not previously put to death. The victim is tied to 
 a stake, with his arms extended, the party collect in a 
 circle around him, and the chief gives the order to com- 
 mence eating. The chief enemy, when he is a prisoner, 
 or the chief party injured in other cases, has the first 
 selection; and after he has cut off his slice, others cut 
 off pieces, according to their taste and fancy, until all 
 the flesh is devoured. 
 
 "It is either eaten raw or grilled, and generally 
 dipped in sambul (a preparation of Chili pepper and 
 salt), which is always in readiness. Rajah Bandaharra, 
 a Batta, and one of the chiefs of Tappanooly, asserted 
 that he was present at a festival of this kind, about 
 eight years ago, at the village of Subluan, on the other 
 side of the bay, not nine miles distant, where the head 
 may still be seen. 
 
 " When the party is a prisoner taken in war, he i 
 eaten immediately, and upon the spot. Whether dead 
 or alive he is equally eaten, and it is usual even to drag 
 the bodies from their graves, and after disinterring 
 them, to eat the flesh. This only in cases of war. 
 
 "From the clear and concurring testimony of all 
 parties, it is certain that it is the practice not to kill 
 the victim till the whole of the flesh cut off by the 
 party is eaten, should he live so long; the chief or
 
 124 STATE OF NATURE: 
 
 party injured then comes forward, and carries home 
 the head, which he preserves as a trophy. Within the 
 last three years there have been two instances of this 
 kind of punishment within ten miles of Tappanooly, 
 and the heads are still preserved. 
 
 " In cases of adultery, the injured party usually takes 
 the ear or ears ; but the ceremony is not allowed to take 
 place, except the wife's relations are present and par- 
 take of it. 
 
 " In these and other cases, where the criminal is 
 directed to be eaten, he is secured and kept for two or 
 three days, till every person (that is to say, males) is 
 assembled. He is then eaten quietly and in cold blood, 
 with as much ceremony, and perhaps more than attends 
 the execution of a capital sentence in Europe. 
 
 " The bones are scattered abroad after the flesh has 
 been eaten, and the head alone preserved. The brains 
 belong to the chief or injured party, who usually pre- 
 serves them in a bottle for the purposes of charms, 
 witchcraft, etc. They do not eat the bowels, but like 
 the heart; and many drink ;the blood from bamboos. 
 The palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet, are 
 the delicacies of epicures. 
 
 " Horrid and diabolical as these practices may appear, 
 it is no less true, that they are the results of much 
 deliberation among the parties; and seldom, except in 
 the case of prisoners of war, the effect of immediate and 
 private revenge. In all cases of crimes, the party has 
 a regular trial, and no punishment can be inflicted until 
 sentence is regularly and formally passed in the public 
 fair. - Here the chiefs of the neighbouring kanipong 
 assemble, hear the evidence, and deliberate upon the
 
 WAR. 125 
 
 c -ime and probable guilt of the party; when condemned, 
 the sentence is ratified by the chiefs drinking the tuah 
 or toddy, which is final, and may be considered equiva- 
 lent to signing and sealing with us. 
 
 " I was very particular in my inquiries whether the 
 assembly were intoxicated on occasion of these punish- 
 ments. I was assured it was never the case. The 
 people take rice with them and eat it with the meat, 
 but no tuah is allowed. The punishment is always in- 
 flicted in public. 
 
 " The men alone are allowed to partake, as the flesh 
 of man is prohibited to women (probably from an appre- 
 hension that they might become too fond of it) . The 
 flesh is not allowed to be carried away from the spot, 
 but must be consumed at the time. 
 
 " I am assured that the Battas are more attached to 
 these laws than the Mohammedans are to the Koran, 
 and that the number of the punishments is very consi- 
 derable. My informants considered that there could 
 not be less than fifty or sixty men eaten in a year, and 
 this in times of peace; but they were unable to estimate 
 the true extent, considering the great population of the 
 country; they were confident, however, that these laws 
 were strictly enforced, wherever the name of Batta was 
 known; and that it was only in the immediate vicinity 
 of our settlements that they were modified and neglected. 
 For proof, they referred me to every Batta in the vici- 
 nity, and to the number of skulls to be seen in every 
 village, each of which was from a victim of the kind. 
 
 " With regard to the relish with which the parties 
 devour the flesh; it appeared, that independent of the 
 desire of revenge, which may be supposed to exist
 
 126 STATE OF NATURE : 
 
 among the principals, about one half of the people eat 
 it with a relish, and speak of it with delight; the other 
 half, though present, may not partake. Human flesh 
 is, however, generally considered preferable to cow or 
 buffalo beef, or hog, and was admitted to be so, even 
 by my informants. 
 
 " Adverting to the possible origin of this practice, it 
 was observed, that formerly they ate their parents when 
 too old for work; this, however, is no longer the case, 
 and thus a step has been gained in civilization. 
 
 " It is admitted, that the parties may be redeemed 
 for a pecuniary compensation, but this is entirely at the 
 option of the chief enemy or injured party, who, after 
 his sentence is passed, may either have his victim eaten, 
 or he may sell him for a slave; but the law is, that he 
 shall be eaten, and the prisoner is entirely at the mercy 
 of his prosecutor. 
 
 " The laws by which these sentences are inflicted, 
 are too well known to require reference to books, but 
 I am promised some MS accounts which relate to the 
 subject. These laws are called huhum pinang an from 
 depang an, to eat law or sentence to eat. 
 
 " I could give you many more details, but the above 
 may be sufficient to shew that our friends, the Battas, 
 are even worse than you have represented them, and 
 that those who are still sceptical have yet more to 
 learn." 
 
 The practice of cannibalism, in New Zealand, has 
 been established by the concurrent testimony of all 
 who have visited the country. Those who have had 
 opportunities for close examination, inform us that the 
 revolting practice appears to have originated in the
 
 WAR. 127 
 
 superstitious belief, that those who partook of the ban- 
 quet would imbibe some portion of the heroism for 
 which the deceased was distinguished. This explanation 
 only applies to those who have been slain in battle, but 
 it is the custom with the New Zealanders to kill and 
 eat their slaves. It is probable, however, that the slaves 
 are offered as sacrifices, and that feeding upon them is 
 an act of homage to the manes of a chief, or to an idol. 
 But however this may be, nothing is more certain, than 
 that a depraved and unnatural appetite, when once 
 formed, has a tendency, not only to continue, but to in- 
 crease. This is notoriously the case with the dirt-eaters 
 of the West Indies, and in a similar instance, which 
 came within the author's knowledge. A young girl, 
 about nine years of age, contracted a habit of chewing 
 cinders; she had indulged it for some time before she 
 was discovered, and then every possible effort was made 
 to cure her of it. The utmost watchfulness failed, and 
 she died a victim, to her depraved appetite. A friend, 
 whose name I am not at liberty to mention, has favoured 
 me with notes of a conversation with a man, who, under 
 pressure of famine at sea, had eaten a part of one of his 
 companions. He declared, that the feeling of disgust 
 disappeared at the second or third meal, and did not 
 return during the five days that the crew were reduced 
 to this horrid fare. He added, that after the lapse of 
 many years, he never thought upon the subject without 
 finding desire strangely mixed with loathing; and finally, 
 that it was this instinctive feeling which rendered him 
 most reluctant to allude to the subject. 
 
 War, as we have seen, is more frequent among savage 
 than civilized nations ; it is also more sanguinary and
 
 128 STATE OF NATURE : 
 
 more ferocious, and it is utterly destitute of those 
 redeeming features which throw its horrors into the 
 shade. There is no heroism, no spirit of chivalry, no 
 high and noble daring ; there is nothing but cruelty in 
 the victor, and misery for the vanquished. 
 
 War is not to be regarded as always an unmixed 
 evil : it is the consequence of the essential diversity 
 of the elements of humanity; its root is inherent in 
 the very nature of the ideas in which the existence of 
 different nations is founded; for these ideas being 
 necessarily partial, bounded and exclusive, are neces- 
 sarily hostile, aggressive and tyrannical. In the first 
 quarrel on record that between Cain and Abel there 
 was a diversity of occupation, and consequently a 
 diverse development of the elements of human nature. 
 "Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the 
 ground/' Hostility between these occupations, on a 
 larger scale, meets us in the earliest pages of history. 
 The agriculturists settled in the valley of the Nile, felt 
 that the wandering tribes of Arabia and Palestine 
 were their natural enemies : " every shepherd was an 
 abomination to the Egyptians," they would not eat at 
 the same table with Hebrews, that is, with nomade 
 tribes, as the name properly signifies. 
 
 The diversity of elements is necessary to life, and 
 war is, to a certain extent, a necessary manifestation of 
 that life. The combats of parties within a given con- 
 stitution, constitute the political life of a people. The 
 same is the case with its external relations. " The 
 conflicts with each other," says Victor Cousins, "of 
 the nations of an epoch, constitute the life of an 
 epoch : none has passed off without war; none could.
 
 WAR. 129 
 
 War is nothing else than a bloody exchange of ideas 
 made at the point of the sword, and at the cannon's 
 mouth ; a battle is nothing but the conflict of error 
 and truth: I say of truth; for in a given epoch, a 
 minor error is truth in comparison with a greater error, 
 or with any error that has served its time ; victory and 
 conquest are but the victory of the truth of to-day over 
 the truth of yesterday, which to-day has become an 
 error." 
 
 But this view of war, philosophically just when 
 applied to the contests of civilized nations that is, 
 nations in a state of progress cannot be extended to 
 the conflicts of barbarous tribes. In savage warfare, 
 passion is arrayed against passion, and it is quite in- 
 different who shall be gainer ; in civilized contests idea 
 is opposed to idea, and in the long run the victory must 
 be on the side of humanity. 
 
 Let it not be imagined that this reasoning is an ad- 
 vocacy of war; on the contrary, we believe that as civili- 
 zation advances, the collision of ideas between nations 
 will lead only to discussions ; the change that has taken 
 place in the internal conflicts of parties, that is, the 
 collision of ideas within the limits of a constitution, 
 justifies such an expectation. In the reign of Charles I. 
 hostile parties met on the field of battle and slaugh- 
 tered each other; in that of Charles II. they met in 
 courts of justice, and hanged each other; the sword 
 and rope were both employed, but to a less extent than 
 formerly at the Revolution. On the accession of the 
 Brunswick dynasty, Walpole was anxious to send the 
 lords Oxford and Bolingbroke to the scaffold, and at 
 a later period Pulteney meditated the same fate for
 
 130 STATE OF NATURE : 
 
 Walpole. At present the leaders of parties are content 
 to see each other enjoy life and estate in quiet. 
 
 Nor are there wanting signs of this pacific spirit 
 extending to the discussion of national relations. The 
 Belgic question brought into direct collision the most 
 angry passions, and the most opposite ideas, that ever 
 set Europe in a flame. It has been terminated by 
 shedding ink instead of blood, and by a lavish use of 
 red-tape instead of red-coats. 
 
 Civilization finds war, like all other elements of 
 humanity, necessarily existing. It does not create the 
 principle, but it controls and modifies its action. 
 Horror after horror is swept away; the captive ceases 
 to be sent to the stake or the cauldron; slavery be- 
 comes an improvement substituted for murder; the 
 enslaved captives are treated with more and more kind- 
 ness, until servitude ceases altogether and prisoners 
 of war are recognised as men and brothers. The on- 
 ward course of civilization is at least, in this respect, 
 distinctly marked; we can see the direction of its 
 progress : an intelligent and moral public opinion is 
 steadily establishing its empire, instead of brute force, 
 and forming a tribunal to decide the disputes of 
 nations, as peacefully as those of individuals. Ideas 
 are only hostile when they are exclusive ; there never 
 was, and there never can be, a contest between absolute 
 truth on one side, and absolute error on the other; all 
 the struggles of nations, or parties, recorded in history, 
 are conflicts between partial truths. But it must be 
 remembered that a partial truth is even a more dan- 
 gerous error than an absolute falsehood ; just as Homer 
 declares that a fog is better for a thief than night.
 
 WAR. 131 
 
 Civilization, as it advances, removes the partiality and 
 exclusiveness which, in every human opinion, is the 
 element of falsehood; truths deemed to be hostile are 
 then found to dovetail into each other, and to form 
 part of a general stock of intelligence in which there 
 is no further room for conflict or collision. "We see 
 this process going on around us ; we see it operating 
 on individuals, sects, political parties and nations; it 
 is yet far from complete its progress is impeded by 
 many natural and by many artificial causes; but its 
 final process is certain. " Men shall beat their swords 
 into ploughshares, and their spears into priming- 
 hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, 
 neither shall they learn war any more." 
 
 " The commerce between different nations," says 
 Archbishop Whately, "which is both an effect and 
 cause of national wealth, tends to lessen their disposi- 
 tion to war by making them mutually dependent. 
 Many wars indeed have been occasioned by commercial 
 jealousy; but it will be found, that in almost every 
 instance this has arisen, on one side, if not on both, 
 from unsound views of political economy, which have 
 occasioned the general interests of the community, to 
 a very great amount, to be sacrificed, for a much smaller 
 advantage, to a few individuals. The ruinous expen- 
 siveness also of war (which will never be adequately 
 estimated till the spread of civilization shall have gained 
 general admission for just views of political economy) 
 would alone, if fairly computed, be almost sufficient to 
 banish war from the earth."
 
 132 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 INDIGENCE. 
 
 "THE poor you have always with you:" indigence is 
 the most prominent, and perhaps the most important 
 evil of the social system ; misery is most striking when 
 it is in close contact with luxury; and it is to the 
 violent contrasts which society frequently presents that 
 we must ascribe the fantastic visions of a golden age 
 which have so often misled the imagination of phi- 
 lanthropists. Indigence, like crime, exists in every 
 state of society ; but as a vigilant police, increasing the 
 number of detections, has often led people to believe 
 that there was an actual increase of guilt, so the exer- 
 tions of the benevolent to relieve distress have some- 
 times created a mistaken opinion respecting the gradual 
 accumulation of misery. There is a tendency in the 
 human mind to confound the discovery of anything 
 with the commencement of its existence : this is ob- 
 servable even in physical science ; several of the oppo- 
 nents of Sir Isaac Newton attacked him, as if he had 
 framed the laws of gravitation, instead of detecting 
 them; and many of the modern adversaries of geology 
 write as if they believed that Lyell, Sedgwick, and 
 Buckland had themselves arranged the strata, disposed 
 the fossil remains, and traced the limits that regulate 
 the geographical distribution of animals. A quaint old 
 writer says, "nobody will give anybody the credit of
 
 INDIGENCE. 133 
 
 first discovering what everybody might have found out 
 at any time." 
 
 We have seen that society exists naturally and neces- 
 sarily ; there must consequently be certain laws of social 
 existence; and if their conditions remain unfulfilled, 
 either through accident or design, social suffering is 
 the inevitable consequence. But it is only as society 
 becomes civilized that it takes cognizance of the fulfil- 
 ment or non-fulfilment of these conditions ; and hence 
 we find, that at every epoch when a great advance was 
 made in intelligence, a number of social evils, before 
 undiscovered, were brought into view, and treated by 
 many as if they had been brought into existence. 
 Ecclesiastical corruptions were certainly neither greater 
 nor more numerous at the era of the Reformation than 
 they were in the preceding century, but in the increased 
 light of that time they were more clearly seen, more 
 closely watched, and more diligently recorded. British 
 liberty and the constitutional privileges of the legisla- 
 ture were more respected by the Stuarts than they 
 were by the Tudors, yet the number of recorded viola- 
 tions is far greater under the former than under the 
 latter dynasty. Actions for false imprisonment were 
 far more numerous after the Revolution than before it, 
 though illegal arrests had notoriously diminished. In 
 the same way the science of political economy having 
 for the first time revealed the nature and extent of in- 
 digence as a social evil, the subject excited universal 
 attention, and led many to believe that an evil of such 
 magnitude must have recently come into existence, or at 
 least must have only of late days reached its present 
 extent, or else it would have been long since discovered.
 
 134 INDIGENCE. 
 
 Some disastrous results have followed from this error; 
 a cry of alarm was raised about the rapid extension of 
 pauperism. Europe was supposed to be menaced by a 
 new Jacquerie, or rather by a social revolution, infi- 
 nitely worse than that threatened by Jacques Bon- 
 homme, or Jack Cade. Landlords, in their excited 
 imaginations, saw their estates invaded, capitalists, 
 their fortunes rent in sunder, and manufacturers their 
 machinery destroyed, by millions of paupers, whose 
 numbers, in their opinion had increased, were increas- 
 ing, and could not be diminished. A change of system, 
 in relation to pauperism, was demanded, for the sake of 
 the rich. This error on one side led to a more dan- 
 gerous error on the other. The poor were induced to 
 believe that the wealth of the rich was derived from 
 their misery, they deemed that the accumulation of 
 property was the cause of poverty ; they began to specu- 
 late on the possibility of reconstructing society on a 
 different basis; and they were easily persuaded to regard 
 measures proposed for the prevention of poverty, or at 
 least for the limitation of its extent, as disguised at- 
 tempts for the degradation, or even for the extermina- 
 tion of paupers. Thus the evil, instead of being viewed 
 in its general relations to society, was regarded only in 
 reference to classes. The ideas formed of it were con- 
 sequently partial and exclusive, what was true of pau- 
 perism in its most limited relation to a class, was taken 
 to be true in its widest relation to the entire commu- 
 nity; and such confusion between relative and absolute 
 truth, is the source of all the mischievous falsehoods 
 that have ever predominated over humanity. 
 
 Though nothing can be clearer, on the slightest
 
 INDIGENCE. 135 
 
 examination, than the aphorism, that whatever makes 
 the rich man richer tends also to elevate the poor, and 
 whatever makes the poor man poorer tends equally to 
 depress the rich ; there are, unfortunately, many impe- 
 diments to the universal reception of this truth, and 
 there is, perhaps, no greater difficulty presented to the 
 advocates of civilization and the progress of society, than 
 that arising from the prevalent errors on the subject of 
 indigence. A rigorous examination of the acknowledged 
 evil is therefore necessary; and though a complete ana- 
 lysis would greatly exceed our limits, we trust that we 
 shall be able to offer some considerations which may 
 tend to quiet the alarms of the friends of humanity, 
 and remove some of the suspicions attached to the 
 advance of civilization. 
 
 It is obvious that there are various degrees of indi- 
 gence ; there is only one stage in which it has an aspect 
 of uniformity the complete and absolute destitution 
 of all means of subsistence at the same instant. But 
 this stage is equivalent to death; such a state may 
 exist, but it cannot continue to exist; its conditions 
 include, in their terms, immediate extinction. Hence 
 arises the common sophism, that indigence is unknown 
 in savage life : with the savage indigence is death ; it 
 begins and ends at the same moment. An unfavour- 
 able season a deficiency in the supply of game a 
 flood, or a drought may assail any land: in the civi- 
 lized country, the calamity is marked by much suffer- 
 ing; in the savage land, it leaves no trace but bleaching 
 bones and unburied corpses. In spite of Mr. CarluVs 
 bitter attack upon statisticians, the fact that the average 
 duration of human life has been sensibly increased by
 
 136 INDIGENCE. 
 
 the progress of civilization, is an unquestionable proof 
 that cases of absolute indigence, that is, of sheer starva- 
 tion, have been diminished. 
 
 Belief, for cases of absolute indigence, must come 
 from a reserved fund, accumulated somewhere. It may 
 be a question in civilized states whether this fund be 
 sufficient or insufficient, but in savage life no such thing 
 exists. It is a common mistake to suppose that capital 
 is accumulated exclusively for the benefit of its pos- 
 sessor; but it is easy to shew that capitalists are 
 essential to the well-being of the entire community. 
 Every bad harvest would necessarily generate a famine, 
 unless there were a fund to purchase supplies of food 
 from other countries ; every suspension of demand for 
 the productions of any branch of industry, would be 
 followed by a cessation of employment in that branch, 
 if the capitalist had not a fund on which he could fall 
 back until the market changed. Capital is the security 
 against indigence, belonging not merely to the capitalist 
 himself, but to every labourer in the community. There 
 is no poverty where there is no capital, because death 
 acts as relieving officer, and the tomb is the sole refuge 
 for the destitute. 
 
 The case of absolute indigence requires no further 
 examination ; but when we come to examine the degrees 
 of relative indigence, we find our path beset by unex- 
 pected difficulties. It is generally agreed that indi- 
 gence consists in a want of the necessaries of life ; it 
 is far from being agreed what are the things necessary 
 to existence, for it is notorious that what in one age or 
 country would be considered extreme poverty, might in 
 a different age or country be regarded as comparative 
 luxury.
 
 INDIGENCE. 137 
 
 An aboriginal Australian is satisfied with a condition 
 which the most miserable mendicant in Europe would 
 regard with horror : he supports hunger, thirst, and 
 pain, to an extent which passes our comprehension; 
 he eats with delight what we could not name without 
 disgust. Indigence then may be said to be, to a certain 
 extent, created by civilization, for civilization unques- 
 tionably multiplies human wants. Relative indigence, 
 or, as it is commonly called, poverty or pauperism, is 
 measured by its proportion to the general estimate of 
 average comforts formed in any given age or country. 
 The condition which might be considered opulent in 
 nomade life, becomes almost disastrous in societies 
 enriched by all the gifts of industry. The Arab is 
 satisfied with a bowl of milk and a handful of dates ; 
 our Saxon ancestors dwelt in cabins to which we should 
 not entrust our horses ; the respectable citizens of the 
 Middle Ages were worse clothed, lodged and fed, than 
 many of those receiving parochial relief in our towns. 
 
 Let not this change be attributed merely to the 
 progress of luxury, or to the increased effeminacy of 
 manners ; it has far more noble causes. Human exist- 
 ence is developed and extended by civilization : man 
 lives not only physically, but morally, socially, and 
 intellectually, as he advances by progressive improve- 
 ment. It is because his life is enlarged that the wants 
 of his life are increased. His taste becomes more re- 
 fined, his sensations more delicate, his position more 
 dignified. His moral necessities react on his physical 
 necessities ; there are wants created by opinion which 
 do honour to those who feel them, and which are not 
 less entitled to the attention of those who have the
 
 138 INDIGENCE. 
 
 power of satisfying them, than the cries of thirst or the 
 clamours of hunger. 
 
 Mr. Carlile, in his recent work on Chartism, has 
 denounced those who dwell upon the fact that the 
 increased duration of human life proves an increase in 
 the comforts of the poor. His censure would be just, 
 if statisticians used such an argument for stopping at 
 the point to which we have attained; but, on the 
 contrary, they invariably urge it as a motive for in- 
 creased exertion. They do not say because society has 
 done this it need do no more, but because society has 
 done so much it has the power of doing more; its 
 former success is not only a motive, but a positive 
 obligation to perseverance. If civilization had not 
 done something for the benefit of humanity, it would 
 scarcely be fair to expect any advantages from its pro- 
 gress. If science never wrought any improvement in 
 society, it is not easy to understand why it should ever 
 be called to an account for neglect. The statistician 
 does not deny poverty to be an evil, he merely asserts 
 that it is not so fatal an evil as it used to be. He does 
 not aver that one meal a day is a comfortable subsist- 
 ence, but he does aver that one meal is better than 
 none at all. The forms of disease may be multiplied, 
 and yet the actual mortality of a country be diminished, 
 and the phases of poverty may increase, without adding 
 to the cases of sheer destitution. 
 
 Indigence, in a civilized country, is the result of a 
 failure to fulfil the conditions imposed upon social 
 existence. Undoubtedly these conditions are more 
 onerous in proportion to the advance of the state in 
 civilization, but the means of fulfilling them are at least
 
 INDIGENCE. 139 
 
 equally multiplied. There is a self-adjusting power in 
 society, the working of which becomes more perfect as 
 knowledge advances, which strikes the balance between 
 what is demanded and what can possibly be supplied. 
 When Lord Falkland was dressing, preparatory to the 
 battle of Newbury, his friends expressed astonishment 
 at his indulging in the luxury of a clean shirt; a 
 private soldier, of the present day, would be censured 
 for leaving his linen unchanged. The peasants of 
 England, two centuries ago, like those of Ireland in 
 the present day, went about with bare feet; but an 
 English beggar of modern times is rarely seen without 
 shoes and stockings. The existence which we call 
 miserable, our ancestors would have deemed luxurious, 
 for we have established conditions to social existence of 
 which they never dreamed. 
 
 There is unfortunately some necessity for dwelling 
 upon this painful subject : science has been too often 
 represented as the enemy of the poor, political economy 
 has been too recently described as a system for ex- 
 cusing starvation, and civilization itself branded as the 
 creator of social miseiy, by philosophers of too much 
 note, for us to pass over the topic lightly. Let us 
 then examine a few of the new conditions imposed on 
 social existence almost within our own memory, and 
 see whether society has not provided means for their 
 fulfilment. All the cares and toils connected with 
 decency and cleanliness are fortunately in our country 
 reckoned among the first conditions of existence, even 
 in the lowest ranks of society, though in other lands, 
 and in ours at no very distant date, they were dis- 
 regarded as superfluities even by the higher orders.
 
 140 INDIGENCE. 
 
 Bat has civilization or has science, the exponent of 
 civilization while it imposed the conditions, neglected 
 to supply means for their fulfilment ? The experience 
 even of the very young can answer in the negative. Look 
 to the paving, lighting, and cleansing of our streets ; to 
 the improvements made in drainage, sewerage, and 
 ventilation. If society has required that the present 
 class of labourers should be better dressed than their 
 ancestors, it has also enabled them to procure the 
 better clothes with a less amount of labour than their 
 forefathers were compelled to bestow on the purchase 
 of inferior raiment. 
 
 Society does not injure any class by imposing these 
 conditions on life ; it is idle to say that wants created 
 by habit or opinion are factitious. Existence becomes 
 more valuable as it becomes more complex ; when man 
 rises beyond mere physical life, he is worth more to 
 society and more to himself than he was before. Society 
 gains, and he gains all the difference. The fact that 
 indigence is less fatal, does not prove that it is more 
 tolerable to the sufferer ; on the contrary the extension 
 of surface over which his life ranges, presents a pro- 
 portionate extension of sensibility to external pressure. 
 Hence the indigent derive two advantages from civili- 
 zation: their condition is in itself actually better, and 
 their minor sufferings are more urgent in their claims 
 for relief, and far more certain of commanding attention 
 than the greater misery of the uncivilized. Millions 
 might perish of famine in ancient Hindustan, without 
 exciting so much sympathy from their countrymen as 
 the death of a single English pauper from the neglect 
 of the relieving officers.
 
 INDIGENCE. 141 
 
 The subject of indigence would lead to much longer 
 discussion, not perhaps devoid of utility, but enough 
 has been said to shew that its existence is not as has 
 been sometimes said, the opprobrium of civilization. 
 The source of the error is, that relative has been 
 confounded with absolute indigence. The average of 
 comforts enjoyed by the independent labourer, one 
 who is merely a labourer and not an artisan, furnishes 
 in every age and country the limit below which indi- 
 gence commences. It is not an evil that this should 
 be a pretty high standard. Society may to a certain 
 extent rejoice when it sees the circle of individual wants 
 spreading. These wants become new impulses to 
 industry, new incentives to activity and emulation ; 
 as man's faculties are more fully developed, man's life 
 acquires a higher price, his worth is more fully appre- 
 ciated by society or the state. This increase of value 
 is shewn in two ways; there is more care in seeing that 
 he has the means of existence, and far more caution in 
 taking away life. It is not very long ago since a man's 
 life was valued at forty shillings, in a dwelling-house, 
 or at the price of a sheep in a field. Human life has 
 since risen considerably; the progress of society has 
 rendered the members of society more valuable, and the 
 state cannot afford to sell life on such cheap terms. 
 
 So far is civilization then from being an enemy of 
 the poor, that it is in civilized states alone that the 
 poor receive any consideration. So far is science from 
 crushing the indigent, that it is to it, the indigent owe 
 whatever little proportion of comforts they may possess. 
 The progress of knowledge is beneficial to all classes; 
 but those who must profit most by it, are the great
 
 142 INDIGENCE. 
 
 mass of the working population. As knowledge ad- 
 vances, their sufferings for the first time become known 
 not only to others but to themselves ; the revelation of 
 the evil, is itself a great step towards the remedy \ it is 
 a sad error to suppose that there is no misery in a 
 country where the cry of misery is not heard, for in 
 such a land silence is merely an aggravation of wretch- 
 edness. 
 
 We might extend this reasoning, and shew that 
 benevolence, the recognised compensation for indigence, 
 is the child of civilization. There are no hospitals, no 
 dispensaries, no houses of refuge in a savage land. 
 There may be, indeed there are, occasional exhibitions 
 of individual good feeling : the Arab may offer the 
 way-worn traveller the hospitality of his tent, and the 
 Indian afford a stranger the shelter of his wigwam ; but 
 these examples of instinctive yielding to the softer 
 feelings of the human heart cannot with any propriety 
 be called benevolence, and are no more an adequate 
 substitute for it than the meteoric flashes of an autum- 
 nal night are substitutes for the steady light of the 
 celestial luminaries. As those flashes leave the night 
 darker and the sky more gloomy, so do the actions of 
 blind, instinctive, and indiscriminate charity, often end 
 in aggravating the evils of poverty and deepening the 
 horrors of misery. Benevolence, to be advantageous, 
 must be scientific that is, it must be based on know- 
 ledge and experience ; savages are too lazy to acquire the 
 knowledge, and too conceited to profit by the experience, 
 but we cannot blame them severely for such neglect 
 when we meet so many instances of the same ignorance, 
 resulting from indolence and pride, even in advanced 
 stages of civilization.
 
 INDIGENCE. 143 
 
 But it is said, that as civilization advances there is 
 an increasing tendency to treat poverty as a crime. 
 Undoubtedly this is a matter on which some dangerous 
 errors have been allowed to prevail. There have been 
 times when legislators have yielded to the prevalent 
 alarms about the increasing numbers of the poor, and 
 adopted rules, the policy and justice of which were 
 equally questionable. Indigence has been made to 
 bear the blame of more crimes than it has a right to 
 support, as is at once evident from the fact, that crimes 
 are at a maximum between the ages of twenty-five and 
 thirty, which is precisely the period of life when indi- 
 gence is at a minimum. 
 
 But if we have reason to censure the aberrations of 
 undue severity on one side, we have infinitely more 
 reason to bewail the errors of unenlightened charity 
 on the other. Without going so far as some have 
 done, and asserting that all the evils of humanity have 
 been wrought with the best intentions, we cannot dis- 
 guise the fact that far more mischief has been wrought 
 by well-meaning ignorance than by prepense malice. 
 There is responsible as well as irresponsible indigence : 
 when society has fixed conditions, and provided means 
 for their fulfilment, it has a right to demand an account 
 of the causes of failure. It must, however, be con- 
 fessed, that the most rigid moralist is often at a loss to 
 distinguish between a crime and a misfortune; there 
 are probably few indigent persons who have not to 
 reproach themselves, either with faults or imprudence ; 
 and there are probably just as few who have not met 
 with reverses which no human foresight could predict, 
 and no human exertions could prevent. We must
 
 144 INDIGENCE. 
 
 further remark, that the failings which for the most 
 part entail the heaviest social sufferings, are precisely 
 those which the moralist is most ready to pardon. 
 " Taking no thought for the morrow," is the most 
 pregnant source of the misery for which the individuals 
 may be regarded as responsible. Apathetic indolence 
 has produced more misery than criminal passion. In 
 the confusion of ignorance this apathy has been some- 
 times set down in the catalogue of virtues, and dignified 
 with the name of "content;" and to this error Miss 
 Edgeworth alludes, when she wishes that the peasants 
 of Ireland should become discontented. 
 
 Animal contentment is quite a different thing from 
 the moral and philosophical feeling properly called 
 content. The former is mere apathy and sluggish 
 inertness ; the latter is the result of mental exertion 
 the conclusion of a laborious intellectual process : it is 
 not inconsistent with continued toil, for it does not 
 satisfy desire; its proper end and aim are merely to 
 appease complaint. In truth, the man who is really 
 contented, is precisely the person most likely to make 
 exertions for improving his condition, because he is the 
 most removed from the two great causes of indolence, 
 apathy, and despair. So far as limited experience may 
 be received as an authority, it seems to prove that the 
 most energetic are also the most contented; they 
 calculate that a certain amount of comforts will be 
 produced by exertion, and if disappointed in their 
 expectations, they still look forward to supplying the 
 deficiency by fresh exertions. Moral content can only 
 exist where there is a proper estimate of means and 
 ends ; it is a feeling generated by a wise judgment of
 
 INDIGENCE. 145 
 
 circumstances, and like all other moral feelings, cir- 
 cumstances must determine when its indulgence will 
 be a virtue and when a vice. The confusion between 
 healthy, energetic content, and sickly desponding 
 apathy, or recklessness, is very common, and it is too 
 often employed as an excuse for not endeavouring to 
 ameliorate the condition of the poor, lest they should 
 be rendered discontented; but the elevation of man's 
 moral dignity, in any way, tends to strengthen all his 
 moral principles, and content among the number. The 
 desire of amelioration is not levss a moral principle, than 
 patience under afflictions; and the use of content is not 
 to destroy, but to regulate and direct it. 
 
 It is a proof of the beneficial character of civiliza- 
 tion, that, in every country, the errors arising from 
 undue severity are corrected long before those result- 
 ing from the excess of charity are discovered. In the 
 year 1530, the English parliament enacted that while 
 the impotent poor should receive licenses from the 
 justices of the peace to beg within certain limits, all 
 men and women, " being whole and mighty in body, 
 and able to labour," if found vagrant, and unable to 
 give an account of how they get their living, shall be 
 apprehended by the constables, tied to the tail of a cart 
 naked, and beaten with whips through the nearest 
 market-town or hamlet, " till their bodies be bloody by 
 reason of such whipping." Five years afterwards it 
 was added, that if the individual had been once already 
 whipped, he shall not only be whipped again, but 
 " also shall have the upper part of the gristle of his 
 ear clean cut off, so as it may appear for a perpetual 
 token hereafter, that he hath been a contemner of the 
 
 H
 
 146 INDIGENCE. 
 
 good order of the commonwealth. " And finally, in 
 1562, it was directed, that any beggar convicted of 
 being a vagabond, should, after being grievously 
 whipped, be burnt through the gristle of the right 
 ear with a hot iron, of the compass of an inch about, 
 unless some person should agree to take him as a 
 servant of course without wages for a year; that if 
 he twice ran away from such master he should be 
 adjudged a felon; and that if he ran away a third 
 time, he should "suffer pains of death and loss of 
 land and goods as a felon, without benefit of clergy 
 or sanctuary." 
 
 These barbarous enactments have been long since 
 swept from the Statute-book, but this triumph of 
 humanity is unquestionably due to the progress of 
 civilization ; to the great discovery in social science 
 that indiscriminate severity defeats its own ends, and 
 that disproportionate penalties render laws inoperative, 
 for the simple reason that they cannot be executed. 
 
 These cruel punishments were adopted because the 
 lawgivers failed to distinguish between responsible and 
 irresponsible indigence : they held that every man was 
 answerable for not fulfilling the conditions imposed on 
 social existence, without any reference to his capabilities 
 or opportunities. Science shewed that such a reference 
 was necessary, and humanity was the gainer. There is 
 little fear that such atrocious enactments should be 
 renewed in the present day; but it is well to keep 
 them in view, because the very same error that was 
 the basis of indiscriminate severity is also the founda- 
 tion of indiscriminate charity. 
 
 It is so common to describe those who propose that
 
 INDIGENCE. 147 
 
 benevolence should be regulated by science, that is, by 
 knowledge and experience as enemies of the poor, that 
 we deem it necessary to shew that such regulations are 
 most imperatively required by the poor themselves. 
 Let us take an example. Several years ago, a sum of 
 money was collected in England for the relief of a 
 certain district in the south of Ireland suffering under 
 the pressure of severe distress. A committee was chosen 
 to preside over its distribution. Some of the members 
 proposed simply to purchase fuel, food, and clothing, 
 and distribute them to every applicant according to 
 his need.* Fortunately the majority insisted that the 
 fund should be summarily used in providing employment 
 proportionate to the abilities of each person capable of 
 labour, and that gratuitous assistance should only be 
 given in the case of actual impotence. By their influence 
 lanes and alleys were cleansed and paved; bye-roads 
 rendered passable ; drainage, sewerage, and ventilation 
 opened in districts where accumulated filth had long 
 formed hot-beds of disease. Not only was immediate 
 relief afforded, but a vast addition was made to the 
 future comforts of the working population. And what 
 was the reward of those who conferred such benefits on 
 their countrymen ? Barely that they were not torn to 
 pieces for having, as it was said, intercepted the natural 
 
 * A clergyman, equally eminent for his wisdom and benevolence, 
 (the Rev. Dr. Dickenson), furnishes a very similar example of the 
 injurious effects of unregulated charity. " In a district," he says, 
 "with which I am acquainted, provisions were given gratis; the 
 people ceased to work, and became very dissatisfied. In consequence 
 of my recommendations, articles of food, instead of being bestowed, 
 were sold at a moderate price : the people returned to work, and were 
 thankful."
 
 148 INDIGENCE. 
 
 course of charity ! Many years have since elapsed, and 
 it is doubtful if they have yet been forgiven by those 
 who most profited by their prudence. 
 
 Indiscriminate charity, the result of ignorant bene- 
 volence, is a positive injury to the poor. This is a 
 truth which cannot be too often nor too strongly im- 
 pressed upon the public mind. Want of discrimination 
 not only diminishes the fund from which the poor is to 
 be supported, but it greatly increases the number of 
 claimants. There are monasteries, at the gates of which 
 food is indiscriminately distributed to all applicants, and 
 the consequence is that the surrounding districts are 
 always on the verge of starvation. " It is not money 
 only," says Rousseau, "which the unfortunate need, 
 and they are but sluggards in well-doing, who know 
 to do good only when they have a purse in their 
 hand." 
 
 Civilization constantly tends to increase the sphere 
 of active benevolence ; it enables the poor to be bene- 
 volent to the poor, for it shews how very often great 
 good may be effected by humble means. It has been 
 truly said, that " the benevolent are magnificent in 
 their bounty, because they are economical in bounty 
 itself." Science points out to those who desire to con- 
 fer permanent benefits, sources of relief which escape 
 the notice of others, however charitably disposed. The 
 whole result of happiness produced by them seems often 
 to have been the result of a superb munificence which 
 few could command, when it has, in fact, been the 
 result of a strict economy in limiting the application 
 of the means exclusively to the end. Pope's well- 
 known description of the " Man of Ross" affects us not
 
 INDIGENCE. 149 
 
 merely by the contrast between the amount of good 
 which he effected with limited means, and the smaller 
 amount often reached by the most costly profusion; 
 but far more valuable and far more delightful is his 
 foresight, and quickness of perception in discovering 
 the varied wants that claimed relief; his ministering to 
 every little comfort marked in the provision which he 
 is represented as making, not for gross and obvious 
 miseries only, but for the very ease of the traveller 
 or common passenger. 
 
 But all our praises why should lords engross? 
 Rise, honest Muse, and sing the Man of Ross ! 
 Pleased Vaga echoes through her winding bounds, 
 And rapid Severn hoarse applause resounds. 
 Who hung with woods yon mountain's sultry brow ? 
 From the dry rock who bade the waters flow ? 
 Not to the skies in useless columns tost, 
 Nor in proud falls magnificently lost; 
 But clear and artless, pouring through the plain, 
 Health to the sick and solace to the swain. 
 Whose causeway parts the vale with shady rows? 
 Whose seats the wearied traveller repose ? 
 Who taught that heaven-directed spire to rise ? 
 The Man of Ross each lisping babe replies. 
 Behold the market-place with poor o'erspread ! 
 The Man of Ross divides the weekly bread. 
 He feeds yon almshouse, neat but void of state. 
 Where Age and Want sit smiling at the gate, 
 Him portion'd maids, apprenticed orphans blest, 
 The young who labour, and the old who rest. 
 Is any sick? The Man of Ross relieves, 
 Prescribes, attends, the medicine makes and gives. 
 Is there a variance? enter but his door, 
 Balk'd are the courts, and contest is no more. 
 
 " What is it," says Dr. Brown, " which makes this 
 picture of benevolence so particularly pleasing ? It is
 
 150 INDIGENCE. 
 
 not the mere quantity of the happiness produced, even 
 when taken in connexion with the seemingly dispro- 
 portionate income, the few hundred pounds a-year 
 which were so nobly devoted to the production of that 
 happiness. It is pleasing chiefly from the air of beau- 
 tiful consistency that appears in so wide a variety of 
 good; the evidence of a genuine kindness of heart, that 
 was quick to perceive not only the great evils which 
 force themselves upon every eye, but the little comforts 
 also which might be administered to those, of whom 
 the rich, even when they are disposed to extend to them 
 the indolent succour of their alms, and sometimes, too, 
 the more generous succour of their personal aid, are 
 yet accustomed to think, only as sufferers who are to be 
 kept alive, rather than as human beings who are to be 
 made happy." We admire, indeed, the active services 
 with which the Man of Ross distributed the weekly 
 bread, built houses that were to be homes of repose for 
 the aged and indigent, visited the sick, and settled 
 amicably the controversies of neighbours and friends, 
 who might otherwise have become foes in becoming 
 litigants; but it is when, together with these prominent 
 acts of obvious beneficence, we consider the acts of 
 attention to less humbler and less obvious wants, that 
 we feel with lively delight and confidence the kindness 
 of a heart which, in its charitable meditations, could 
 think of happiness as well as of misery, and foresee 
 means of happiness which all benevolent men can pro- 
 duce, but which are visible only to those whose bene- 
 volence is enlightened by science, that is, by knowledge 
 and registered experience. 
 
 Ostentatious benevolence, which seeks the applause
 
 INDIGENCE. 151 
 
 of crowds, has its reward : enlightened benevolence, 
 which seeks only to be the spreader of happiness or 
 consolation, receives only a small meed of fame, because 
 its benefits spread over too wide an extent to be appre- 
 ciated without more time and trouble than the generality 
 of mankind is accustomed to bestow. This was so prac- 
 tically and usefully brought before the author when he 
 acted as Secretary to the Statistical Section of the 
 British Association at Liverpool, that, at the risk of 
 a little digression, he must venture on adding another 
 illustration. 
 
 Among the many useful Reports presented at various 
 times to the Statistical Section of the Association, none 
 have been more valuable and more interesting than 
 those on the state and condition of the working classes. 
 They have brought to light a fearful mass of evil, arising 
 from a condition which not only tends to perpetuate 
 indigence, but also to extend vice namely, the dwell- 
 ings of the operatives. From these reports, and from the 
 evidence given in the subsequent discussions, it appeared 
 that vice and indigence were produced to a fearful ex- 
 tent by the want of anything which could properly be 
 called a home. The operatives were found crowded in 
 garrets and in cellars; not only was the same room 
 common to several families, but, in several cases, so 
 many as five or six individuals slept in the same bed. 
 Anything like delicacy, that great safeguard of mo- 
 desty, was impossible; domestic comfort was clearly out 
 of 'the question ; the heads of families were driven to 
 the alehouse by the sheer want of a place where they 
 could sit down. It was, however, gratifying to find 
 that efforts had been made to devise an efficient remedy.
 
 152 INDIGENCE. 
 
 Mr. Ashton, forty years ago, discovered the importance 
 of a home both in a moral and economic point of view ; 
 he erected round his factory small cottages with gardens 
 attached, and he not only let these to his workmen on 
 moderate terms, but encouraged them to save money 
 for the purchase of the freehold. Very many have 
 taken advantage of the offer, and can now call their 
 homes their own. One simple fact will now prove the 
 efficacy of this system of enlightened benevolence : 
 Mr. Ashton has been forty years at the head of one 
 of the most extensive factories in the county of Lan- 
 caster, and, during that period, there has been only 
 one turn-out of one week among his workmen. 
 
 This systematic benevolence has produced nearly 
 half a century of continuous good, because it was 
 originally based on knowledge and the results of 
 experience. The labourer and the operative must not 
 be supposed capable of appreciating, in all cases, the 
 general advantages of frugality; it is necessary to set 
 before them some incentive, some desirable means of im- 
 mediate investment, and there is nothingthat so strongly 
 excites the ambition of an Englishman as the desire of 
 possessing a home. It is of some importance to add, 
 that this benevolence will be found not less profitable 
 to the rich than the poor. During these debates, Mr. 
 Shuttleworth, whose authority both as a statistician 
 and philanthropist is deservedly great, declared that 
 many operatives had become actual owners of their 
 tenements on the Duke of Norfolk's property, and that 
 this had not only raised the character of the operatives, 
 but greatly improved the duke's estates. 
 
 The author may appear to have dwelt at rather dis-
 
 INDIGENCE. 153 
 
 proportionate length on this topic; but, in shewing the 
 advantages which benevolence has derived from the 
 progress of science and civilization, it was scarcely 
 possible to avoid directing some attention to an ele- 
 ment of improvement which is only just beginning to 
 be appreciated. The physical condition of the working 
 classes must be a primary element in every scheme for 
 their moral improvement. There is a much closer 
 connexion between the physical and moral condition of 
 humanity than is generally imagined. Can we, for 
 instance, doubt that female modesty and female virtue 
 are inevitably perilled in the crowded lodgings that 
 have been just described ? Is it not notorious, that in 
 every great city the worst dens of vice are found where 
 the drainage is bad, and the supply of water is limited ? 
 The remedying of such evils, to be sure, is not likely to 
 have the stimulus of fame ; means of securing health, 
 and comfort and cleanliness, which includes both, will 
 not be recorded in printed reports, nor celebrated in 
 pompous periods; but the genuine philanthropist will 
 remember the counsel of St. Paul, "Despise not the 
 day of small things/' and will attempt to cure evil at 
 the neglected fountain-head, leaving to others the ac- 
 quisition of celebrity, by splashing the water about 
 lower down the stream. 
 
 Civilization, then, we see has a double efficacy in 
 reducing the amount of misery; it gives to indigence 
 itself a milder type, and it multiplies the means and 
 husbands the resources of benevolence. The absolute 
 amount of wretchedness is diminished, even though 
 the number of cases and the variety of forms should 
 be multiplied; but the remedies are increased in a
 
 154 INDIGENCE. 
 
 greater proportion, and their application is facilitated 
 by a more thorough investigation of the cases. 
 
 Civilization is accused not only of having caused 
 indigence on one side, but also of having produced 
 luxury in the opposite direction. Here we have again 
 to complain of the confusion between the absolute and 
 relative signification of a term. Sir Walter Scott tells 
 us of a Highland chief who accused his son of luxury, 
 because, when sleeping in the snow, he rolled some of 
 the snow into a ball for his pillow. Xenophon stig- 
 matizes the Persians of his day as luxurious, because 
 they wore gloves; the use of stockings, in the reign 
 of the Plantagenets, would have exposed the great 
 majority of Englishmen to similar censure. It is more 
 than probable, that a workman of London, with his 
 week's wages, is surrounded with, and can possibly 
 command, more solid comforts than the noblest Roman 
 of the Augustine age, or the most luxurious Greek 
 in the days of Pericles. Horace, indeed, describes a 
 state of gentlemanly and comfortable society; but it 
 wanted a thousand conveniences which habit has ren- 
 dered indispensable even to the poorest amongst us. 
 The most sumptuous banquet would appear unendur- 
 able without spoons, forks, glasses, and table-covers. 
 Walls hung with tapestry would not compensate for 
 unglazed windows, nor the lighter beverages of ancient 
 Italy be an acceptable substitute for tea and coffee. 
 It would not be easy to discover any ancient sweet 
 which could be applied to the countless little luxuries 
 in which sugar is employed ; and most assuredly the 
 woollens of antiquity could not for a moment stand a 
 comparison with the silk and cotton fabrics of Spital-
 
 INDIGENCE. 155 
 
 fields, Macclesfield, Paisley, and Manchester. Habit 
 has rendered us insensible to the value of these little 
 comforts, we never estimate the amount they contribute 
 to the sum of human happiness until we are accident- 
 ally compelled to do without them. Hence we find 
 that the settlers in new countries always miscalculate the 
 sacrifices they must make, and are too often discontented. 
 It is not sufficient to tell them that each article they 
 are compelled to do without is a trifle, for the aggre- 
 gate of these trifles forms a very large amount in the 
 estimate of human enjoyment. If we appeal to the 
 common sense of mankind if we endeavour to find out 
 what is the common attribute in all things condemned 
 as luxurious, we find that luxury always involves the 
 notion of comparison. "An individual man," says 
 Archbishop Whately, "is called luxurious, in com- 
 parison with other men of the same community, and 
 in the same walk of life as himself : a nation is called 
 luxurious in reference to other nations. The same 
 style of living which would be reckoned moderate and 
 frugal, or even penurious among the higher orders, 
 would be censured as extravagant luxury in a day- 
 labourer : and the labourer again, if he lives in a 
 cottage with glass windows and a chimney, and wears 
 shoes and stockings, and a linen or cotton shirt, is not 
 said to live in luxury, though he possesses what would 
 be thought luxury to a negro prince." Luxury, then, 
 is comparative, and includes in it the idea of dispro- 
 portion, unsuitableness, or impropriety: there is either 
 selfish indulgence, beyond what the circumstances of 
 the individual justify, or ostentation, arising from the 
 possession of something beyond the standard or average
 
 156 INDIGENCE. 
 
 of persons in the same class of life. The highlander 
 mentioned by Sir Walter Scott, was luxurious because 
 he was the only person in the company who provided 
 a pillow; the Persian gloves appeared luxurious to the 
 Greeks, because they did not wear any coverings to 
 their own hands ; and a beggar in the rural districts 
 of Ireland wearing shoes and stockings would assuredly 
 find little commiseration from the barelegged peasantry 
 around him. 
 
 Now, disproportionate extravagance, self-indulgence, 
 and ostentation, are not confined to civilized life; on 
 the contrary, they are more prominent in a state of 
 barbarism. " The chief difference," says Archbishop 
 Whately, " is, that the luxury of the savage is of a 
 coarser description, and generally has more connexion 
 with gross sensuality. Barbarians are almost invariably 
 intemperate." It is not until civilization has reached 
 an advanced stage that the evils of luxury are disco- 
 vered, and then there is usually a confusion between 
 old luxuries and new comforts. Sumptuary laws mark 
 this era in the history of most civilized nations ; there 
 are many on the British Statute-book which prohibited 
 what are now deemed positive necessaries of life. We 
 have had laws against pinched shoes, short doublets, 
 and long coats; reports without number on the increas- 
 ing luxuries of the commonalty ; proclamations by the 
 Fourth Edward and Eighth Henry to restrain the in- 
 dulgence of excess in eating and drinking. These, 
 indeed, were all repealed by First James, s. 1, c. 25, 
 but one law against excess in diet continues unrepealed, 
 though it has long since fallen into desuetude. 
 
 , The complaints of moralists, and the enactments of
 
 INDIGENCE. 157 
 
 sumptuary legislators, are principally directed against 
 luxury of dress ; but this is, in truth, as much a cha- 
 racteristic of 
 
 The meanest savage 'mid his clan 
 The rudest portraiture of man, 
 
 as it is of the most fashionable danglers at the most 
 civilized court. Theodore Irving gives us a very 
 amusing sketch of the dandyism of the desert, which 
 sufficiently proves that conceit and ostentation may be 
 as strongly shewn in paint and feathers as in gold and 
 diamonds. 
 
 " To dress and ornament himself with trinkets and 
 gewgaws is the delight of a savage. The glittering 
 presents of the whites bear as strong an attraction to 
 the warrior as to the female or the child, though his 
 disciplined habits prevent those loud bursts of applause 
 which escape from them. Scarcely a day elapsed but 
 a little group would collect before our tents for the 
 purpose of ornamenting themselves. They were appa- 
 rently very fastidious in their taste ; for, when hours 
 had been spent by an Indian beau in laying on one 
 streak of paint after another, and' in ogling himself by 
 piecemeal in a small scrap of looking-glass, some defect 
 would appear, and, with an exclamation of dissatisfaction, 
 the whole would be rubbed off. The work would then 
 be recommenced with unabated perseverance, until he 
 succeeded in daubing and ornamenting himself to his 
 entire satisfaction. 
 
 " When the toilette was completed, a surprising 
 change came over the young warriors. They would 
 fling their blankets ostentatiously around them, and 
 with a lordly air lounge through the town ; looking
 
 158 INDIGENCE. 
 
 first at one of the young squaws, then at another; 
 and occasionally condescending to speak to some dirty- 
 looking brother, with the patronising air which, in all 
 countries, a well-dressed person is apt to assume in 
 conversing with a ragged acquaintance. When they 
 had finished their perambulations, they would mount 
 upon the top of one of the highest lodges, and stand 
 for hours to be gazed at by the different idlers ; a term 
 which, in truth, might be applied to the whole male 
 population of the town." 
 
 Extravagance in eating and drinking is so notoriously 
 a characteristic of savage nations, that it is not neces- 
 sary to quote any of the disgusting descriptions of bar- 
 barous feasts with which the narratives of travellers 
 abound. Though they do not possess wine or spirits, 
 few of them have been found that had not discovered 
 means, if not of intoxication, at least of stupefaction ; 
 bang, opium, or the cassava root were substitutes for 
 distilled or fermented liquor, and were not less exten- 
 sively nor less mischievously used. 
 
 It is a common fallacy with the advocates of ascetic 
 doctrines to represent every passion as wholly vicious, 
 which is so in any degree and in any direction. A love 
 of magnificence, a taste for elegance and beauty, a high 
 relish for the comforts and conveniences of life, are not 
 in themselves bad or depraved feelings. It is true that 
 they may be carried to excess, but it is also true that 
 they may be indulged, not only with safety, but with 
 advantage. In this, as in every other moral question, 
 the entire debate turns on limits : to determine whether 
 any given indulgence is a luxury or a comfort, is, in 
 fact, to estimate the proportion that it bears to sur-
 
 INDIGENCE. 159 
 
 rounding circumstances. A bed of down would be a 
 luxury in a thatched cabin, a bed of straw would be a 
 shabbiuess in a palace. The effect of civilization is not 
 to increase luxuries, but to multiply the number of 
 comforts which would be deemed luxuries in a barbar- 
 ous country. 
 
 There are some writers who have praised the speech 
 of an ascetic, when he saw a well-furnished apartment, 
 " What a multitude of things are here which a man 
 could do without!" But, why should he do without 
 them?* If they did not promote his happiness, or 
 what he believes to be his happiness, he would not have 
 them ; hence there is a manifest gain in their use, and 
 it rests on their opponent to point out the correspond- 
 ing disadvantages. It is utter nonsense to talk about 
 the simplicity of nature, a phrase that may mean any 
 thing or nothing as the speaker pleases. Nature gives 
 us only raw material, and by the processes of cookery 
 and the fabrications of art, it is to be wrought to our 
 purpose. If such reasoners are to be concluded by their 
 own arguments, natural life is limited to cropping the 
 spontaneous herbage of the field, for every thing beyond 
 that is artificial; or, in other words, requires the ex- 
 ertion of art and contrivance. A cushioned chair is 
 artificial, but so is the clumsy stool, framed from mis- 
 shapen logs of wood ; nay, so is the heap of stones col- 
 lected by the hermit for a seat. Those who call upon 
 us to reject what is artificial in life, may begin, if they 
 please, with all the gorgeous splendour of Nebuchad- 
 
 * " Thus," said Diogenes, "do I trample on the pride of Plato" 
 (stamping on his carpet). " And with greater pride of thy own, 
 Diogenes," was Plato's just retort.
 
 160 INDIGENCE. 
 
 nezzar on the throne of Babylon ; but they cannot, in 
 any consistency, stop until they end with the same 
 Nebuchadnezzar when " he was driven from men, and 
 did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the 
 dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' 
 feathers, and his nails like birds' claws." Cowper, in 
 the opening of the Task, has humorously delineated 
 the progress of invention from the stool to the sofa : 
 
 Time was when clothing, sumptuous or for use, 
 Save their own painted skins, our sires had none. 
 As yet black breeches were not ; satin smooth, 
 Or velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile: 
 The hardy chief upon the rugged rock 
 Wash'd by the sea, or on the gravelly bank 
 Thrown up by wintry torrents roaring loud, 
 Fearless of wrong reposed his weary strength. 
 These barbarous ages past, succeeded next 
 The birthday of Invention ; weak at first, 
 Dull in design, and clumsy to perform. 
 Joint-stools were then created ; on three legs 
 Upborne they stood. * * * 
 
 **** 
 
 But relaxation of the languid frame 
 By soft recumbency of outstretch'd limbs 
 Was bliss reserved for happier days. So slow 
 The growth of what is excellent : so hard 
 T" attain perfection in this nether world. 
 Thus first Necessity invented stools, 
 Convenience next suggested elbow chairs, 
 And Luxury th' accomplish'd sofa last. 
 
 Now, why should we be called to reverse the process 
 and pass back through these several stages ? Has any 
 one ever seen one of the advocates of the simplicity of 
 Nature select from preference his length even of the 
 finest sand for his bed, and the undressed roots for his 
 supper ?
 
 INDIGENCE. 161 
 
 Many of the errors prevalent on this subject have 
 arisen from regarding labour too exclusively as the 
 punishment inflicted on man. The toil to which Adam 
 was sentenced after the Fall is strictly limited to such 
 labour as is necessary for mere subsistence ; in every 
 other respect labour must have been from the begin- 
 ning the prerogative and the privilege of man. The 
 world of matter and the world of mind are equally 
 shapeless and void to all man's purposes, until they 
 are moulded and formed by industry and exertion. 
 Absolute truth, ready made, no more presents itself to 
 our mind than finished models of mechanism present 
 themselves ready made to our hand. Original prin- 
 ciples there are doubtless in both, but the development 
 and application of these principles are just as far to 
 seek in one case as in the other. The express words 
 of the Sacred Record shew that man was destined to 
 labour before he was doomed to toil, " the Lord God 
 took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden to 
 dress it and to keep it." The kind and degree of labour 
 are not stated, but the fact of some labour is most 
 explicitly recorded. 
 
 That labour is an essential attribute of humanity 
 appears from the nature of the world and from the 
 nature of man. " The earth he stands upon/' says 
 Dr. Dewey, " and the air he breathes are, so far as his 
 improvement is concerned, but elements to be wrought 
 by him to certain purposes, If he stood on earth, pas- 
 sively and unconsciously, imbibing the dew and sap, 
 and spreading his arms to the light and air, he would 
 be but a tree. If he grew up neither capable .of pur- 
 pose nor of improvement, with no guidance but instinct,
 
 162 INDIGENCE. 
 
 and no powers but those of digestion and locomotion, 
 he would be only animal. But he is more than this ; 
 he is a man; he is made to improve, he is therefore 
 made to think, to act, to work. Labour is his great 
 function, his peculiar distinction, his privilege." We 
 may add that the necessity for some labour is felt even 
 by the indolent; their work is " killing time/' and very 
 hard work they often find it to be. 
 
 Nothing more strongly marks the progress of civil- 
 ization than the increased respect, not merely for the 
 rights of industry, but for the honourable character of 
 industry itself. There has, indeed, been always in the 
 world a public opinion derogatory to labour ; but we 
 shall find that this opinion increases in intensity the 
 nearer we approach savage life, and diminishes with 
 similar rapidity as we proceed in the opposite direction. 
 Mr. Irving informs us, that the government of the 
 United States employs a blacksmith to take charge of, 
 and keep in repair, the arms paid as an annuity to the 
 Shawnee tribe, " a measure highly pleasing to the 
 Indians, who detest labour of all kinds, and would 
 willingly travel a hundred miles to get another to 
 perform some trivial job, which they might themselves 
 accomplish with but a few hours' labour." Under 
 circumstances of high excitement, in war and in hunt- 
 ing, there is no being more untiring than the savage; 
 but in peace, and in his own village, he lounges about 
 listlessly, miserable for want of employment, yet unable 
 to overcome his repugnance to labour, and compelling 
 the females of his family to work for him. 
 
 No greater difficulty has impeded the progress of 
 the missionaries than this repugnance to toil ; it would
 
 INDIGENCE, 163 
 
 seem, indeed, as if the progress of industry was iden- 
 tified with the progress of civilization, and that idleness 
 and barbarism were nearly convertible terms. Thus 
 viewed, it may be received as a gratifying sign of 
 progress that the epithet, "man of business," which 
 in former ages was a term of reproach, is now a title 
 eagerly sought by the legislator, the statesman, the 
 great fundholder, the wealthy merchants and manu- 
 facturers, and the proprietors of the most extensive 
 estates. 
 
 Civilization, then, is truly the friend of the poor: 
 though it does not extirpate indigence it removes its 
 most repulsive features and most fatal qualities : if it 
 increases the enjoyments of the palace, it gradually 
 renders its luxuries part and parcel of the comforts of 
 the cottage : if it asserts the necessity of labour, it does 
 not compel the poor to toil alone, it forces the rich to 
 work, both with them and for them.
 
 164 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SUPERSTITIONS AND DETACHED CUSTOMS. 
 
 THERE is no circumstance connected with savage na- 
 tions which has been the subject of greater curiosity 
 than their religious tenets, and there is none on which 
 our information is more indefinite and unsatisfactory. 
 A great and natural difficulty besets every inquiry into 
 the subject. The Rev. Henry Woodward has very 
 ably shewn that most men are disposed to deduce their 
 notions of the Divine character from an ideal exemplar 
 of themselves, and this is not less true of nations and 
 eras than it is of individuals. It is an aphorism with 
 all modern philosophers, that the mythology of a people 
 is an exponent of its intellectual character, the con- 
 verse is equally true; the general state of society in any 
 country affords important aid to determine the nature 
 and bearing of its religion. If we find a warlike ferocious 
 race, delighting in cruelty and devastation, we may be 
 assured that they will have deities delighting in slaugh- 
 ter, and rites polluted with blood. A more indolent 
 race, whose sloth is only chequered by sensualism, will 
 display deified passions and lustful ceremonies. Tribes 
 scarcely rising above the brute creation, too apathetic 
 to remember the past, or speculate on the future, who 
 possess not in their language a single word to specify 
 cause, will either have no notion of a God at all, or a
 
 SUPERSTITIONS. 165 
 
 notion so feeble and indistinct that it baffles the search 
 of the inquirer. 
 
 "Whoever," says Dr. Robertson, "has had any 
 opportunity of examining into the religious opinions 
 of persons in the lower ranks of life, even in the most 
 enlightened and civilized nations, will find that their 
 system of belief is derived from instruction, not dis- 
 covered by inquiry." He will also discover that the 
 instruction is greatly modified by the moral and intel- 
 lectual character of the recipient. If he has never 
 previously considered the subject, he will be astonished 
 to find how necessary the diffusion of intelligence is to 
 the growth of genuine religion. 
 
 The two fundamental doctrines upon which every 
 religion is founded are, the Being of a God, and the 
 Immortality of the Soul : these presuppose two very 
 important ideas Cause and Purpose, or Destination, 
 ideas not very easy to be acquired, and not very difficult 
 to be lost. 
 
 " The idea of creation," says Dr. Robertson, " is so 
 familiar, wherever the mind is enlarged by science and 
 illuminated with revelation, that we seldom reflect how 
 profound and abstruse this idea is, or consider what 
 progress man must have made in observation and 
 research, before he could arrive to any knowledge of 
 this elementary principle of religion." We are fre- 
 quently misled by supposing that this idea is possessed 
 by the most ignorant in our own land : it very fre- 
 quently is not; and even when acquired by instruction, 
 it gradually becomes faint and obscure; nay, is often 
 obliterated, unless the mind has made the notion its 
 own by attention and repetition. Let any person go
 
 166 SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 
 over in his own mind the chain of reasoning by which 
 we ascend from observed phenomena to the knowledge 
 of a First Cause, and he will at once perceive that it is 
 a train of thought which requires some considerable 
 exercise of mental discipline, to be pursued without 
 interruption. What Paley calls an otiose assent to any 
 article of belief, is very likely to pass into utter forget- 
 fulness ; and every active clergyman is aware that not 
 only in the formation, but also in the preservation, of 
 faith, it is necessary to have " line upon line, precept 
 upon precept, here a little and there a little." 
 
 Some difficulties have arisen on this subject from 
 confounding unbelief with disbelief. It has been said 
 with truth, that there never was a nation of atheists; 
 that is, an assemblage of men denying that there was a 
 God but a nation ignorant of the fact that there is 
 a God, is a very different matter; they are ignorant 
 simply because they never bestowed a thought on the 
 subject. That such ignorance is possible, does not seem 
 at all inconsistent with what we know of human nature; 
 that such ignorance exists, has been attested by the 
 most trust- worthy travellers. M. Bik, an intelligent 
 officer in the service of the king of the Netherlands, 
 gives us the following account of the natives of the 
 Ami Islands, whom he visited in 1824 : 
 
 " Of the immortality of the soul they have not the 
 least conception. To all my inquiries on this subject 
 they answered, ' No Arafura has ever returned to us 
 after death, therefore we know nothing of a future 
 state, and this is the first time we heard of it/ Their 
 idea was Mali, Mati, Ludah (when you are dead there 
 is an end of you). Neither have they any notion of
 
 DETACHED CUSTOMS. 167 
 
 the creation of the world. They only answered, ' None 
 of us are aware of this; we have never heard anything 
 about it, and therefore do not know who has done it 
 at all.' 
 
 " To convince myself more fully respecting their want 
 of knowledge of a Supreme Being, I demanded of them 
 on whom they called for help in their need when far 
 from their homes, engaged in the Trepang fishery, their 
 vessels were overtaken by violent tempests, and no 
 human power could save them, their wives and children, 
 from destruction. The eldest among them, after having 
 consulted the others, answered, that they knew not on 
 whom they could call for assistance, but begged me, if 
 I knew, to be so good as to inform them. 
 
 " I was at length tired of asking questions, and did 
 my best to give them a notion of the creation of the 
 world, and of a future state. I remarked to them 
 how wonderful it was that a small grain of seed sprang 
 up into a spreading tree; that the different sorts never 
 mixed; that every thing which surrounded us was in a 
 constantly progressive state of creation and decay; and 
 that all these things could never have taken place but 
 for the superintendence of an All-wise Providence. The 
 Arafuras nodded their heads, to shew that my words 
 appeared to have some truth in them. 
 
 " At length, one of them, who had listened with par- 
 ticular attention, demanded of me where this All-ruling 
 Being took up its abode. I answered, that the Deity 
 was present everywhere; not only among us, but in 
 every plant which, through his goodness and power, he 
 has furnished us for our food. This idea was too ab- 
 struse for the Arafuras; for one of them answered
 
 168 SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 
 ' Then this God is certainly in your arrack, for I never 
 feel happier than when I have drunk plenty of it.'" 
 
 It is, however, only among men in the most unculti- 
 vated state, while their intellectual faculties are so 
 feeble and limited as hardly to elevate them above the 
 brute creation, that we discern this total insensibility 
 to the impressions of any invisible power. The relation 
 between cause and effect is one of our earliest intellec- 
 tual perceptions, and those who want it scarcely rise 
 above the level of animals. An apprehension of some 
 invisible and powerful beings appears in the very first 
 stage of improvement, and is not obliterated until the 
 very last stage of degradation. We find, however, that 
 this notion is not suggested so much by the regular 
 and uniform course of nature, as by some remarkable 
 deviations from it; just as in civilized life we find per- 
 sons careless of religion while their days pass on in an 
 even current of prosperity, but who hasten to seek its 
 consolations in the hour of sickness and adversity. The 
 invariable tendency of ignorance is to multiply causes, 
 to assign a different cause for every different effect; 
 simplification of causes is the great triumph of science. 
 Hence arises the multiplication of superior beings, the 
 countless objects of worship which are found in bar- 
 barous nations; and hence arises the tendency among 
 the uninstructed in civilized nations to extend the 
 number of supernatural agencies. Imagination is a 
 more forward and ardent faculty of the mind than 
 judgment, it bounds over difficulties, and decides with- 
 out hesitation. Hence the extraordinary occurrences 
 of nature, the thunder, the tempest, the earthquake, a 
 sudden drought, an extraordinary mortality among the
 
 DETACHED CUSTOMS. 169 
 
 cattle, an unusual type of disease, are ascribed to the 
 interposition of some superior being and the principle 
 is the same whether the supposed agency be the malig- 
 nity of a demon-god, the suspended protection of a 
 saint, or the active malevolence of a witch. 
 
 The New Zealanders, as Mr. Marsden informs us, can 
 with difficulty comprehend that our God is the same as 
 theirs. To his arguments they replied, " But we are of 
 a different colour from you; and if one God made us 
 both, he would not have committed such a mistake as 
 to make us of different colours." In like manner, when 
 the Syrians were defeated by the Israelites, they said, 
 " Their gods are gods of the hills, therefore they were 
 stronger than we, but let us fight against them in the 
 plain, and we shall be stronger than they." In both 
 cases, ignorance confined the Great Cause to a single class 
 of phenomena; it multiplied the number of agencies, 
 and it limited the extent of each separate agency. 
 
 This tendency of ignorance to polytheism is not con- 
 fined to paganism, it manifests itself in countless shapes 
 among Christians; the belief in miracles wrought by 
 saints discoveries made by ghosts and maladies in- 
 flicted by fairies and witches, is only a modification of 
 polytheism, an ascription of separate causes to separate 
 classes of phenomena. It may also be remarked, that 
 this tendency is greatly increased when religion is based 
 upon the feelings rather than upon the reason. When- 
 ever the feelings are strongly excited, they seek to lay 
 hold on something gross and material. Hence we find 
 that the celebrated Witch-persecution of New England 
 arose at a period when men's minds were strongly 
 excited by disputes involving rather more of passion 
 
 i
 
 170 SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 
 than principle. Paganism itself never exhibited greater 
 absurdity than when men were hanged on the evidence 
 of ghosts, and when a dog was publicly executed for 
 allowing his master to take a i-ide upon him through 
 the air. It would be easy to multiply examples; but 
 enough has been said to shew that the multiplication of 
 supernatural agencies is the natural tendency of igno- 
 rance, especially during periods of high excitement, in 
 all places and all times. Ignorance has been ignorantly 
 termed the mother of devotion. * A permanent feeling, 
 such as devotion properly designates, can be based on 
 knowledge only. We find that the religion of savages 
 fluctuates between abject prostration and utter reckless- 
 ness; and the one state has just as little claim to the 
 name of devotion as the other. In all unenlightened 
 nations, the first rites or practices which bear any 
 resemblance to acts of religion, have it for their object 
 to avert evils which men suffer or dread. A religion 
 based on love and gratitude can only exist where there 
 is a knowledge of the manifestations of that love, and 
 a perception of the benefits which call forth that 
 gratitude. 
 
 These general observations on the nature of barbarous 
 religions may be illustrated further by referring to one 
 common class of superstitions, those connected with 
 disease. We find sickness, especially when it assumes an 
 unusual form, attributed to some supernatural agency. 
 The New Zealanders, we are told, " believe, that when- 
 ever any person is sick, his illness is occasioned by the 
 Atua (their deity), in the shape of a lizard, preying 
 upon his entrails. In some parts of Ireland, an unfor- 
 
 * It should be called the mother of superstition.
 
 DETACHED CUSTOMS. 171 
 
 tunate child suffering from rickets or consumption is 
 declared to be fairy-struck. Mr. Paris, who began the 
 witch-persecution in New England, tortured a poor 
 Indian woman until he made her confess that she had 
 bewitched his wife and daughter, because he could 
 in no other way account for the disease. Our blessed 
 Lord often reproved his disciples for adopting the 
 Jewish superstition, that every natural disease was a 
 sign of an offended deity. When they asked, " Master, 
 who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born 
 blind ?" Jesus answered, " Neither hath this man 
 sinned nor his parents; but that the work of God 
 should be made manifest in him." But perhaps the 
 most singular form which this superstition ever assumed, 
 was when the influenza made its appearance in part of 
 Anatolia. Some dervish gravely informed the people, 
 that a certain demon, called " The Mother of Sore 
 Throats," had recently lost her son, and being enraged 
 at the want of sympathy manifested, had sent the 
 influenza, to compel others to mourn as well as herself. 
 "Whereupon," says the historian, "the people continued 
 for several days running up and down, exclaiming, 
 Pardon us, O Mother of Sore Throats, thy son was 
 dead, and we knew it not ! " 
 
 We have seen, that a barbarous religion, is a religion 
 of fear, and hence it is almost invariably a religion of 
 cruelty. There are few savage nations in which the 
 practice of human sacrifices has not prevailed to a 
 frightful extent; in many cases torture was added to 
 murder, as if their furious deities could only be pro- 
 pitiated by human blood and human suffering. Such 
 horrid rites seem to have a peculiar charm for unen-
 
 172 SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 
 lightened imaginations, for we find, that when the 
 Israelites, under the Judges, lapsed into idolatry, they 
 usually adopted its most gloomy and its most san- 
 guinary form. 
 
 A belief in existence after death is found among most 
 barbarians. Even the Arafurans had some rude notion 
 on the subject, for their answer to M. Bik was rather 
 contradictory : the declaration, that " no Arafura has 
 returned to us after death," intimates their believing 
 such an event possible. In considering this subject, 
 we must again refer to the distinction between unbelief 
 and disbelief; there is a wide distance between the 
 doctrine of annihilation, and the absence of any definite 
 opinion respecting a future state. One of the many 
 controversies which has arisen respecting the Book of 
 Job, turns on this very point. Some have asserted, 
 that in the fourteenth chapter .of that book, the doctrine 
 of annihilation is taught, while others aver, that it 
 clearly intimates immortality. Let us quote the passage 
 from Wemyss' very accurate translation : 
 
 There is indeed hope for a tree; 
 For if lopped, it may sprout again, 
 And its tender branches may not fail: 
 Though its root have grown old in the earth, 
 And its trunk have become dead in the ground, 
 Through the fragrance of water it may revive, 
 And put forth young shoots as when planted. 
 But when man dies he moulders into dust, 
 When the mortal expires Where is he? 
 
 The question is not put either as an affirmation or 
 denial of a future state; it is a simple expression of 
 ignorance. It may be true that we find few or no 
 traces in the patriarch's words of the " pleasing hope,"
 
 DETACHED CUSTOMS. 173 
 
 but we assuredly have " the fond desire, the longing 
 after immortality, the shrinking of the soul back upon 
 itself, and startling at destruction." This is, no doubt, 
 far from the Christian faith, "the subsistence of things 
 hoped for, the demonstration of things not seen," but 
 it is scarcely less removed from the belief in utter ex- 
 tinction and endless night. 
 
 A confusion of this kind has been sometimes made by 
 missionaries in savage lands; they have frequently mis- 
 taken not only ignorance, but indistinctness of belief, for 
 utter rejection of a doctrine. This has been remarkably 
 the case with respect to some forms of Buddhism, and the 
 Mohammedan heresy, called Sufyism : the doctrine of 
 absorption, that is, the belief that the soul after death 
 is absorbed into the essence of the Deity, has been very 
 frequently confounded with the doctrine of annihilation, 
 though it is manifestly not a disbelief in future exist- 
 ence, but a disbelief in separate existence. 
 
 As the doctrine of absorption has, from the remotest 
 ages, had many followers in the East, it seems not im- 
 probable that it was, to some extent, the basis of the 
 Sadduceari heresy. We are not told that they denied 
 the immortality of the soul, but that they denied the 
 resurrection. The argument by which they were con- 
 futed is just as decisive against the doctrine of absorp- 
 tion as it is against annihilation, and the antithesis 
 between "living and dead" is equally applicable in 
 both cases. 
 
 The Sadducees admitted the existence of Spirit, for 
 they believed in a God; they denied the existence of 
 spirits distinct from him, and consequently they con- 
 nected no moral feeling with the state of the soul after
 
 ]74 SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 
 death, for they deemed that it would be deprived both 
 of personality and consciousness. Christ, in his reply 
 to them, shews, that not merely continued existence, 
 but distinct personality, is predicted of the patriarchs 
 when Jehovah declares, " I am the God of Abraham, of 
 Isaac, and of Jacob." It may be added, that the doc- 
 trine of Nirwana, or Absorption, generally arises in 
 countries where the doctrine of a future state is demo- 
 ralised by speculations on a sensual paradise, such as 
 are presented to us in the heaven of the Hindoos and 
 the immortality promised in the Koran. Sufyism, for 
 instance, is more common in Persia than in Turkey, 
 and the Persians surpass all other Mohammedans in 
 their luxuriant pictures of the sensual delights prepared 
 for the faithful. The Jews, after their return from the 
 Babylonish captivity, seem to have incorporated these 
 degrading notions of futurity in their popular belief : 
 the very question which the Sadducees put to Christ 
 respecting the woman who had seven husbands, and 
 the consequent difficulty of assigning her to any one 
 of them at the resurrection, proves that their heresy 
 was a reaction against the perverse speculations of their 
 countrymen ; and Christ, in his reply, strikes not less 
 effectually against the gross conceptions of the vulgar 
 than against the refined speculations of the Sadducees, 
 " In the kingdom of heaven there is neither marrying 
 nor being given in marriage." Perhaps amongst the 
 reasons for not making rewards and punishments the 
 sanctions of the law, we may assign as one, the low 
 degree of civilization to which the Israelites had at- 
 tained, and the consequent peril of their demoralising 
 the doctrine by injurious notions, such as their Rabbins
 
 DETACHED CUSTOMS. 175 
 
 have introduced in the Talmud, and Mohammed in the 
 Koran. 
 
 The notions which barbarians form of a future state 
 are derived from their habits in this life. The Indians 
 of North America allotted the highest place, in their 
 country of spirits, to the skilful hunter, to the adven- 
 turous and successful warrior, and to such as had tor- 
 tured the greatest number of captives, and devoured 
 their flesh. Our Northern ancestors believed that 
 bravery was the best qualification for ensuring admis- 
 sion to the halls of Odin, where they should sit quaffing 
 mead from the skulls of their enemies. The mission- 
 aries assure us that the ideas of the New Zealanders on 
 the subject are not very dissimilar from those of the 
 ancient Germans. The contemplative ascetics of Asia 
 devised the doctrine of absorption as the very consum- 
 mation of luxurious indolence. The western Asiatics 
 invented a heaven of sensual indulgence. It is curious 
 to trace the changes in the mind of Mohammed on this 
 great topic. Dividing the Koran into two portions 
 the chapters revealed at Mecca, and the chapters 
 revealed at Medina and, examining each separately, 
 we shall find two very different religious systems 
 enthusiasm prevailing in the former, and imposture; 
 in the latter. The paradise of the Meccan chapters is 
 far more pure and holy than that in the asserted Medi- 
 nese revelations, and we find the latter rendered still 
 more gross and sensual in the collection of orthodox 
 traditions. 
 
 This tendency to forming degrading notions of a 
 future state is not confined to Paganism or Moham- 
 medanism ; we find it invariably associated with igno-
 
 176 SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 
 ranee in every land : examples of monstrous error on 
 the subject might be found in Christian countries, but 
 they are painful to contemplate, and are, besides, suffi- 
 ciently known. We refer, however, to the subject simply 
 as a corroboration of what we have before said, that 
 the interests of true religion are intimately connected 
 with the general progress of intelligence, and that every 
 new discovery, whether in the universe of matter or the 
 universe of mind, directly tends to increase the good of 
 man and the glory of God. 
 
 When once men have begun to look beyond imme- 
 diate existence, they are irresistibly compelled to pry 
 into futurity. Divination becomes a religious act. The 
 Temple is not so highly valued as the Oracle; the priests 
 are more regarded as soothsayers, augurs, astrologers, 
 and magicians, than as interpreters of the will of the 
 gods. Mohammed evinced a shrewd knowledge of 
 human nature when he chose to found his mission on 
 prophecy rather than on miracles. His venturous pre- 
 diction of the overthrow of the Sassanid dynasty in 
 Persia did more for the success of Islamism than the 
 belief in his having cleft the moon, or rode up to heaven 
 on Al Borak. The human mind is most apt to feel and 
 to discover this vain curiosity when its own powers are 
 feeble and unformed. In the ruder ages of Grecian 
 history the oracle of Delphi was consulted in every 
 important enterprise, but, as civilization advanced, it 
 sunk gradually into oblivion. Auguries and auspices 
 were long matters of state at Rome; but when know- 
 ledge began to assume sway, Cicero expressed his sur- 
 prise that one augur could look at another without 
 laughing. The domestic history of our own country
 
 DETACHED CUSTOMS. 177 
 
 exhibits abundant specimens of the means adopted by 
 superstitious ignorance to gratify idle curiosity; and, as 
 among the Pagans, we find them associated with some 
 religious or with some blasphemous ceremony. We 
 know, from the history of individual minds, that what- 
 ever has tended to weaken the intellect has also tended 
 to increase this form of superstition : sickness, mental 
 anxiety, and solitude, are found almost invariably to 
 produce this effect, in a greater or less degree, according 
 to the amount of intelligence possessed by the indi- 
 vidual. The same remark is applicable to communi- 
 ties : whenever any great calamity has checked the 
 progress of knowledge, and rolled back the tide of 
 civilization, a rapid increase in the number of fortune- 
 tellers, diviners, and necromancers, is immediately per- 
 ceptible. It was so in the Roman empire when the 
 barbarians broke through the frontiers, it was so in 
 England during the civil wars, and it was so in London 
 during the great plague. 
 
 We have already mentioned the common superstition 
 of ascribing diseases to supernatural causes; and hence, 
 among savages, the chief physicians are priests, con- 
 jurers, or wizards. Incantations, sorceries, and mum- 
 meries of various sorts are used instead of medicine ; 
 but again we must remark that such are the resources 
 of ignorance in every country. The use of spells and 
 charms is not quite banished from our own land. The 
 writer has one in his possession, given him as an in- 
 fallible remedy for toothache, by one who so firmly 
 believed in its efficacy that he made its unfortunate 
 failure a cause of quarrel. It runs thus, 
 
 i 2
 
 178 SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 
 As Thomas sat upon a marble stone, 
 
 Jesus came up to him all alone, 
 
 Saying, Thomas, swear thus for my sake, 
 
 And you never will be troubled with the toothache.* 
 
 The superstitious belief in the power of cure leads 
 naturally to a belief in the power of inflicting disease. 
 "It was a ceremony in use among the heathens," says 
 Bishop Newton, "to devote their enemies to destruc- 
 tion at the beginning of their wars; as if the gods 
 would enter into their passions, and were as unjust and 
 partial as themselves." Balak deemed it a proper 
 preliminary of war to send for Balaam, " Come curse 
 me Jacob, and come defy me Israel :" the very same 
 custom is found among the New Zealanders, it is a 
 common threat with their priests that they will pray 
 their enemies to death. This propensity to cursing, 
 this seeming belief that a superior power might be 
 induced to share in human malignity, is a common 
 attribute of ignorance; the Arabs must have made a 
 considerable advance before they devised the aphorism, 
 " curses are like chickens, they roost at home." 
 
 The belief in omens, prodigies, and the significance 
 of dreams, is universal in every ignorant population. 
 Captain Dillon declares, that he found no way so effec- 
 tual in checking the importunities of his New Zealand 
 friends, who asked for every thing they saw, than by 
 assuring them that he had dreamed that the favour 
 
 * A clergyman, of acknowledged worth, to whom this anecdote was 
 related, has supplied the following corroboration : " I know this fact : 
 a gentleman between twenty and thirty years of age, of a leading 
 family in his country, the son of a clergyman who had three parishes, 
 sewed these verses in his sister's petticoat, believing they would ease 
 her of toothache."
 
 DETACHED CUSTOMS. 179 
 
 they requested would prove a misfortune to them. 
 Some of them were very urgent that he would convey 
 them to India; but, by saying he had dreamed that 
 they would die when they reached the country, he put 
 an end to their solicitations. This superstition was 
 found still more powerful among the Indians of North 
 America : Lafitau devotes a large portion of his work 
 to their system of divination by dreams and visions; 
 and it is curious to observe that, in parts, it bears a 
 very strong resemblance to what is called "second- 
 sight" in Scotland. 
 
 It is not necessary to enter into any investigation of 
 the extent or amount of Natural Religion as compared 
 with Revealed Religion; neither need we determine 
 whether the existence or attributes of the Deity would 
 be discovered by unassisted reason, or whether the 
 knowledge of them has been in all cases derived from 
 the faint tradition of a primary revelation: our pur- 
 pose is to shew that these notions, however acquired 
 and of whatever amount, may become corrupt, and may 
 even be obliterated by ignorance and barbarism; and 
 that they will advance to perfection and completeness 
 only by the general progress of intelligence. 
 
 Was not wild Nature in that elder time 
 Clothed with a deeper power? Earth's wandering race, 
 Exploring realms of solitude sublime, 
 Not as we see beheld her awful face ! 
 Art had not tamed the mighty scenes which met 
 Their searching eyes; unpeopled kingdoms lay 
 In savage pomp before them all was yet 
 Silent and vast, hut not as in decay, 
 And the bright Day-star from his burning throne 
 Look'd o'er a thousand shores, untrodden, voiceless, lone!
 
 180 SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 
 The forests in their dark luxuriance waved, 
 With all their swell of strange ^Eolian sound ; 
 The fearful deep, sole region ne'er enslaved, 
 Heaved, in its pomp of terror, darkly round, 
 Then brooding o'er the images imprest, 
 By forms of grandeur thronging on his eye 
 And faint traditions guarded in his breast : 
 Midst dim remembrances of infancy, 
 Man shaped unearthly presences in dreams, 
 Peopling each wilder haunt of mountains, groves, and streams. 
 
 It is a singular attribute of Christianity, and one 
 that does not seem to have received ail the attention it 
 merits, that it is the only system of religion which has 
 been found applicable to the most varied stages of 
 society. The Greek mythology, as we find it in Homer 
 and Hesiod, was not the original creed of the Hellenic 
 race ; there was an earlier, a more dread and mysteri- 
 ous mythology, which, like that of most eastern nations, 
 was elementary, that is, consisted in the worship of 
 some mysterious power or principle of nature. 
 
 When far o er earth the apostate wanderers bore 
 Their alien rites ; for them by fount or shade, 
 Nor voice, nor vision holy as of yore, 
 In thrilling whispers to the soul convey 'd 
 High inspiration : yet in every clime, 
 Those sons of doubt and error fondly sought, 
 With beings, in their essence more sublime, 
 To hold communion of mysterious thought ; 
 On some dread power in trembling hop* to lean, 
 And hear in every word the accents of th" Unseen. 
 
 As one left lonely on the desert sands 
 Of burning Afric, where, without a guide, 
 He gazes as the pathless waste expands 
 Around, beyond, interminably wide:
 
 DETACHED CUSTOMS. 181 
 
 While the red haze presaging the Simoom, 
 Obscures the fierce resplendence of the sky, 
 Or suns of blasting light perchance illume 
 The glistening mirage, which illudes his eye: 
 Such was the wanderer man in ages flown. 
 Kneeling in doubt and fear before the dread Unknown. 
 
 After the age of the poets, the Grecian deities ceased 
 to be symbolical representations, and became moral 
 persons; not that they were models of purity, but that 
 they were invested with the moral nature of man, 
 including its defects as well as its excellencies. As 
 civilization advanced, this creed gradually lost its hold 
 on the mind ; philosophy shook the very foundations 
 of mythology, and even before the age of the Roman 
 invasion, the religion of the schools was a very different 
 thing from the religion of the people. A similar change 
 took place in Rome, at the time of the Augustan age 
 polytheism was worn out; and in its stead there reigned 
 either complete scepticism, or the most degrading su- 
 perstition, without any distinct object or purpose. 
 
 Sacerdotal religions, such as those of Egypt and 
 India, were manifestly suited only to a special frame- 
 work of society. The ancient religion of Egypt fel 
 irretrievably when the throne of the Pharaohs was 
 overturned; and the religion which the Plotemies esta- 
 blished was an incongruous mixture of Eastern and 
 Western creeds, which changed not merely its aspect 
 but its nature during every year of its existence. 
 
 Mohammedanism, which should rather be considered 
 a Christian heresy than a distinct religion, exhibits the 
 weakness of falsehood by its inability to meet the 
 changes of times and circumstances. The bigots of 
 Islam have ever resisted the slightest tendency towards
 
 182 SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 
 progressive civilization, because they felt an instinctive 
 conviction, that an advance in intelligence would be 
 fatal to their creed. They are foes to knowledge, 
 because knowledge is a foe to them. It is not at all 
 unlikely that the political changes at Constantinople 
 herald a more speedy religious change than is generally 
 anticipated; at least, recent travellers assure us, that 
 the authority of the Koran is greatly weakened, and 
 that of the traditions all but overthrown. 
 
 The progress of intelligence, which has weakened 
 every other religious system, has added fresh strength 
 to Christianity; because the truths on which it is based 
 are all capable of development, and become more in 
 fluential and more convincing as they are developed. 
 Still we cannot doubt that the Christian system is 
 capable of being perverted, that ignorance can corrupt, 
 hide, and even efface some of the truths which it reveals 
 for ecclesiastical history abounds with illustrations of 
 the fact. It deserves also to be remarked, that cor- 
 ruptions of Christianity, arising from ignorance, always 
 assume the aspect of polytheism; that is, they multiply 
 the number of spiritual agencies, as in the -^Eons of the 
 Syrian heretics, the endless calendar of wonder-work- 
 ing saints in the Greek Church, and the superstitions 
 respecting the interference of angels and demons 
 which abound among the Eastern Christians. The 
 same is also true of the Mohammedans : the Sheeahs, 
 who, as a body, are more ignorant than the Soonnees, 
 pay nearly divine honours to AH and the Twelve Imams, 
 and the Mohammedans, in some parts of Hindoostan, 
 have not hesitated to adopt the idolatrous rites of the 
 Hindoo ritual.
 
 DETACHED CUSTOMS. 183 
 
 Hence it appears very possible, that the knowledge 
 of the " one only living and true God/' may be lost 
 by a nation which once possessed it. We know from 
 Jewish history, that it was, if not wholly lost, yet so 
 greatly impaired as to seem lost at different times 
 among the Israelites, and the decline of the national 
 religion is invariably connected with the decay of civil- 
 ization. When the means of knowledge are given 
 to man, ignorance becomes a crime; and though to 
 know what is right is not always the same as to do 
 what is right, yet the knowledge is certainly necessary 
 to the action. 
 
 Who hath not seen, what time the orb of day 
 Cinctured with glory seeks the ocean's breast, 
 A thousand clouds, all glowing in his ray, 
 Catching brief splendour from the purple west? 
 So round thy parting steps, fair Truth, awhile, 
 With borrow'd lines unnumber'd phantoms shone; 
 And Superstition from thy lingering smile 
 Caught a faint glow of beauty not her own, 
 Blending her rites with thine, while yet afar 
 Thine eye's last radiance beam'd, a slow receding star. 
 
 We have dwelt at some length on this subject, 
 because, among the many delusions propagated by the 
 advocates of barbarian innocence, the purity of their 
 primitive religion occupies a conspicuous place. They 
 dwell with great complacency on the simplicity of the 
 doctrines that may be discovered by the Light of 
 Nature; but they do not tell us how that light is 
 kindled, or by what aliment the flame is to be fed. No 
 traces of this boasted light have been found in any of 
 the barbarous races yet discovered; and the natural 
 religion possessed by savages, instead of being pure
 
 184 SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 
 and simple, has been invariably found gloomy, san- 
 guinary, and complicated. 
 
 A savage ritual is not only sanguinary, it is generally 
 licentious. Courtesans are notoriously employed as a 
 part of the hierarchy in India. Among the islanders 
 of the South Seas, whose virtues before they came in 
 contact with Europeans were loudly celebrated in poetry 
 and romance, an institution was found by which the 
 debaucheries of a set of privileged libertines were placed 
 under the sanction of religion. "The rites of the Areois" 
 says Mr. Ellis, " were abominable, unutterable; in some 
 of their meetings, they appear to have placed their 
 invention on the rack, to discover the worst pollutions 
 of which it was possible for men to be guilty, and to 
 have striven to outdo each other in the most revolting 
 practices. The mysteries of iniquity, and acts of more 
 than bestial degradation, to which they were at times 
 addicted, must remain in the darkness in which even 
 they felt it expedient to conceal them. I will not do 
 violence to my own feelings, or offend those of my 
 readers, by details of conduct which the mind cannot 
 contemplate without pollution and pain. I should not 
 have alluded to them, but for the purpose of shewing 
 the affecting debasement and humiliating demoralization 
 to which ignorance, idolatry, and the evil propensities 
 of the human heart, when uncontrolled or unrestrained 
 by the institutions and relations of civilized society and 
 sacred truth, may debase men even under circumstances 
 highly favourable to the culture of virtue, purity, and 
 happiness. In their pastimes, in their accompanying abo- 
 minations, and the often-repeated practices of the most 
 unrelenting murderous cruelty, these wandering Areois
 
 DETACHED CUSTOMS. 185 
 
 passed their lives, esteemed by the people as a superior 
 order of beings, closely allied to the gods, and deriving 
 from them direct sanction, not only for their abomina- 
 tions, but even for their heartless murders. Free from 
 labour or care, they roved from island to island, sup- 
 ported by the chiefs and the priests; and were often 
 feasted with provisions plundered from the industrious 
 husbandman, whose gardens were spoiled by the hand 
 of lawless violence, to provide their entertainments, 
 while his own family was not unfrequently deprived 
 thereby of the means of subsistence. Such was their 
 life of luxurious and licentious indolence and crime. 
 And such was the character of their delusive system of 
 superstition, that for them too was reserved the Elysium 
 which their fabulous mythology taught them to believe 
 was provided, in a future state of existence, for those so 
 pre-eminently favoured by the gods." 
 
 Of the amusements of savage nations it is not neces- 
 sary to say much. The most prominent and universal 
 is dancing, with which there is generally associated 
 some species of dramatic representation. The character 
 of the representation varies in different countries, ac- 
 cording to the habits and manners of the people. 
 Among the Asiatics, dances are usually licentious exhi- 
 bitions, but among the Americans and New Zealanders 
 they are for the most part " the mimicry of noble war." 
 An immoderate love of gaming seems natural to all 
 persons unaccustomed to the habits of regular industry, 
 and is generally found in all savage tribes. The Indians 
 of North America were frequently known to stake their 
 furs, their dresses, their arms, and their domestic uten- 
 sils, at a favourite game, and when these were lost, to 
 risk even their personal liberty upon a single cast.
 
 186 SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 
 The eloquence of savage tribes, especially the Red 
 Men of North America, has been often celebrated, and 
 if the praise had been kept within due limits, it might 
 have passed without comment. We all know that the 
 language of passion is, at the moment it is heard, more 
 efficient and impressive than the language of reason; 
 and savage eloquence is exclusively the language of 
 passion, short, energetic, and abounding with highly- 
 wrought figures. It is metaphorical, because the ora- 
 tor's vocabulary is limited, and for the same reason it 
 abounds in repetitions of the same ideas : it is poetical, 
 because the speaker is obliged to deal largely in per- 
 sonification, and to employ pictures in words rather 
 than arguments. It must be added, that we have very 
 few genuine specimens of savage eloquence, those which 
 are usually received as such, being the mere inventions 
 of romance. 
 
 Father Lafitau tells a very amusing story illustrative 
 of this subject. " He and his brother missionaries/' 
 he says, " while residing among the Hurons of North 
 America, had a servant who did not know a single word 
 of the language of the Indians, but had caught what 
 may be called its accent very correctly, so that he could 
 give a good imitation of the general effect of it upon 
 the ear: and this man, merely to amuse himself, was 
 wont to make long speeches to the savages in a jargon 
 literally having no meaning whatever, to which his 
 hearers used to listen with great attention, and never 
 doubted were addresses in their own language; only, 
 they said, his style of oratory was so elevated, they 
 could not always comprehend him." There can be little 
 doubt that these poor people, in listening to their own
 
 DETACHED CUSTOMS. 187 
 
 countrymen, had sometimes contentedly taken sound 
 for sense; the ignorant do so in every land, itinerant 
 orators, in our country, have been followed and ap- 
 plauded for jargon, not one whit more intelligible than 
 that of Lafitau's servant. 
 
 It is usual to enumerate, among the virtues of bar- 
 tjarians, that they are not only satisfied with their 
 condition, but proud of it. But pride is not a proof 
 of real satisfaction, it is often an attribute of degrada- 
 tion: the Byzantines were never more haughty than 
 when they were purchasing the contemptuous forbear- 
 ance of the Turks, nor the Romans than at the moment 
 when they paid tribute to Alaric. The Spaniards of 
 our own day, are infinitely greater sticklers for their 
 national superiority to all other Europeans, than they 
 were in the days of Charles V. ; and the Mussulmans 
 of Hindoostan regard themselves as more entitled to 
 rule over the Peninsula, than they were in the days of 
 Baber, Acbar, and Aurungzebe. It is the pride which 
 not only accompanies, but seems to increase with de- 
 gradation, that renders the reformation of a falling 
 people a work of such extraordinary difficulty. The 
 Pa9ha of Egypt is said to be far more successful in his 
 labours for the regeneration of Egypt, than the Sultan 
 in his exertions to restore the Turks to their rank 
 among European nations ; for to raise the fallen is an 
 easier task than to save the falling. Turkish pride of 
 ascendency will continue long after the ascendency 
 itself is overthrown, and will probably accelerate the 
 ruin of their remaining privileges; for it is especially 
 in the case of a sinking ascendency, that " Pride goeth 
 before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."
 
 188 SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 
 Many more points of comparison between civilized 
 and savage life could easily be found ; but those already 
 examined are sufficient to shew, that barbarism is not 
 a simple but a highly artificial state, that it is obliged 
 to have recourse to clumsy and complicated expedients 
 for the maintenance of relations, which, in civilized 
 society involves no difficulty whatever. It appears also, 
 that barbarism cannot be natural to man ; for in the 
 various aspects under which it has been examined, we 
 have found that it opposes the growth and development 
 of the faculties implanted in man by nature, or rather 
 by the Author of Nature; finally, we have shewn, that 
 it is not a state of happiness, innocence, or peace, that 
 it is subject to all the storms arising from human 
 passions which agitate civilized society, and must of 
 necessity be the more disturbed; as among barbarians 
 passions rage without the check or control which is 
 always imposed by civilization. 
 
 To a great extent the question between civilization 
 and barbarism is identical with the question between 
 knowledge and ignorance, and hence it was necessary 
 to examine whether the progress of science has in any 
 way increased the amount of human Buffering. Few, 
 if any great changes, though ever so great improve- 
 ments, can be effected without causing loss or incon- 
 venience to somebody, and the complaints of those 
 who suffer are always far louder than the gratulations 
 of those who are benefited. The coachman in " Slick's 
 Letter-bag of the Great Western/' only echoes the com- 
 plaints of the copyists on the invention of printing. 
 " Them was happy days for Old England, afore reforms 
 and rails turned every thing upside down, and men
 
 DETACHED CUSTOMS. 189 
 
 rode as nature intended they should, on pikes with 
 coaches and smart active cattle, and not by machinery 
 like bags of cotton and hardware." It is was there- 
 fore necessary to investigate some points belonging 
 rather to comparative civilization than to the extreme 
 of barbarism ; and to shew that every advance of civil- 
 ization, every increase in the amount of knowledge, 
 adds to the moral improvement of individuals, and the 
 general benefit of society. Except in the lowest states 
 of barbarism, we find nothing immutable in human 
 nature ; changes must come, whether we desire them 
 or not, time must generate new ideas, leaving us to 
 arrange their relations to the common stock. If these 
 ideas be developed by knowledge, they will become 
 beneficial truths, if they be appropriated by ignorance, 
 they will generate pernicious falsehoods.
 
 190 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 VARIETIES OP SAVAGE LIFE. 
 
 IN the preceding chapters we have examined the most 
 common attributes of barbarism, and shewn that they 
 are such as necessarily result from ignorance every 
 where. We have hitherto found a sad uniformity in 
 all the communities destitute of knowledge and civil- 
 ization ; and our next inquiry their capacity and 
 opportunities for improvement necessarily involves 
 an examination of the varieties of barbarism, and the 
 extent of their influence on humanity. 
 
 We may class the barbarous races in three divisions : 
 they are hunters, shepherds, or agriculturists. Not, 
 indeed, that any tribe exists deriving its support ex- 
 clusively from the chase, from flocks, or from tillage; 
 but that the different divisions make one or other of 
 these pursuits their main source of subsistence. Hunt- 
 ing always appears to have been a favourite mode of 
 subsistence : it gratifies the love of excitement which 
 is equally the characteristic of human nature in savage 
 and civilized life ; and this excitement is necessarily 
 greater when the hunter is dependent on the chase for 
 the means of subsistence. The pleasure derived from 
 the excitement of the chase is increased when the sport 
 is perilous, " The danger's self is lure alone;" and 
 hence a spirit of daring adventure is formed, which at 
 once gratifies and developes pride and self-esteem.
 
 VARIETIES OF SAVAGE LIFE. 191 
 
 We find that this mode of life, with all its adventures, 
 perils and hardships, has such attractions that men 
 nurtured in the lap of luxury, will quit the comforts 
 and enjoyments of civilized life to share in the stimu- 
 lating sports of the savage hunter, and will cheerfully 
 endure its privations at least for a season, in order to 
 obtain its pleasures. So delightful does their hunting 
 appear to some of the Siberian tribes, that their most 
 bitter curse is, "May you be obliged to keep flocks 
 and herds ! " 
 
 Hunting, notwithstanding its pleasures, is so very 
 precarious a mode of subsistence that there can be 
 very few tribes dependent upon it alone. Among the 
 Indians of North America there was always some agri- 
 culture practised, and the chase is exclusively followed 
 only by those who can exchange their peltry with mer- 
 chants for necessaries and conveniences. Those who 
 have adopted this wandering mode of life rarely aban- 
 don it; there are countless examples of white men 
 adopting all the usages of the Indian hunter, but there 
 is scarcely one example of an Indian hunter or trapper 
 adopting the steady and regular habits of civilized life. 
 
 The Indian tribes, since the discovery of North 
 America, have shewn a greater tendency to exchange 
 the stationary for the nomade life, than to abandon 
 roving habits for settled habitations. The history of 
 the tribe of the Cheyenries in Mr. Washington Irving's 
 Astoria, shews us that the wandering tribes of the 
 prairies did not become hunters from choice, though 
 after having adopted this roving life they displayed 
 aversion to settled habitations. 
 
 "The history of the Cheyennes," says Mr. Irving,
 
 192 VARIETIES OP 
 
 " is that of many of those wandering tribes of the 
 prairies. They were the remnant of a once powerful 
 tribe called the Shaways, inhabiting a branch of the 
 Red River, which flows into Lake Winnipeg. Every 
 Indian tribe has some rival tribe with which it wages 
 implacable hostility. The deadly enemies of the 
 Shaways were the Sioux, who after a long course of 
 warfare proved too powerful for them, and drove them 
 across the Missouri. They again took root near the 
 Warricanne creek, and established themselves in a 
 fortified village. 
 
 " The Sioux still followed them with deadly animo- 
 sity ; dislodged them from their village, and compelled 
 them to take refuge in the Black hills near the upper 
 end of the Sheyenne or Cheyenne river. Here they 
 lost even their name, and became known among the 
 French colonists by that of the river they frequented. 
 
 " The heart of the tribe was now broken; its num- 
 bers were greatly thinned by these harassing wars. 
 They no longer attempted to establish themselves in 
 any permanent abode that might be an object of attack 
 to their cruel foes. They gave up the cultivation of 
 the fruits of the earth, and became a wandering tribe, 
 subsisting by the chase, and following the buffalo in 
 its migrations. 
 
 " Their only possessions were horses, which they 
 caught on the prairies, or reared, or captured on pre- 
 datory incursions into the Mexican territories, as has 
 been already mentioned. With some of these they 
 repaired once a year to the Aricara villages, exchanged 
 them for corn, beans, pumpkins, and articles of Euro- 
 pean merchandise, and then returned into the heart of 
 the prairies.
 
 SAVAGE LIFE. 193 
 
 " Such are the fluctuating fortunes of these savage 
 nations. War, famine, pestilence, together or singly, 
 bring down their strength and their numbers. Whole 
 tribes are rooted up from their native places, wander 
 for a time about the immense regions, become amalga- 
 mated with other tribes, or disappear from the face 
 of the earth. There appears to be a tendency to 
 extinction among all the savage nations; and this 
 tendency would seem to have been in operation among 
 the aboriginals of this country long before the advent 
 of the white men, if we may judge from the traces and 
 traditions of ancient populousness in regions which 
 were silent at the time of the discovery; and from the 
 mysterious and perplexing vestiges of unknown races, 
 predecessors of those found in actual possession, and 
 who must long since have become gradually extin- 
 guished, or been destroyed." 
 
 The tendency to extinction in hunting tribes, obvi- 
 ously arises from the disproportionately large space 
 which they require for subsistence. When population 
 increases they must either change their mode of life, 
 migrate to another land, or thin their numbers by civil 
 wars. We have no example of hunting tribes remain- 
 ing in their own land and adopting voluntarily an 
 agricultural or even pastoral life, but we have some 
 reason to believe that many pastoral tribes north of the 
 Oxus and east of the Caspian, have been compelled to 
 exchange the care of flocks and herds for the more 
 precarious labours of the chase. The warlike con- 
 querors who have successively appeared in these regions, 
 have almost invariably commenced their career by pro- 
 fessing that they designed to avenge some injury done 
 
 K
 
 194 VARIETIES OF 
 
 to their ancestors. Roderick Dhu's vindication of him- 
 self when charged with robbery, is similarly pleaded by 
 the more savage tribes of Tartary, as an excuse for 
 pillaging their neighbours. 
 
 These fertile plains, that softened vale, 
 Were once the birthright of the Gael : 
 The stranger came with iron hand, 
 And from our fathers rent the land. 
 Where dwell we now? See rudely swell 
 Crag over crag, and fell o'er fell. . . . 
 Pent in this fortress of the north, 
 Think'st thou we will not sally forth 
 To spoil the spoiler as we may, 
 And from the robber rend the prey? 
 
 In the multitudinous revolutions of Tartary and 
 Mongolia, it is not easy to collect from tradition an 
 authentic series of facts ; but all authorities are agreed, 
 that the tribes of the mountains and the deserts declare 
 that they were driven to these wilds and fastnesses by 
 usurping rivals. 
 
 The fate of hunting tribes is in a great degree 
 determined by the character of the people in their 
 immediate vicinity. If their neighbours be a people 
 progressively advancing in civilization, they will be 
 driven farther and farther back into the wilds, as the 
 Indians of America have been before the Europeans; 
 but if the nation on their frontiers be weakened by 
 any moral or political cause, the hunting tribes become 
 the aggressors, and migrate into the more civilized 
 country. The incessant civil wars among the pastoral 
 tribes of Tartary, have frequently enabled the ruder 
 hunting tribes to bring them under subjection. 
 
 The connexion between war and hunting has been
 
 SAVAGE LIFE. 195 
 
 remarked by almost every writer on either subject. 
 The first conqueror of whom we read was also "a 
 mighty hunter before the Lord." The patience, valour, 
 skill, and discipline, which have been found so valuable 
 in the chase, are not less effective against a human 
 enemy. When hunters become conquerors, they gene- 
 rally commence their career by extermination : it is not 
 until they have learned to appreciate pasturage and agri- 
 culture, that they begin to make slaves ; as they advance 
 they rest contented with taking tribute from the van- 
 quished nations, and the more distant they are borne 
 by the tide of conquest from their homes, the more 
 ready are they to adopt the usages of those whom they 
 have subdued. When once removed from their own 
 wilds and forests, the conquering hunters disappear 
 more rapidly than any other race, and are sooner 
 merged in the general mass of the population. 
 
 Their breath is agitation, and their life 
 A storm whereon they ride, to sink at last. 
 And yet so nursed and bigotted to strife, 
 That should their days, surviving perils past, 
 Melt to calm twilight, they seem overcast 
 With sorrow and supineness, and so die; 
 Even as a flame unfed, which runs to waste 
 With its own flickering, or a sword laid by, 
 Which eats into itself, and rusts ingloriously. 
 
 A pastoral life is not necessarily barbarous, it pre- 
 supposes in fact a certain amount of civilization : the 
 art of domesticating animals, and so completely chang- 
 ing their nature as to efface the original type, requires 
 more intelligence than we are accustomed to suppose, 
 and it is not easy to conceive how the attempt could 
 have been originally suggested. It is also very sin-
 
 196 VARIETIES OF 
 
 gular that the number of domesticated species has not 
 been increased by the lapse of time, though at first 
 sight there are many of the untamed animals which 
 might seem more easy to be brought into subjection 
 than those which have been subdued and rendered 
 serviceable. A stag appears a more manageable animal 
 than a wild bull or a wild boar; the giraffe seems, 
 antecedent to experience, not less fit than the camel 
 for journeying in the desert ; the fox and the wolf 
 are scarcely less prepossessing than the wild dog, and 
 any one of them seems less mischievous than the wild 
 cat. Hence it appears probable that pastoral life, even 
 in its lowest form, was commenced with a stock of 
 knowledge acquired somewhere. We can readily con- 
 ceive how a shepherd may become a hunter, but the 
 reverse process is utterly incomprehensible. The tran- 
 sition from chasing and slaying to guarding and tend- 
 ing, is obviously unnatural; and besides, how could 
 the hunter antecedent to experience find out the animals 
 which he ought to select, and how could he discover 
 that they would repay his care ? 
 
 Pastoral tribes are generally nomades, and in pro- 
 portion to the extent of their wanderings approximate 
 to the character of the hunting races. The Tartars, 
 for instance, are more erratic than the Arabs ; they are 
 also more cruel to captives, more tyrannical to slaves, 
 and more perfidious to enemies. Nor is this difference 
 to be attributed to national character; wherever circum- 
 stances have compelled the Tartars to adopt a stationary 
 mode of life, they have shewn capabilities for civiliza- 
 tion not inferior to those of any other nation. The 
 Mantchews in China, have adopted the learning, litera-
 
 SAVAGE LIFE. 197 
 
 ture, and jurisprudence of the vanquished, not less 
 readily than the Goths, Vandals, and Franks did in 
 Europe. 
 
 But in no instance has a pastoral race, uninfluenced 
 by external circumstances, adopted a new mode of life. 
 The change has always arisen from their being con- 
 quered or conquerors. The Scottish Highlands owe 
 their present state of civilization in no small degree, to 
 the military occupation of the country after the battle 
 of Culloden ; the superiority of the Mantchews to the 
 Tartars of the desert, arises from their occupation of 
 China. In both cases the civilization was taught from 
 without, not evolved from within. 
 
 In the fifteenth century Tartary was visited by 
 intelligent missionaries, whose narratives have been 
 recently published by the Geographical Society of Paris. 
 Plan de Carpin, the most intelligent among them, has 
 left us a very full and minute account of the usages of 
 the Tartars, and in no particular does he vary from the 
 descriptions given by travellers of the present day. 
 The Tartars of his time were ever ready for plundering 
 and kidnapping expeditions, the Russians know to 
 their cost that they are so now; they exercised the 
 power of life and death in their families, and so they 
 continue to do; their slaves were, and they still are, 
 worse treated than their cattle; the fathers and hus- 
 bands were capricious despots, and so they remain ; 
 finally, indulgence in the worst abominations of licen- 
 tiousness was a common matter of boast, and such it 
 still continues to be. The character of the Tartars 
 appears in fact to be stereotype, and the same repeated 
 page is their moral history for centuries.
 
 198 VARIETIES OF 
 
 The innocence of shepherds is one of those delusions 
 that poets seem to have rendered inveterate. Lambs are 
 innocent, but shepherds are not lambs; and this is pre- 
 cisely the difference between pastoral poetry and pastoral 
 life. Arcadia, the great locality for the ideas of rural 
 simplicity and happiness, was not chosen as a residence 
 by any of them who celebrated it; indeed, throughout 
 the whole period of its history, it was one of the most 
 degraded districts of the Peloponnesus. The present 
 shepherds of Greece and Italy are described as the very 
 worst part of the population, and those of Spain are 
 notoriously either in connexion with robbers or robbers 
 themselves. In every instance where shepherds form 
 a class unconnected with society, we find them ferocious 
 men, given to violence and brutality, and dangerous 
 neighbours to a civilized community. 
 
 We are frequently led astray by the pictures of patri- 
 archal life in the Old Testament. We forget that 
 pastoral life is there represented under special circum- 
 stances; the patriarchs continually received guidance 
 and direction from on high; when some among them 
 neglected the heavenly direction, and yielded to their 
 natural impulses, we find them displaying examples of 
 brutal violence and savage sensuality, for instance, in 
 the history of the sons of Jacob. It was while the 
 Israelites were nomades, that their inspired legislator 
 found it necessary to provide against many revolting 
 crimes which disappeared when they became a settled 
 nation. The Bashkirs, a nomadic people, tributary to 
 Russia, sent a contingent to the army which invaded 
 France in 1813, but whether in a friendly or hostile 
 country, it was found equally unsafe to billet them in
 
 SAVAGE LIFE. 199 
 
 the houses of cities, and they were forced to bivouac in 
 the open squares. 
 
 In countries where there are many shepherds, but 
 where they do not form a separate caste, their average 
 of knowledge and morality differs very little from that 
 of the rest of the population. It would be vain to seek 
 among them for the features with which pastoral life 
 has been invested in poetry and romance just as " love 
 in a cottage," so long the staple of novels, has no 
 reality, save in, 
 
 A cottage with a double coach-house, 
 A cottage of gentility. 
 
 The most marked characteristic of nomade tribes, 
 whether hunting or pastoral, is indomitable pride. They 
 reject improvement and innovation with all the scorn of 
 self-satisfied ignorance. We doubt whether such pride 
 is an element of happiness; it leads inevitably to that 
 contempt for the rights of others evinced by plundering, 
 kidnapping, and butchery to that unrestrained indul- 
 gence of the passions which renders life wretched and 
 uncertain. But this pride is an insuperable obstacle 
 to the progress of civilization; it has prevented the 
 Pawnees from profiting by the example of the Ameri- 
 cans, and the Kirghis from deriving any advantage 
 from the instruction of the Russians. The various 
 missionaries who have visited nomade races, found their 
 labours utterly unavailing, so long as a wandering life 
 continued, and they have only succeeded in bestowing 
 the elements of civilization on those compelled by cir- 
 cumstances to adopt a settled habitation. 
 
 The progress of civilization, both in North and South 
 America, has been to some degree impeded by the
 
 200 VARIETIES OF 
 
 introduction of the horse. It is an unquestionable fact, 
 that the equestrian tribes are far more savage and 
 untameable than those which have not as yet become 
 horsemen, for the possession of steeds affords a wider 
 range for the indulgence of nomadic habits, and espe- 
 cially for distant marauding expeditions. The change 
 has already become so great, as to attract the earnest 
 attention of the American Congress ; but the means of 
 prevention are not so easily discovered as the amount 
 of the evil, for colonization, except on a very large scale, 
 would be more likely to degrade the civilized man, than 
 to elevate the savage. 
 
 The agricultural form of barbarous life is principally 
 found in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. When left 
 to itself, it is found to be not less stationary than the 
 nomade forms; for the New Zealanders of the present 
 day are not one whit more advanced than their coun- 
 trymen when first visited by Captain Cook. But an 
 agricultural race of barbarians offers far greater facilities 
 for civilization than the hunting and pastoral tribes; 
 a greater advance has been made in Hawa'i within a few 
 years, than has been effected among the natives of 
 America since the first discovery of that continent. 
 
 It has been said that savages have seldom or never 
 chosen civilized life of their own accord, but that civi- 
 lized men have been known voluntarily to adopt the 
 habits and customs of savages. We have seen that 
 this is to some extent true in the case of hunting 
 tribes, whose life of excitement gratifies our natural 
 propensities. The civilized man has only to divest 
 himself of certain tastes, and to forbear the exercise of 
 certain faculties, in order to fit himself for enjoying a
 
 SAVAGE LIFE. 01 
 
 life of adventure; the savage has the double task of 
 laying aside acquired habits, and rousing into action 
 faculties which have lain dormant from his cradle, and 
 become all but extinct from desuetude. 
 
 But the change in any case must result from com- 
 parison. The American Indians, subsisting by the chase 
 of the elk, the deer, and the buffalo, offer to the view of 
 the white man a life of capital sport, enhanced, as we 
 have already shewn, by its very privations ; on the con- 
 trary, the Indians are objects of admiration to the white 
 observer, from the superior skill which long practice has 
 given them in detecting the marks of their game, follow- 
 ing the animals to their lair, and baffling their attempts 
 to escape by ingenious devices. But the admiration of 
 the Indian is not excited in turn by the superiority of 
 the white man in ploughing and weaving, since he 
 prefers venison to bread, and skins to cloth. In this 
 aspect, civilized life is not attractive to the Indian, but 
 barbarous life is to the white man ; and hence, on the 
 outskirts of American population we find a savage race 
 of degenerate whites, " the pioneers" of advancement, 
 who push forward like the Indians themselves, when 
 civilization treads too closely on their heels. 
 
 But among agricultural races of barbarians, this 
 picture is directly reversed. The New Zealanders have 
 no beasts to chase ; they feed upon fish, or upon the 
 vegetables which they rudely cultivate. Here the 
 superiority of the white man is at once evident; the 
 plough, in the eyes of both, is a better agricultural 
 implement than a sharp stick, and both see that it is 
 easier to weave cloth in a loom than with the hand. 
 Indeed, the passion which the South- Sea islanders 
 
 K 2
 
 202 VARIETIES OF 
 
 evince for European articles of dress, is in itself a tacit 
 confession of inferiority. While among the noraades 
 of Asia no curse is deemed more bitter, than " May 
 God put a hat on you ! " no higher compliment could 
 be paid to a New Zealander, than to bestow a hat on 
 him. 
 
 It may, however, be said, that the process of im- 
 provement is likely to be slow; indeed, the reluctance 
 of farmers to adopt any change, however beneficial, 
 has been matter of notoriety from the earliest ages. 
 In Ireland, it was necessary to pass several acts of 
 parliament to prevent fastening ploughs to the tails of 
 the horses, and burning oats in the straw to avoid the 
 labour of threshing ; and it is singular to find that the 
 repeal of these acts was among the chief articles de- 
 manded from the Duke of Ormond, at the treaty of 
 Kilkenny, in 1648. A century afterwards, both prac- 
 tices are noticed as still existing, by Mofiatt, in his 
 Hiberno-neso-graphia : 
 
 The western isle renown'd for bogs, 
 For lories and for great wolf-dogs, 
 For drawing hobbies by the tails, 
 And threshing corn with fiery flails. 
 
 None of these practices were adopted by the English 
 settlers ; on the contrary, the Irish gradually adopted 
 the improved system of tillage introduced from Great 
 Britain. It seems, therefore, not unreasonable to con- 
 clude, that the New Zealander will be induced to adopt 
 improvements in the arts by which he subsists, while it 
 seems improbable that the white man would adopt the 
 more clumsy implements and the less productive cul- 
 ture of the savage.
 
 SAVAGE LIFE. 203 
 
 Climate is the cause of some varieties in savage life ; 
 the colder climates will not admit of such improvidence 
 as is manifested in tropical countries. " Such negli- 
 gence in providing clothing and habitations, and in 
 laying up stores of provisions, as in warm and fertile 
 countries is not incompatible with existence in a very 
 rude state, would, in more inhospitable regions, destroy 
 the whole race in the course of a single winter." Every 
 exertion of industry, of economy, and of foresight, is 
 an advance in civilization, and an impediment to 
 degeneracy. The early inhabitants of the British isles, 
 even in the most barbarous parts, appear to have been 
 very superior to the South-Sea islanders. They were 
 forced to exercise "the proud prerogatives of humanity" 
 labour and ingenuity, and hence it was, even in the 
 earliest time, our national boast 
 
 MAN is the nobler growth these realms supply, 
 And SOULS aie ripened in our northern sky.
 
 204 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE ARTS OF SAVAGE LIFE. 
 
 IN the history of human inventions,, few things are 
 more remarkable than the sudden checks which the 
 progress of ingenuity appears to have received from 
 apparently trifling obstacles. The Romans seem to 
 have been for many years on the verge of discovering 
 printing ; they used letter-stamps, which might reason- 
 ably be expected to suggest the notion of types, and 
 yet centuries elapsed before any one seems to have 
 thought of combining several stamps together. On 
 the other hand, it is generally difficult to discover by 
 whose ingenuity the obstacle was first removed : the 
 origin of printing is one of the most contested points 
 in literary history, and there is scarcely one great im- 
 provement in machinery that has not been claimed by 
 several inventors. But while there are doubts respect- 
 ing the authors and even the countries of inventions, 
 their dates can for the most part be ascertained with 
 tolerable precision, or at least the periods when they 
 began to be brought into practical operation. On 
 examination, it will be found that most inventions of 
 which we have a record, resulted from some want or 
 necessity, created by the existing state of civilization ; 
 that there is a great harmony observable in the progress 
 of the different arts, and that improvements are for the 
 most part simultaneous, or nearly so, in the principal
 
 ARTS OP SAVAGE LIFE. 205 
 
 branches of human industry. This harmony is, how- 
 ever, interrupted, when arts are imported from some 
 foreign land; the Russians, for instance, have borrowed 
 several of the most ingenious of the modern processes 
 of manufacture from England and Germany; but a 
 traveller is at no loss to distinguish the imported from 
 the native arts, by the great disproportion of the re- 
 finements in the former to the general average of the 
 country. 
 
 When we examine barbarous nations, we no longer 
 find the uniformity which is so evident in civilized 
 countries; however low their condition may be, they 
 usually possess one or two processes so far surpassing 
 the intellectual condition of the people, that we can 
 with difficulty believe them to be of native invention. 
 The boomerang of the New Hollanders for instance, is a 
 weapon far surpassing Australian ingenuity; the pecu- 
 liarities of its shape, and mode of use, are such as 
 necessarily to involve a long series of projectile experi- 
 ments before it could have been brought to perfection; 
 but the Australians as we now find them, are utterly 
 destitute of the contrivance, the observation, and the 
 patience, which such experiments would require. It 
 was for some time believed that this weapon was pecu- 
 liar to the islands of the Southern seas, and consequently, 
 that it must have been a native invention ; but on ex- 
 amining the pictured representations on the Egyptian 
 monuments, we find that a weapon similar to the 
 boomerang, was employed by those who hunted water- 
 birds on the Nile; and allusions to a missile of the 
 same kind, occur in the earlier Greek poets. 
 
 The advance in the arts among barbarians is usually
 
 206 THE ARTS OF 
 
 found in weapons of war, or instruments of music. 
 The contrast is very striking between the elaborate 
 workmanship of a New Zealand spear, arid the clumsy 
 appearance of one of their fish-hooks : the wooden 
 club or sword, is a formidable weapon in the South 
 seas : but the substitute for the spade is the most mise- 
 rably inefficient implement that can well be imagined. 
 But among the New Zealanders, proofs have been 
 recently discovered of a greater advance in the me- 
 chanical arts having existed at an unknown age, than 
 they were found to possess when first their country 
 was visited by Europeans. 
 
 From time immemorial the New Zealanders have 
 been in the habit of burying with their dead the 
 favourite axes, and implements of stone, that were 
 highly prized by their chiefs, while in this state of 
 existence. Some years ago, the removal of one of these 
 articles would have been deemed an act of impious 
 sacrilege; but this feeling is fast disappearing, and the 
 priests, who alone know where these sacred cemeteries 
 are situated, generally die, keeping the secret. But in 
 1835, Mr. Polack* informs us, "an influential priest 
 was bribed to dispose of an ancient adze, called toki pu 
 tangata by the people: it was extremely ancient, and 
 had been buried in a sandy soil for many years; the 
 place of its interment was only known to the priest, 
 who had noted the spot by the branching of a par- 
 ticular tree called Raid. We afterwards discovered 
 that had the circumstance been known of the priest 
 having sold it, probably the infuriate sticklers for 
 sanctity would have sacrificed the seller to their re- 
 
 * Manners of New Zealanders, i. 70.
 
 SAVAGE LIFE. 207 
 
 sentment. The adze was formed of a blue granite, 
 inserted in a handle of the rata, or red pine-wood, 
 carved agreeably to native taste. This instrument, 
 from disuse, is scarcely to be met with in the country." 
 An engraving of the adze is given in Mr. Polack's 
 very interesting work; and both in beauty of execu- 
 tion, and adaptation to its purpose, it is obviously 
 superior to any of the other mechanical implements of 
 which he has given figures. At a future period many 
 oboriginal curiosities will, probably, be discovered by 
 the European colonists, in tilling the ground: Mr. 
 Polack found several pieces of obsidian, or volcanic 
 glass, while turning up a garden on his estate in the 
 Bay of Islands, which doubtless were originally brought 
 from the southward by the natives, for the purpose of 
 making chisels and other implements from the sharp 
 angular points of the crystallized substance. The manu- 
 facture of such instruments from obsidian in that part 
 of the island appears to have ceased at a very remote 
 period, in consequence of the incessant wars between 
 the tribes. 
 
 It is impossible to look at the specimens we possess 
 of the tattooing of the New Zealanders, and the orna- 
 mental carvings on their boats and door-posts, without 
 feeling convinced that the figures must have had some 
 symbolic signification, the sense of which is lost. It is 
 generally known that the pattern for tattooing is not 
 capricious, but that it has direct reference to the tribe 
 and rank of the individual. " Tribes," says Mr. Po- 
 lack, " are known by such distinctive marks, and many 
 chiefs, whose countenances have never been seen by a 
 distant tribe, are known simply by the distinguishing
 
 208 THE ARTS OF 
 
 mark which has been peculiarly engraved on their 
 countenances. We had several opportunities of testing 
 this fact, from having taken some likenesses of the 
 chiefs residing at the north, and on shewing them to 
 some families resident at a distance upwards of four 
 hundred miles they were immediately distinguished 
 and named,, though no connexion existed between these 
 persons, or had they even at any period seen each 
 other. Yet to Europeans, unobservant of national 
 characteristics, and to new comers in the country, the 
 marks of the moko appear as if performed by the same 
 person from the same pattern, but the contrary is the 
 fact, an exceedingly marked difference exists." In an- 
 other place he says, " tattooing is the sign-manual and 
 crest of a native chief. In title-deeds of land pur- 
 chases, or receipts, of any description, the moko, or 
 fac-similes, on the face of a chief, are correctly repre- 
 sented by him on paper. The initials, or crest on the 
 seal, attached to the watch, or ring, of a European, is 
 accounted by a native as the moko of its owner." 
 
 He adds, "they take much pride in adding the 
 various curvatures of the moko to their signatures ; and 
 our risibility has often been excited in viewing an aged 
 chief, whose scant locks had weathered upwards of eighty 
 winters, drawing, with intense care, his signature, with 
 inclined head and extended tongue, as is the wont of 
 young European practitioners in the art of penmanship." 
 
 There are national differences in the process observ- 
 able among the islanders in the different clusters of 
 the Southern ocean, in the forms which predominate 
 throughout their punctures; and hence there appears 
 to be some reference to a traditionary standard in this
 
 SAVAGE LIFE. 
 
 practice, which, in some form or other, appears to have 
 prevailed almost universally amongst barbarous nations. 
 In the time of Moses it appears to have been a common 
 practice among the Canaanites and the various tribes 
 surrounding Palestine, and to have been connected with 
 idolatry, for it is strictly prohibited in the law: "Ye 
 shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, 
 nor print any marks upon you : I am the Lord." 
 (Levit. xix. 28.) The Picts, Celts, Goths, and Ancient 
 Britons, both painted their flesh and tattooed, or 
 " made cuttings" in it : most writers assert that this 
 was done merely to terrify their enemies ; but it seems 
 not improbable that these punctures had a symbolic 
 signification, and were regarded as a kind of armorial 
 bearings, or cognizances. 
 
 The hieroglyphics carved on the edifices of the New 
 Zealanders are still more obviously symbols than the 
 punctures on the bodies. They are not approximations 
 to written records, for their signification does not appear 
 to be thoroughly understood by those who use them ; 
 but on the contrary, they appear to have every mark of 
 being the traditionary remains of some former act of 
 recording events 
 
 Mr. Nasmyth's very interesting lecture on the bricks 
 of Babylon, published in the "Athenaum" of Satur- 
 day March 14th, 1840, gives some singular proofs of 
 the forms of letters having been originally determined 
 by the material used for keeping records, and also of 
 the forms having been preserved long after the materials 
 were changed. Now the hieroglyphics of the New 
 Zealanders are engraved on wood, and yet their forms 
 are such as would seem the least likely to be invented
 
 210 THE ARTS OF 
 
 by wood-cutters ; the lines are flowing curves with rich 
 flourishes, such as would most likely be formed in some 
 soft and plastic material, so that they at once suggest 
 a belief that their archetype was derived from some 
 other art, and that they were applied to wood only 
 when the original and more appropriate material could 
 not be procured. 
 
 If this reasoning be correct, we find among the New 
 Zealanders strong evidence of a lost art belonging to a 
 former stage of civilization, more advanced than that 
 which they at present possess. The transition of 
 symbolic records, from significant marks into mean- 
 ingless ornaments, may be witnessed in our own land. 
 Barge-men, lighter-men, and carriers, who can neither 
 read nor write, frequently devise for themselves a 
 species of hieroglyphics which they understand very 
 well, but which are unintelligible to everybody else. 
 It is not at all uncommon to see these copied by their 
 sons or apprentices, and carved as ornaments on boats 
 and walls, without any reference to their signification, 
 and indeed in all the cases where we have made the 
 inquiry, in utter ignorance of their having any meaning. 
 
 Persons who cannot write, form nevertheless a cor- 
 rect notion of the nature and object of writing ; and, as 
 ordinary experience teaches, often aim at effecting the 
 object by such clumsy expedients as Carlton has de- 
 scribed in his very amusing sketch, the Geography of an 
 Irish Oath. Supposing a number of such persons 
 to emigrate voluntarily, or of necessity, they would 
 attempt to imitate the form of recording which they 
 had witnessed in their native land ; but the tradition of 
 the meaning being originally imperfect, the knowledge
 
 SAVAGE LIFE. 
 
 of it would soon be lost, but the form of record would 
 continue to be copied, either from the natural pro- 
 pensity of man to imitation, or from the sanctity 
 which would soon attach itself to the mystery of the 
 symbol. 
 
 In the interior of Africa, the musical instruments are 
 superior in construction to the implements constructed 
 for the practical purposes of life, and the same obser- 
 vation is applicable to various tribes of the South-Sea 
 islanders. But it deserves to be remarked, that among 
 the different tribes, different instruments are found in 
 the higher degree of perfection. The Africans, gene- 
 rally, are pre-eminent in stringed instruments; the 
 inhabitants of the Society Isles were celebrated for their 
 flutes, while others seem to have paid most attention to 
 the drum. The following description of a Tahitian 
 flute, given by Mr. Ellis, singularly elucidates the ab- 
 sence of uniformity in barbarian progress, for it exhibits 
 considerable ingenuity in an article of luxury amongst 
 a people who are ignorant of the spade, the hammer, 
 and the chisel. 
 
 " The vivo, or flute, was the most agreeable instru- 
 ment the Tahitians appear to have been acquainted 
 with. It was usually a bamboo cane, about an inch in 
 diameter, and twelve or eighteen inches long. The 
 joint in the cane formed one end of the flute; the 
 aperture through which it was blown was close to the 
 end; it seldom had more than four holes, three in the 
 upper side, covered with the fingers, and one beneath, 
 against which the thumb was placed. Sometimes, how- 
 ever, there were four holes on the upper side. It was 
 occasionally plain, but more frequently ornamented, by
 
 212 THE ARTS OF 
 
 being scorched or burnt with a hot stone, or having 
 fine and beautifully plaited strings of human hair 
 wound round it alternately with rings of neatly-braided 
 cinet. It was not blown from the mouth but the 
 nostril. The performer usually placed the thumb of 
 the right hand upon the right nostril, applied the 
 aperture of the flute, which he held with the fingers of 
 his right hand, to the other nostril, and moving his 
 fingers on the holes, produced the music. The sound 
 was soft and not unpleasant, though the notes were 
 few; it was generally played in a plaintive strain, 
 though frequently used as an accompaniment to their 
 pelies, or songs. These were closely identified both 
 with the music and the dances. The ihara, the drum, 
 and the flute were generally accompanied by the song, 
 as was also the native dance." 
 
 It is important to observe, that no barbarous tribe 
 claims the invention of any of the arts in which it 
 displays special ingenuity. The invention is invariably 
 ascribed to the gods, or to some deified ancestor. The 
 New Zealanders are expert fishermen, though their 
 hooks are clumsy. They ascribe the art of constructing 
 nets to their deity Mawe, and hence it is practised 
 under the sanction of religion. Mr. Polack gives us 
 the following account of the fishing apparatus employed 
 by the New Zealanders. 
 
 " Fishing nets of various kinds are used, of excellent 
 quality, and have not the rude stamp that characterises 
 the form and substance of the generality of their instru- 
 ments. Some of the seines are of enormous extent, 
 and are made by each family in a village working a 
 certain portion of raw flax, which is quickly ripped with
 
 SAVAGE LIFE. 213 
 
 the finger-nails into strips, the boon, or useless gummy 
 matter, at the lateral parts, being discarded. These 
 narrow strips are tied up in bundles, and left to dry on 
 poles in the air. Flax nets, thus made, are remarkably 
 tough, and resist decay for a long time. After being 
 made use of, they are carefully folded up (some of them 
 are about two thousand feet long) and placed on a wata, 
 or small scaffold. While in progress of manufacture, 
 the workmen are placed under a strict tapu (religious 
 separation), probably an invention thus introduced by 
 a wise observer, * to attach this fickle people to the 
 attainment of one object at once, which they would be 
 doubtless disinclined to follow without some such sti- 
 mulant. Land-nets are also in frequent use, one of 
 them is in the form of a bag suspended from a hoop, 
 and fixed to a pole; this net is found to be extremely 
 serviceable in fishing for the kolinda, or cray-fish, that 
 congregate among the rocks in certain places very 
 numerously; they are sought after by the feet of the 
 fisher, who places his nets near to the fish, and with a 
 dexterous jerk, tumbles the scaly prize into it. 
 
 " Fishing baskets, made from a variety of Hands, or 
 creepers, that almost form vegetable nets in the dense 
 forests, formed of a large capacity below, and narrowing 
 to a small compass at the mouth, are also made use 
 of to entrap the finny tribes, from which escape is 
 impossible." 
 
 The seine is so considerable an advance in art, and 
 so far beyond the average of inventions possessed by 
 the New Zealanders, that we cannot avoid believing, 
 
 * More probably a superstition derived from the supposed divine 
 origin of the art.
 
 214 THE ARTS OF 
 
 that owing to the great abundance of fish on the coast 
 it was preserved when the knowledge of other imple- 
 ments was lost, or that it was introduced by some more 
 civilized foreigners. So late as the close of the seventh 
 century, the inhabitants of Sussex had no means of 
 taking the fish that abounded on their coast, until they 
 were taught by Wilfred, the exiled Archbishop of York, 
 and gratitude for this benefit is assigned by the eccle- 
 siastical historians as one of the principal causes of their 
 prompt conversion. 
 
 But although arts advance simultaneously, they are 
 found to present great discrepancies in their decline. 
 Of all the arts possessed by the people of the Pharaohs, 
 the Copts scarce retain any but the hatching of chickens 
 by artificial heat, but in this they have not been sur- 
 passed by any other nation. The Hindoos retain their 
 skill in the manufacture of jewellery, and the descen- 
 dants of the Peruvians are still eminent as lapidaries, 
 though many useful arts possessed by their ancestors 
 have been forgotten. 
 
 It would be easy to multiply examples, but those we 
 have mentioned are sufficient for our argument. Mr. 
 Polack, who has with equal care and ability examined 
 the arts and the traditions of the New Zealanders, and 
 compared them with those of other barbarous nations, 
 thus forcibly gives his testimony to the fact, that the 
 elements of civilization which they possess are inherited 
 from ancestors superior to the present race in intel- 
 ligence. 
 
 After detailing their mythic account of the origin of 
 their nation, he says, " The origin of such fables is lost 
 in the gross traditions of the people, but probably they
 
 SAVAGE LIFE. 215 
 
 relate to the earliest of the colonial ancestry of the 
 present descendants, who, gifted with a portion of the 
 knowledge of the civilized tribes from whom they 
 emanated in Asia, communicated to their children a 
 limited account of those arts and inventions ; but 
 obliged by the scarcity of animal and vegetable food in 
 the new country, to devote the principal portion of their 
 time and that of their children towards producing sub- 
 sistence ; and deprived of those monuments of art they 
 had been accustomed to view in their own country, and 
 unable to give in idea similar knowledge to their chil- 
 dren, which had been familiar to them in substance, 
 the latter gradually sunk into the barbarism they have 
 displayed for some centuries past ; their superstitions 
 accumulating as each generation was further removed 
 from the earliest inhabitants, whose superior civilization, 
 which they had imperfectly disseminated, inspired those 
 unpolished children with a spirit of divine admiration. 
 Probably aware that religious ceremonials would alone 
 act as a check on a nation without the means of 
 improving their uncivilized state, the dying patriarchs 
 claimed in consequence divine honours, which they were 
 enabled to eifect by improving upon the unqualified 
 devotion displayed by their admiring descendants." 
 
 We find then, nearly in all barbarous nations, the 
 relics of a more ancient system of civilization far 
 superior to that which they at present possess; and 
 traditions ascribing the invention of each of these 
 better processes to some celestial being. The same 
 fact meets us in the early history of most civilized 
 nations : the ancient Greeks, like the modern islanders 
 of the South Sea, averred that they received the first
 
 216 ARTS OF SAVAGE LIFE. 
 
 elements of civilization from the gods, that is, from a 
 race of beings more perfect than themselves. There is 
 a universal consent that the first impulses to improve- 
 ment were received from a foreign source, and no tribe 
 or nation has yet been found that asserted the spon- 
 taneous development of its civilization.
 
 217 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 EVIDENCES OF LOST CIVILIZATION. 
 
 WHEN North America was first discovered by Euro- 
 peans, it was found inhabited by barbarous races, 
 unacquainted with most of the common arts of life. 
 Among the most savage of these Indians were the 
 inhabitants of the wilds on the Mississippi and Ohio, 
 who not only were destitute of civilization, but seemed 
 utterly incapable of appreciating its blessings. Cen- 
 turies elapsed ; the red men, untamed and untameable, 
 retired before the skill, enterprise, and science of the 
 Anglo-Americans; their forests fell beneath the axe, 
 the tangled thickets which covered their soil were 
 cleared away by the cultivator, but their labours instead 
 of revealing a virgin soil, have exhibited to the won- 
 dering colonists unquestionable traces of the existence 
 in these regions, at an unknown but very remote age, 
 of a highly civilized race, whose very name has been 
 lost to history. 
 
 Vestiges of tumuli, fortified encampments, mounds 
 and trenches, are found in Western America as far 
 north as the range of the buffalo ; their western limit 
 is not known ; but on the south they extend through 
 the isthmus of Darien to Peru.* They vary in con- 
 
 * It may be necessary to state that part of this description (ui 
 gviddam notum propriumque) is taken from an article contributed to 
 the Athenaeum, by permission of the proprietors. 
 
 L
 
 218 EVIDENCES OF 
 
 struction according to the nature of the soil : in the 
 north they are principally built of earth, but on ap- 
 proaching the Cordilleras they are found to serve as bases 
 for massive stone edifices now in ruins. A fortress at 
 Marietta, and another at the mouth of the Great Miami, 
 are described, by competent persons, as constructed 
 with considerable engineering skill. Such works, it is 
 manifest, could not have been raised by the Indians 
 discovered on the Ohio, who were mere untutored 
 savages, unacquainted with any useful arts save those 
 of the rudest manufacture and most simple necessity. 
 They were also divided into small tribes, having little 
 or no connexion with each other, while there is strong 
 evidence for believing that those who erected these 
 monuments formed one people. The larger camps are 
 constructed near watercourses, and at intervals along 
 the stream tumuli have been raised, which would be 
 visible one from the other were the country cleared of 
 its present forest. 
 
 These remains have very recently attracted the ear- 
 nest attention of American antiquarians, but particularly 
 of the Historical Society of Ohio, which has been in a 
 great degree instituted for their special investigation. 
 Mr. Delafield, at the desire of the Society, has examined 
 several of them personally, and states as the result of 
 his observations, that "a map of North America, de- 
 lineating each of these ruins in situ, would exhibit a 
 connexion between the various groups of ancient walls, 
 by means of intermediate mounds, a signal on which 
 by fire or otherwise would transmit with ease and tele- 
 graphic despatch the annunciation of hostile approach or 
 a call for assistance." Garcilasso de la Vega informs us
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 219 
 
 that such a practice was common among the ancient Pe- 
 ruvians, and that a regular system of telegraphic signals 
 was established throughout the empire of the Incas. 
 
 But further inquiries have shewn that these encamp- 
 ments were not all constructed for military purposes ; 
 the form, the position, and the arrangement of many, 
 rendering them obviously unsuited to the purpose of a 
 fortress or magazine. There is a remarkable structure 
 at Circleville, described by General Harrison, which 
 seems to have been designed for a place of public 
 assembly. 
 
 " The square," he says, " has such a number of gate- 
 ways as seem intended to facilitate the entrance of 
 those who would attack it. And both it and the circle 
 were commanded by the mound, rendering it an easier 
 task to take than to defend it." Some of the locations 
 appear to have been chosen with direct reference to the 
 facilities which the soil affords for cultivation. Agri- 
 culture, in ancient times, seems to have been a great 
 cause of men associating together, and the early opera- 
 tions of farming were undertaken by a community, and 
 not by isolated individuals. All the agricultual opera- 
 tions of ancient Egypt were carried on in the vicinity 
 of cities, for we find it distinctly stated in the history 
 of Joseph, " the food of the field which was round 
 about every city laid he up in the same." It does not 
 appear that these agricultural associations were formed 
 merely for defence, they seem to have been rather 
 designed for co-operation. The structures in the state 
 of Ohio, which most probably were erected to facilitate 
 cultivation, give evidence that the neighbourhood was 
 populous by their great extent, but at the same time,
 
 220 EVIDENCES OP 
 
 they shew by their position and form that they would 
 have been unavailing as defences against a foreign 
 invader. 
 
 Mr. Delafield informs us that some of the localities 
 have been obviously chosen with reference to the 
 facility of procuring metalliferous ores, smelting them, 
 and manufacturing the metals. 
 
 "In Liberty township, Washington county, Ohio, 
 are yet to be seen twenty or thirty rude furnaces, built 
 of stone, with hearths of clay, containing pieces of 
 stone-coal and cinder, perhaps used in smelting ore. 
 Large trees are still growing on them, and attest their 
 age. They stand in the midst of a rich body of iron 
 ore, and in a wild hilly and rough part of the country, 
 better adapted to manufactures than to agriculture." 
 
 This circumstance is the more remarkable, as it has 
 been hitherto generally believed that the use of iron 
 was unknown to the Americans before the discovery 
 of the New World by Europeans. It affords the 
 strongest evidence not only of the possible decline of 
 civilization in a particular country, but also of the 
 possibility of an art being lost, which after having 
 been once possessed would seem almost indispensable 
 to existence. 
 
 Some of the military mounds are of great extent : 
 there is one on the river Cahokia, nearly opposite St. 
 Louis, which Dr. M'Culloch declares must have occu- 
 pied thousands of labourers for many years. But the 
 magnitude of these works is less remarkable than the 
 ingenuity displayed in their construction; several of 
 them, as has already been noticed, display great engi- 
 neering skill. The fortress at Marietta has a ditch, a
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 221 
 
 covered way, and a subterraneous communication with 
 the river ; that at Miami, has flank defences, bastions 
 placed in perfect accordance with the best principles 
 of fortification, and lines of curtain which General 
 Harrison declares, are " precisely what they should be." 
 
 In some districts these structures abound more 
 than in others. General Dearborn informs us that 
 the mounds are so numerous in the neighbourhood of 
 Rock river, that he there examined groups or collec- 
 tions of them, at thirteen places within a distance of 
 fifteen miles. They were from seven to forty-three in 
 number at the various locations, and extended along 
 the bank at some points for more than half a mile. 
 "They extend," he says, "from near the mouth of 
 Rock river, through Illinois, far into Wescousin terri- 
 tory, shewing how densely that region must have been 
 populated some five hundred or five thousand years 
 since." 
 
 The mounds mentioned by General Dearborn are 
 for the most part tumuli, bones and other sepulchral 
 relics having been found in them. It is exceedingly 
 probable that further investigations will enable us to 
 form some correct notion of the advance made by this 
 forgotten nation in the domestic arts, for their tumuli, 
 like the Egyptian catacombs and the New Zealand sepul- 
 chres, exhibit memorials in the chambers of death of the 
 favourite pursuits of life. Some enterprising persons 
 have opened the great mound called the Mammoth 
 mound, situated near Elizabeth town in Virginia; they 
 fitted up the interior as a museum, in order to display 
 the several objects discovered in the course of their 
 excavations. The exhibition was opened to the public
 
 EVIDENCES OF 
 
 in the summer of 1839, and it has proved one of the 
 most interesting in America. The following abridg- 
 ment of the description published by the proprietors, 
 has recently appeared in the London "Athenaeum/' 
 
 " The workmen commenced at the north wing. They 
 cut an arched tunnel or entrance ten feet high, seven 
 wide, and one hundred and eleven in length, when 
 they struck on the mouth of a vault. This vault was 
 found to be seven feet high, and in length eight by 
 twelve feet, north and south. After commencing the 
 tunnel the first thing discovered was the appearance 
 of charcoal, with fragments of burnt bones, traces of 
 which continued to the entrance of the vault. Within 
 fourteen feet of the mouth of the vault they struck on 
 the original entrance or passage, descending like the 
 entrance of a cellar, apparently supported by timbers. 
 Within this vault were found two skeletons ; the first 
 nearly perfect not one tooth missing supposed to 
 have been placed erect, but it had fallen near the wall, 
 and been preserved by the sand which had crumbled 
 over it. On the opposite side lay another skeleton, 
 the bones much broken. With the latter were found 
 650 ivory beads, and near the breast an ivory ornament 
 of peculiar construction, about six inches in length. 
 From the centre of this vault they proceeded to cut or 
 excavate an opening eleven feet in diameter, to the top, 
 a distance of sixty-three feet. After proceeding about 
 half way, they struck on another vault, eight feet by 
 eighteen, east and west. In this were found one 
 skeleton and its ornaments, consisting of 1700 ivory 
 beads, 500 sea-shells, 150 pieces of isinglass, and five 
 copper bands, worn round the wrist, weighing seven-
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 223 
 
 teen ounces, also a small stone, about two inches in 
 length and one and a half in width, with marks re- 
 sembling letters and figures, and several other small 
 trinkets." 
 
 Any person who examines the engravings of these 
 copper bands, published by the Historical Society of 
 Ohio, must at once be convinced that the marks on 
 them are written records, though it is impossible to 
 determine whether they are alphabetical or ideagraphic. 
 In either case, they afford a proof that the art of keep- 
 ing records may be lost in a country, and consequently 
 tend to strengthen the probability of the interpretation 
 of the New Zealand tattooing and carving given in the 
 preceding chapter. 
 
 The description given of the Mammoth mound, cor- 
 responds very exactly with the few particulars known of 
 the discoveries made some years since at Teatihuacan, 
 when the great pyramid of Cholula was cut through 
 to make the road from Mexico to Puebla. The work- 
 men, after penetrating a brick wall of enormous thick- 
 ness, reached a square chamber, elegantly constructed of 
 polished stone, and having its roof supported by beams 
 of cypress wood. In this sanctuary were discovered 
 two skeletons, some vases, and a number of ornaments, 
 which have been either dispersed or destroyed by the 
 ignorant workmen. Humboldt, who saw the teocalli, 
 or pyramid of Cholula, before it was laid open and 
 partially destroyed, gives us the following description 
 of its stupendous size and grandeur. 
 
 "At a distance it has the appearance of a natural 
 hill, covered with vegetation. It has four stories all of 
 equal height. It appears to have been constructed
 
 224 EVIDENCES OF 
 
 exactly in the direction of the four cardinal points. 
 The base of this pyramid is twice as broad as that of 
 Cheops in Egypt, but its height is very little more 
 than that of Mycerinus.* On comparing the dimen- 
 sions of the House of the Sun, in Peru, with those of 
 the pyramid of Cholula, we see that the people who 
 constructed these remarkable monuments intended to 
 give them the same height, but with a basis of length 
 in proportion of one to two. The pyramid of Cholula 
 is built of unburnt brick alternating with layers of 
 clay." 
 
 This construction recalls to mind that of one of the 
 Egyptian pyramids of Sakkara, which has six stories, 
 and which, according to Pococke, is a mass of pebbles 
 and yellow mortar, covered on the outside with rough 
 stones. 
 
 Not less remarkable, are the monumental remains of 
 Xochicalco, which some authorities believe to have been 
 a temple, and others a military fortification. It is thus 
 described by Humboldt: 
 
 " To the south-east of the city of Caeinavaca (the 
 ancient Qualmahuac), on the western declivity of the 
 cordillera of Anahuse, in that happy region designated 
 by the inhabitants under the name of Tierra templada 
 (temperate region), because it enjoys perpetual spring, 
 rises an insulated hill, which, according to the baro- 
 metrical measurement of M. Algate, is one hundred 
 and seven metres high.f The Indians call it, in the 
 Aztec dialect, ' Xochicalco, or the House of Flowers/ 
 The hill of Xochicalco is a mass of rocks, to which the 
 
 * The length of the base is 1423 feet, and it is 177 feet high. 
 t Nearly 331 feet.
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 225 
 
 hand of man has given a regular conic form, and which 
 is divided into five stories or terraces, each of which is 
 covered with masonry. These terraces are nearly twenty 
 metres* in perpendicular height, but narrow towards 
 the top, as in the teocallis, or Aztec pyramids, the 
 summit of which was decorated with an altar. The 
 hill is surrounded by a very deep and broad ditch, so 
 that the whole entrenchment is nearly four thousand 
 metres in circumference, f The summit of the hill of 
 Xochicalco is an oblong platform, seventy-two metres % 
 from north to south, ninety-six metres from east to 
 west. This platform is encircled by a wall of hewn 
 stone more than two metres high,|| which served as a 
 defence for the combatants. In the centre of this 
 spacious military square, we find the remains of a 
 pyramidical monument, the form of which resembles 
 the teocallis we have already described. Among the 
 hieroglyphical remains of the pyramid of Xochicalco, 
 we distinguish heads of crocodiles spouting water, and 
 figures of men sitting cross-legged, according to the 
 custom of several nations in Asia." 
 
 Although we shall have occasion to return again to 
 a consideration of the Mexican monuments, we cannot 
 forbear remarking the similarity of this structure to 
 the great temple of Bel, or Belus, at Babylon, as de- 
 scribed by Herodotus. " It is a square building, each 
 side of which is the length of two furlongs. In the 
 midst a tower rises, of the solid depth or height of one 
 furlong, on which, resting as a base, seven other turrets 
 are built in regular succession. The ascent is on the 
 
 * About 65 feet, f Rather more than two miles and a half. 
 | 236 feet. 315 feet. || About four feet and a half. 
 
 L2
 
 226 EVIDENCES OF 
 
 outside ; which, winding from the ground, is continued 
 to the highest tower, and in the middle of the whole 
 structure there is a convenient resting-place." 
 
 The walls around the edifice of Xochicalco seem to 
 explain the design of the embankments raised around 
 the tumuli of North America, which are particularly 
 remarkable in the monumental remains at Circleville 
 and Marietta. We shall in a future page endeavour to 
 shew that these structures were all erected by men of 
 the same race, who continued their hereditary mode 
 of constructing high places in Mexico and Peru, when 
 they migrated, or were driven from their more northern 
 settlements, with the improvements incident to their 
 permanent location there. Stone took the place of 
 their earthern tumuli; yet the defences were still 
 erected around them for protection from farther pre- 
 datory incursions of their northern enemies. 
 
 But whatever people may have been the builders of 
 the earthern structures in North America, nothing can 
 be better established than the very remote antiquity of 
 the works themselves. General Harrison's reasoning 
 on this subject is too conclusive and luminous to be 
 withheld ; we shall quote his own words, but we cannot 
 do so without expressing regret that he has fallen into 
 the common American error of overlaying his logic with 
 his rhetoric, and that he has disfigured his argument 
 by the worst ornaments of depraved eloquence. 
 
 " The sites of the ancient works on the Ohio," he 
 says, "present precisely the same appearance as the 
 circumjacent forest. You find on them all that beau- 
 tiful variety of trees which gives such unrivalled rich- 
 ness to our forests. This is particularly the case in the
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 227 
 
 fifteen acres included within the walls of the work at 
 the mouth of the great Miami, and the relative pro- 
 portions of the different kinds of timber are about the 
 same." 
 
 Now the aspect of timber to an experienced wood- 
 man affords certain data, established by invariable 
 experience, for ascertaining within certain limits the 
 chronology of the first growth. General Harrison's 
 reasoning on the subject is irresistible: "The first 
 growth, on the same kind of land, once cleared, and 
 then abandoned to nature, on the contrary, is more 
 homogeneous often stinted to one or two, or at most, 
 three kinds of timber. If the ground has been culti- 
 vated, yellow locusts, in many places, will spring up as 
 thick as garden peas. If it has not been cultivated, 
 the black and white walnut will be the prevailing 
 growth. The rapidity with which these trees grow, 
 for a time, smothers the attempt of other kinds to 
 vegetate and grow in their shade. The more thrifty 
 individuals soon overtop the weaker of their own kind, 
 which sicken and die. In this way there is soon only 
 as many left as the earth will well support to maturity. 
 All this time the squirrels may plant the seed of those 
 trees which serve them for food, and by neglect suffer 
 them to remain, it will be vain ; the birds may drop 
 the kernels, the external pulp of which has contributed 
 to their nourishment, and divested of which they are 
 in the best state of germinating, still it will be of no 
 avail ; the winds of heaven may waft the winged seeds 
 of the sycamore, cotton-wood, and maple, and a friendly 
 shower may bury them to the necessary depth in the 
 loose and fertile soil, but still without success. The
 
 228 EVIDENCES OP 
 
 roots below rob them of moisture, and the canopy of 
 limbs and leaves above, intercepts the rays of the sun 
 and the dews of heaven : the young giants in posses- 
 sion, like another kind of aristocracy, absorb the whole 
 means of subsistence, and leave the mass to perish 
 at their feet. This state of things will not, however, 
 always continue. If the process of nature is slow and 
 circuitous, in putting down usurpation and establishing 
 the equality which she loves, and which is the great 
 characteristic of her principles, it is sure and effectual. 
 The preference of the soil for the first growth, ceases 
 with its maturity. It admits of no succession, upon 
 the principles of legitimacy. The long undisputed 
 masters of the forest may be thinned by the lightning, 
 the tempest, or by diseases peculiar to themselves ; and 
 whenever this is the case, one of the oft-rejected of 
 another family will find between its decaying roots 
 shelter and appropriate food, and springing into vi- 
 gorous growth, will soon push its green foliage to the 
 skies, through the decayed and withered limbs of its 
 blasted and dying adversary, the soil itself yielding 
 it a more liberal support than any scion from its 
 former occupant. It will easily be conceived what a 
 length of time it will require for a denuded tract of 
 land, by a process so slow, again to clothe itself with 
 the amazing variety of foliage which is the characteristic 
 of the forests of this region. Of what immense age, 
 then, must be those works, so often referred to 
 covered^ as has been supposed, by those who have the 
 best opportunity of examining them, with the second 
 growth after the ancient forest had been regained." 
 The chronological inferences derivable from the
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 229 
 
 growth of trees are of great interest and importance. 
 M. de Candolle has shewn that there is no law of 
 nature on whose invariable validity we may rely with 
 greater confidence, than that dicotyledonous trees in- 
 crease annually in size by the deposition of an addi- 
 tional layer between the wood and the bark, and that a 
 transverse section of such trees presents the appearance 
 of a series of nearly concentric irregular rings, the 
 number of which indicates the age of the tree.* 
 Among the trees described as growing on the earthen 
 structures of the Ohio, we find several taxoclia, a 
 transverse section of which would no doubt establish 
 the minor limit of date to the abandonment of the 
 buildings. We have not found many such observations 
 in the American works on the subject, but from the 
 size ascribed to those trees, we should be led to con- 
 clude from analogy, that many centuries were necessary 
 to bring them to their present stage of growth.f 
 
 The traditions of the native Indians preserve the 
 memory of the superior race of men to whom these 
 remarkable structures are ascribed. The earliest and 
 best account of this primitive race is thus given by 
 Messrs. Yates and Moulton, in their History of New 
 York. " The Lenni Lenape, J according to the tradi- 
 tions handed down to them by their ancestors, resided 
 
 * See Dr. Pye Smith's Geology, for an application of this principle 
 to an argument against the supposed universality of the Deluge, and 
 Babbage's Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, for an ingenious suggestion 
 respecting a mode of determining the age of strata by the rings of 
 trees imbedded in them. 
 
 t One instance of the age of a tree at Marietta being thus deter- 
 mined, will be found in a subsequent page. 
 
 t Called also the Delawares.
 
 230 EVIDENCES OF 
 
 many hundred years ago in a very distant country in 
 the western part of the American continent. They de- 
 termined on migrating to the eastward, and accordingly 
 set out in a body. After a long journey and many 
 nights' encampment (that is, halts of one year at a 
 place), they arrived on the Nimorsi Sipu,* where they 
 fell in with the Mengive,t who had also emigrated from 
 a distant country, and had struck upon the river a 
 little higher up. Their object was somewhat similar 
 to that of the Delawares; they were proceeding east- 
 wards until they should find a country that pleased 
 them. The territory east of the Mississippi was in- 
 habited by a very powerful nation, who had many 
 large towns built on the great rivers flowing through 
 their land. These were the Alligervi, from whose 
 name those of the Alleghany riverj and mountains 
 have been derived. This famous people are said to 
 have been remarkably tall and stout ; and there is one 
 tradition, that giants were among them people of a 
 much larger size than the Lenapes. They built regular 
 entrenchments and fortifications, whence they would 
 sally, but they were generally repulsed. M. Hocke- 
 welder has seen many of these fortifications, two of 
 which are remarkable ; viz. one near the mouth of the 
 
 * The river of fish, from namors a fish, and sipu a river. It is now 
 called the Mississippi. 
 
 f The Iroquois, or five nations. 
 
 | Viz., the Ohio, as the Iroquois named it; a branch of it still 
 retains the ancient name. 
 
 The state of Ohio had not been explored when this was written ; 
 the structures described by General Harrison and General Dearborn, 
 far surpass those mentioned by Messrs. Yates and Moulton, but they 
 have only been recently discovered.
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 231 
 
 Huron, flowing into lake St. Clair; the other on the 
 Huron, east of San dusky, six or eight miles from 
 lake Erie. 
 
 " The Lenape on their arrival, requested permission 
 to settle in their country. The Alligervi refused, but 
 gave them leave to pass through and seek a settlement 
 farther eastward. They had no sooner commenced 
 crossing the Namorsi Lipu, than the Alligervi, per- 
 ceiving their vast numbers, furiously attacked them, 
 and threatened them all with destruction if they dared 
 to persist in coming over. Fired at this treachery, the 
 Lenape now consulted about giving them a trial of 
 their strength and courage. The Mengive, who had 
 remained spectators at a distance, now offered to join 
 them, on condition that after conquering the country, 
 they should be entitled to share it with them. Their 
 proposal was accepted, and the resolution was taken 
 by the two nations to conquer or die. The Lenape 
 and Mengive now declared war against the Alligervi, 
 and great battles were fought, in which many warriors 
 fell on both sides. The enemy fortified their large 
 towns, and erected fortifications, especially on large 
 rivers and near lakes, where they were successively 
 attacked and sometimes stormed by the allies. An 
 engagement took place, in which hundreds fell, who 
 were afterwards buried in holes, or laid together in 
 heaps, and covered with earth. No quarter was given, 
 so that the Alligervi, finding their destruction inevitable 
 if they persisted in their obstinacy, abandoned the 
 country to the conquerors, and fled down the Mississippi, 
 whence they never returned. The war lasted many 
 years, and was very destructive."
 
 232 EVIDENCES OF 
 
 Mr. Delafield intimates that there exists a tradition 
 of the earthen fortifications having been constructed 
 for the protection against the Mammoth as well as 
 against the attacks of another race. This supposition 
 is not supported by any of the accounts given of the 
 works themselves, and for many obvious reasons appears 
 to be improbable. He states, however, that the line of 
 retreat taken by the conquered people, may be traced 
 by their fortifications to the elevated plains of the 
 Cordilleras, where remains of earthen ramparts may 
 be found, but serving merely as bases, on which are 
 erected massive stone edifices, now in ruins. 
 
 There are some sceptical writers who assert that 
 stupendous edifices like the Egyptian pyramids, the 
 Hindoo cave-temples, and the great wall of China, are 
 evidences of barbarism rather than civilization, because 
 they have not any obviously useful purpose. It cer- 
 tainly is not very conclusive reasoning to infer that 
 these structures must be useless, or erected merely for 
 ostentation and vanity, because their purpose is not 
 immediately discoverable in modern times; but what- 
 ever force may be attributed to the objection in other 
 cases, it is inapplicable to the case of the earthern struc- 
 tures on the Ohio, for the utility of the edifices is at once 
 apparent. The account given of them by the Rev. Mr. 
 Harris, is so complete that we shall extract it, though 
 at the risk of a little repetition. 
 
 " The vast walls and mounds of earth discovered in 
 the western country, have excited the astonishment and 
 baffled the researches of all who have seen or heard of 
 them. The works at Marietta are on an elevated plain 
 above the present bank of the Muskingum, on the east
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 233 
 
 side, half a mile from its junction with the Ohio. They 
 consist of walls and mounds of earth, in direct lines, 
 and in square and circular forms. The largest square 
 fort, by some called the town, contains forty acres, 
 encompassed by a wall of earth from six to ten feet high, 
 and from twenty-five to thirty-six feet in breadth at the 
 base. On each side are three openings at equal dis- 
 tances resembling gateways. 
 
 " From the outlet next the river is a covert way, 
 formed of two parallel banks of earth, two hundred and 
 thirty-one feet distant from each other. On the inside, 
 they are twenty-one feet in height, and forty-two in 
 breadth at the base ; but on the outside, average only 
 five feet high. This passage is three hundred and sixty 
 feet long, and probably reached the river when it was 
 constructed.* Within the walls at each corner are 
 elevated squares a hundred and eighty feet long, a 
 hundred and thirty-two broad, and nine feet high; 
 level on the summit and nearly perpendicular at the 
 sides. Circular mounds are seen thirty feet in diameter 
 and five in height. 
 
 " Towards the south east is a smaller fort, containing 
 twenty acres, with a gateway in the centre of each side, 
 and one at each corner. These openings are defended 
 with circular mounds. At the outside of the smaller 
 fort is a mound in form of a sugar-loaf. Its base is a 
 regular circle, a hundred and fifteen feet in diameter, 
 and its perpendicular altitude is thirty feet. It is sur- 
 rounded with a ditch four feet deep and fifteen wide, 
 and defended by a parapet four feet high, through 
 
 * More recent investigations have traced the communication quite 
 to the river.
 
 234 EVIDENCES OF 
 
 which is an opening or gateway towards the fort, twenty 
 feet wide. 
 
 " The places called graves are small mounds of earth, 
 from some of which bones have been taken, in their 
 natural position, of a man buried nearly east and west, 
 with a quantity of isinglass (mica membranacea) on his 
 breast. In others, there were some bones, partly burnt, 
 charcoal, arrow -heads, and fragments of a kind of 
 earthenware. 
 
 " Plates of copper have been found in some of the 
 mounds, but they appear to be parts of armour. These 
 works were covered with a prodigious growth of trees, 
 one of which was felled, and was judged from the con- 
 centric circles to be four hundred and sixty-three years 
 old.* 
 
 " About ninety miles further up in the country, on 
 a plain bounded by a western branch of the Muskingum, 
 is a train of ancient works, nearly two miles in extent, 
 with ramparts eighteen feet high. 
 
 "At Licking are extensive works, some different 
 from those at Marietta, and several circular forts with 
 but one entrance. They have a parapet from seven to 
 twelve feet high, but no ditch. 
 
 " Utensils are found four and five feet below the 
 surface. They are quite different in shape and kind 
 from the stone tools and flint arrows of the Indians, 
 
 * This circumstance gives a minor limit for the age of the mound, 
 but as the species of tree is not mentioned, we cannot determine 
 whether it was of first or second growth. Later descriptions of 
 Marietta would lead to the inference that the trees are of second or 
 perhaps third growth, which would of course more than double the 
 amount of years that must have elapsed since the abandonment of the 
 fortress.
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 235 
 
 which are frequently picked up on the surface. They 
 undoubtedly belonged to a people acquainted with the 
 arts. 
 
 " In some of the mounds have been found plates of 
 copper rivetted together, copper beads, various imple- 
 ments, and a very curious kind of porcelain. The 
 Indians regard them with as much surprise as we do. 
 There are inscriptions engraven on a large stratum of 
 rocks, on the south-east side of the Ohio, two miles 
 below the mouth of Indian or King's Creek, which 
 empties into the Ohio fifty miles below Pittsburgh. 
 The rocks are horizontal, and so close to the edge of 
 the river that at times the water covers them. 
 
 " At the distance of a few yards from the banks of 
 the river, there are several large masses of the same 
 kind of rock, on which there are inscriptions also of the 
 same kind, which appear, to have been engraven at the 
 same time. 
 
 "The town of Tomlinson, state of Ohio, is built 
 upon one of these square forts. Several mounds are 
 within a mile ; three of them are higher than the rest. 
 In digging, to build a stable at the end of one of them, 
 many curious stone implements were found ; one resem- 
 bled a syringe ; there was a pestle, and several copper 
 beads. In another mound, in Colonel Biggs' s garden, 
 there was a vast number of human bones, stone tools, 
 and a stone signet of an oval shape, two inches long, 
 with a figure in relievo, like a note of admiration, sur- 
 rounded by two raised rims. Captain Wilson observed, 
 that it was exactly the figure of the brand with which 
 the Mexican horses are marked. 
 
 "A tumulus twelve feet high, and a parapet of five
 
 236 EVIDENCES OF 
 
 feet, with only one entrance, was surrounded by a 
 regular ditch. One, called the Big Grave, is sixty- 
 seven feet and a half high, with steep sides; the 
 diameter at top is fifty-five feet, but the summit of the 
 apex forms a basin three or four feet in depth; the 
 base is half an acre. It is covered with large trees, and 
 sounds hollow. Its contents may develope the history 
 of these antiquities. The Rev. Doctor (now Bishop) 
 Madison thinks that these were fixed habitations." 
 
 Mr. Mill's scepticism respecting the ancient civiliza- 
 tion of the Hindoos is founded on the supposed absence 
 of works of utility. The validity of his reasoning will 
 be examined in a future page, but whatever may be its 
 force, we see that the structures on the Ohio are not 
 open to his objections. Bishop Madison's conjecture 
 that the work at Tomlinson was a fixed habitation has 
 been amply verified by subsequent investigation. Both 
 that and the fortress of Marietta appear to have been 
 similar to the towns which still exist in Mongolia, that 
 is, a collection of detached huts or hamlets, enclosed by 
 a common line of defence. From the account given of 
 Nineveh in the Book of Jonah, it would seem that this 
 great city was built on a similar plan. For the pro- 
 phet's murmurs were checked by the declaration that 
 there were in it " more than sixscore thousand persons 
 who could not discern between their right hand and 
 their left hand, and also much cattle." 
 
 There is accumulated evidence, to prove that the 
 ancient inhabitants of the Ohio plains were in possession 
 of the arts of working in rnetals, and of making a species 
 of porcelain, both of which were lost long before the 
 discoveries of Columbus. Some authors have, from this
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 237 
 
 circumstance, been led to entertain doubts concerning 
 the high antiquity of the Ohio civilization, and to con- 
 jecture, that the copper-plates were either obtained by 
 traffic, or were the work of some foreign artisans, acci- 
 dently thrown on the American coast. This theory is at 
 once refuted by the great number of these remains, and 
 the wide extent over which they are scattered. We have, 
 in the oldest parts of Scripture, distinct intimation, that 
 metallurgy was one of the earliest arts: describing the 
 situation of the countries adjoining Eden, the historian 
 says, " the land of Havilah containeth gold; there also 
 abdellium and the onyx-stone." It may be remarked, 
 that the Arabic version, instead of the resinous gum 
 called bdellium, reads " pearl;" and as Havilah is gene- 
 rally believed to be the southern part of Persia, it is 
 probable that we have here an allusion to the pearl- 
 fisheries in the Persian Gulf. 
 
 Tubal Cain is described as a whetter, or " instructor 
 of every artificer in brass and iron;" from the way in 
 which Jabal and Jubal are mentioned in the preceding 
 verses, it seems exceedingly probable that the several 
 branches of industry at that early period were assigned 
 to families or castes, and as we shall subsequently see, 
 this circumstance will account for the arts, at an early 
 period, attaining a high degree of perfection, and then 
 sinking by premature decay. 
 
 But the most minute account of ancient mining 
 operations is that contained in the Book of Job. The 
 passage is so very remarkable, and has been so sadly 
 mutilated in most modern versions, that we shall quote 
 it at length from Mr. Wemyss's admirable translation.
 
 238 EVIDENCES OF 
 
 CHAP. xlii. * 
 
 1. Truly there is a vein for the silver, 
 And a place for gold which they refine. 
 
 2. Iron is dug up from the earth, 
 And the rock produceth copper. 
 
 3. Man diggeth into the place of darkness, 
 And diligently exploreth each extremity; 
 
 The stones of darkness, and the shadow of death. 
 
 4. The channels of brooks choaked up with sand, 
 Which, though despised while under the foot, 
 Are sifted and displayed amongst men. 
 
 .5. The surface of the earth produceth bread, 
 
 But its interior is the region of fire. 
 G. Among its stones are to be found sapphires, 
 
 Spotted with small grains of gold. 
 
 7. There is a path which no fowl knew, 
 Which the vulture's eye hath not descried. 
 
 8. Which the wild beast's whelps have not trodden, 
 Nor hath the swarthy lion stalked over it. 
 
 9. Man stretcheth forth his hand to the sparry ore, 
 He overturneth mountains from their roots. 
 
 10. He scoopeth channels through the rocks, 
 His eye discerneth every precious gem. 
 
 1 1 . He restraineth the oozing of the streams, 
 
 So that what was concealed becomes radiant. 
 
 This remarkable passage suggests some considera- 
 tions which must not be omitted. In the first verse 
 we find the refiining of metals mentioned as an instance 
 of human ingenuity, distinct from the searching of them 
 out. In that and the next verse, four metals are speci- 
 fied, gold, silver, iron, and copper. Now, as there are 
 very few, if any, metalliferous veins in Idumea, it ap- 
 pears obvious that the patriarch could have become 
 acquainted with them only by Egyptian or Pho3nician 
 traffic. The extent and accuracy of his knowledge 
 would seem to prove, that commerce between Idumea 
 
 * In the ordinary translation this is the 28th chapter.
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 239 
 
 and other countries was very frequent and extensive in 
 his age, and that the Book of Job may therefore be 
 received as an accurate account of the general state of 
 civilization in south-western Asia at the period in which 
 it was written. We may therefore use this written 
 record as a standard of comparison in estimating the 
 amount of civilization to which other nations attained, 
 and thus viewed, it will be found that the ancient record 
 and the ancient relics mutually illustrate each other. 
 
 The different verbs applied to the production of iron 
 and copper are more accurately contrasted in the com- 
 mon translation than in that of Mr. Wemyss. " Iron 
 is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the 
 stone " thus intimating that the art of smelting iron 
 was unknown, and that this metal was only used when 
 found in a pure state. As copper in hardness bears 
 the proportion to iron of about eight to nine, it was 
 not very much inferior to it as a material for manufac- 
 turing implements before the art of forming iron into 
 steel was discovered. The superior ductility of copper, 
 of course, rendered it a preferable metal for the manu- 
 facture of ornaments and utensils. 
 
 Mr. Delafield's investigations seem to prove that the 
 art of smelting iron was known to the aborigines of the 
 Ohio, and therefore they, in that process, surpassed the 
 western Asiatics of Job's day, and the Greeks in the 
 time of the Trojan war, for we find no mention of iron 
 implements in the days of Homer. But as the remains 
 of furnaces have been found only in one place, it is 
 probable that the art was but in its infancy at the time 
 when it was swept away. 
 
 On the other hand, we find in the Book of Job,
 
 240 EVIDENCES OF 
 
 distinct records of extensive mining operations, to 
 which nothing analogous has yet been discovered among 
 the antiquities of America. " The stones of darkness/' 
 in the third verse, are obviously ores hid in the deep 
 recesses of the mine ; and in the fourth verse we have 
 a manifest allusion to the washing and sifting of metal- 
 liferous sands, for the purpose of extracting the grains 
 of gold which they contain. In the sixth verse we 
 have a description of lapis lazuli, with its gold-like 
 specks of iron pyrites; while the seventh and eighth 
 verses describe with great force, the perilous and awful 
 appearance of the shafts and galleries which human 
 eagerness, more ardent than the vulture, and human 
 enterprise more daring than the lion, constructed in 
 the dark recesses of the earth. 
 
 The ninth verse describes the operation of breaking 
 through the stony strata; the tenth exhibits the ancient 
 system of drainage, so important in all mining opera- 
 tions; and the eleventh carries this still farther, by 
 shewing what means were adopted when the subterra- 
 neous waters burst into the mine in such abundance 
 as to stop the work. Such is the general view which 
 this passage suggests, and we think that thus closely 
 examined it depicts a greater advance in mining skill 
 than is generally suspected by ordinary readers. 
 
 But skill in metallurgy by no means proves a general 
 advance in all other forms of civilization, since it is 
 mainly produced by the facilities for working mines 
 which nature affords. In the mining districts of 
 England we have always found the engineering and 
 mechanical skill greatest where the mines were richest, 
 but we have not found the general average of civiliza-
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 241 
 
 tion raised in anything like the same proportion. Job 
 clearly describes mining operations in a country where 
 rich metalliferous veins abounded, and where conse- 
 quently nature herself seems to have both invited 
 enterprise and suggested the mode of working. The 
 same is true of the localities where Mr. Delafield found 
 the remains of ancient American furnaces; and there- 
 fore though these afford unquestionable evidence of the 
 palmy state of one great branch of human industry, 
 they by no means justify the extravagant estimates of 
 general civilization which have been thence deduced by 
 some imaginative writers. 
 
 The use of metallic mirrors is an obvious mark of 
 refinement ; and we find traces of their being employed 
 by JoVs cotemporaries, and by the ancient inhabitants 
 of America. Elihu asks the patriarch 
 
 CHAP, xxxvii. 18. 
 
 Hast thou with him spread out the sky, 
 Which is polished like a molten mirror? 
 
 Some of the plates discovered in the tombs on the 
 Ohio were, from their shape and the remains of polish 
 still observable, designed to act as reflectors. In a 
 future chapter we shall endeavour to establish the unity 
 of civilization in North and South America, and we 
 may therefore be permitted to quote here Ulloa's 
 description of some Peruvian tombs, the opening of 
 which he witnessed. 
 
 " The tombs were in size according with the rank of 
 the deceased; with them were buried their furniture, 
 and instruments of gold, copper, earth and stone. Out 
 of one graca,* while we were there, were taken a con- 
 
 * Peruvian sepulchre.
 
 EVIDENCES OF 
 
 siderable quantity of gold utensils. In another, in the 
 jurisdiction of Pastos, great riches were found, some 
 copper axes, small looking glasses of the Inca stone and 
 of the yalinazo or black stone ; the form is circular, and 
 one of the surfaces flat, and as smooth as a crystal 
 mirror ; the other oval, and less polished. I saw one a 
 foot and a half in diameter : its principal surface was 
 concave, and greatly magnified objects ; and the polish 
 of which could not now be exceeded by our best work- 
 men. A hole is drilled to hang them by. 
 
 " They find also guaqueros,* for drinking chicarf they 
 are made of fine black earth, and some of red earth. 
 They are round, with a handle in the middle; the 
 mouth on one side ; and on the other the head of an 
 Indian, excellently expressed. Where they were made 
 is utterly unknown.^J 
 
 We find no allusion in the Book of Job to any fictile 
 manufacture beyond coarse earthenware ; and this seems 
 a very striking proof of the high antiquity of the poem, 
 for the Egyptians possessed great skill in pottery at a 
 very remote period. But the specimens of porcelain 
 discovered in North America, unquestionably prove 
 that this branch of industry, which from its connexion 
 with domestic economy is a highly important element 
 of civilization, had been a very extensive and flourish- 
 ing manufacture. 
 
 But no element of civilization is of more importance 
 than the art of recording events. It is only when 
 man begins to register the past, that he obtains a 
 guide to the future. The patriarch Job, in an admi- 
 rable climax, describes four kinds of writing: 
 
 Peruvian jugs. f A favourite beverage in South America. 
 
 t Ulloa, vol. i. p. 368.
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 243 
 
 CHAP. xix. 23. 
 
 O that even now my words were recorded ! 
 O that they were engraven on a tablet, 
 With a pen of iron upon lead, 
 That they were sculptured for perpetuity in a rock. 
 
 Here we have first simple writing, probably on the 
 leaf or bark of a tree, secondly, engraving on a wooden 
 tablet, thirdly, a more permanent record on a metallic 
 plate, and finally the enduring sculpture on everlast- 
 ing rock. This appears to be not only a climax of 
 duration, but also of invention. It is not probable 
 that the first attempts at written records should have 
 been made on the hardest substance, and we may very 
 legitimately infer that wherever inscribed rocks are 
 found, there must also have been other less difficult 
 and costly modes of keeping public and private records. 
 
 It is unnecessary to cumber this subject with any 
 investigation into the origin of alphabetic writing, a 
 subject which Dr. Wall has recently pursued with 
 great learning and sagacity. Indeed he has established 
 the exceeding probability, if not the absolute certainty 
 of the Book of Job having been originally written in 
 hieroglyphics, and it is sufficiently obvious that the 
 patriarch's exclamation is just as applicable to pictorial 
 or hieroglyphic writing, as to alphabetical. We shall 
 shew that the aborigines of Ohio had some mode of 
 recording events, but we do not possess sufficient data 
 for determining the nature or kind of writing which 
 they possessed. 
 
 Captain Carver, who travelled into the interior of 
 North America in the middle of the last century, 
 informs us, "After leaving Lake Pepin, in ten days I 
 arrived at the Falls of St. Anthony (lat. 44 50') : about
 
 244 EVIDENCES OF 
 
 thirty miles below them is a remarkable cave, with a 
 lake in it. I found in this cave many Indian hiero- 
 glyphics which appeared very ancient, they were covered 
 with moss. They were cut in a rude manner, upon 
 the inside of walls of soft stone."* 
 
 Humboldt adds, " Amid the extensive plains of 
 Upper Canada, in Florida, and in the deserts bordered 
 by the Orenois, the Cassiquiare, and the Guainia, dykes 
 of a considerable length, weapons of brass, and sculp- 
 tured stones, are indications that those very countries 
 have formerly been inhabited by industrious nations> 
 Avhich are now traversed only by tribes of savage 
 
 hunters."t 
 
 In another place the same intelligent traveller adds, 
 " The Agteck hatchet, made of feld-spar, passing into 
 the real jade of M. de Saussure, is loaded with hiero- 
 glyphics. I am indebted for it to Don Manuel del 
 Hoi, of Mexico, and it is in the king's cabinet at Berlin. 
 
 " The Mexicans and Peruvians made use of stone 
 hatchets when copper and brass were very common 
 among them. Notwithstanding long and frequent 
 excursions in the Cordilleras of both Americas, we were 
 never able to discover a rock of jade ; and this rock 
 being so scarce, the more are we surprised at the 
 immense quantity of jade hatchets which are found on 
 digging in the plains formerly inhabited, from the 
 Ohio to the mountains of Chili." J 
 
 Four drawings of the inscribed stone on the Taunton 
 river, were published by Mr. Lort in the third volume 
 of the Archseologia, or Memoirs of the London Anti- 
 
 * Carver's Travels, p. 64. f Humboldt, vol. i. p. 25. 
 
 \ Humboldt, vol ii. p. 38.
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 245 
 
 quarian Society. The objects represented are rude 
 figures in outline, and appear as if they Avere the tran- 
 sition between pictorial representations and hierogly- 
 phics. There are engraved rocks at Dighton, in Narra- 
 janset bay, not far from the monument described by 
 Mr. Lort, but the engravings of it published by the 
 Anglo-Americans are so inconsistent with each other, 
 that it is difficult to recognise them as copies of the 
 same original. There are no engraved rocks in the 
 plains of Ohio, for the best of all possible reasons, that 
 no rocks exist in the prairies, inscribed hatchets and 
 plates are found in the tombs. 
 
 We have thus shewn that there is abundant evidence 
 to prove that the land, which on its first discovery was 
 found peopled by one of the wildest races of savage 
 hunters, had at some former period been possessed by 
 a nation who have left proofs of their civilization in 
 their fortresses, camps, warlike and domestic imple- 
 ments, and in arts, the exercise of which required a 
 high degree of refinement.
 
 246 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FURTHER EVIDENCES OF LOST CIVILIZATION. 
 
 " WHEN I returned from Asia to assume the procon- 
 sular government of Achaia, as my galley sailed slowly 
 up the Saronic gulf, I began to cast a curious gaze 
 upon the surrounding regions. Behind me lay jEgina, 
 before me, Megara, on my right hand the Piraeus, on 
 my left Corinth; cities which, in times gone by, were 
 the brilliant abodes of opulence and power, but now 
 lay prostrate beneath my eye, in the sorrowful desola- 
 tion of their present abandonment. The scene came 
 over my spirit with a train of sad, but high-purposed 
 reflections. What? said I, shall we, feeble creatures 
 of the dust, who by the very tenure of life are only born 
 to die, shall we repine at the decrees of destiny, or 
 impeach the justice of the immortal gods, if one of us 
 do but perish by disease or violence, when here, in these 
 narrow limits, lie the scattered and unsightly ruins of 
 so many of the noblest among the cities of Greece? 
 Wilt thou not chasten the murmuring spirit within 
 thee, and in sight of these fallen monuments of the 
 wise and great and glorious of past generations, 
 remember that thou also art but man ? " * 
 
 These are the words of Servius Sulpicius, addressed 
 to his friend Cicero, who was sinking under the accu- 
 
 * Cicero's Letters.
 
 LOST CIVILIZATION. 247 
 
 mulated weight of severe private loss and portentous 
 public calamity. The great orator and statesman was 
 weeping over the tomb of his daughter Tulliola the 
 young, the beautiful, the blest the treasury in which 
 a father's fondest affections were garnered the fairest 
 flower among the lovely ones of Latium the youthful 
 model unanimously recommended for imitation to the 
 wives of Rome ! The flower faded before its bloom was 
 unfolded Tulliola was arrested by premature disease 
 in the very outset of her bright career " her sun went 
 down while it was yet day;" the doom of early death 
 was pronounced upon her; or, according to the touching 
 superstitions of the ancients, embodied in harmonious 
 verse by a Christian poet,* she received the choicest 
 boon which the gods reserve for their special favourites, 
 an early death. 
 
 The patriot suffered not less severely than the father; 
 the blood of the best and boldest of the Roman war- 
 riors had been poured out like water on the plains of 
 Pharsalia; hearts that would have dared, and hands 
 that would have achieved, the conquest of a world, were 
 now dull clods of senseless clay. The conscript fathers, 
 the imperial senators, on whose debates the fate of 
 millions had been suspended, had either fallen in the 
 civil contest, or were wandering about in strange lands, 
 
 * Weep not for those whom the veil of the tomb, 
 
 In life's happy morning hath hid from our eyes, 
 Ere sin threw a light o'er the spirit's young bloom, 
 
 Or earth had profaned what was born for the skies. 
 Death chill'd the fair fountain ere sorrow had stain 'd it, 
 
 'Twas frozen in all the pure light of its course, 
 And but sleeps 'till the sunshine of heaven has unchain'd it, 
 
 To water that Eden where first was its source.
 
 248 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 hopeless, helpless exiles, save those who, self-doomed 
 to a worse fate, bowed in ignoble sycophancy before 
 triumphant despotism, 
 
 Establish'd violence and lawless might, 
 Avow'd and hallow'd by the name of right. 
 
 The magnificent institutions of ancient Rome, won 
 against vast odds by her earliest patriots, cherished 
 through successive ages of weal and woe, cemented by 
 the blood and toil of heroes and sages, were now trodden 
 into tbe dust under the iron-shod hoofs of barbarian 
 cavalry, and the coarse feet of traitorous infantry. The 
 majesty of Rome was a senseless carcass, and the eagles 
 had gathered round their legitimate prey. 
 
 To Cicero, thus standing amid the dissolving frame 
 of his country' s grandeur, Sulpicius pointed out those 
 evidences of decayed civilization, in a land which nature 
 seemed to have formed as the very home and sanctuary 
 of freedom, and where the external world retained, and 
 still retains, all the physical advantages necessary to 
 foster and protect the dignity and the happiness of 
 man. 
 
 And yet how lovely, in thine age of woe, 
 Land of lost gods and godlike men, art thou ! 
 Thy vales of evergreen, thy hills of snow, 
 Proclaim thee Nature's varied favourite now: 
 Thy fanes, thy temples to thy surface bow. 
 Commingling slowly with heroic earth, 
 Broke by the share of every rustic plough: 
 So perish monuments of mortal birth, 
 So perish all in turn, save well-recorded worth : 
 
 Yet are her skies as blue, her ways as wild ; 
 Sweet are her groves, and verdant are her fields, 
 Her olive ripe as when Minerva smiled, 
 And still his honied wealth Hymettus yields;
 
 OP LOST CIVILIZATION. 249 
 
 There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress builds, 
 The free-born wanderer of her mountain air ; 
 Apollo still her long, long summer gilds, 
 Still in his beam Mendeli's marbles glare; 
 Art, Glory, Freedom fail but Nature still is fair. 
 
 Since these lines were written, Greece has regained 
 her independence; the iron yoke of barbarism has been 
 broken, and the crescent has sunk before the cross. 
 But still vainly do we seek for patriotism in the country 
 of Phocion and Aristides, for political wisdom in the 
 land of Pericles and Cimon, or for a sense of moral 
 duty in the home of Socrates and Plato. Better, far 
 better is it for the traveller to seek the magic creations 
 of the chisel of Phidias in the shapeless and mutilated 
 fragments of statues, friezes, and temples that he treads 
 beneath his feet. 
 
 Here is abundant evidence of lost civilization; here 
 too is the still more awful warning, that to destroy is 
 easy, while to restore is all but impossible. The elo- 
 quent silence of ruin here proclaims to those nations 
 which still hold the sacred treasure of civilization, that 
 its continuance depends on incessant vigilance, and its 
 preservation on constant watchfulness. They must ever 
 have "their loins girded, and their lamps burning;" 
 their course runs along the verge of a precipice, and, 
 descent once begun, will proceed with accelerating velo- 
 city. The progress of decline is traced in the well 
 known lines, Facilis descensus Averni, etc., or as Dryden 
 renders them 
 
 The gates of hell are open night and day, 
 Smooth the descent and easy is the way : 
 But to return and view the cheerful skies, 
 In this the task of mighty labour lies; 
 To few great Jupiter imparts that grace, 
 And those of shining worth and heavenly race. 
 
 M 2
 
 250 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 Deeper and harsher are the characters in which this 
 bitter truth is graved upon the favoured fields and 
 sunny slopes of Italy. 
 
 Italia! oh, Italia! thou who hast 
 The fatal gift of beauty, which became 
 A funeral dower of present woes and past, 
 On thy sweet brow is sorrow ploughed by shame, 
 And annals graved in characters of flame; 
 O God ! that thou wert in thy nakedness 
 Less lovely or more powerful, and couldst claim 
 Thy right, and awe the robbers back, who press 
 To shed thy blood, and drink the tears of thy distress.* 
 
 " Rome is the grave of Rome," and no " resurgam" 
 is inscribed upon the tomb. 
 
 We began this argument by quoting the words of 
 
 " The Roman friend of Rome's least mortal mind ;" 
 
 we may appropriately conclude it by the parallel re- 
 flections suggested to an intelligent American, Mr. 
 
 * Lord Byron in this stanza has partly imitated the well-known 
 sonnet of Filicaja : the same sentiments have been no less powerfully 
 expressed by Alessandro Marchetti, which have been thus translated 
 by Mrs. Hemans: 
 
 Italia ! oh, no more Italia now ! 
 
 Scarce of her form a vestige dost thou wear. 
 She was a queen with glory mantled; thou 
 
 A slave degraded, and compelled to bear. 
 Chains gird thy hands and feet ; deep clouds of care 
 
 Darken thy brow, once radiant as the skies ; 
 And shadows, born of terror and despair 
 
 Shadows of death, have dimm'd thy glorious eyes, 
 Italia ! oh Italia, now no more. 
 
 For thee my tears of shame and anguish flow ; 
 And the glad strains my lyre was wont to pour 
 
 Are changed to dirge-notes ; but my deepest woe 
 Is, that base herds of thine own sons the while, 
 
 Behold thy miseries with insulting smile.
 
 OF LOST CIVILIZATION. 251 
 
 Gushing, while travelling through the ruined cities of 
 Spain. 
 
 " I stood on a hillock of red earth, just variegated 
 by fragments of marble, with half a dozen mutilated 
 columns in the distance, protected by the good monks 
 of San Isidro against the ravages of time. It was all 
 that subsisted of the birth-place of Trajan. To this 
 were the riches and architectural beauty of Italica 
 reduced. A bright expanse of intervale, watered by 
 the meandering Guadalquivir and its tributary stream- 
 lets, stretched out in verdure and fertility far as the 
 sight could reach, breathed upon by the balmy influ- 
 ences of a southern sky. Nature retained Her undying 
 charms ; it was the same lovely landscape on which 
 Seneca and Lucan might have gazed in the olden time, 
 and it was the natal atmosphere of the splendid Trajan. 
 But the men, and the monuments they reared, had 
 passed away together, leaving only the memory of their 
 greatness to ennoble the spot. It was then I felt in 
 its full force the truth so finely embodied in the stanzas 
 of that poet, who is the great intellectual phenomenon 
 of our time, and who, while given up to unspeakable 
 profligacy of conduct, and with principles as perni- 
 ciously false as the habitual course of his life was 
 deplorably corrupt, yet, in his moments of better inspi- 
 ration, struck out some of the grandest conceptions 
 that poet or philosopher has ever uttered. 
 
 " Alas ! the lofty city ! and alas ! 
 The trebly hundred triumphs ! and the day 
 When Brutus made the dagger's edge surpass 
 The conqueror's sword in bearing fame away ! 
 Alas, for Tully's voice, and Virgil's lay, 
 And Livy's pictured page : but these shall be
 
 252 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 Her resurrection ; all beside decay. 
 
 There is the moral of all human tales ; 
 
 'T is but the same rehearsal of the past, 
 
 First Freedom, and then Glory ; when that fails, 
 
 Wealth, Vice, Corruption, Barbarism at last ; 
 
 And History, with all her volumes vast, 
 
 Hath but one page, 't is better written here. 
 
 " This moral of all human tales, this rehearsal of the 
 past, this one page of all the vast volumes of history, 
 which Sulpicius read from the crushed arches and 
 splintered columns of Corinth, and Byron from the 
 indistinguishable heaps of the Palatine hill of Rome, 
 the eternal truth, deducihle alike from the deep lore 
 of reverend antiquity, and the more superficial wisdom 
 of our own straightforward practical age ; namely, the 
 inseparable connexion between private virtue and na- 
 tional greatness, how could it fail to rise up before 
 me, as I stood on the hill of Santiponce and gazed on 
 the few memorials of Italica, which have survived the 
 fury of the Vandal, the Goth, and the Moor ?"* 
 
 For Time hath not rebuilt them, but uprear'd 
 Barbaric dwellings on their shatter'd site, 
 Which only make more mourn'd and more endear'd, 
 The few last rays of their far scatter'd light, 
 And the crush'd relics of their shatter'd might. 
 The Roman saw these tombs in his own age, 
 These sepulchres of cities which excite 
 Sad wonder, and his yet surviving page 
 The moral lesson bears, drawn from such pilgrimage. 
 
 In the preceding chapter we have given evidence 
 that a highly-civilized race once occupied the prairies 
 and forests of Ohio, where barbarism in its worst form 
 was found triumphant when America was first dis- 
 
 * Cushing's Reminiscences of Spain.
 
 OF LOST CIVILIZATION. 253 
 
 covered. There are persons who cannot believe that 
 civilization could have fallen so completely as to change 
 this nation, which has left such striking proofs of its 
 advancement, into the wild Indian hunters of more 
 modern times. They declare that the natural character 
 of the Indians renders them incapable of receiving 
 civilization, and they appeal to correct representations 
 of Indian life, as decisive proofs of their theory. Before 
 entering on the investigation of this point, it is but 
 fair to take the picture of Indian character drawn by 
 a contributor to the North American Review,* who 
 claims accurate knowledge of the subject, and whose 
 views are generally received by his countrymen, as the 
 correct results of observation and experience. 
 
 ''There is nothing pleasing to the imagination in 
 the dirty and smoky cabin of the Indian chief; there 
 is nothing romantic in his custom of sleeping away the 
 days of leisure from the perils of war or the adventures 
 of the chase; there is not a particle of chivalry in the 
 contempt with which he regards his squaw, and the 
 unmanly cruelty by which he binds upon her burdens 
 grievous to be borne. His whole life is surrounded 
 by the dismal accompaniments of poverty, sensuality, 
 ignorance, and vice. In the arts, he has never learned 
 to do more than supply his coarsest animal wants. 
 His taste for ornaments cannot well be more despicable. 
 He rings his nose, as farmers ring their pigs, to keep 
 them out of mischief; he daubs his body over with 
 hideous colours, which give him the appearance of a 
 devil; he puts horns upon his head, or sticks it all 
 over with gaudy feathers; and then he is a finished 
 No. 100.
 
 254 FURTHER, EVIDENCES 
 
 specimen of the Indian fine gentleman. In his amuse- 
 ments, his taste is equally refined with his taste in 
 dress. His war dances and funeral dances are mere 
 contortions, exhibiting every form of ungraceful bodily 
 action; and these are accompanied by a species of 
 music consisting of a rude movement in time, and 
 certain unmeaning howls, compared with which, the 
 barking of wolves and the growling of bears are melody 
 itself. His warfare is a compound of cruelty and 
 cowardice. His point of honour is, to entrap his 
 enemy unawares, and with no danger to himself; his 
 glory, on returning to his native village, he places in 
 exhibiting the greatest possible number of scalps, torn 
 bleeding from the heads of his murdered victims. His 
 treatment of a captive enemy, is horrible beyond de- 
 scription. His highest enjoyment consists in taunting 
 him with insults and reproaches in the midst of the 
 fiercest death-agonies, which his diabolical skill enables 
 him to invent. His sagacity is bounded to the dis- 
 covery of a trail or track; his wisdom consists in a 
 few wise saws handed down from his ancestors, and 
 treasured up by the old women of the village. When 
 in council, he dresses these scanty ideas with a touch 
 or two of forest rhetoric, and that is his eloquence, and 
 his statesmanship. How can it be any thing more ? 
 To what circle of experience, to what treasuries of 
 knowledge, can he resort for the enlargement of his 
 mind and the cultivation of eloquence ? What occasion 
 has his simple life for any thing more copious in 
 thought, and more polished in language ? His religion 
 is founded upon the simple conception of a Supreme 
 Being, and that is always sublime; but what attributes
 
 OF LOST CIVILIZATION. 255 
 
 belong to this conception of the Supreme Being, can 
 easily be inferred from the Indian's customs and his 
 conduct. How unworthy of a God, his notions of Him 
 are, it is unnecessary to illustrate, for it is known to all. 
 His views of another life are distinct enough, but 
 utterly insufficient to produce any exalting tendency in 
 his conduct and character in this. They are low, gross, 
 sensual. They have scarcely a glimmering of the light 
 of imagination to redeem them from the most deplorable 
 darkness/'* 
 
 * It is worth while to contrast this picture with the spirited sketch 
 of Indian character given by the author of Yamoeden. 
 Know ye the Indian warrior race? 
 How thir light form springs in strength and grace, 
 Like pine on their native mountain side 
 That will not bow in its deathless pride ; 
 Whose rugged limbs of stubborn tone, 
 No flexuous power of art will own, 
 But bend to Heaven's red bolt alone ! 
 How their hue is deep as the western dye, 
 That fades in the autumn's evening sky, 
 That lives for ever upon their brow, 
 In the summer's heat and the winter's snow ; 
 How their raven locks of tameless strain, 
 Stream like the desert courser's mane ; 
 How their glance is far as the eagle's flight, 
 And fierce and true as the panther's sight ; 
 How their souls are like the crystal wave, 
 Where the spirit dwells in the northern cave ; 
 Unruffled in its caverned bed, 
 Calm has its glimmering surface spread ; 
 Its springs, its outlet unconfess'd, 
 The pebble's weight upon its breast, 
 Shall wake its echoing thunders deep, 
 And when their muttering accents sleep, 
 Its dark recesses hear them yet, 
 And tell of deathless love or bate.
 
 256 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 Here are sufficient proofs of the absence of civiliza- 
 tion, but not one particle of evidence to establish the 
 asserted incapacity for civilization. On the contrary, 
 the reviewer unintentionally affords proof that at some 
 former period the Indians were farther advanced in 
 knowledge than they are at present. He speaks of 
 " the wise saws handed down from his ancestors and 
 treasured by the old women of the village;" these 
 aphorisms, often replete with sound sense and intelli- 
 gence, have been noticed by every traveller who has 
 ever visited an Indian tribe. They all record with 
 astonishment, that they find traditionary specimens of 
 eloquence and wisdom far surpasing the powers of 
 invention possessed by the existing generation, but 
 they do not see that this legendary lore is as decisive a 
 proof of former civilization as the ruins of cities and 
 the traces of fortifications. 
 
 We have endeavoured to shew that the amount of 
 civilization possessed by the race that erected the 
 structures on the Ohio, did not probably surpass the 
 average of Asiatic civilization in the days of Job. The 
 decline of the Indians from such an amount is not 
 greater, indeed is not so great, as that of the Greeks 
 since the days of Alexander, or of the Italians since 
 the last of the Ca3sars, or of the Spaniards since the 
 time of Charles V. It is doubtful if the Greek Klephtes 
 were one whit superior to the North American Indians : 
 the descriptions which travellers have given of the 
 savagery of the Morea, particularly in the Laconian 
 mountains, fully equal the darkest pictures of the 
 savagery of North America. Idumea, which in the 
 days of Job had attained an appreciable standard of
 
 OF LOST CIVILIZATION. 257 
 
 civilization, which it subsequently far surpassed, as the 
 ruins of Petra fully prove, is now tenanted by a race 
 inferior to all but the lowest tribes in North America. 
 Civilization has disappeared, but the race which once 
 possessed it still continues, conquerors cannot exter- 
 minate a nation; "they only cut down the tallest 
 poppies ;" the dwarfs propagate their kind, and every 
 succeeding crop being carefully weeded of its best 
 plants by the jealous vigilance of those interested in 
 stunting its growth, continues to degenerate until the 
 memory of the strength and beauty of former harvests 
 is lost in utter oblivion. 
 
 And thus they plod in sluggish misery, 
 Rotting from sire to son, and age to age, 
 Proud of their trampled nature, and so die 
 Bequesting their hereditary rage 
 To the new race of unborn slaves, who wage 
 War for their chains, and rather than be free, 
 Bleed, gladiator-like, and still engage 
 Within the same iirena, where they see 
 Their fellows fall like leaves of the same tree. 
 
 When the Anglo-Normans had destroyed every thing 
 that was good and great among the Saxons, they 
 taunted them with their mental inferiority, and made 
 it an excuse for increased severity of vassalage. This 
 is the old triad of tyrants, recorded in every page of 
 ancient and modern history; they oppress by their 
 cruelty, they plunder by their rapacity, and as an 
 apology for both, they slander by their malice. 
 
 Several specimens of genuine Indian speeches have 
 been recently published in America. They are as 
 unlike as possible to the tawdry eloquence invented for 
 " the children of nature," by certain poets and philo-
 
 258 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 sophers, but they display a shrewdness and power of 
 thought which evince a great capacity for improvement. 
 The late Pushmataha indeed, shewed that in one im- 
 portant science he surpassed a great number of able 
 men among ourselves, for in his defence of polygamy, 
 he proved that he could appreciate and apply the 
 evidence of statistics. When asked, did he not think 
 it wrong to take two wives ? he replied ; " No. Is it 
 not right that every woman should be married ? and 
 how can that be, when there are more women than 
 men, unless some men marry more than one ? When 
 our great father, the President, caused the Indians to 
 be counted last year, it was found that the women were 
 most numerous ; and if one man could have but one 
 wife, some woman would have no husband." 
 
 An unusual number of Pushmataha' s speeches has 
 been preserved; but the most striking of all is that 
 addressed, just before his death, in Washington, to 
 his Indian friends. 
 
 " I shall die, but you will return to our brethren. 
 As you go along the paths, you will see the flowers and 
 hear the birds sing; but Pushmataha will see them 
 and hear them no more ! When you shall come to 
 your home, they will ask you, ' Where is Pushmataha?' 
 and you will say to them, ' He is no more !' They will 
 hear the tidings, like the fall of a mighty oak in the 
 stillness of the woods." 
 
 The exploits of Tecumthe as a warrior, are matter of 
 history. He laboured and partially succeeded in form- 
 ing a union to expel the whites from the valley of the 
 Mississippi ; but his followers could not resist " the 
 rifles of Kentucky:" he fell in defence of national
 
 OF LOST CIVILIZATION. 259 
 
 independence, and the brutal conquerors, who called 
 themselves civilized men, barbarously mutilated his 
 senseless corpse. Tecumthe exhibited some of the 
 qualifications of a legislator, a statesman, and a philo- 
 sopher. He maintained a very plausible theory of 
 Indian rights, and argued strenuously against the 
 validity of treaties ceding lands to the whites. It was 
 in substance, that as the Great Spirit had given them 
 to all Indians for hunting grounds, and as each tribe 
 had a right to certain tracts of country while they 
 occupied them and no longer, so that one might take 
 possession when another moved away no tribe had 
 a right to alienate that, of which they had only a tem- 
 porary possession ; and consequently that treaties made 
 without the consent of the whole of the tribes, are void. 
 On one occasion, ridiculing the idea of selling a country, 
 he exclaimed, " Sell a country ! Why not sell the air, 
 the clouds, and the great sea, as well as the earth ? 
 Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of 
 his children ?" 
 
 But the most singular proof of Indian capacity has 
 been afforded by Sequoyah, the inventor of the Cherokee 
 alphabet. It is but fair to say, however, that his 
 father was a white, though as his education was Indian, 
 this circumstance does not in our opinion weaken the 
 argument. His story, as we find it in the North Ame- 
 rican Review, is a pleasant one. 
 
 " Instead of joining the rude sports of Indian boys, 
 while a child, he took great delight in exercising his 
 ingenuity by various mechanical labours. He also 
 assisted in the management of his mother's property, 
 consisting of a farm, and cattle, and horses. In his
 
 260 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 intercourse with the whites, he became aware that they 
 possessed an art, by which a name, impressed upon a 
 hard substance, might be understood at a glance, by 
 any one acquainted with the art. He requested an 
 educated half-blood, named Charles Hicks, to write his 
 name; which being done, he made a die, containing 
 a fac-simile, of the word, which he stamped upon all 
 the articles fabricated by his mechanical ingenuity. 
 From this he proceeded to the art of drawing, in which 
 he made rapid progress, before he had an opportunity 
 of seeing a picture or engraving. These accomplish- 
 ments made the young man very popular among his 
 associates, and particularly among the red ladies ; but 
 it was long before incessant adulation produced any 
 evil effect upon his character. At length, however, he 
 was prevailed upon to join his companions, and share 
 in the carouse, which had been supplied by his own 
 industry. But he soon wearied of an idle and dis- 
 sipated life, suddenly resolved to give up drinking, and 
 learned the trade of a blacksmith by his own unaided 
 efforts. In the year 1820, while on a visit to some 
 friends in a Cherokee village, he listened to a conversa- 
 tion on the art of writing, which seems always to have 
 been the subject of great curiosity among the Indians. 
 Sequoyah remarked that he did not regard the art as 
 so very extraordinary, and believed he could invent a 
 plan by which the red man might do the same thing. 
 The company were incredulous ; but the matter had 
 long been the subject of his reflections, and he had 
 come to the conclusion, that letters represented words 
 or ideas, and being always uniform, would always con- 
 vey the same meaning. His first plan was to invent
 
 OP LOST CIVILIZATION. 261 
 
 signs for words ; but upon trial he was speedily satis- 
 fied, that this would be too cumbrous and laborious, 
 and soon conceived the plan of an alphabet, which 
 should represent sounds, each character standing for a 
 syllable. He persevered in carrying out this invention, 
 and attained his object by forming eighty-six characters. 
 
 "While thus employed, he incurred the ridicule of his 
 neighbours, and was entreated to desist by his friends. 
 The invention, however, was completely successful, and 
 the Cherokee dialect is now a written language; a result 
 entirely due to the extraordinary genius of Sequoyah. 
 After teaching many to read and write, he left the 
 Cherokee nation in 1822, on a visit to Arkansas, and 
 introduced the art among the Cherokees who had 
 emigrated to that country; and, after his return home, 
 a correspondence was opened, in the Cherokee language, 
 between the two branches of the nation. In the autumn 
 of 1823, the general council bestowed on him a silver 
 medal in honour of his genius, and as an expression of 
 gratitude for his eminent public services. This extra- 
 ordinary man is now with his countrymen west of the 
 Mississippi." 
 
 General Harrison expresses a very favourable opinion 
 of the endowments and native qualities of the Indians, 
 and bears his testimony to the high susceptibilities of 
 their moral and intellectual nature. He has had fre- 
 quent communication with them, as governor of the 
 north-western territory, and he pays a deserved tribute 
 to many of the Sachems, or chiefs, for high talents and 
 elevated moral worth. 
 
 We extract the following very interesting anecdote 
 from a recent number of the Quarterly Review ; it forms
 
 262 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 part of an article evidently written by a person who has 
 had opportunities of closely examining Indian life: 
 
 "A few years ago, a Pawnee warrior, son of e Old 
 Knife, 3 knowing that his tribe, according to their cus- 
 tom, were going to torture a Paduca woman whom they 
 had taken in war, resolutely determined, at all hazards, 
 to rescue her, if possible, from so cruel a fate. The 
 poor creature, far from her family and tribe, and sur- 
 rounded only by the eager attitudes and anxious faces of 
 her enemies, had been actually fastened to the stake 
 her funeral pile was about to be kindled, and every 
 eye was mercilessly directed upon her, when the young 
 chieftain, mounted on one horse, and, according to the 
 habit of his country, leading another, was seen approach- 
 ing the ceremony at full gallop. To the astonishment 
 of every one, he rode straight up to the pile extricated 
 the victim from the stake threw her on the loose 
 horse, and then vaulting on the back of the other, he 
 carried her off in triumph ! 
 
 " She is won ! we are gone over bank, bush, and scaur ; 
 
 They'll have fleet steeds that follow,' quoth young Lochinvar." 
 
 The deed, however, was so sudden and unexpected 
 and, being mysterious, it was at the moment so gene- 
 rally considered as nothing less than the act of the 
 Great Spirit, that no efforts were made to resist it, and 
 the captive, after three days' travelling, was thus safely 
 transported to her nation, and to her friends. On the 
 return of her liberator to his own people, no censure 
 was passed upon his extraordinary conduct it was 
 allowed to pass unnoticed. 
 
 On the publication of this glorious love-story at 
 Washington, the boarding-school girls of Miss White's
 
 OF LOST CIVILIZATION. 263 
 
 seminary were so sensibly touched by it, that they very 
 prettily subscribed among each other to purchase a 
 silver medal, bearing a suitable inscription, which they 
 presented to the young Red-skin, as a token of the 
 admiration of white-skins at the chivalrous act he had 
 performed, in having rescued one of their sex from so 
 unnatural a fate. Their address closed as follows: 
 
 "Brother! accept this token of our esteem; always 
 wear it for our sakes; and when again you have the 
 power to save a poor woman from death, think of this, 
 and of us, and fly to her relief." 
 
 The young Pawnee had been unconscious of his merit, 
 but he was not ungrateful: 
 
 " Brothers and sisters ! " he exclaimed, extending to- 
 wards them the medal which had been hanging on his 
 red naked breast, "this will give me ease more than 
 I ever had, and I will listen more than I ever did to 
 white men. 
 
 " I am glad that my brothers and sisters have heard 
 of the good act I have done. My brothers and sisters 
 think that I did it in ignorance; but I now know what 
 1 have done. 
 
 " I did it in ignorance, and did not know that I did 
 good; but by giving me this medal I KNOW IT!" 
 
 About twenty years ago the President of the United 
 States recommended to a Pawnee chief who came to 
 visit him at Washington, that he and his tribe, under 
 the superintendence of the missionaries, should cultivate 
 their land like white people. "The unlettered savage," 
 says the Quarterly Reviewer, " after having listened 
 with the greatest attention, made the following speech, 
 translated by a sworn reporter, and which we present
 
 264 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 to our readers as a fine specimen of unpremeditated 
 oratory. 
 
 "My Great Father! I have travelled a long distance 
 to see you. I have seen you, and my heart rejoices: I 
 have heard your words: they have entered one ear and 
 shall not escape out of the other: I will carry them to 
 my people as pure as they came from your mouth. 
 
 " My Great Father, I am going to speak the truth ! 
 the Great Spirit looks down upon us, and I call Him to 
 witness all that may pass between us on this occasion. 
 The Great Spirit made us all: He made my skin red, 
 and yours white. He placed us on this earth, and 
 intended we should live differently from each other. 
 He made the whites to cultivate the earth and feed on 
 tame animals, but He made us red men to rove through 
 the woods and plains, to feed on wild animals, and to 
 dress in their skins. He also intended that we should 
 go to war to take scalps, steal horses, triumph over our 
 enemies, promote peace at home, and the happiness of 
 each other. I believe there are no people of any colour 
 on this earth who do not believe in the Great Spirit 
 in rewards and punishments. We worship Him, but 
 not as you do. We differ from you in religion as we 
 differ in appearance, in manners, and in customs. We 
 have no large houses as you have, to worship the Great 
 Spirit in. If we had them to-day, we should want 
 others to-morrow, because we have not, like you, a fixed 
 habitation, except our villages, where we remain but 
 two moons out of twelve. We, like animals, roam over 
 the country, while you whites live between us and 
 Heaven ; but still, my Father, we love the Great Spirit. 
 
 "My Great Father, some of your chiefs have proposed
 
 OP LOST CIVILIZATION. 265 
 
 to send good people (missionaries) among us to change 
 our habits, to teach us to work, and live like the white 
 people. I will not tell you a lie. You love your country, 
 you love your people : you love the manner in which they 
 live, and you think your people brave. T am like you, 
 my great Father ! 7 love my country, / love my people, 
 / love the life we lead, and think my warriors brave. 
 
 " Spare me then, my Father. Let me enjoy my 
 country, let me pursue the buffalo, the beaver, and the 
 other wild animals, and I will trade the skins with your 
 people. It is too soon, my great Father, to send your 
 good men among us. Let us exhaust our present 
 resources before you interrupt our happiness and make 
 us toil. Let me continue to live as I have lived, and 
 after I have passed from the wilderness of my present 
 life to the Good or Evil Spirit, my children may need 
 and embrace the offered assistance of your good people. 
 
 " Here, my Great Father, is a pipe which I offer you, 
 as I am accustomed to present pipes to all Red-skins 
 who are in peace with us. I know that these robes, 
 leggins, mocassins, bears'-claws, etc., are of little value 
 to you; but we wish them to be deposited and preserved, 
 so that when we are gone, and the earth turned over 
 upon our bones, our children, should they ever visit this 
 place, as we do now, may see and recognise the deposits 
 of their fathers, and reflect on the times that are past." 
 
 We could easily multiply anecdotes to prove that 
 capacity for civilization is not wanting to the Red race; 
 that they have not benefited by their contact with the 
 European colonists, is simply owing to the tyrannous 
 use which the civilized races have made of their superior 
 power. The whites had the strength of giants, and 
 
 N
 
 266 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 they used it like giants. Let us examine the graphic 
 and accurate account of the course pursued towards the 
 Indians, presented to us by the Quarterly Reviewer. 
 
 " The vast Indian empires of Mexico and Peru have, 
 as we all know, been as completely depopulated by the 
 inhabitants of the Old World, as the little cities of 
 Herculaneum and Pompeii were smothered by the lava 
 and cinders of Vesuvius. 
 
 " In less populous, though not less happy regions, by 
 broadsides of artillery, by volleys of musketry, by the 
 bayonet, by the terrific aid of horses, and even by the 
 savage fury of dogs, the Christian world managed to 
 extend the lodgment it had effected among a naked 
 and inoffensive people. 
 
 " In both hemispheres of America the same horrible 
 system of violence and invasion are at this moment 
 in operation. The most barbarous and unprovoked 
 attempts to exterminate the mounted Indians in the 
 neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres have lately been made. 
 In the United States upwards of thirty-six millions of 
 dollars have been expended, during the last four years, 
 in the attempt to drive the Seminoles from their hunt- 
 ing-grounds. What quantity of Indian blood has been 
 shed by this money is involved in mystery. The 
 American general in command, it is said, tendered 
 his resignation unless he were granted, in this dreadful 
 war of extermination, the assistance of bloodhounds; 
 and it has also been asserted that, on a motion being 
 made in one of the State legislatures, for an inquiry 
 into this allegation, the proposition was negatived and 
 the investigation suppressed. At all events the aggres- 
 sion against the Seminoles still continues; a pack of
 
 OF LOST CIVILIZATION. 267 
 
 bloodhounds has already been landed in the United 
 States from the island of Cuba ; and while the Indian 
 women, with blackened faces, are mourning over the 
 bereavement of their husbands and their sons, and 
 trembling at the idea of their infants being massacred 
 by the dogs of war which the authorities of the state of 
 Florida have, it appears from the last American news- 
 papers, determined to let loose, the republic rejoices at 
 the anticipated extension of its territory, and, as usual, 
 exultingly boasts that it is ( going a-head ! ' 
 
 " In the Old World, war, like every other pestilence, 
 rages here and there for a certain time only; but the 
 gradual extinction of the Indian race has unceasingly 
 been in operation from the first moment of our dis- 
 covery of America to the present hour; for whether we 
 come in contact with our red brethren as enemies or 
 as friends, they everywhere melt before us like snow 
 before the sun. Indeed, it is difficult to say whether 
 our friendship or our enmity has been most fatal. 
 
 " The infectious disorders which, in moments of 
 profound peace, we have unfortunately introduced, 
 have proved infinitely more destructive and merciless 
 than our engines of war. By the small-pox alone it has 
 been computed that half the Indian population of North 
 America has been swept away. There is something par- 
 ticularly affecting in the idea of the inhabitants, even 
 of a wigwam, being suddenly attacked by something 
 from the Old World which, almost on the self-same 
 day, has rendered them all incapable of providing for 
 each other or even for themselves ; and it is dreadful 
 to consider in how many instances, by the simultaneous 
 death of the adults, the young and helpless must have 
 been left in the lone wilderness to starve !"
 
 268 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 The American poet Whittier has given a beautiful 
 description of the ravages produced by European 
 diseases in an Indian village, supposed to be narrated 
 by the last survivor of the race. As Whittier's poems 
 are unknown in Europe, we shall quote the passage : 
 
 There came unto my father's hut 
 
 A man, weak creature of distress ; 
 The red-man's door is never shut 
 
 Against the lone and shelterless ; 
 And when he knelt before his feet, 
 
 My father let the stranger in ; 
 He gave him of his hunter's meat, 
 
 Alas ! it was a deadly sin ! 
 
 The stranger's voice was not like ours, 
 
 His face at first was deadly pale ; 
 Anon 'twas like the yellow flowers, 
 
 Which tremble in the meadow gale. 
 And when he laid him down to die, 
 
 And murmured of his father-land, 
 My mother wiped his tearful eye, 
 
 My father held his burning hand ! 
 
 He died at last the funeral yell 
 
 Rang upward from his burial sod ; 
 And the old Fowwah knelt to tell 
 
 The tidings of the white-man's God. 
 The next day came, my father's brow 
 
 Grew heavy with a fearful pain ; 
 He did not take his hunting-bow 
 
 He never saw the woods again ! 
 
 He died, even as the white man died 
 
 My mother, she was smitten too 
 My sisters vanish'd from my side, 
 
 Like diamonds from the sunlit dew. 
 And then we heard the Powwahs say, 
 
 That God had sent his angel forth, 
 To sweep our ancient tribes away, 
 
 And poison and unpeople earth.
 
 OF LOST CIVILIZATION. 269 
 
 And it was so from day to day 
 
 The spirit of the plague went on ; 
 And those at morning blithe and gay, 
 
 Were dying at the set of sun. 
 They died : our free, bold, hunters died 
 
 The living might not give them graves, 
 Save, when along the water-side, 
 
 They gave them to the hurrying waves. 
 The carrion-crow, the ravenous beast, 
 
 Turned loathing from the ghastly dead ; 
 Well might they shun the funeral feast 
 
 By that destroying angel spread ! 
 One after one the red men fell ; 
 
 Our gallant war-tribe passed away; 
 And I alone am left to tell 
 
 The story of its swift decay ! 
 
 " Not only whole families/' continues the Reviewer, 
 "but whole tribes, have been almost extinguished by 
 this single disease, which is supposed to have proved 
 fatal to at least seven millions of Indians. The Pawnee 
 nation have been reduced by it from 25,000 to 10,000. 
 When Mr. Catlin lately visited the Mandan tribe, it 
 consisted of 2000 people, particularly distinguished by 
 their handsome appearance, and by their high character 
 for courage and probity. They received him with affec- 
 tionate kindness, and not only admitted him to all their 
 most secret mysteries, but installed him among the 
 learned of their tribe, and afforded him every possible 
 assistance. He had scarcely left them when two of 
 the fur traders unintentionally infected them with the 
 small-pox, which caused the death of the whole tribe! 
 Not an individual has survived; and had not Mr. 
 Catlin felt deep and honourable interest in their fate, 
 it is more than probable it never would have reached 
 the coast of the Atlantic, or been recorded in history.
 
 270 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 And thus, by a single calamity, has been swept away a 
 whole nation, respecting whom it was proverbial among 
 the traders, 'that never had the Mandans been known to 
 kill a white man! 3 " 
 
 But disease, however infectious, has not been so 
 destructive in its influence as the introduction of ardent 
 spirits, which has been sanctioned and encouraged by 
 the American government, and defended by some public 
 writers who affect to be greatly shocked at the British 
 smuggling of opium into China. From the moment 
 that the Indian tastes " the infernal fire-water," he is a 
 ruined man. Even in our own country, with all the 
 moral restraints resulting from a high state of civil- 
 ization, a habitual drunkard is universally deemed 
 irreclaimable. But the uneducated savage, who has 
 never been trained to check any impulse or control any 
 passion, yields to the temptation at once; his strength 
 decays, his health declines, his intellect suffers, his 
 moral powers are overthrown, and the being, thus 
 degraded, is brought before us, and we are gravely 
 asked, does such a creature possess capacities for civil- 
 ization ? Could men of this race have devised and 
 erected structures which we, with all the means and 
 appliances of modern art, can scarcely surpass ? 
 
 Before we answer such a question before we affirm 
 that capacity for improvement is denied to any race of 
 created men, we demand that the aborigines should be 
 presented to us such as they were found by William 
 Penn and his associates, not such as they have been made 
 by the six or eight hundred traders scattered over the 
 prairies; many, or rather most of whom have fled as 
 outlaws from the world for the most horrible crimes,
 
 OP LOST CIVILIZATION. 271 
 
 and who are daily employed in deluging the poor 
 Indians with whiskey, in order to obtain their peltries 
 for an inadequate consideration. An extensive and 
 well-devised system has been framed for the demoraliza- 
 tion, the degradation, and the final extermination of the 
 aborigines of North America, and those who are ruth- 
 lessly carrying on the operation, tell us that because a 
 race has declined it can never be improved. But the 
 very fact of the Indians having become degraded is a 
 clear proof that their intellect is not stationary. The 
 fact that they have received corruption, is evidence that 
 they are susceptible of amelioration. We have already 
 shewn that it is far more difficult to civilize hunting 
 than agricultural tribes ; but we did not say that the 
 case of the hunters was utterly hopeless. As enclosed 
 and cultivated land extends, the sheer pressure of want 
 would naturally drive some of them to attempt tillage; 
 but instead of making the attempt to teach the Indians 
 new means of obtaining subsistence, the Americans 
 adopt the easy expedient of driving them beyond the 
 frontiers, to enjoy temporary rest, until a new race of 
 backwoodsmen shoulder their axes and "go ahead" into 
 this new territory. 
 
 Nor is this all ; the Quarterly Reviewer describes 
 another process of the injustice of the whites, which 
 may best be given in his own powerful words. 
 
 "There is another mode in which the red man is 
 made to fade away before the withering progress of 
 civilization ; we allude to the rapid destruction of the 
 game necessary for his subsistence. In proportion as 
 the sword, small-pox, and whiskey, have depopulated 
 the country of the Indians, the settlement of the whites
 
 272 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 has gradually and triumphantly advanced; and their de- 
 mand for skins and furs has proportionally increased. In 
 the splendid regions of the ' far west/ which lie between 
 the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, there are living 
 at this moment on the prairies various tribes, who, if 
 left to themselves, would continue for ages to subsist 
 on the buffalo which cover the plains. The skins of 
 these animals, however, have become valuable to the 
 whites, and accordingly, this beautiful verdant country, 
 and these brave and independent people, have been 
 invaded by white traders, who, by paying to them a 
 pint of whiskey for each skin (or ' robe/ as they are 
 termed in America), which sells at New York for ten 
 or twelve dollars, induce them to slaughter these 
 animals in immense numbers, leaving their flesh, the 
 food of the Indian, to rot and putrify on the ground. 
 No admonition or caution can arrest for a moment the 
 propelling power of the whiskey; accordingly, in all 
 directions, these poor thoughtless beings are seen 
 furiously riding under its influence in pursuit of their 
 game, or in other words, in the fatal exchange of food 
 for poison. It has been very attentively calculated by 
 the traders, who manage to collect per annum from 
 150,000 to 200,000 buffalo skins, that at the rate at 
 which these animals are now disposed of, in ten years 
 they will be all killed off. Whenever that event hap- 
 pens, Mr. Catlin very justly prophesies that 250,000 
 Indians, now living in a plain of nearly three thousand 
 miles in extent, must die of starvation and become a 
 prey to the wolves, or that they must either attack the 
 powerful neighbouring tribes of the Rocky Mountains, 
 or in utter phrenzy of despair, rush upon the white
 
 OP LOST CIVILIZATION. 273 
 
 population on the forlorn hope of dislodging it. In 
 the two latter alternatives there exists no chance of 
 success, and we have therefore the appalling reflection 
 before us, that these 250,000 Indians must soon be 
 added to the dismal list of those who have already 
 withered and disappeared, leaving their country to 
 bloom and flourish in the possession of the progeny of 
 another world \" 
 
 It is not our purpose to enter into any examination 
 of the system pursued towards the Indians by the 
 government of the United States. It will be quite 
 sufficient to give the description of that system, sup- 
 plied by the Americans themselves. We quote from 
 an article in the North American Review, from which 
 we have already made some extracts in the course of 
 this chapter. 
 
 " In point of fact, the amount of the whole matter is 
 simply this. We regard the Indians as independent 
 nations, just far enough to subserve our own interests. 
 We are willing to treat with them for their lands, and 
 hold them to their concessions ; so far they are inde- 
 pendent nations. But when we want more, we take 
 another position; and, as they are not independent 
 nations, and have no standing armies, and cannot 
 enforce their rights and compel us to maintain our 
 own stipulations, we proceed to wrong them, by force 
 or fraud, into other treaties, with similar concessions, to 
 be observed with a similar good faith. We get a few 
 half-breeds on our side, we bribe a few recreant chiefs 
 to make their mark on the parchment, and thus we 
 have another treaty of concession to our avarice, 
 solemnly guaranteed by an independent Indian nation.
 
 274 FUKTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 with stipulations on our part, sanctioned by pledged 
 national faith ! What trouble we are in at the South ! 
 We are marching our troops down upon the poor Che- 
 rokees, and commissioning our veteran generals to force 
 that independent nation to quit the homes of their 
 childhood and the graves of their fathers, for unknown 
 lands far off in the West. And we are doing it by way 
 of carrying into effect a treaty extorted by the most 
 infamous means ; a treaty against which the Cherokee 
 nation rise up almost in a mass, and will probably carry 
 their resistance to bloodshed. But our regard to the 
 faith of treaties is so delicate, that we persist in driving 
 away, at the point of the bayonet, the plundered inhe- 
 ritors of the soil, careless of all the ties we break, all 
 the lives we shorten, all the scenes of woe we cause." 
 
 It must not be forgotten, that religious fanaticism 
 has had no small share in producing the systematic 
 degradation of the Indians. The Spaniards were not 
 alone in refusing the rights of humanity to Pagans; 
 the Puritans of New England looked upon the Indians 
 of that region as children of the devil, and therefore 
 only fit for carnage or servitude ; while they looked 
 upon themselves as the favoured sons of heaven, des- 
 tined to inherit a promised land as the Israelites did 
 Canaan. Their whole reasoning is admirably expressed 
 in three resolutions, said to have been adopted by a 
 community in Massachusetts previous to seizing on a 
 fertile Indian territory. 
 
 1st, Resolved That the earth is the Lord's and the 
 fulness thereof. 
 
 2d, Resolved That the Lord hath given the inhe- 
 ritance thereof unto his saints.
 
 OP LOST CIVILIZATION. 275 
 
 3d, Resolved That we are the saints. 
 
 Those who adopted such resolutions, were of course 
 likely to portray the character of the Indian in the 
 darkest shades; but the Friends of Pennsylvania, by 
 pursuing a different policy, were able to give them a 
 different character. They were proved to be capable 
 of being mollified, by acts of good neighbourhood, into 
 the most disinterested of friends, and the most faithful 
 of adherents. 
 
 When we are told that the erection of such structures 
 as are found on the Ohio, is utterly inconsistent with 
 the Indian character, as it now is, we may at once assent ; 
 but this by no means proves that even greater works 
 might be consistent with what the Indian character 
 was in a former age. Look to Baalbec, Palmyra, 
 Carthage, to the whole coast of northern Africa, and 
 compare what is, with what has been. 
 
 Behold the fields unknowing of the plough! 
 
 Behold the palaces and towers laid low ! 
 
 See where o'erthrown the massy column lies, 
 
 While weeds obscene above the cornice rise. 
 
 Here gaping wide, half-ruined walls remain, 
 
 There mouldering pillars nodding roots sustain. 
 
 The landscape, once in various beauty spread, 
 
 With yellow harvests and the flowery mead, 
 
 Displays a wild uncultivated face, 
 
 Which bushy brakes and brambles vile disgrace. 
 
 No human footstep prints th' untrodden green, 
 
 No cheerful maid nor villager is seen. 
 
 E'en in her cities, famous once and great, 
 
 Where thousands crowded in the noisy street, 
 
 No sound is heard of human voices now, 
 
 But whistling winds through empty dwellings blow ; 
 
 While passing strangers wonder if they spy 
 
 One single melancholy face go by.* 
 
 * Rowe's Lucan.
 
 276 FURTHER EVIDENCES 
 
 Saddening is this picture of desolation, but far more 
 painful is the moral degradation of those who tenant 
 the ruins of former greatness.* It is no wonder that 
 we are tempted to question their parentage, to deny 
 that the Copts are descended from the people of the 
 Pharaohs, that Syria holds representatives of the 
 polished subjects of Zenobia, and that the noble family 
 of the Barcas has left any posterity in Africa. It was 
 not alone the towers and pinnacles of Carthage that 
 fell before the Roman destroyer; the mind of the 
 nation was hewn down; the intellectual and moral 
 destruction far exceeded the physical ruin. Conquerors 
 have ever been the apostles of barbarism; and when we 
 contemplate the havoc they have made, we are almost 
 tempted to lament that they stopped short of exter- 
 mination, and sheathed the sword too soon. Marcius 
 sitting among the ruins of Carthage, has been a 
 favourite theme with poets and painters; not because 
 the fallen city was a type of the fallen conqueror, but 
 because of the contrast between the mind unbent, the 
 spirit unbroken, the soul unchanged, and the inert 
 matter for which there was no hope of restoration. It 
 is the dissimilarity, not the resemblance, which gives 
 
 * This sentiment is beautifully expressed by Mrs. Hemans, in lines 
 we are unwilling to withhold from the admiration of our readers. 
 
 Weep not, sad moralist ! o'er desert plains, 
 
 Strew'd with the wrecks of grandeur mouldering fanes, 
 
 Arches of triumph, long with weeds o'ergrown, 
 
 And regal cities now the serpent's own : 
 
 Earth has more awful ruins one lost mind, 
 
 Whose star is quenched, hath lessons for mankind 
 
 Of deeper import than each prostrate dome, 
 
 Mingling its ashes with the dust of Rome.
 
 OF LOST CIVILIZATION. 277 
 
 its greatest power to the scene; and we shall probably 
 be pardoned if, to prove this point, we quote the lines 
 of an American authoress, Mrs. Child, on the subject, 
 as they have not before been published in this country. 
 
 Pillars are fallen at thy feet, 
 
 Fanes quiver in the air, 
 A prostrate city is thy seat, 
 
 And thou alone art there. 
 
 No change comes o'er thy noble brow, 
 
 Though ruin is around thee ; 
 Thine eyebeam burns as proudly now, 
 
 As when the laurel crowned thee. 
 
 It cannot bend thy lofty soul 
 
 Though friends and fame depart ; 
 The car of fate may o'er thee roll, 
 
 Nor crush thy Roman heart. 
 
 And Genius hath electric power, 
 
 Which earth can never tame ; 
 Bright suns may scorch, and dark clouds lower, 
 
 Its flash is still the same. 
 
 The dreams we loved in early life, 
 
 May melt like mist away ; 
 High thoughts may seem, mid passion's strife, 
 
 Like Carthage in decay. 
 
 And proud hopes in the human heart 
 
 May be to ruin hurl'd, 
 Like mouldering monuments of art 
 
 Heaped on a sleeping world. 
 
 Yet there is something will not die, 
 
 Where life hath once been fair; 
 Some towering thoughts still rear on high, 
 
 Some Roman lingers there ! 
 
 That a nation may decline in civilization, that it may 
 fall even into the lowest depths of barbarism, is a fact 
 which we have illustrated by many painful examples.
 
 278 EVIDENCES OF LOST CIVILIZATION. 
 
 There is then no improbability, that the wandering 
 Indians of the prairies, wretched and degraded as ( we 
 now find them, are yet legitimately descended from a 
 powerful and civilized nation, which either from foreign 
 invasion, internal decay, or more probably from the 
 united influence of both, has sunk into forgetfulness 
 of former glory, and hopelessness of future redemption. 
 
 O mortal, mortal state ! and what art thou ? 
 E'en in thy glory comes the passing shade, 
 And makes thee like a vision fade away ; 
 And then Misfortune takes the moistened sponge, 
 And clean effaces all the picture out.
 
 279 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IDENTITY OF THE REMAINS OP CIVILIZATION IN 
 NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 MATERIALS for a complete examination of the extinct 
 civilization of the Red men, are very scanty; much 
 must remain undiscovered in the vast regions over 
 which they extended. It is only by slow degrees that 
 all the wonders of nature, and the relics of ancient art 
 become known even in civilized lands. It is not a 
 century since the cave of Fingal, one of the most 
 wonderful natural curiosities in the world, close to our 
 own shores, remained undiscovered by any one com- 
 petent to describe it : 
 
 Then all unknown its columns rose 
 Where dark and undisturb'd repose 
 
 The cormorant had found, 
 And the shy seal had quiet home, 
 And welter'd in that wondrous dome, 
 Where as to shame the temples deck'd 
 By skill of earthly architect, 
 Nature herself it seemed would raise 
 A minster to her Maker's praise. 
 
 Every day brings us fresh proof of the high state of 
 civilization to which Britain attained under the Romans, 
 and the barbarism into which the nation sunk in con- 
 sequence of the Saxon invasion. The remains of the 
 princely palace at Bignor, its beautiful Mosaic pave- 
 ments, its galleries, its hypocaust, and its baths, have
 
 280 IDENTITY OF THE 
 
 been brought to light only within the last few years. 
 Herculaneum, Pompeii, Psestum, have been but re- 
 cently restored to our knowledge; and travellers in 
 Asia Minor constantly discover majestic ruins of cities 
 whose names are unknown or doubtful. Dr. Wilde 
 has found it to be a work of great difficulty to identify 
 the spot on which Tyre stood, that city "situate at 
 the entry of the sea, the merchant for many isles, whose 
 borders were in the midst of the waters, and whose 
 builders had perfected her beauty."* Who could gaze 
 on the barren rock where Nature first triumphed over 
 Art, and where Desolation wrested the victory from 
 Nature, without being tempted to exclaim in the words 
 of Ec-khard: 
 
 A thousand years have rolled along, 
 
 And blasted empires in their pride, 
 And witnessed scenes of crime and wrong, 
 
 Till men by nations died. 
 A thousand summer suns have shone, 
 
 Till earth grew bright beneath their sway, 
 Since thou, untenanted and lone, 
 
 Wert render'd to decay. 
 
 The moss-tuft and the ivy-wreath, 
 
 For ages clad thy fallen mould, 
 And gladden'd in the spring's soft breath; 
 
 But they grew wan and old. 
 Now, Desolation hath denied 
 
 That even these shall veil thy gloom ; 
 And Nature's mantling beauty died, 
 
 In token of thy doom. 
 
 Alas, for the far years, when clad 
 
 With the bright vesture of thy prime, 
 Thy proud towers made each wanderer glad, 
 
 Who hailed thy sunny clime ! 
 
 * Ezekiel xxvii. 3.
 
 REMAINS OF CIVILIZATION. 281 
 
 Alas, for the fond hope and dream, 
 
 And all that won thy children's trust, 
 God cursed, and none may now redeem, 
 
 Pale city of the dust ! 
 
 If on civilized coasts, in lands travelled by men of 
 science, enterprise, and observation; and on sites where 
 history has named and fixed the natural bounds and 
 landmarks, fresh discoveries are daily made, and won- 
 drous monuments of nature and art rescued from 
 " the cold obstruction" to which they have been con- 
 signed for centuries, it is assuredly probable that 
 in the wilds of North America, in the recesses of 
 Mexico, and the mountains of Peru, there are vast 
 antiquarian treasures still unrevealed, which would 
 elucidate what is now dark, and explain what is now 
 intricate. If we add to these considerations, the 
 jealousy of Spain while she possessed these interesting 
 regions, watching them as the degraded guardians of 
 the Harem do the objects of their charge, the more 
 strictly because the capacity of enjoyment is wanting 
 the complete success with which the Spanish govern- 
 ment secluded its natural subjects, both in England 
 and America, from any intercourse that would throw 
 light on the history of nature, or of man; if we 
 further add, the anarchy that has since prevailed in the 
 revolted colonies of Spain, and which has sealed them 
 against intercourse, not less effectually than the bigoted 
 restrictions imposed upon them by former tyranny; 
 finally, if we reflect upon the care with which the 
 Indians hide all they can from their conquerors, we 
 may even now consider American antiquities a subject 
 still in its infancy, notwithstanding the investigations 
 of that enterprising and intelligent traveller, Baron 
 Humboldt.
 
 282 IDENTITY OF THE 
 
 Mr. Bullock, in his description of ancient Mexico, 
 declares that with " Baron Humboldt's circumstantial 
 account of the group of the pyramids of Teotihuacan, 
 eight leagues from Mexico, in his hands he could obtain 
 no information of them in Mexico. Some of the best 
 informed had heard of them, but supposed that Baron 
 Humboldt had been imposed upon. All inquiries on the 
 road were ineffectual, till at the end of the second day's 
 search, he saw them towering above the hills of Napal; 
 and the platforms were distinctly visible at the distance 
 of two miles. On the top of that of the Moon, they 
 found a small temple, which had a door and windows. 
 Within half a mile was the great pyramid of the Sun, 
 scarcely inferior to that near Cairo, and between them 
 several hundreds of small pyramids laid out like regular 
 streets. From the top he enjoyed the fine prospect of 
 the lake, of the city of Mexico, and great part of the 
 magnificent valley." 
 
 Little has been done in the exploration of the 
 northern and eastern parts of Asia, subject to the 
 dominion of Russia; but in the southern Siberia, 
 between the Tobol and the Jenesai, and particularly in 
 the steppes in the middle region of the Lena, memo- 
 rials have been found of ancient grandeur, magni- 
 ficence, and culture. Mr. Tooke informs us that in 
 the Museum of St. Petersburgh are preserved multi- 
 tudes of vessels, diadems, military weapons, articles of 
 dress, coins, etc., which have been found in the 
 Tartarian tombs in Siberia, and on the Volga. 
 
 " In the Siberian tombs,*' says Stahlenberg, " and in 
 the deserts which border that country to the south, are 
 found thousands of cast idols of gold, silver, tin, copper,
 
 REMAINS OF CIVILIZATION. 283 
 
 and brass. I have seen some of the finest gold in the 
 form of mountains, harts, old men, and other figures ; 
 all sorts of urns, scimitars, medals of gold and silver, 
 and clothes folded up, such as the corpse is dressed in. 
 Some of the tombs are of earth, and raised as high as 
 houses, and in such number upon the plain, that, at a 
 distance, they appear like a ridge of hills : some are 
 partly of rough-hewn stone, and of freestone, oblong 
 and triangular; others of them are built entirely of stone. 
 Colonel Kanifer told me that the ambassadors of the 
 Chinese Tartars, when passing the city of Jenesai, 
 asked permission to visit the tombs of their ancestors, 
 but were refused ; not, improbably, because they would 
 have seen that they were rifled and demolished. About 
 twenty or thirty years ago,* before the Czars of Russia 
 were acquainted with these matters, the governors of 
 the cities Tara, Tomskoi, Crosnoyar, Batsamki, Iset- 
 skoe, and others, used to give leave to the inhabitants 
 to go in caravans to ransack the tombs, on condition 
 that of whatsoever they should find of gold, silver, 
 copper, jewels, and other things of value, the governors 
 should have the tenth. These choice antiquities were 
 often broken and shared by weight. They have dug for 
 years, and the treasures are not exhausted." 
 
 Two articles found in the Siberian tombs are parti- 
 cularly worthy of notice ; these are drinking vessels 
 and urns of black earth and delicately pieced emeralds, 
 for both perfectly similar are found in the ruined monu- 
 ments of Mexico and Peru. Materials do not exist for 
 establishing the identity of art beyond the reach of 
 controversy, but we think that enough has been quoted 
 to establish a strong probability that the same system 
 
 * Nearly a century from the present time.
 
 284 IDENTITY OF THE 
 
 of civilization once prevailed in these widely separated 
 countries. Although the custom of interring the arti- 
 cles most valued in life with the bodies of the dead ap- 
 pears at some time or other to have prevailed amongst 
 most nations, we nowhere find it carried to such a pitch 
 of extravagance as amongst the tribes that issued from 
 " the great northern line/' the Huns, the Tartars, the 
 Mongols, and amongst the aboriginal inhabitants of 
 America. This custom is still observed among the 
 Indians of North America, and is thus powerfully 
 described by Mr. Longfellow in his " Burial of the 
 Minnisink."* 
 
 A dark cloak of the roebuck's skin 
 Covered the warrior, and within 
 Its heavy folds, the weapons, made 
 For the hard toils of war, were laid; 
 The cuirass woven of plaited reeds, 
 And the broad belt of shells and beads. 
 Before, a dark-haired virgin train 
 Chanted the death-dirge of the slain ;f 
 Behind, the long procession came, 
 Of hoary men and chiefs of fame, 
 With heavy hearts and eyes of grief, 
 Leading the war-horse of their chief. 
 Stripped of his proud and martial dress, 
 Uncurbed, unreined, and riderless, 
 With darting eye and nostrils spread, 
 And heavy and impatient tread, 
 He came, and oft that eye so proud 
 Asked for his rider in the crowd. 
 
 * The Minnisinks are an almost extinct tribe of Indians 
 t The dirge is too beautiful to be omitted. 
 
 They sung, that by his native bowers 
 
 He stood, in the last moon of flowers, 
 
 And thirty snows had not yet shed 
 
 Their glory on the warrior's head; 
 
 But as the summer fruit decays, 
 
 So died he in those naked days.
 
 REMAINS OF CIVILIZATION. 285 
 
 They buried the dark chief; they freed 
 Beside the grave his battle-steed ; 
 And swift an arrow cleaved its way 
 To his stern heart; one piercing neigh 
 Arose, and on the dead man's plain 
 The rider grasps his steed again. 
 
 Here are manifest traces of the same superstition 
 which Gibbon records in his description of the funeral 
 of Attila. " His body was solemnly exposed in the 
 midst of the plain under a silken pavilion, and the 
 chosen squadrons of the Huns, wheeling round in 
 measured evolutions, chanted a funeral song to the 
 memory of a hero, glorious in his life, invincible in his 
 death, the father of his people, the scourge of his 
 enemies, and the terror of the world. According to 
 their national custom, the barbarians cut off a part of 
 their hair, gashed their faces with unseemly wounds, 
 and bewailed their valiant leader as he deserved, not 
 with the tears of women but with the blood of warriors. 
 The remains of Attila were enclosed within three coffins, 
 of gold, of silver, and of iron, and privately buried in 
 the night ; the spoils of nations were thrown into the 
 grave ; the captives who had opened the ground were 
 inhumanly massacred; and the same Huns who had 
 indulged such excessive grief, feasted with dissolute 
 and intemperate mirth, about the recent sepulchre of 
 their king." 
 
 Acosta and Gomara* give a very similar account of 
 the usages at the funerals of the kings of Mexico. 
 "When a king of Mexico died, a lock of his hair was 
 cut off as a relic, for therein lay the remembrance 
 of his soul, an emerald was put into his mouth, and 
 * Purchas v. 878.
 
 286 IDENTITY OP THE 
 
 his body was wrapt in seventeen costly and curiously 
 wrought mantles. Upon the outer mantle was the 
 device or arms of that idol to which he was most 
 devoted, and in whose temple the body was to be buried. 
 Upon the king's face was a vizor, painted with devilish 
 gestures, and beset with jewels ; then they killed the 
 slave whose office it was to light the lamps and make 
 the fire to the gods of the palace. They then carry the 
 body to the temple, with targets, arrows, maces, and 
 ensigns, to throw into the funeral fire. The priests, 
 some of whom are called Papas, and dress in black, 
 receive him with a sorrowful song, and drums and 
 flutes ; and the body is cast into the fire, together with 
 jewels, and a dog newly strangled to serve as a guide. 
 Then about two hundred persons are sacrificed by the 
 priest to serve him. The fourth day fifteen slaves, 
 upon the twentieth day five, and on the sixtieth three, 
 are sacrificed for his soul. The ashes and the lock of 
 hair, with another which had been saved from the time 
 of his birth, were put into a chest, painted on the inside 
 with devilish shapes ; on which chest was the image of 
 the king.* The king of Mechnacan observed the like 
 bloody rites ; many gentlewomen were appointed to 
 office in the service of the deceased, and while his body 
 was burning were killed with clubs, and buried four 
 and four in a grave : slaves and free maidens were 
 killed to attend the gentlewomen." 
 
 Baron Humboldt has shewn the extraordinary simi- 
 larity between the architecture of the American monu- 
 ments and the structures found in the ancient country 
 
 A cast or representation of the inmate's countenance is commonly 
 found on the Egyptian mummy-cases.
 
 REMAINS OF CIVILIZATION. 287 
 
 of the Mongols ; he has also shewn that the religion of 
 Mexico was radically the same as that of Tartary and 
 Thibet; but his strongest argument is derived from the 
 computation of time, which, as the Rev. Dr. Wiseman 
 justly observes, " affords too marked a coincidence in 
 matters of mere caprice to be purely accidental."* Time 
 is divided into greater cycles of years, and these again 
 are subdivided into smaller portions, each of which 
 bears a certain name; and this system, so obviously 
 artificial and capricious, is in use among the Chinese, 
 Japanese, Kalmucks, Mongols, and Mantchews, as well 
 as among the Tolteks, Azteks, and other American 
 nations ; and the character of their respective methods 
 is precisely the same, particularly if those of the Mexi- 
 can and Japanese be compared. The most incredulous 
 however, must be convinced from a comparison of the 
 zodiac, as existing among the Tibetans, Mongols, and 
 Japanese, with the names given by this American 
 nation to the days of the month. 
 
 Hieroglyphics of the Days Narshatras; or the 
 
 of the Mexican Calendar. Lunar Houses of the Hindoos. 
 
 All, eau, water 
 
 Cipactli, monstre marin, sea- Mahara, a sea-monster 
 
 monster 
 
 Oceloti, tigre, tiger Tigre, tiger 
 Tochtli, lievre, hare 
 
 Colmati, serpent, serpent Serpent, serpent 
 
 Acati, canne, cane Canne, cane 
 
 Teepati, couteau, knife Rasoir, razor 
 Ollin, chemin du soliel, path of Foot-tracks of Vishnu, the Hin- 
 
 the sun doo god of the sun 
 
 Ozonatli, singe, monkey Singe, monkey 
 Q,uanlitti, oiseau, bird 
 
 Itzeuintli, chien, dog Queue de chien, dog's tail 
 
 Calli, maison, house Maison, house 
 
 * Wiseman's Lectures on the Connexion between Natural and 
 Revealed Religion ; many of the arguments in this chapter have been 
 suggested by those lectures.
 
 288 IDENTITY OP 
 
 It will be seen, that the identical signs are sea- 
 monster, tiger, serpent, monkey, dog, etc., in all which 
 it is plain, there is no natural aptitude that could have 
 suggested their adoption in both continents. This 
 strange coincidence is still further enhanced by the 
 curious fact that several of the Mexican signs, wanting 
 in the Tartar zodiac, are found in the Hindoo Shastras, 
 exactly in corresponding positions. As a matter afford- 
 ing some evidence of the probable course of migration, 
 to which we shall again have occasion to refer, we shall 
 insert a table exhibiting the analogy between the zodiac 
 of the Mexicans, and that of the Mantchew Tartars. 
 
 MEXICAN ZODIAC. ZODIAC OF THE MANTCHEW TARTARS. 
 
 Oceloti, tigre, tiger Pars, tigre, tiger 
 
 Tochtli, lievre, hare Taoular, lievre, hare 
 
 Colmati, serpent, serpent Maghi, serpent, serpent 
 
 Ozonatli, singe, monkey Petchi, singe, monkey 
 
 Itzeuintli, chien, dog Nokai, chien, dog 
 Quanhitli, oiseau, aigle, bird, Tukia, oiseau, poule, bird, hen. 
 eagle. 
 
 The signs wanting in the Mantchew zodiac, are, as 
 we have seen, supplied by the Hindoos ; they are not 
 less arbitrary than those preserved, being a house, a 
 cane, a knife, and foot-prints.* Here, then, we have 
 very positive evidence of an early identity between the 
 aboriginal race of America and the Asiatic family of 
 nations, at least so far as their system of civilization is 
 concerned. We shall conclude the testimony on this 
 point with an extract of a letter from M. Jomard to 
 Baron Humboldt.f " I have recognised in your memoir 
 
 * See the comparative plates in " Humboldt's Views of the Cor- 
 dilleras," vol. ii. 
 
 f " Humboldt's Researches," vol. ii. p. 224.
 
 REMAINS OP CIVILIZATION. 289 
 
 on the division of time among the Mexican nations 
 compared with those of Asia, some very striking ana- 
 logies between the Toltec characters and institutions 
 observed on the banks of the Nile. Among these 
 analogies there is one which is worthy of attention. 
 It is the use of the vague year of three hundred and sixty- 
 five days, composed of equal months, and of Jive com- 
 plementary days, equally employed at Thebes and Mexico, 
 a distance of three thousand leagues. It is true that the 
 Egyptians had no intercalation, while the Mexicans 
 intercalated thirteen days every fifty-two years. Still 
 further, intercalation was proscribed in Egypt, to such 
 a point, that the kings swore on their accession, never 
 to permit it to be employed during their reign. Not- 
 withstanding this difference, we find a very striking 
 agreement in the length of the duration of the solar 
 year. In reality, the intercalation of the Mexicans, being 
 thirteen days on each cycle of fifty-two years, comes to 
 the same thing as that of the Julian calendar, which is 
 one day in every four years, and consequently supposes 
 the duration of the solar year to be three hundred and 
 sixty-five days and six hours. Now such was the 
 length of the year amongst the Egyptians, since the 
 Sothic period was at once one thousand four hundred 
 and sixty solar years, and one thousand four hundred 
 and sixty-one vague years ; which was in some sort an 
 intercalation of a whole year of three hundred and 
 sixty-five days every one thousand four hundred and 
 sixty years. The property of the Sothic period that 
 of bringing back the seasons and festivals to the same 
 point of the year, after having made them pass suc- 
 cessively through every point is undoubtedly one of
 
 290 
 
 IDENTITY OF THE 
 
 the reasons which caused the intercalation to be pro- 
 scribed, no less than the repugnance of the Egyptians 
 for foreign institutions. 
 
 " Now it is remarkable that the same solar year of 
 three hundred and sixty-five days, six hours, adopted 
 by nations so different, and perhaps still more remote 
 in their state of civilization than in their geographical 
 distance, relates to a real astronomical period, and 
 belongs peculiarly to the Egyptians. This is a point 
 which M. Fourier has ascertained in his researches 
 on the zodiac of Egypt. No one is more capable of 
 deciding this question in an astronomical point of view. 
 He alone can elucidate the valuable discoveries which 
 he has made. I shall here observe, that the Persians 
 who intercalated thirty days every hundred and twenty 
 years; the Chaldeans, who employed the era of 
 Nabonassar ; the Romans, who added a day every four 
 years; the Syrians, and almost all the nations who 
 regulate their calendar by the course of the sun, 
 appear to me to have taken from Egypt the notion 
 of a solar year of three hundred days. As to the 
 Mexicans, it would be superfluous to examine how 
 they attained this knowledge. Such a problem would 
 not be soon solved; but the fact of the intercalation 
 of thirteen days every cycle, that is, the use of a year 
 of three hundred and sixty-five days and a quarter, is 
 a proof that it was either borrowed from the Egyptians, 
 or that they had a common origin. It is also to be 
 observed, that the year of the Peruvians is not solar, 
 but regulated according to the course of the moon, 
 as among the Jews, the Greeks, the Macedonians, and 
 the Turks. However, the circumstance of eighteen
 
 REMAINS OF CIVILIZATION. 291 
 
 months of twenty days, instead of twelve months of 
 thirty days, makes a great difference. The Mexicans 
 are the only people who have divided the year in this 
 manner. 
 
 " A second analogy which I have remarked between 
 Mexico and Egypt, is, that the number of weeks, or 
 half lunations of thirteen days, comprehended in the 
 Mexican cycle, is the same as that of the years of the 
 Sothic period, that is, one thousand four hundred and 
 sixty-one. You consider such a relation as accidental 
 and fortuitous; but perhaps it might have the same 
 origin as the notion of the length of the year. If in 
 reality, the year was not of the length of three hundred 
 
 and sixty-five days, six hours, that is - - days, the 
 cycle of fifty-two years would not contain - -r > 
 
 T? 
 
 or thirteen times 1461 days, which makes thirteen 
 periods of 1461 days." 
 
 Baron Humboldt adds, " A half-civilized people, the 
 Araucans of Chili, have a year (sipantu), which exhibits 
 a still greater analogy with the Egyptian year than 
 that of the Azteks. Three hundred and sixty days are 
 divided into twelve months (ayen) of equal duration, 
 to which are added at the end of the year, at the 
 winter solstice (huamathipantuj, five complementary 
 days. The nycthemerse, like those of the Japanese, 
 are divided into twelve hours (clagantu)" 
 
 Garcilasso de la Vega, in his History of the Incas, 
 distinctly asserts that the Peruvians calculated by 
 cycles of seven days. "The Peruvians," he says, 
 " count their months by the moon, they count their
 
 292 IDENTITY OF THE 
 
 half months by the increase and decrease of the moon, 
 and compute the weeks by quarters, without having 
 any particular names for the week-days." It does not 
 appear that this circumstance deserves the weight 
 attributed to it by several writers; the cycle of seven 
 days is not an arbitrary, but a natural division of time, 
 it nearly coincides with the phases of the moon, and is 
 approximately the fourth of a lunation. In all ancient 
 nations where the division into weeks was recognised, 
 we find that the observance of the day of new moon 
 was connected with the observance of one day in seven. 
 It was so amongst the Jews, as is manifest from St. 
 Paul's classing them together in his epistle to the 
 Colossians, "Let no man judge you in meat or in 
 drink, or in respect of an holy day, or a new moon, or 
 the Sabbath day." It is obvious that though the 
 phases of the moon change almost every seven days, 
 yet the correspondence is not exact enough to produce, 
 in a lapse of several consecutive months, an agreement 
 between the cycle of seven days and the phases of the 
 moon, and hence nations may easily come to forget the 
 origin of this division of time. It appears that another 
 cycle was partially adopted by the Peruvians, that of 
 nine days, the nearest approximation to a third of a 
 lunation. This circumstance sufficiently shews that 
 the cycle of seven days, or of nine days, is not a cir- 
 cumstance sufficient to establish identity, for both are 
 natural divisions of time, and scarcely less likely to be 
 suggested by the observation of the heavenly bodies 
 than a day, a month, or a year. Baron Humboldt 
 follows Acosta in attributing the cycle of seven days 
 to the number of the planets, but he has left the
 
 REMAINS OF CIVILIZATION. 293 
 
 connexion between the two unexplained. The Bishop 
 of Ohio seems to think that it arose from a tradition 
 of the seven days of creation ; but we can discover no 
 traces of the memory of the demi-urgic week in the 
 cosmogonies of America, and assuredly the change of 
 phase in the moon affords a more simple and probable 
 solution. Even amongst the Hebrews the observance 
 of the new moon, as has been already mentioned, 
 appears closely connected with the observance of the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 The identity of the zodiacal signs and the common 
 use of intercalation, are of greater importance than the 
 correspondence in the division of the year, month, and 
 week, which are so strongly marked by nature that 
 there is little room for variation, and on these we rest 
 for establishing a probability that the American system 
 of civilization was to a great extent the same as the 
 Asiatic. 
 
 This is further confirmed by the clear traditions we 
 find among the Americans, of man's early history, of 
 the flood, and of the dispersion of the human race, 
 traditions in which the accounts preserved by the 
 Semitic nations of Asia are strangely blended with the 
 Hindoo legends of successive renovations of the uni- 
 verse. Their paintings record four great cycles : at the 
 end of the first, the human race was destroyed by 
 famine; the second was terminated by a conflagration, 
 from which only two human beings escaped ; the third 
 by a series of hurricanes; and the fourth by a general 
 inundation, in which all mankind were destroyed, 
 except Coxcox and Xochiquetzal, a man and woman, 
 who saved themselves in the trunk of an ahuehete, or
 
 294 IDENTITY OF THE 
 
 deciduous cypress. " The Azteks," says Dr. Wiseman, 
 "Mitteks, Flascalteks, and other nations, had innu- 
 merable paintings of these latter events. Tezpi, or 
 Coxcox, as the American Noah is called, is seen floating 
 in an ark upon the waters, and with him his wife, 
 children, many animals, and several species of grain. 
 When the waters withdrew, Tezpi sent out a vulture, 
 which being able to feed on the carcasses of the drowned, 
 returned no more. After the experiment had failed 
 with several others, the humming-bird at length came 
 back, bearing a green branch in its little beak. In 
 the same hieroglyphic painting, the dispersion of man- 
 kind is thus represented. The first men after the 
 deluge were dumb, and a dove is seen perched on a 
 tree giving to each a tongue, the consequence whereof 
 is, that the families, fifteen in number, disperse in 
 different directions." 
 
 The great treasury of Mexican Antiquities, published 
 by the late Lord Kingsborough, at once identifies the 
 Mexican art with that of India and Egypt. We have 
 almost exact copies of the ancient pagodas and cave- 
 temples of Hindoostan; and we have pyramids con- 
 structed on the same model as those of Egypt, and 
 apparently designed for the same purpose. We have 
 figures closely enveloped in drapery, so that only the 
 feet below, and the hands on either side, appear, as 
 in Egyptian statues; while the head-dress surrounds 
 the head, and hangs down at each side, pushing forward 
 enormous ears; besides other kneeling figures, where 
 this attire, so characteristic of Egyptian, is still more 
 strongly marked " so that," as Inca Quirius Visconti 
 has remarked, "they might have been copied from
 
 REMAINS OP CIVILIZATION. 295 
 
 the portico at Dendera, whose capitals they exactly 
 resemble." 
 
 We do not pretend to explain these resemblances, 
 but we think that they are too marked and too striking 
 to be purely accidental. It is curious, that the points 
 of resemblance between the two civilized nations of 
 America, the Mexicans and Peruvians, appear to 
 be less numerous than between either of them and 
 the Asiatic nations; it must, however, be remarked, 
 that this seems to arise not so much from the want of 
 these resemblances as from their not being recorded. 
 All the early writers took the identity of the two races 
 as an established fact. Ulloa says, " if we have seen one 
 American, we have seen all ; their colour and make are 
 so nearly alike." Modern American writers content 
 themselves with the same general declaration, so that 
 it would seem as if the paucity of recorded analogies 
 arose not from their scantiness, but from their super- 
 abundance. Under these circumstances, the following 
 resemblances must be received as part of a greater 
 number, which most probably will be extended by 
 future investigation. The most perfect identity of phy- 
 siological development between the crania found in the 
 mounds on the Ohio, and those of the ancient Mexicans 
 and Peruvians, was demonstrated by Dr. Warren, of 
 Boston, in a paper read before the Medical Section of 
 the British Association. They all exhibited proofs of 
 having been subjected to artificial pressure in early life. 
 Now this custom of cranial compression, peculiar, so 
 far as we can learn, to these races, affords no slight 
 warrant for our belief in an original identity.* 
 
 * " The Aztecs," says Humboldt, " who do not now disfigure the
 
 296 IDENTITY OF THE 
 
 The extension of tumuli, etc., through western North 
 America and Mexico to Peru, in an almost unbroken 
 chain, induces a belief that the race which constructed 
 them emigrated thither, and their termination in Peru 
 leads to the conclusion that this civilized race went no 
 farther. These architectural remains appear very similar 
 to each other in character and object, and the most 
 marked differences between them seem to arise from 
 the nature of the materials at the command of the 
 several builders. 
 
 The traditions of Peru indicate that their country 
 derived its civilization from some northern land in the 
 direction of Mexico ; the Mexican paintings, or pictorial 
 history, unequivocally record an emigration from the 
 north, and exhibit the several halting-places of the 
 wandering race before it reached its final settlement.* 
 And to complete this head of evidence, there are tra- 
 ditions among the western tribes of North America, 
 that they acquired possession of their present country 
 by conquest. 
 
 We have authentic information that the country 
 between Mexico and Peru was settled by a prominent 
 Mexican tribe on its emigration towards the south. 
 " Copan," says Gulindo,f " was a colony of Toltecas. 
 Its king held dominion over the country extending to 
 
 heads of their children, represent their principal divinities, as their 
 hieroglyphic manuscripts prove, with a head more flattened than any 
 I have seen among the Caribs." The custom of compressing the 
 crania of infants, according to Garcilasso de la Vega was still practised 
 by some of the Peruvian tribes on the discovery of America by the 
 Spaniards. 
 
 * A copy of this remarkable document is prefixed to Mr. Delafield's 
 Antiquities of America. 
 
 f See Arch.Tologia Americana, vol. ii.
 
 REMAINS OF CIVILIZATION. 297 
 
 the eastward from that of the Magas, or Yucatan, and 
 reaching from the Bay of Honduras nearly to the 
 Pacific, containing on an average about ten thousand 
 square miles, now included in the modern states of 
 Honduras, Guatemala, and Salvador, and possessing 
 several populous and thriving towns and villages. The 
 aborigines of this kingdom still use the Charti lan- 
 guage, being a mixture of the Toltec dialect with some 
 other still more ancient in those parts." 
 
 These considerations appear to establish a very strong 
 probability that there was an identity between the 
 system of civilization existing among the race that 
 erected the mounds, and the civilization found in 
 Mexico and Peru when America was first discovered. 
 A probability has also been established, that this system 
 of civilization was in many important points identical 
 with that of eastern and southern Asia. There are, 
 however, two objections of considerable weight which 
 deserve to be examined, namely, the differences of lan- 
 guage, and the differences of religion. The number of 
 different languages spoken by the aborigines of America 
 is almost incredible, and there is very often little or no 
 lexical analogy between those of neighbouring tribes. 
 But it is easy to shew that that multiplication of 
 languages is not peculiar to America, but is everywhere 
 found to be an attribute of the savage state. When 
 families and tribes are insulated, either by accident or 
 design, when the hand of each is raised against its 
 neighbour, "a jealous diversity, and unintelligible idioms 
 are introduced into the jargons which hedge round the 
 independence of the different hordes.* 
 
 * Wiseman's Lectures, vol. i. 128. 
 
 o2
 
 298 IDENTITY OF THE 
 
 This disuniting power is very strongly marked among 
 the tribes of Polynesia. " The Papuans, or Oriental 
 negroes," says Dr. Ley den, " seem to be all divided 
 into very small states, or rather societies, very little 
 connected with each other. Hence their language is 
 broken into a multitude of dialects, which in process 
 of time, by separation, accident, or oral corruption, 
 have nearly lost all resemblance." " Languages in the 
 savage state," says Mr. Crawfurd, " are great in 
 number, in improved society few. The state of lan- 
 guages on the American continent affords a convincing 
 illustration of this fact ; and it is not less satisfactorily 
 explained by that of the Indian islands. The negro 
 races which inhabit the mountains of the Malaya penin- 
 sula, in the lowest and most abject state of social 
 existence, though numerically few, are divided into a 
 great many tribes, speaking as many different lan- 
 guages. Among the rude and scattered population of 
 the island of Timer, it is believed that not less than 
 forty languages are spoken. On Ende and Flores, we 
 have also a multiplicity of languages, and among the 
 cannibal population of Borneo, it is believed that many 
 hundreds are spoken." The same fact has been ob- 
 served among the Australian tribes, as is obvious from 
 an inspection of the vocabularies published in King's 
 Survey. If these causes act thus elsewhere, they must 
 be still more powerful in America, where, as Humboldt 
 has well observed, "the configuration of the soil, the 
 strength of vegetation, the apprehensions of the moun- 
 taineers, under the tropics, of exposing themselves to 
 the burning heat of the plains, are obstacles to com- 
 munication, and contribute to the amazing variety of
 
 REMAINS OF CIVILIZATION. 299 
 
 American dialects. This variety, it is observed, is more 
 restrained in the savannas and forests of the north, 
 which are easily traversed by hunters, on the banks of 
 great rivers, along the coasts of the ocean, and in every 
 country, where the Incas had established their theocracy 
 by force of arms."* 
 
 Lexical conformity, that is, agreement between words, 
 does not exist; but an examination of the structure 
 pervading all the American languages, has established 
 beyond all doubt, that they all form one individual 
 family, closely knitted together in all its parts by the 
 most essential of ties, grammatical analogy. " This 
 analogy," says Dr. Wiseman, " is not of a vague, 
 indefinite kind, but complex in the extreme, and affect- 
 ing the most necessary and elementary parts of gram- 
 mar ; for it consists chiefly in the peculiar methods of 
 modifying conjugationally the meanings and relations 
 of verbs by the insertion of syllables ; and this form 
 led the late W. von Humboldt to give the American 
 languages a family name, as forming their conjugations 
 by what he termed agglutination." 
 
 Nor is this analogy partial ; it extends over both the 
 great divisions of the New World, and gives a family 
 
 * " The Basque tongue," says Dr. Wall, " affords a striking in- 
 stance of the rapidity with which new dialects are produced, when the 
 process is not checked either by some peculiarity of circumstance, or 
 by the restrictions which alphabetic writing supplies." Of the mul- 
 tiplied dialects of this language, which are spoken within the narrow 
 limits of the Pyrenean provinces, M. D'Abaddie gives the following 
 description : " La langue Eskuarra compte six principaux dialectes, 
 qui sont le haut-navarsais, le souletin, le bas-navarrais, le labourdin, 
 le guipuzkoan, et le biskaien ou cantabre. Chacun de ces dialectes se 
 subdivise lui-meme, suivant le tribus, avec un incroyable variete 
 d'inflexions et de desinences grammaticales."
 
 300 IDENTITY OF THE 
 
 air to languages spoken under the torrid and arctic 
 zones by the wildest and more civilized tribes. " This 
 wonderful uniformity/' says Malte Brun, " in the 
 peculiar manner of forming the conjugations of verbs 
 from one extremity of America to the other, favours 
 in a singular manner, the supposition of a primitive 
 people, which formed the common stock of the Ame- 
 rican indigenous nations." The languages of the New 
 World, therefore, when carefully examined, instead of 
 proving diversity of origin, exhibit on the contrary 
 divergence from a common centre of civilization. 
 
 There was, no doubt, a marked difference between 
 the religious systems of the Mexicans and Peruvians : 
 that of the former was gloomy, sanguinary, and based 
 upon fear; that of the latter was cheerful, mild, and 
 founded upon love. But this marked dissimilitude by 
 no means proves that the two systems may not have 
 been derived from the same root. There is just the 
 same difference between the two great sects of India; 
 the worshippers of Vishnu, the Preserver, and of Siva, 
 the Destroyer. Both religions were elementary; that 
 is, they were based on the worship of some object, 
 power, or principle of nature ; either physical objects, 
 as the sun, the moon, the earth, etc., or abstractions, 
 as the creating, preserving, and destroying ; or, what 
 seems to have been most usual, the object and the 
 principle may have been combined, and the physical 
 phenomena worshipped mainly, or only, as the expres- 
 sions of a creating or destroying power. From this 
 common starting point, it is very possible to derive the 
 most opposite creeds, according to the prevalence of 
 gratitude or fear in the minds of those by whom the
 
 REMAINS OF CIVILIZATION. 301 
 
 first elements are wrought into a system. And the 
 system of sacrifice adopted by a nation will at once 
 shew which principle has prevailed in the development 
 of its religion, for sacrifices may be either offerings to 
 testify love, or bribes to avert danger. Wherever there 
 is an organized priesthood, and especially where there 
 is a sacerdotal caste, we find the more gloomy creed 
 and the cruel ritual prevalent; but where circumstances 
 have weakened the sacerdotal power, a tendency to a 
 more cheerful faith and milder observances becomes 
 manifest. The religion of colonies generally exhibits 
 this improvement on the creed and worship of the 
 parent state. The Carthaginians brought the worship 
 of Moloch with them from Palestine, but they never 
 indulged in such sanguinary rites as were used by their 
 ancestors in Canaan. It was among the Grecian 
 colonies of Asia Minor, that the Hellenic religion 
 assumed the poetic form in which it is presented to us 
 by Homer, for in the dramatic poets, and particularly 
 in ^Eschylus, we find traces of a darker creed, which 
 favoured human sacrifices. In the countries adjacent 
 to Hindustan, which indubitably derived their religion 
 along with the first elements of civilization from India, 
 it is not Brahminism which prevails, but Buddhism, a 
 mixed political and philosophical reform of the ancient 
 Hindu faith. 
 
 The difference between the religious systems of 
 Mexico and Peru is not, in fact, greater than that 
 between those of India and Ceylon, or Brahminism 
 and Buddhism. It is a singular coincidence that the 
 Peruvians had one Buddhistic notion prominent in 
 their creed, the successive incarnations of Deity in the
 
 302 
 
 persons of their rulers : there is a perfect similarity 
 between the attributes of the Incas of Peru, and the 
 Lamas of Tibet. It deserves to be added, that in 
 the provinces where the empire of the Incas was not 
 established, human sacrifices were as common as in 
 Mexico. 
 
 When we compare two systems of religion, which 
 were originally derived from the same elements, but 
 which became wholly different in the course of their 
 respective developments, such for instance as the creeds 
 of the Pelasgi and the Hellenes, of the Brahmins and 
 the Buddhists, and most probably of the Mexicans and 
 Peruvians, we shall find that the system which most 
 closely assimilated the deities to human form was the 
 most favourable to purity of morals and development 
 of intellectual power. In Asia, where the human form 
 was attributed to the gods, it was but a secondary 
 affair; the indispensable means of presenting them to 
 the senses, and nothing more. Hence the greater part 
 of the Asiatic nations never hesitated to depart from 
 the human form, or to disfigure it, in order to strengthen 
 the symbolical representation. The Hindu makes no 
 scruple of giving his gods twenty arms; the Phrygian 
 Diana had as many breasts ; the Egyptians gave their 
 deities the heads of birds and beasts. All these dis- 
 figurations have a common origin; the human form 
 was but a subordinate object, the chief aim was a more 
 distinct designation of the symbol. 
 
 The Greeks gradually dismissed the symbolical re- 
 presentations, and adopted something more human in 
 their stead. The Buddhists and Peruvians followed a 
 similar course ; for their incarnations were in principle
 
 REMAINS OF CIVILIZATION. 303 
 
 the same as the Greek accounts of the gods appearing 
 in definite forms. With fixed forms the gods soon 
 acquired definite characters; they gained life in the 
 conceptions of the people, and were invested with the 
 attributes of moral persons. Heeren has admirably 
 shewn the consequences of this change on the culture 
 and improvement of a country. "The more a nation 
 conceives its gods to be like men, the nearer does it 
 approach them, and the more intimately does it live 
 with them." 
 
 To this principle may be ascribed the moral supe- 
 riority of the Greeks over the Asiatics, the greater 
 mildness of the Peruvians, and the purer systems of 
 ethics contained in the sacred books of the Buddhists. 
 It may, indeed, be said without presumption, that 
 " God manifest in the flesh" was " the desire of all 
 nations," a moral want felt by humanity, a craving of 
 the heart, sanctioned by the understanding, which 
 prepared, and still prepares, the way for the general 
 reception of Christianity.* 
 
 * This peculiarity of the Christian religion forms the subject of 
 ArclibishopWhately's Second Essay on the Peculiarities of Christianity, 
 which I had not read when the passage in the text was written. I 
 gladly avail myself of one paragraph in this admirable essay, to shew 
 that my views are supported by high authority. " The religion of 
 those who are called philosophers, whose speculations respecting the 
 Deity have been most exalted and refined has always been cold and 
 heartless in its devotions, or rather has been nearly destitute of devo- 
 tion altogether. 
 
 " On the other hand, the great mass of mankind, from the same 
 cause (indistinct perceptions of the Divine nature) have, in all ages 
 and countries, shewn a disposition to address their prayers, not to the 
 Supreme Creator immediately, but to some angel, demi-god, sub- 
 ordinate deity or saint (as is the practice of the Romish church), 
 whom they suppose to approach more to their own nature, to form a
 
 304 IDENTITY OF THE 
 
 It is not pretended that all the difficulties respecting 
 the early civilization of America have been removed, or 
 that the identity of the Mexican and Peruvian systems 
 of civilization with each other, or with the systems of 
 Asia, has been established beyond the reach of con- 
 troversy. Doubts must still remain, which enter into 
 the mysteries of nature, and have their solution involved 
 in those secret laws of her constitution which form 
 her links with the moral government of the universe. 
 The farther we trace back our researches, the more 
 rapid shall we find the growth of languages, institu- 
 tions, and the differences that distinguish races to have 
 been in ancient times. "Truly," says Dr. Wiseman, 
 
 sort of connecting link between God and man, and to perform for 
 them the office of Intercessor. Thus, while the one class are altogether 
 wanting in affectionate devotion, the other direct it to an improper 
 object ; giving that worship to the creature which is only due to the 
 Creator. 
 
 " A preventive for both these faults is provided in that manifestation 
 of God in Jesus Christ, which affords us such a display of the divine 
 attributes, as though very faint and imperfect, is yet the best calculated, 
 considering what human nature is, to lead our affections to God. 
 When Christ fed a multitude with five loaves, He made not indeed 
 a greater or more benevolent display of his power, than He does in 
 supporting from day to day, so many millions of men and other 
 animals as the universe contains; but it was an instance far better 
 calculated to make an impression on men's minds of his goodness and 
 parental care. I speak not now of this miracle as an evidence of his 
 pretensions : for that purpose would have been answered as well by a 
 miracle of destruction ; but of the peculiar beneficent character of it. 
 So also in healing the sick, raising the dead, and preaching to the 
 people : though these are not greater acts of power and goodness than 
 the creation of the world and all things in it, yet they are what the 
 minds of men, at least, can more steadily dwell upon, and which there- 
 fore are the most likely to affect the heart." 
 
 Essays on the Peculiaritiet, etc, 161 3.
 
 REMAINS OF CIVILIZATION. 305 
 
 " there is a sap in nations as well as in trees, a 
 vigorous inward power ever tending upwards, drawing 
 its freshest energies from the simplest institutions, 
 and the purest virtues, and the healthiest moral action. 
 While these form the soil wherein a people is as it 
 were deeply rooted, its powers are almost boundless ; 
 and as these alter and become exhausted, it likewise 
 will be weakened and decay. Assuredly there was a 
 vigour in the human mind, as compared with ours, 
 gigantic, when the Homeric songs were the poetry of 
 the wandering minstrel, when shepherd -chiefs like 
 Abraham could travel from nation to nation, and even 
 associate with their kings, and when an infant people 
 could imagine and execute monuments like the Egyptian 
 pyramids." 
 
 We have exhibited unquestionable proofs of the early 
 civilization of America, and shewn that the degraded 
 condition in which the Indians were found by Europeans 
 was neither their primary nor their natural state. The 
 fact of their fall is unquestionable, though the precise 
 causes cannot now be determined: no doubt there is 
 an immense distance between the architects and the 
 hunters on the Ohio ; but man is essentially free, he 
 is consequently capable of change, and even in his 
 organs most flexible; when therefore he once yields 
 to corrupting influences, there are no limits to his 
 degradation, no bounds to his departure from excel- 
 lence, until he sinks to the level of the brute creation.
 
 306 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF 
 CIVILIZATION. 
 
 COMPARATIVE anatomy has shewn, that every part of 
 the animal structure has a definite relation to the 
 habits and character of the bird or beast to which it 
 belongs. A single bone enabled Cuvier to tell the 
 class and order of the creature that owned it, as perfectly 
 as if he had seen the entire skeleton. There is not a 
 groove which any single muscle makes upon the bones 
 of the lion, that does not shew his habits and nature ; 
 the smallest joint in the gazelle displays a reference to 
 its timid and fugitive disposition. Organization irre- 
 vocably predestines and predetermines the whole life 
 and conduct of the brute creation ; it would seem as if 
 a change of structure, however minute, might deprive 
 the dove of her tenderness, or the eagle of his rapacity. 
 We can find no such determination of character in 
 human organization ; anatomy reveals nothing to shew 
 that man was designed to doze away his existence like 
 an indolent Asiatic, or to run down the wild deer by 
 his restless chase, like the American Indian. In fact, 
 his organization shews, that through custom or educa- 
 tion he might easily exchange one state for the other. 
 In the pursuits of life, animals exercise no choice ; in- 
 stinct at once leads them to the course of action which
 
 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT OF CIVILIZATION. 307 
 
 their organization fits them to perform, and as this 
 instinct is physical in its nature, so is it strictly limited 
 in its development to the supply of physical wants and 
 necessities. We speak of the ferocity of the wolf, the 
 cunning of the fox, the tenderness of the dove, the 
 rapacity of the eagle, the prudence of the ant, and the 
 ingenuity of the bee, without attaching praise or blame 
 to the animals for the display of these qualities, and 
 we habitually classify them in our minds not less by 
 the difference of their dispositions than of their powers. 
 The accordance of instinct, and consequently of habits, 
 between creatures of the same race is invariable; and it 
 seems to become more and more definite the lower we 
 descend in the scale of creation, so that the very name 
 of an animal at once suggests to us a notion of its 
 character. 
 
 Now the faculty analogous to instinct in man, exhi- 
 bits itself not in physical manifestations, but in approx- 
 imation of feelings, similarity of affections, and facility 
 of adaptation ; and the perpetuation of these character- 
 istics is secured by the universal gift of speech, an 
 attribute common to the entire race. We have seen 
 that all men display, under circumstances favourable to 
 their development, the power of domestic affections, 
 the disposition to establish and maintain mutual inte- 
 rests, a desire to accumulate and preserve property, 
 and with some trifling deviations, a general agreement 
 on the leading points of the moral code. All analogy 
 then points to the inference that men, however they 
 now differ, were assuredly designed for the same state, 
 and consequently that they must have been originally 
 placed therein.
 
 308 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT 
 
 We have shewn that man is formed in body and 
 endowed in spirit for a social and domestic life, riot 
 less manifestly than an oyster is organized to lead a 
 motionless life in the waters, or an eagle to traverse 
 the fields of air. He could therefore no more have been 
 primarily placed in a condition directly opposed to the 
 intent and purpose of his structure and endowments, 
 than the sea-shell could be produced on the top of a 
 mountain, or the giraffe amid the icebergs of the pole. 
 No animal can develope its instincts except under the 
 precise conditions to which its structure is accommo- 
 dated; and the failure of these conditions leads to 
 degeneracy, sterility, and extinction. This is obvious 
 to every one who has visited a zoological garden, and 
 observed the difficulties that attend the perpetuation of 
 the breeds of animals. Now man is just as obviously 
 unsuited to the solitude of the forest or the desert, as 
 the lion is to his grated den, or the eagle to his chain 
 and cage. All his faculties fit him for society and 
 improvement, and therefore, in a state of society and 
 improvement, he must originally have been placed; 
 and hence it immediately follows, that savage life can 
 be nothing but a degradation, a departure from the 
 original destiny and position of man. 
 
 Nature, or rather the Author of nature, has pro- 
 vided for all his creatures the means of exercising those 
 powers with which they are endowed. He has supplied 
 them not only with instinct, but also with the materials 
 by means of which that instinct might be developed. 
 The art of making honey would be useless to the bee, 
 unless flowers existed from which honey may be made. 
 These materials for the exercise of instinct, the animal
 
 OF CIVILIZATION. 309 
 
 is unable to produce for itself, or to find, save within 
 very narrow limits, substitutes for them in their absence. 
 And hence we find that, by a wise provision of nature, 
 several races of animals hybernate; that is, become 
 torpid and insensible during the season when the 
 objects to which their instincts are directed cease from 
 the earth; while others migrate, directed by some 
 mysterious impulse, to a land where those objects are 
 abundantly produced. 
 
 Now a certain amount of knowledge, or if we may 
 use such an expression, a stock of civilization, is not 
 less necessary to man for the development of his 
 capacity for improvement, and his other social duties, 
 than flowers are to the bee, or mulberry-leaves to the 
 silkworm. Had he been started on earth perfectly 
 ignorant, ignorant he would for ever have remained. 
 We have seen that no savage nation ever emerged 
 from barbarism by its own unaided exertions; and 
 that the natural tendency of tribes in such a condition 
 is to grow worse instead of better. Civilization could 
 not have been an invention, for the inventive faculty 
 proceeds from something already known; civilization is, 
 in some shape or other, an essential condition of society, 
 and as we have shewn that man was created for society, 
 he must have been enabled to fulfil its conditions. 
 
 This account of the origin of man, and of civilization, 
 to which we have attained, by a long course of reason- 
 ing, is precisely that which is contained in the oldest 
 book existing the Book of Genesis. "God created 
 man in his own image/' gave him "dominion over 
 the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and 
 over every living thing that creepeth on the earth/'
 
 310 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT 
 
 and " he put him into the garden of Eden to dress it 
 and to keep it," and " he saw that it was not good 
 for man to be alone." Here we have it clearly stated, 
 that man, instead of being placed upon the earth a 
 helpless, untutored savage, was gifted with intelligence, 
 was taught the nature of the different beings by which 
 he was surrounded, was instructed in agriculture, one 
 of the most important arts of life, and was declared to 
 be formed for society. To the truth of this statement, 
 all the traditions of ancient nations, and all the inves- 
 tigations of modern science, bear concurrent testimony; 
 they not only confirm the statement, but they deprive 
 all other theories of the merit even of plausibility. 
 The elements of knowledge were given with the capacity 
 for their improvement, the faculty and the materials 
 for its development were given together. 
 
 "This," says Dr. Wiseman, "is assuredly more 
 consoling to humanity than the degrading theories of 
 Virey and Lamarck, and yet there is immixed there- 
 with some slight bitterness of humiliation. For, if it 
 was revolting to think that our noble nature should be 
 nothing more than the perfecting of the ape's malicious- 
 ness, yet it is not without some pain and sorrow that 
 we see that nature anywhere sunk and degraded from 
 its original beauty, till men should have been able 
 plausibly to maintain that odious affinity. Yet may 
 this be of sweet use to us in checking the pride which 
 the superiority of our civilization too often excites, by 
 recalling to our minds that we and the lowest savage 
 are but brethren of one family; we are even as they, of 
 a lowly origin, and they, as we, have the sublimest 
 destiny; that, in the words of the divine poet (Dante), 
 we are all equally
 
 OF CIVILIZATION. 311 
 
 " worms, yet made at last to form 
 The winged insect, imped with angel plumes, 
 That to heaven's justice unobstructed soars." 
 
 It is not necessary to enter into any of the countless 
 controversies that have arisen respecting the condition 
 of our first parents in Paradise, the causes of their fall, 
 and the nature of their punishment; but, as some 
 writers have insinuated that a desire for knowledge was 
 an essential part of the transgression of Eve, which 
 seems rather inconsistent with the connexion that has 
 been shewn between the progress of knowledge and the 
 advancement of humanity, it may be necessary to enter 
 upon a brief examination of the subject. All com- 
 mentators have felt the difficulty that arises from attri- 
 buting moral results to a purely physical act, and 
 hence many of them have declared that the trees of life 
 and knowledge were sacramental; meaning thereby, if 
 they have any meaning, that their fruits conferred an 
 internal grace and efficacy proportioned to the faith 
 and piety of the recipient. There is no authority for 
 this supposition in the sacred narrative; nor is the 
 theory consistent itself; for the fruit of the tree of life 
 conferred benefit, and that of the tree of knowledge 
 produced evil, without any reference to the frame of 
 mind in which either was used. 
 
 Every Biblical student is aware that the verb " to 
 know/' and its derivative "knowledge," are used in 
 Hebrew to signify physical perception, at least as 
 frequently as mental reflection.* There are fruits 
 which do, in a very remarkable degree, influence our 
 sensations; opium, hemp-seeds, and the juice of the 
 
 * See Gen. v. 1.
 
 312 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT 
 
 grape, for instance, produce soporific and exhilarating 
 effects. It is, therefore, very possible that the fruit of 
 the tree of knowledge might have had a stimulating 
 efficacy, and might, therefore, for obvious reasons, have 
 been prohibited. The love of excitement is universal 
 in the human race, people will often run into extreme 
 peril for the mere sake of determining how they would 
 feel under such circumstances; and the description of 
 an untried sensation, even though it should be a painful 
 one, excites an earnest desire for its perception.* In 
 the prohibition of this fruit, physical results are de- 
 nounced, not as chastisements, but as natural and 
 necessary consequences. " In the day that thou eatest 
 thereof, dying thou shalt die ;" intimating that the fruit 
 would produce constitutional effects which would ren- 
 der mortality inevitable. Thus viewed, the prohibition 
 ceases to be a capricious test; it becomes a salutary 
 warning ; designed, like every other divine law, for the 
 preservation and prosperity of God's creatures. The 
 obedience required of Adam and Eve was not sub- 
 mission to an arbitrary mandate, but the observance of 
 a condition necessary to their continuance in the para- 
 disiacal state ; it was the reasonable adherence to law, 
 not the blind homage to the will of a despot, f 
 
 * I have actually heard a young lad lament that he had never been 
 flogged at school, in order that he might know how he would have felt. 
 
 t For obvious reasons it is unnecessary to enter at greater length 
 on the investigation of this subject, but Biblical students will do well 
 to consult a little pamphlet, " De locis difficilioribus Sanctae Scripturae 
 Tractatus Tres," published in Germany, and republished by Mr. 
 Fellowes of Ludgate Hill. Without at all vouching for the correct- 
 ness of the author's conclusions, it may be safely said, that no expla- 
 nation of the circumstances connected with the Fall displays greater 
 learning or ingenuity, or does less violence to the literal sense of the 
 sacred narrative.
 
 OF CIVILIZATION. 313 
 
 This view of the case appears to be perfectly con- 
 sistent with the Sacred Record; it depends on no 
 strained interpretation, and involves no inconsistency. 
 It would be purely an indulgence of idle curiosity to 
 inquire what series of human sensations, roused into 
 action by the forbidden fruit, changed the condition of 
 primeval innocence; it is sufficient to shew, that the 
 knowledge prohibited was physical and sensual, and 
 that the narrative affords no ground whatever for the 
 suspicion that any, even the highest, degree of intel- 
 lectual improvement was inconsistent with the moral 
 purposes of Providence. 
 
 After the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, 
 we find them receiving direct instruction in some of 
 the arts of life. " Unto Adam also, and to his wife, 
 did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed 
 them." This was an important addition to their stock 
 of knowledge ; it taught Adam to apply to practical 
 purposes the information which he had acquired, when 
 the animal creation was brought before him in Paradise, 
 and shewed him what beasts might be trained for human 
 use. The domestication of animals resulted from this 
 Divine communication " Abel was a keeper of sheep." 
 Adam, as we have seen, had previously been taught 
 tillage in Eden, and in this art he instructed his eldest 
 son " Cain was a tiller of the ground." 
 
 We have more than once seen that the elements of 
 civilization are very prolific ; " a little leaven leaveneth 
 the whole lump ;" but that little must be provided 
 from without. Abel does not appear to have gone 
 farther than the domestication of sheep, and perhaps 
 of dogs as guardians of his flocks, but this suggested 
 
 p
 
 314 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT 
 
 the domestication of cattle, which appears to have been 
 an unaided invention in a later period. " Jabal was the 
 father (or founder) of such as dwell in tents, and such as 
 have cattle " The invention of some sort of musical 
 instruments appears to have been combined with this 
 occupation, for JabaFs brother, Jubal, became " the 
 father of all such as handle the harp and organ. " The 
 tending of cattle obviously suggests attention to sound, 
 as a means of recovering strayed herds and directing the 
 flocks. Hence the Arcadian Pan was described as the 
 patron of rustic music, as well as of shepherds; and 
 hence, too, the musical instruments of rude pastoral 
 tribes are generally superior to those of agricultural 
 races in the same scale of civilization. 
 
 It is remarkable that Tubal-Cain is described as 
 the improver, and not the inventor of metallurgy ; " a 
 whetter or instructor of every artificer in copper and 
 iron." Some knowledge of the use of minerals may 
 therefore be reasonably supposed to have formed part 
 of the original stock of information communicated to 
 Adam, but probably only so much as was necessary to 
 prepare the agricultural implements used in the cul- 
 tivation of Eden ; and this appears the more probable, 
 from the fact that Cain " builded a city," or formed a 
 permanent habitation of a kind superior to huts or 
 tents, which could scarcely have been accomplished 
 without the use of metals. 
 
 It would seem as if the art of navigation was first 
 taught to Noah : in the slight notices of the arts con- 
 tained in the antediluvian history, there is no mention 
 made of ships or boats, and the directions given for the 
 construction of the ark, intimate that the patriarch
 
 OF CIVILIZATION. 315 
 
 worked without a model. It may also be remarked, 
 that if ships had been known, a greater number than 
 Noah's family might have escaped from destruction. 
 
 This consideration deprives the controversy which at 
 present rages, respecting the universality of the deluge, 
 of much of its importance. If there were no ships 
 previous to the ark, the antediluvian race must have 
 been restricted to a portion of the earth's surface, and 
 the cataclysm by which their ruin was effected need 
 only have extended its agency over Europe and Asia. 
 It appears exceedingly probable that the amount of the 
 antediluvian population was very small; the genealo- 
 gical table in the fifth chapter of Genesis very plainly 
 indicates that there was a great paucity of births, and 
 we may not irreverently conjecture that the great 
 longevity of the persons there mentioned, was designed 
 as a compensation for the slowness of multiplication. 
 A small amount of births is not by itself evidence of 
 the happiness or misery of any given race : the pros- 
 perity of a population depends not on the bringing of 
 a number of human beings into the world, but on their 
 preservation when they are in it. A very comfortable 
 population is rarely prolific; and it is established beyond 
 controversy, that an aristocratic class cannot keep up 
 its own numbers. In the space of about five centuries 
 the Anician family, from being the junior, became the 
 senior of the patrician ranks at Rome. A glance at 
 any extensive peerage would shew that our House of 
 Lords could not maintain its numbers without fresh 
 creations, and the extinction of noble houses reduced 
 the aristocracy of Venice to a mere oligarchy. Instead 
 of the longevity of the patriarchs being an argument
 
 316 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT 
 
 for a rapid increase of population, it has the very 
 opposite tendency; indeed, late marriages appear to 
 have been the prevalent custom among the antedilu- 
 vians ; Enoch is the youngest recorded father, and he 
 had lived sixty-five years before he begat Methuselah. 
 
 We should also remember that the depravity so 
 early introduced among the antediluvians must neces- 
 sarily have limited population. " God saw that the 
 wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that 
 every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was 
 only evil continually " The effects of moral depravity 
 in diminishing the fecundity of the human species, are 
 notorious : the rapid decrease of the population of the 
 South Sea islands within little more than half a century, 
 is a striking instance. As the antediluvians had be- 
 come monsters of iniquity, it follows from all analogy, 
 that their number was really small, and "that it was 
 in a course of rapid progress towards an extreme 
 reduction, which would have issued iu a not very 
 distant extinction."* 
 
 It is not our purpose to enter into the controversy 
 respecting the universality of the Deluge; our object 
 is to shew that this event, whether general or limited, 
 caused no interruption of civilization. The stock of 
 knowledge, as well as the stock of humanity, was 
 preserved in the ark. The domesticated animals were 
 there, ready for the use of man when the waters had 
 subsided ; the art of husbandry was not forgotten, for 
 Noah planted a vineyard soon after his descent from 
 Ararat ; and the knowledge of the arts connected with 
 building survived, since the mere conception of erecting 
 * Rev. Dr. Pye Smith on Scripture and Geology, p. 310.
 
 OF CIVILIZATION. 317 
 
 such a tower as Babel, argues considerable skill in 
 architecture. The scriptural account of the origin of 
 civilization terminates with the dispersion of the human 
 race in consequence of the confusion at Babel, and 
 therefore the narrative of this event demands our 
 attention. 
 
 We are first informed that " the whole earth was of 
 one language, and one speech," or literally, " of one 
 lip and one words/' The ordinary interpretation of 
 the Hebrew version, " one language and one speech," 
 seems to have prevailed from the belief that a miracle 
 was necessary to account for the diversity of languages ; 
 but, as we have abundantly proved in preceding 
 chapters, a miracle would rather have been necessary 
 to secure their uniformity, since all experience teaches 
 us, that a tendency to multiply languages and dialects 
 is universal in barbarous nations. " One lip and one 
 words," more probably mean an agreement in religion, 
 and the principles of government, for the natural 
 consequences of such an agreement appear in the 
 narrative ; they migrate from the east to the plains of 
 Shinar, and they join in the erection of a city. Persons 
 differing in language have very often combined for 
 such a purpose, but not persons differing in religion 
 and politics. 
 
 The emigrants next resolve to build a tower " whose 
 top may reach unto heaven;" a phrase indicative simply 
 of great height; just as the spies sent among the 
 Canaanites by Moses reported, " the cities are great, 
 and walled up to heaven." It has been strangely 
 enough imagined that the builders had some notion of 
 making this tower a means of escape into heaven, in
 
 318 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT 
 
 case of a second flood; as if they, or anybody else, 
 beyond the age of infancy, believed the clouds to be a 
 solid flooring, on which they could step from the top 
 of an edifice elevated to their level. Their own account 
 of the matter perfectly exonerates them from any such 
 absurdity, which, indeed, is nothing more than one 
 of the mischievous follies engrafted on the sacred text 
 by presumptuous ignorance.* The purpose of the 
 architects is stated with great clearness and simplicity, 
 " Let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad 
 on the face of the earth." Here it is intimated that 
 the name of the nation is to be connected with the 
 great citadel, or tower, which was to be the principal 
 edifice in the new city, and hence arises a strong pro- 
 bability that this tower was destined to be a temple for 
 idol-worship. All the great cities of antiquity were 
 dedicated to some peculiar deity, and grew up round a 
 sanctuary : in many cases the deified founder was the 
 
 * In a great many schools, notwithstanding modern improvements, 
 children are still taught that heaven is a definite locality above their 
 heads, and hell an equally definite place under their feet. These 
 absurd notions are engrafted on the interpretation of the Bible, and 
 are consequently given and received as articles of faith. When the 
 persons thus instructed acquire even an elementary knowledge of 
 geography and astronomy, they discover the utter folly of such notions; 
 but too often they believe that the absurdity exists in the Bible, and 
 not in the presumption of ignorant teachers. This is one of the most 
 common causes of infidelity among the half-educated, and its influence 
 is far more extensive than is generally imagined. With some sad 
 proofs of the mischief thus produced immediately before our eyes, we 
 may be permitted to question the prudence of making the Bible a 
 school-book, at least until schoolmasters and mistresses are better 
 qualified to explain its peculiar phraseology than they are at present. 
 The error to which reference is made in the text, is derived from the 
 glosses of the Jewish Rabbins, and appears, but in a less absurd form, 
 in Josephus.
 
 OF CIVILIZATION. 319 
 
 object of worship; and even when the Sun, or some 
 other celestial luminary, was chosen as a patron, the 
 name of the ruler was frequently combined with that of 
 the god. All the eastern traditions relating to Babylon 
 declare that Nimrod was its founder, and also that he 
 was the first despot who commanded that he should be 
 regarded as a god. 
 
 The sin, then, committed by the builders of Babel 
 was, that they designed to establish a uniform system 
 of idolatry, and that the tower was to be the metro- 
 politan temple of the race. This view of the case at 
 once explains the reason of the Divine interposition: 
 " Let us go down and there confound their language, 
 that they may not understand each other's speech/' 
 This verse might be more literally rendered, " Let us 
 go down and there confound their lip (unity of purpose) 
 that they may not hearken to, or obey each other's 
 words." Any disuniting principle, such as a dispute 
 about the forms of religion, or of government, would 
 lead to a separation of the several families, and this se- 
 paration would necessarily produce different languages. 
 Thus viewed, the miraculous interposition is freed from 
 the captious objections of the sceptic, for the means 
 are obviously proportioned to the end designed. 
 
 We have now reached the point where human civili- 
 zation, in its collective form, ceases to depend on the 
 direct interposition of Omnipotence, and where the 
 elements bestowed by the Creator are left for their 
 development to human ingenuity and human industry. 
 But here a question may be raised as to the amount of 
 civilization necessary for a start; and it may be asked 
 what spark of civilization being introduced, will kindle
 
 320 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT 
 
 a flame. It is not very easy to solve this problem, but 
 the Book of Genesis suggests some considerations which 
 may lead to an approximate solution. In Paradise, 
 Adam was taught the use of language, the nature of 
 animals, or at least of those species which it was most 
 important for him to know, and the art of tillage. We 
 have no record that the use of fire was communicated 
 to him ; but this is rendered probable by the existence 
 of the custom of sacrifices in his family, and by the 
 traditions of almost all ancient nations that fire was 
 derived from heaven. Some moral rules of conduct 
 were given to the first society : Cain refers to retri- 
 butive punishment for crime, as an established and 
 recognised principle " it shall come to pass that every 
 one that findeth me shall slay me." A ritual of 
 worship appears also to have been enjoined, for the 
 sons of Adam made offerings to the Lord. The 
 domestication of sheep and goats was a natural result 
 of the knowledge communicated to Adam in Paradise, 
 and it led subsequently to the taming of other animals. 
 We have already noticed the probable origin of the 
 use of metals. 
 
 To this stock we find that the art of ship-building 
 was added at the time of the Deluge, and a further 
 revelation of moral law for the guidance of the new 
 society that was to inherit the earth. As cities existed 
 before, and immediately after, the flood, some elements 
 of political knowledge and the laws of society must 
 have been preserved in Noah's family; indeed, the 
 delicacy shewn by Japhet and Shem, when Ham in- 
 sulted their father, is evident proof of a considerable 
 advance in social refinement.
 
 OF CIVILIZATION. 321 
 
 It is much more difficult to determine whether any, 
 and what means of recording events existed before the 
 Flood. From the scriptural narrative it may fairly be 
 deduced, that some art of writing was known to the 
 antediluvians. The mark set upon Cain was univer- 
 sally understood; Lamech's poetical address to his 
 wives has internally no recommendation to be pre- 
 served by tradition, and there is no discoverable reason 
 why it should have been revived by revelation ; finally, 
 the genealogies of the patriarchs are recorded with an 
 accuracy such as tradition could never have possessed. 
 Another argument for such a probability, is thus stated 
 by the Rev. Dr. Pye Smith :* " It is not irrelevant 
 here to remark, that the earlier part of the Book of 
 Genesis consists of several distinct compositions, marked 
 by their differences of style and by express formularies 
 of commencement. t It is entirely consonant with the 
 idea of inspiration, and established by the whole tenor 
 of the scriptural compositions, that the heavenly in- 
 fluence operated in a concurrence with the rational 
 faculties of the inspired men, so that prophets and 
 apostles wrote from their own knowledge and memory 
 the testimony of other persons, and written documents, 
 to which indeed express appeal is often made.J From 
 
 * On the Relation between Scripture and Geology, p. 207. 
 
 t The following appear to be the distinct compositions, yet it must 
 be observed that the evidence is not equally clear in every case. 
 I. Gen. i. 1 to ii. 3. II. ii. 4 to Hi. 24. III. chap. iv. IV. v. 1 
 to vi. 8. V. vi. 9 to ix. 29. VI. chap. x. VII. xi. 19. VIII. 
 xi. 10 to 26. IX. xi. 27 ; and all that follows may be regarded as 
 separate monuments of the house of Abraham. Chap, xxxvi. a sepa- 
 rate document, inserted in the most suitable place. Smith. 
 
 $ We have these instances in the Old Testament: Numb. xxi. 14. 
 Josh. x. 13. 2 Sam. i. 18. 1 Kings xi. 41. 1 Chron. ix. 1 ; xxix. 
 
 P 2
 
 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT 
 
 the evidence of language and of matter, we have no 
 slight reason for supposing that Moses compiled the 
 chief parts of the Book of Genesis, by arranging and 
 connecting ancient memorials under the Divine direc- 
 tion, and probably during the middle part of his life, 
 which he spent in the retirements of Arabia. Thus, 
 though it is impossible to affirm with confidence such 
 a position, yet it is far from improbable that we have 
 in this most ancient writing in the world the family 
 archives of Amrarn and his ancestors, comprising the 
 history of Joseph, probably written in great part by 
 himself, documents from the hands of Jacob, Abraham, 
 Shem, Noah, and possibly, ascending higher still, 
 authentic memorials from Enoch, Seth, and Adam." 
 
 Looking upon the Book of Genesis as a collection of 
 documents, and not as a single document, it is scarcely 
 possible to avoid the conclusion, that some of these 
 records existed before the Flood, and were preserved in 
 the ark. The Rev. Dr. Wall has shewn, if not the com- 
 plete impossibility, at least the great improbability of 
 alphabets being a human invention ; and the universal 
 tradition of ancient nations ascribes the invention to 
 the gods. The poetical address of Lamech for in the 
 original Hebrew it has a decided poetic form bears all 
 the signs of having been recorded by alphabetic means; 
 for it differs essentially from all the specimens of known 
 ideagraphic poetry, as will be at once obvious if it be 
 compared with translations from the Chinese.* There 
 
 29. 2 Chron. ix. 29, xii. 15, xx. 34. In the New Testament many 
 of the anecdotal portions in the three first Gospels, and see Luke i. 
 1, 2 Smith. 
 
 * See an admirable series of papers on Chinese poetry by Mr. Davis, 
 in the Transactions of the Royal. Asiatic Society.
 
 OF CIVILIZATION. 323 
 
 appears, therefore, a strong probability that, with the 
 stock of information given to Adam, the means of 
 recording and preserving that information were also 
 communicated. 
 
 Dr. Wall has shewn, that the common theory which 
 deduces alphabetic from hieroglyphic writing is desti- 
 tute of any plausible foundation. There is nothing in 
 the latter which would suggest the former; but on the 
 contrary, " the ideagraphic use of signs, instead of 
 leading towards the phonetic one, has actually the very 
 opposite tendency, and draws off the mind from the 
 practice adopted in the alphabetic reading, of using the 
 elementary sounds without any signification, and com- 
 bining these to form significant words."* The patri- 
 archal records of Abraham and his family, are more 
 full, and enter into more minute details than any 
 transcript from pure ideagraphic writing with which 
 we are acquainted; and assuredly they could not have 
 been thus recorded in such a hieroglyphic system as 
 that described by Clemens Alexandrinus, and Horus 
 Apollo. Persons acquainted with alphabetic writing, 
 are often led to suppose that ideagraphic would form 
 a superior system. Bishop Wilkins was not alone in 
 his attempts to form a universal character, which, like 
 the Chinese, could be read with equal facility by 
 nations speaking different languages. f Here is the 
 
 * See Dr. Wall on the Origin of Alphabets, vol. i. p. 80. It 
 may be remarked that the great difficulty in teaching a child the 
 alphabet, is the want of significance in the elementary sounds, and 
 hence pictures are called to the aid of memory A stands for apple, 
 B for bull, etc. 
 
 f The author is acquainted with several such projectors ; indeed, he 
 may include himself in the number, for he bestowed the labour of 
 some years on the hopeless attempt.
 
 324 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT 
 
 direct reverse of the modern theory, for here the im- 
 perfection of alphabetic writing the connexion between 
 representation and sound suggested the expediency of 
 an ideagraphic system, where the representation should 
 have reference solely to the sense independent of the 
 sound. 
 
 The differences by which the distinction between 
 the several records is shewn, seem very clearly to prove 
 that the several parts of Genesis were originally alpha- 
 betical. Had Moses translated them from hieroglyphs, 
 or collected them from independent traditions, there 
 would be a uniformity of style, which unquestionably 
 is not to be found in the Hebrew text, and there would 
 be an absence of particles and connecting links, such 
 as is found in the Book of Job, which bears every mark 
 of being a transcript from picture writing. 
 
 It is not probable that the elements of civilization 
 enumerated were the only aids divinely given to man 
 when he was allowed by his Creator to become a legis- 
 lator for himself. There are several others, particu- 
 larly those connected with the domestic and social 
 relations, for whose divine origin, at least, plausible 
 conjectures could be assigned. But it is sufficient to 
 shew that some stock of social knowledge was given to 
 the progenitors of the human race by Omniscience, in 
 order that they might enter on that career of life for 
 which they were obviously destined by their physical 
 constitution and moral nature. The particular elements 
 mentioned in the Sacred Record, are precisely those 
 which we have shewn could not have been invented by 
 men for themselves, and they are also those which the 
 concurrent testimony of ancient nations ascribes to the
 
 OF CIVILIZATION. 325 
 
 interposition of Divine Providence. Thus, the scrip- 
 tural account of the origin of civilization is confirmed 
 by the internal evidence derived from the different 
 phases of barbarism and civilization, and by the external 
 evidence of the earliest traditions in every part of the 
 world. 
 
 The controversy respecting the extent of the Deluge 
 does not in the slightest degree interfere with the course 
 of this argument ; but some of the circumstances respect- 
 ing the dispersion at Babel, which have been lightly 
 passed over by commentators, seem to merit a brief 
 examination. So far as the geography of the antedilu- 
 vian race can be ascertained, it appears that the principal 
 seat of mankind, before the Flood, was the central plain 
 of Asia, part of which is even now below the level of 
 the sea. After the subsidence of the Deluge, mankind 
 occupied some part of the great mountain chain which 
 extends from the Bay of Bengal to the shores of the 
 Euxine. There are no certain means of determining 
 whether the peak on which the ark rested, was in the 
 Hiinmalaya, the Paropamisan chain, the American 
 mountains, or the Caucasus. The traditions of Asia 
 point invariably to this mountain-system as the cradle 
 of the different races that have founded the oldest 
 empires in that quarter of the globe, and most of them 
 fix the central forms in Upper Thibet. In this they 
 are partly supported by the Sacred Records, which 
 declare that the sons of Noah journeyed from the 
 East when they went to found Babel. In the present 
 state of the science of Ethnography, there are, as yet, 
 but few principles which can be regarded as decisively 
 established; but among those are two that are of great
 
 326 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT 
 
 importance to the subject under consideration. In 
 tracing the families of languages, not by their lexical 
 conformity, but by their grammatical analogy, it will 
 be found, that the course of the language has been 
 primarily directed by a system of mountains, and sub- 
 sequently by the flow of rivers. This is remarkably the 
 case with the class of languages commonly called the 
 Indo-European family,, extending from the Indian seas 
 to the Atlantic ocean. Now the course of this family 
 has obviously been directed by the great mountain- 
 chain of Asia, and subsequently by the course of the 
 mountainous ranges in Northern Turkey and Southern 
 Germany. The only apparent break was in the Cau- 
 casus, and even there the links wanting have been 
 amply supplied. So late as 1812, Malte Brun described 
 the languages of the Caucasian region, particularly the 
 Georgian and Armenian, as " forming there a family or 
 group apart." But Klaproth, in his journey to the 
 Caucasus, has proved that the language of one great 
 tribe, theOssetes, or Alans, indisputably belongs to the 
 Indo-European family, and that the Armenian language, 
 upon lexical and grammatical examination, was clearly 
 a member of the same group. 
 
 These observations tend to shew that the first exten- 
 sion of the postdiluvian race was directed over and 
 along a range of heights, for the Deluge must have 
 subsided long before the lower plains could have 
 afforded an opportunity for the march of nations. It 
 is indeed obvious, that the process of dispersion must 
 have commenced before Babel was founded, for its 
 builders could not have anticipated the danger " lest 
 we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole
 
 OF CIVILIZATION. 327 
 
 earth" if the symptoms of such an approaching con- 
 summation had not already appeared. 
 
 Taking the extremes of this family of languages, the 
 Celtic and the Sanscrit, and carefully observing the 
 lexical conformities between them, it does not seem 
 impossible to approximate to the state in which the 
 arts of life were when these dialects were one or nearly 
 one. The chief lexical resemblance is between the 
 numerals and elementary verbal roots ; and the numerals 
 alone are sufficient to prove that when the separation 
 between Celtic and Sanscrit took place, their common 
 parent possessed a greater stock of civilization than is 
 to be found among many of the African and Polynesian 
 tribes, who cannot count beyond five or six. 
 
 An important element of civilization was developed 
 by the dispersion at Babel, which must long have con- 
 tinued imperfect, had the builders been able to effect 
 their original design; we mean commerce, and the 
 interchange of commodities. The mutual exchange of 
 articles of use and luxury between men in every grade 
 of the scale of humanity is one of the most conclusive 
 proofs of what may be called the sociability of the 
 human species. Man is the only animal that works for 
 himself at the same time that he is working for others; 
 he alone produces articles which others want, in order 
 to obtain articles which he wants himself. Bees and 
 beavers, indeed, work in common, and thus form a 
 species of association ; but their association is that of a 
 family, where production and consumption are equally 
 conjoined : man alone exchanges products ;* and this 
 
 * " Man," says Archbishop Whately, " might be defined as an 
 animal that makes exchanges ; no other, even of those animals which
 
 328 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT 
 
 faculty of exchanging as well as producing, is an essen- 
 tial characteristic of his race. 
 
 The project of the builders of Babel to prevent dis- 
 persion, to make one name for the whole human race, 
 and to provide a common centre from which all direc- 
 tions should emanate, appears not dissimilar from the 
 theories of some Oriental despots, who claim to be 
 the only landowners and the only merchants in their 
 dominions. They wanted to found a society on an 
 anti-social principle ; a principle involving a restriction 
 on the labourer of going to the place where his labour 
 would be most profitable and productive. For this 
 evil, the dispersion at once provided a remedy; and 
 thus the last recorded act of Divine interference in the 
 general government of the whole human race conferred 
 a new element of civilization, and that the one most 
 extensive in its operations on humanity. 
 
 We have now examined the scriptural account of 
 the origin of civilization, and have endeavoured to 
 explain some of the details which have been most 
 usually regarded as the difficulties of the narrative. 
 But whatever opinion may be formed of these details, 
 we claim for the general statement the authority of a 
 full demonstration. The scriptural account of civili- 
 zation narrates not what may have been, but what must 
 have been. The argument is thus summed up by 
 Archbishop Whately : 
 
 " According to the present course of nature, the first 
 introducer of civilization among savages is, and must 
 
 make the nearest approach to rationality, having to all appearance 
 the least notion of bartering, or in any way exchanging one thing for 
 another." Political Economy, Lecture i.
 
 OF CIVILIZATION. 329 
 
 be, man, in a more improved state: in the beginning, 
 therefore, of the human race, this, since there was no 
 man to effect it, must have been the work of another 
 being. There must have been, in short, a revelation 
 made to the first, or to some subsequent generation of 
 our species. And this miracle (for such it is, as being 
 an impossibility according to the present course of 
 nature) is attested, independently of the authority of 
 Scripture, and consequently in confirmation of the 
 Scripture accounts, by the fact, that civilized man exists 
 at the present day. 
 
 " Taking this view of the subject, we have no need to 
 dwell on the utility the importance the antecedent 
 probability of a revelation; it is established as a part, 
 of which a monument is existing before our eyes. Divine 
 instruction is proved to be necessary, not merely for an 
 end which we think desirable, or which we think agree- 
 able to Divine wisdom and goodness, but for an end 
 which we know has been attained. That man could not 
 have made himself, is appealed to as a proof of the 
 agency of a Divine Creator; and that mankind could 
 not in the first instance have civilized themselves, is a 
 proof exactly of the same kind and of equal strength, 
 of the agency of a Divine Instructor"* 
 
 It is not necessary to add anything to this reasoning, 
 but we may be permitted to remark, that this line of 
 evidence shews the importance of investigating human 
 transactions when we are competent to the task, without 
 an immediate reference to the authority of Scripture, 
 as a sufficient answer to all inquiries. That wondrous 
 
 * Whately's Political Economy, Lecture v. The reader is earnestly 
 recommended to study attentively the entire Lecture.
 
 330 SCRIPTURAL CIVILIZATION. 
 
 library, collected in a single volume, which we call the 
 Bible,* imparts to man only that knowledge which he 
 could not otherwise have attained. It is not the history 
 of nature, of civilization, or of man, but of revelation; 
 and consequently it does not supersede the necessity 
 of shewing, from the records of nature, of civilization, 
 and of man, that a revelation was necessary, and that it 
 was bestowed. 
 
 Although few persons cling to Christianity, to its 
 sublime doctrines and its consoling promises, solely, in 
 consequence of logical demonstration though its motives 
 and evidences may have become incorporated with our 
 holiest affections, elements of our happiness, and an 
 essential part of our consciousness yet the religion of 
 the feelings requires to be both alimented and corrected 
 by the inquiries of reason. Great as our love for the 
 spiritual Jerusalem may be, we are not to sit idly within 
 its walls, in ignorant and indolent reliance on what its 
 guardians are pleased to tell us from time to time; on 
 the contrary, we must " walk about Zion, and go round 
 about her, and tell the towers thereof; we must mark 
 well her bulwarks and consider her palaces, that we 
 may tell to generations following, this God is our God 
 for ever and ever." 
 
 * Much evil arises from the perverse habit of speaking and thinking 
 of the Bible as a single and uniform book. It has enabled infidels to 
 evade the force of the arguments derived from the concatenation of 
 the events in the moral government of Providence, and from the fulfil- 
 ment of prophecy. They ask, " How can you prove the Bible by the 
 Bible?" If the several books were habitually used as independent 
 records, which they manifestly are, the unity of the system which they 
 reveal would be more striking, and would serve more to confirm the 
 believer, rescue the waverer, and silence the caviller.
 
 331 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ON THE STATE OF CIVILIZATION DESCRIBED IN THE 
 BOOK OF JOB. 
 
 AMONG the various controversies to which the Book of 
 Job has given rise, one fact has been universally con- 
 ceded, namely, that it is an independent record, that it 
 has no connexion with the Hebrew history or code of 
 laws, and that it presents a system of religion differing 
 in all its visible forms from that established by Moses. 
 Thus viewed, the book is a valuable record of a form of 
 civilization such as is nowhere else described; and if any 
 weight be given to the preponderance of authorities, 
 we may with the majority of the commentators ascribe 
 this form to a period anterior to the Mosaic legislation. 
 In the preceding chapter we have seen that the Scrip- 
 tures, or rather the records in the Book of Genesis, 
 enable us to frame some estimate of the amount of 
 civilization bestowed upon the human race when the 
 world was opened for its use ; a test of the accuracy of 
 this estimate is in some degree pi-ovided, when we find 
 that such an amount was actually possessed by the 
 earliest patriarchal race of which we have a distinct and 
 detailed account. 
 
 The question whether Job was a historical personage 
 or an imaginary character, does not necessarily enter 
 into the consideration of the book as a portraiture of 
 manners, but we may be permitted to hazard a conjee-
 
 332 STATE OF CIVILIZATION 
 
 ture that a rabbinical error, similar to that which has 
 founded so many legendary fictions on the sixth chapter 
 of Genesis, has been the principal source of all the 
 difficulties against admitting Job's existence. It is 
 now universally conceded that " the sons of God" who 
 took wives from "the daughters of men/' were the 
 pious descendants of Seth who intermarried with the 
 offspring of Cain. If the same principle of interpreta- 
 tion be applied to the historical introduction in the 
 Book of Job, the rabbinical gloss that the sons of God 
 mentioned in the sixth verse of the first chapter were 
 angels, and the Satan or accuser, the devil, will appear 
 a very unnecessary difficulty. The simple meaning 
 would be, that when the pious men of Idurnea assembled 
 to worship Jehovah, the envious spirit of one or more 
 was excited by the prosperity of Job, and the dialogue 
 between the Satan, that is, the accuser or malignant 
 person, would appear to be nothing more than an 
 ordinary oriental mode of describing the struggles 
 between the suggestions of envy and the dictates of 
 conscience. This theory is propounded with all possible 
 humility, but it may be said in its favour that it does 
 no violence to the literal meaning of the text, particu- 
 larly if reference be made to the original Hebrew that 
 it gives a simple and natural explanation of an acknow- 
 ledged difficulty and that it is in strict accordance 
 with the principles of interpretation applied to similar 
 passages in the sacred volume. That the Book of Job 
 alludes in many places to the ministration of angels 
 has appeared doubtful to several commentators, and 
 an examination of the passages in which they seem to 
 be mentioned, would shew that human messengers,
 
 IN THE BOOK OF JOB. 333 
 
 prophets or priests,, may be intimated rather than 
 spiritual agencies ; just as the angels of the churches 
 mentioned in the Apocalypse unquestionably designate 
 human governors. 
 
 The religious knowledge possessed in the age of Job 
 was founded on the unity of Deity, both in the creation 
 and government of the universe ; but that this was not 
 a natural theology, a doctrine discovered by unassisted 
 reason, is proved by the reference of Job himself to 
 a revelation, when he declares (chap. vi. 10), " I have 
 not neglected the words of the Holy One ;" and again 
 (chap, xxiii. 12), "I do not neglect the principles of 
 his lips : I have treasured up his words in my bosom." 
 This religion was embodied in formal acts of worship : 
 Job offered expiatory sacrifices for himself and his 
 family, not in the character of a priest, but as patriarch 
 and head of a tribe. We find from the Book of Genesis 
 that sacrifices began to be offered immediately after the 
 expulsion of our first parents from Paradise; and as 
 there cannot be found any reasonable ground for the 
 suggestion of sacrifice to an uninstructed mind, the 
 character of Job's religion, both in doctrine and form, 
 is that of a theology derived from a primitive revelation, 
 and not evolved from barbarism or paganism by any 
 mental process. 
 
 That the knowledge of the Divine unity was derived 
 by Job from a revelation to himself, or from a former 
 revelation transmitted to him by writing or tradition, 
 appears further proved by his reference to the corrup- 
 tions of religion which were gradually increasing in his 
 time. He describes Sabaism, or the worship of the 
 celestial luminaries, as an error to which he might like
 
 STATE OF CIVILIZATION 
 
 others have been led by his natural propensities, and 
 from which he was protected only by the firmness of 
 his belief in what had been revealed. This is a 
 remarkable confirmation of his having obtained his own 
 knowledge of religion from some external source, for 
 he mentions the superstitious practices connected with 
 Sabaism as customs with which he had been tempted 
 to comply. 
 
 If I have looked with a superstitious eye, 
 
 At the sun when he shone in his strength, 
 
 Or the moon when she walked in her brightness, 
 
 And my heart hath been secretly enticed, 
 
 And I have worshipped by carrying my hand to my mouth, 
 
 I should have been chargeable with a great transgression, 
 
 For I should have denied the Supreme God. * 
 
 The religion of Job, the first great element in the 
 patriarchal system of civilization, is thus clearly shewn 
 to possess a derivative character, and the only form of 
 religion which we find to have been self-evolved, was 
 a corruption. It is not to be expected that the ideas 
 of morality formed by the patriarch could be so clearly 
 traced to their source, but there are still proofs of their 
 derivative character in their disproportion to the state 
 of physical knowledge represented in the book. It was 
 not until a very late period in the history of the Grecian 
 philosophy, that moralists discovered the necessity of 
 imposing a restraint on the inward sentiment. Now, 
 we find that Job had anticipated this great principle, 
 for he disclaims not the overt act, but the impure desire 
 which might have prompted to its commission. 
 
 * The quotations throughout the chapter are taken from Wemyss's 
 admirable translation, and the author has made extensive use of that 
 gentleman's researches and illustrations.
 
 IN THE BOOK OF JOB. 335 
 
 I made a covenant with mine eyes 
 
 That I would not gaze upon a virgin, 
 
 For what portion should I then have in God, 
 
 Or what inheritance from the Almighty on high? 
 
 In all the civilized nations of antiquity, and in some 
 which claim to be civilized in modern times, the rights 
 of slaves are ostentatiously disregarded; their persons 
 and properties are at the disposal of their masters. 
 We have shewn in a former chapter, that the worst 
 forms of slavery are to be found in pastoral and nomade 
 races, yet we find Job expressly recognising the rights 
 of his dependents, and asserting their claims to justice 
 with a spirit of equity not to be found in any of the 
 Pagan philosophers, or in some Christian legislators. 
 
 If I denied justice to my male slave, 
 
 Or to my female slave when they disputed with me, 
 
 What then should I do when God maketh inquest? 
 
 When he inquires what answer should I give ? 
 
 Did not He who formed me form them ? 
 
 Were we not fashioned alike in the womb ? 
 
 Such morality is clearly beyond the general state of 
 knowledge at the period when Job lived; we find 
 nothing like it in any of the pastoral races existing in 
 the East, though there are many of these whose civili- 
 zation, estimated by the advance in the arts and sciences, 
 would appear to be greater than that which was pos- 
 sessed by the Idumeans in the days of the patriarch. 
 This superior purity of the ethical code, so far in 
 advance of the progress made in the other branches of 
 human intelligence, is a strong presumptive evidence 
 that it was derived from a source external to the state 
 of society. 
 
 We find also that the friends of Job refer to moral
 
 336 STATE OF CIVILIZATION 
 
 maxims, and principles derived from sages of old, and 
 assert the obligation of the rules which experience had 
 proved to be efficacious. Thus Bildad: 
 
 Examine, I pray thee, former generations, 
 Inform thyself of the wisdom of their ancestors: 
 (For we are but of yesterday and have no experience; 
 Our days on the earth are but a shadow). 
 Shall they not teach thee and instruct thee? 
 
 Among the primitive elements of knowledge traced 
 in the former chapter, we noticed the nature and habits 
 of animals which was communicated to Adam before 
 his expulsion from Paradise. The amount of natural 
 history possessed by Job, is greater than he was likely 
 to have obtained from his personal experience, since he 
 not only mentions, but describes animals which were 
 not natives of Idumea, such as the crocodile and the 
 hippopotamus. It is not likely, indeed, that his 
 knowledge of these was derived from tradition, he more 
 probably obtained his information from the commercial 
 travellers who traversed Idumea on their way to Egypt; 
 but it is remarkable, that no animals beyond those he 
 mentions, have been domesticated and rendered useful 
 to man since his day. The shepherd's dog is found to 
 have been used at this early period, and the horses of 
 Arabia are shewn to have been already subjected to the 
 dominion of man. At the same time, the animals which 
 could not be tamed or rendered serviceable, are speci- 
 fied with as much accuracy as could be evinced at the 
 present day. 
 
 Though the descriptions of the animals are not tech- 
 nical, they are far from being deficient in scientific 
 accuracy; the author has, with extraordinary felicity,
 
 IN THE BOOK OF JOB. 337 
 
 seized the leading characters of each, and the peculiari- 
 ties by which it is distinguished from its fellow brutes; 
 in a few words, the amount of instinct it possesses, and 
 the application of that instinct to its habits and modes 
 of life, are brought before us ; experience must there- 
 fore have been miraculously aided then, or marvellously 
 neglected since, for the accumulated observation of sub- 
 sequent ages has not added so much to our knowledge 
 of the animals described as would equal the amount 
 possessed by Job. 
 
 The Scriptures mention the use of metals and musical 
 instruments, as additions made to the stock of human 
 knowledge; we have already noticed Job's acquaintance 
 with mining operations and refining processes, and 
 need not here repeat our estimate of the amount of his 
 skill in metallurgy, but we may direct attention to the 
 fact, that such an amount possessed at so early an age 
 is strongly confirmatory of the antiquity assigned to 
 the invention in the Book of Genesis. 
 
 Mention is made of bread, cheese, butter, oil, and 
 other manufactured forms of agricultural produce. 
 Wine was preserved in leather-bottles, or skins, as it is 
 still in most parts of the East; and it is curious to find 
 Job referring to the fermentation of new wine, in nearly 
 the same words used by Jesus Christ after the lapse of 
 several centuries. 
 
 I am overcharged with matter; 
 
 My mind within me impels me 
 
 My feelings are like new wine closed up; 
 
 As vessels of new wine they are bursting. 
 
 There is reason to believe that men had become 
 accustomed to fixed habitations in Idumea, as we should 
 
 Q
 
 STATE OF CIVILIZATION 
 
 be led to conclude from the account given of the 
 building of Babel. The mention of cities, indeed, is 
 not decisive, for the Hebrew word so rendered may be 
 applied to assemblages of tents or wagons. But Zophar, 
 in his third address to Job, draws a very manifest dis- 
 tinction between temporary habitations and permanent 
 structures : 
 
 He had built his house like a moth-worm, 
 
 Like a booth which the garden- watch man constructs. 
 
 The various artifices used in hunting, and the instru- 
 ments employed in war, to which Job incidentally 
 alludes, though very interesting to Biblical students, do 
 not come within the scope of our reasoning, because 
 there are no similar references in the early part of 
 Genesis. The art of clothing is expressly mentioned 
 among the communications made to Adam, but in his 
 case it was confined to preparing articles of dress from 
 the skins of beasts ; in Job's time textile fabrics were 
 known, for he says 
 
 My days are slighter than the weaver's yarn ; 
 They are finished like the breaking of a thread. 
 
 The first mention of the balance and scales occurs in 
 the history of Abraham, but it is there introduced as 
 an instrument familiarly known, an invention so long 
 in use that no reference is made to its origin. Job 
 speaks of it in terms of similar familiarity : 
 
 Would to God my grief were weighed in a balance, 
 And my calamity laid in one of the scales! 
 It would be found heavier than the sands of the sea, 
 Therefore my complaints are vehement. 
 
 We have also an allusion to the practice of sealing
 
 IN THE BOOK OP JOB* 339 
 
 with a signet-ring, to which there appears no parallel 
 in the Book of Genesis previous to the history of Joseph : 
 
 At present thou numberest up my devices, 
 Not one of my inadvertencies escapes thee. 
 My offences are sealed up in a bag ; 
 Yea, thou tiest together mine iniquities. 
 
 No definite account of institutions, and of social or 
 domestic habits, is found in the Book of Genesis pre- 
 vious to the patriarchal record relating to Abraham and 
 his family. Many points of similarity could be found 
 between the habits of Abraham and Job, as might 
 reasonably be expected, since both were emirs or chief's 
 of pastoral tribes. It will, however, be sufficient to 
 notice one or two of the most prominent resemblances, 
 particularly such as best tend to illustrate the state of 
 civilization in the patriarchal age. Great attention was 
 paid to the wisdom and years of Abraham, by the kings 
 and princes among whom he sojourned ; the reverential 
 simplicity of the homage paid to knowledge and expe- 
 rience is, indeed, one of the most delightful traits in the 
 patriarchal history. The reply of the children of Heth 
 to Abraham, when he wished to purchase a burial- 
 ground from them, is an interesting proof of the great 
 respect which he " a stranger and sojourner with them" 
 had acquired, solely by the influence of his personal 
 character. Job could boast of similar marks of re- 
 spectful homage : 
 
 To me men gave ear and attended, 
 
 They were silent at my admonition. 
 
 After I had spoken they replied not, 
 
 For my reasons dropped on them as dew. 
 
 They waited for me as for a spring-shower; 
 
 They opened wide their mouths as for the harvest-rain.
 
 340 STATE OF CIVILIZATION 
 
 The transaction between Abraham and the children 
 of Heth brings before us another very interesting 
 peculiarity of the earlier patriarchal times, the influence 
 of public opinion in enforcing obedience to the rules of 
 morality. Abraham, in the absence of courts of record 
 and registry- offices, made his purchase in the presence 
 of the general assembly of the people, and thus the 
 multitude became witnesses of the bargain, and judges 
 of its equity. It like manner Job dwells upon the 
 influence of public opinion manifested by a public 
 assembly of the people, as an efficacious sanction for 
 rectitude of conduct : 
 
 If human -like I concealed my sin, 
 And hid my transgression in my bosom, 
 Let me be confounded before the multitude; 
 Let me be covered with public contempt ; 
 Let me be dumb, nor dare to go abroad. 
 
 Few circumstances connected with patriarchal life 
 have a more touching effect on the mind, than the 
 hospitality accorded to the wearied traveller and way- 
 worn stranger. So sacred was the obligation of extend- 
 ing such assistance felt to be, that the host looked 
 upon himself as the obliged party, and supplicated 
 guests to give him their company as an honour and a 
 boon. Thus, when the vision appeared to Abraham in 
 the plains of Mamre, " he lifted up his eyes and looked, 
 and lo, three men stood by him; and when he saw 
 them, he ran to meet them from the tent-door, and 
 bowed himself toward the ground," and said, u My 
 lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not 
 away, I pray thee, from thy servant; let a little water, 
 I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest
 
 IN THE BOOK OP JOB. 341 
 
 yourselves under the tree : and I will fetch a morsel of 
 bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that, ye shall 
 pass on; for therefore are ye come to your servant." 
 He then directs Sarah to prepare the bread, while he 
 goes in person to choose the best calf from the herd, 
 and to prepare other provisions for his guests. In the 
 same way, when two angels visited Sodom, Abraham's 
 nephew, Lot, urgently entreated them, as a favour, to 
 become his guests : " Behold now, my lords, turn in, 
 I pray, your servant's house, and tarry all night, and 
 wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early and go on 
 your ways." When they refused, "he pressed them 
 greatly/' as if his house would be honoured by the 
 presence of the strangers. Job lays claim to the exer- 
 cise of the hospitable virtues in their widest extent : 
 
 If my domestics were not wont to say, 
 
 " Who is there that hath not been filled with his dainties?" 
 
 The stranger lodged not in the street, 
 
 My door was open to every coiner. 
 
 From the history of Abraham and Esau, it seems 
 evident that polygamy was not so common in the 
 earlier as it was in the later patriarchal ages, and that 
 the marriage union was a connexion on terms of equality, 
 which by degrees changed into the degradation of the 
 weaker sex. Both Sarah and Rebecca appear to have 
 been more influential persons in the households of their 
 husbands, than the the wives of Jacob. Job's wife is 
 also represented as the companion, and not the slave 
 of her husband. In our version, her conduct appears 
 harsh and revolting, because the most important word 
 in her address to the patriarch has been rendered into 
 the very opposite meaning of what was intended. She
 
 342 STATE OF CIVILIZATION 
 
 is made to say, " Curse God and die." But the Hebrew 
 word (berek] most usually, if not invariably, signifies 
 bless; and any one who looks at the passage, unpre- 
 judiced by the translation, will see that she obviously 
 alludes to the previous declaration of the patriarch: 
 
 Naked I came from my mother's womb, 
 And naked I shall return to the earth : 
 Jehovah gave; Jehovah hath taken away; 
 Blessed be the name of Jehovah ! 
 
 This was Job's exclamation when property and family 
 were reft away; but a second course of misery had now 
 fallen upon him, he was smitten with loathsome disease, 
 which covered him externally with ulcers, and racked 
 all his bones with pain; his wife, therefore, exhorts him 
 to reiterate his former words of resignation, to bless 
 God and die. Mr. Wemyss adds, that " she may have 
 deemed his sufferings to have arisen from some trespass 
 or iniquity which required a penitential confession, and 
 therefore she may have uttered the words in the sense 
 in which Joshua advises Achan (Joshua vii. 19), " Bless 
 God, i. e. Give glory to God, by confessing thy sins, 
 hoping also that such confession might avert the divine 
 wrath, and procure to her husband a mitigation of his 
 sufferings." 
 
 That this is the correct view of her conduct appears 
 evident from the terms of Job's reply : " Thou speakest 
 like a foolish woman; what, shall we then receive good 
 from the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil 
 also?" There is, indeed, some severity in the reproof, 
 but it is not such as the act of blasphemous impiety, 
 imputed to her in the ordinary version, would have 
 required. He seems to assert that she had misunder-
 
 IN THE BOOK OP JOB. 343 
 
 stood the nature of his case, as his friends did sub- 
 sequently, by regarding it as a punishment for some 
 transgression which required to be confessed, in order 
 that the Moral Providence of God should be justified, and 
 he therefore insists that there is no necessity for such 
 a justification, since he who had conferred prosperity, 
 could, in his sovereign power, inflict adversity. 
 
 Mr. Wemyss adds, " Neither does the Scripture 
 throw out the least word of reprehension as regards 
 her conduct. She remains with her husband to the 
 last; and at the close of her own and his trials, she 
 becomes again the mother of ten children, and partakes 
 of the renovated happiness of her husband. Nor when 
 the Almighty orders expiation for the improper lan- 
 guage of Job's friends, is there any mention made 
 of her conduct as betraying unbelief, impatience, or 
 impiety." 
 
 From the very earliest period to which historical 
 information reaches, travellers in the East formed them- 
 selves into caravans, or companies, for the purposes of 
 mutual protection and assistance. Though their first 
 mention in Genesis is in connexion with the history of 
 Joseph, there can be little doubt that they existed much 
 earlier, for the brief notice of Egypt, in the life of 
 Abraham, shews it to have been already a commercial 
 country. But Job, who lived in the land through 
 which the caravans passed, and where they had to 
 encounter their greatest difficulties, supplies the exact 
 circumstances which the sacred historian has omitted. 
 
 He beautifully compares his friends to a land-flood 
 formed by the melting snows, which had speedily 
 been absorbed in the sands and evaporated by the
 
 344 STATE OF CIVILIZATION 
 
 summer heat; and he describes the consternation of the 
 caravan from Teman, when they came to the place where 
 torrents were known to descend from the mountains, 
 in the hope of being able not only to slake their thirst 
 but to fill their water-skins, and found the torrent-bed 
 dry and the waters dissipated; he further notices the 
 dismay of the caravan from Sheba, when their associates 
 did not meet them at the appointed place : 
 
 As to my brethren, they are perfidious like a brook, 
 
 Like the torrent which rushes through the valley ; 
 
 Whose waters are swollen by the melting of ice, 
 
 And turbid by reason of the snow 
 
 Summer comes and they disappear ; 
 
 The heat absorbs them and they are dried up. 
 
 Caravans turn thither on their route ; 
 
 They perish in the midst of the desert. 
 
 The travellers of Teman looked anxiously, 
 
 The caravans of Sheba panted for them; 
 
 They blushed for their own confidence, 
 
 They came to the spot and were confounded. 
 
 In like manner ye are become useless to me; 
 
 Ye see my misery and recoil with horror. 
 
 A dissimilarity of habits and customs suffices to shew 
 that the Books of Genesis and Job, while they agree 
 in the general estimate of patriarchal civilization, yet 
 present it to us in different phases, and with such 
 variety of species, as to shew that the records are inde- 
 pendent of each other. 
 
 The funeral ceremonies of the Hebrew patriarchs, 
 previous to the migration of Jacob's family into Egypt, 
 were remarkable for their severe simplicity. Abraham 
 was an emir of great wealth and power; kings had 
 shewn him respect, and courted his alliance. It might 
 reasonably be expected, that the funeral obsequies of
 
 IN THE BOOK OP JOB. 345 
 
 such a powerful chieftain, and public benefactor, would 
 have been celebrated with all the pride, pomp, and 
 circumstance of oriental magnificence; but on the 
 contrary, we find him simply borne to the grave by 
 his two sons, unaccompanied by any mourning train, 
 or pompous solemnities. 
 
 The account which Job gives of the gorgeous pro- 
 cession attending the funeral of a man of rank in 
 his country, affords a striking contrast to the almost 
 naked simplicity of the funerals of Abraham and Isaac. 
 He replies to the assertions of his friends, that adversity 
 is a proof of guilt, by describing the gorgeous obsequies 
 of wicked chieftains in the countries bordering on the 
 Euphrates : 
 
 He is brought to the grave with pomp ; 
 They keep watch over his tomb. 
 The sods of the valley are sweet to him ; 
 Crowds follow his funeral solemnity; 
 Vast numbers go before it. 
 
 Another point of dissimilarity between the patriarchal 
 records in Genesis and the Book of Job, is that the 
 Hebrew fathers are never represented as coming into 
 contact with a wretched and miserable race of out- 
 casts; indeed, it would appear, that an average share 
 of comforts was possessed by the various races amongst 
 whom they settled. Job, on the contrary, describes a 
 degraded and impoverished race of exiles, driven out 
 from the fertile portions of the country, to seek shelter 
 in the wilds and wastes of northern Arabia. This 
 circumstance is characteristic of the difference which 
 may exist between the developments of the same system 
 of civilization in different lands. Palestine had neither
 
 346 STATE OP CIVILIZATION 
 
 organized bands of plunderers, nor such a miserable 
 herd of outcasts, as Job describes, when, as an aggra- 
 vation of his misery, he says, that he was an object of 
 contempt to the most wretched of the earth : 
 
 But now 
 
 I am held in derision by my juniors, 
 By men whose fathers I would have disdained 
 To set among the dogs of my flock. 
 Of what value was the power of their hands ? 
 They had neither strength nor vigour in them ; 
 Hardened by hunger and by wretchedness, 
 They retire into the solitude of the desert 
 Into desolate and uncultivated wastes ; 
 They pluck up the mallow among thorns, 
 The root of the broom is food for them ; 
 Should they leave their retreats for a moment, 
 Men cry after them as after a thief; 
 They dwell in cliffs, among the valleys, 
 In crevices of the earth, and in rocks; 
 They bray among the bushes, like wild asses ; 
 They couple beneath the beds of nettles : 
 Brutish people ! without character and infamous, 
 Who were driven in disgrace from their country. 
 
 The difference between the amount of social indi- 
 gence in Idumea and Palestine, led necessarily to a 
 corresponding difference in the social duties of bene- 
 volence. We find no record of alms bestowed, of 
 assistance rendered, of protection afforded, or of the 
 various works of personal charity, which Job claims 
 to have performed; and this arises, not from any 
 dissimilarity in the moral systems of the patriarchs, 
 but from the difference between their respective social 
 positions. The minuteness, familiarity, and ease with 
 which the writer of the Book of Job describes the 
 characteristics of a state of society different from that
 
 IN THE BOOK OF JOB. 347 
 
 of the Hebrew patriarchs as recorded in Genesis, is 
 a convincing proof that these books are the work of 
 different authors, and that each is a distinct and inde- 
 pendent testimony to the condition of patriarchal 
 civilization ; whilst each is confirmatory of the other, 
 because the coincidences are undesigned. 
 
 Nothing but the perverse habit of treating the 
 Bible as one book, and not as a collection of books 
 bound together, could have prevented Biblical students 
 from perceiving that the Book of Job is an indepen- 
 dent testimony, confirmatory of the general accuracy 
 of the Book of Genesis ; and that their attempts to 
 harmonize them, to make them appear the produc- 
 tions of the same individual mind, actually weaken 
 the authority of both. The absence of all allusions 
 to the stupendous chain of miracles in the deliver- 
 ance of the children of Israel from the Egyptian 
 bondage, on the one hand, and the total silence respect- 
 ing Job in the Pentateuch, on the other, are circum- 
 stances sufficient to prove that the authors of the 
 two records were in nowise connected. There is but 
 one historical incident and even of that we must 
 speak doubtfully mentioned both in Job and Genesis, 
 and that is, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. 
 Such a fearful incident must have produced a very 
 powerful influence on the minds of all throughout 
 Western Asia, and Job was much more likely to 
 have heard of it by tradition than to have obtained 
 it from the Pentateuchical archives. Indeed, the 
 mode in which he mentions it if, indeed, such be 
 the event to which he alludes clearly shews that 
 he was not acquainted with the narrative as it is 
 recorded in Genesis :
 
 348 CIVILIZATION IN THE BOOK OF JOB. 
 
 Hast thou observed the ancient tract, 
 
 That was trodden by wicked mortals ? 
 
 Who were arrested on a sudden ; 
 
 Whose foundation is a molten flood. 
 
 Who said to God, " Depart from us ; 
 
 What can the Almighty do to us?" 
 
 Though he had filled their houses with wealth 
 
 Far from me be the counsel of the wicked. 
 
 The righteous beheld and rejoiced; 
 
 The innocent laughed them to scorn, saying, 
 
 " Surely their substance was carried away, 
 
 And their riches were devoured by fire." 
 
 It would be no difficult matter to deduce a very full 
 account of the state of patriarchal civilization from 
 the Book of Job, but such an investigation would 
 lead us too far from our immediate subject; and per- 
 haps we may appear to have been already tempted to 
 digress too freely into our favourite paths of Biblical 
 criticism. It was, however, important to shew that 
 the Pentateuchical account of the origin of human 
 society is fully confirmed by the most complete and 
 authentic description we possess of the earliest form 
 of society the Patriarchal. In such a course it was 
 scarcely possible to avoid noticing the arguments from 
 undesigned coincidents that forced themselves upon 
 our attention even were they less directly connected 
 with the account of the origin of civilization given in 
 the preceding chapter. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Piinte<l by Manning and Mason, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row.
 
 39, PATERNOSTER Row, LONDON. 
 UCTOBEH, IS40. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 Hangman, 
 
 , ISrofon, <&vtcn, antr 
 Hongmans, 
 
 THE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS MOORE, 
 
 ESQ. The first uniform Edition, collected and arranged by Mr. MOOBR, wiih 
 new Notes, Prefaces, etc. Vol. I. To be comprised in Ten Monthly Volumes, 
 with Frontispieces and Vignettes by George Jones, Esq. R.A. and Daniel 
 M'Clise, Esq. R.A. price 6s. each, handsomely bound in fancy cloth, lettered. 
 
 SPORTING SCENES AND COUNTRY CHA- 
 
 RACI'ERS. By MARTINGALB. 1 vol. post 8vo. beautifully embellished wiih 
 Wood Engravings in the highest style ot art, and handsomely bound in a new 
 style. Price II. I*. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL CHRONOLOGY; OR, AN- 
 NALS OF THE CHURCH, from the Earliest Times to the presmt, arranged 
 in Eight Periods, with a minute specification of Dates; compii-iim a view of 
 Secular History affecting Ecclesiastical Interests The Limits and Relations of 
 the Church General Church History Doctrine and Controversies Rites and 
 Ceremonies Institutions Discipline Sects and Parlies EccleMnstical 
 Writers and Literature, with particular references to the Church History of 
 Great Britain; to uliich are added, Lists of Patriarchs, Popes, and Archbishops 
 of Canterbury, and of Councils. By the Rev. J. E. RIDDLE, M.A., Author of 
 "The Complete Latin Dictionary," etc. etc. 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 London : Printed by Manning and M.ison, Ivy -lane, St. Pnl'.
 
 MESSRS. LONGMAN AND CO. S LIST OF 
 
 Miscellaneous Works continued. 
 
 HOR.E PAULINA OF DR. PALEY, in a more 
 
 correct Edition : illustrated by a continuous Narrative of the Apostolic Labours 
 and Writings of St. Paul, on the basis of "The Acts," with additional matter 
 of Sacred History, supplied from investigation of " The Epistles," and shewing 
 by a new method the connexion of the Epistles with the Acts. By J. TATE, 
 M.A., Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's. 
 
 THE SICK ROOM; or Inquiries concerning the 
 
 Domestic Management in Sickness, in aid of the Medical Treatment. By 
 ANTHONY TODD THOMSON, M.D. F.R.S. &c. 1 vol. post 8vo. 
 
 THE LIFE OF THOMAS BURGESS, BISHOP 
 
 OF SALISBURY: including a Selection of Letters addressed to him by 
 Distinguished Correspondents. By J. S. HABFORU, Esq., D.C.L. F.R.S. 
 8vo. with Portrait, 16s. cloth lettered. 
 ' T*i 600* abounds in matter! of the highest intereit."St. James's Chronicle. 
 
 LOITERINGS OF TRAVEL. By N. P. WILLIS, 
 
 Esq Author of " Pencillings by the Way," &c. &c. 3 vols. post 8vo. 11. Us. 6d. 
 
 THE WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 
 
 A new F.dition, with Portrait, 3 vols. 8vo. price 36s. cloth. 
 * The Portrait may be had separately, Prints 4to, 5s. ; India Proofs, folio, 7s. 6d. 
 
 LETTERS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE CATHOLICS, 
 
 to my Brother Abraham, who lives in the Country. By PETER PLYMJ.KY. 
 21st Edition, post 8vo. 7s. cloth. 
 
 CAPTAIN MARRYAT'S DIARY IN AMERICA. 
 
 6 vols. post 8vo. 31. 3s. 
 
 CAPTAIN MARRYAT'S POOR JACK. With 
 
 Illustrations by CLAKKSON STANFIELD, R.A. Nos. I to 10, Is. each. 
 
 THE DOCTOR, &C. Vols. 1 to 5, priced. 12s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 VISITS TO OLD HALLS, BATTLE FIELDS, 
 
 and Scenes illustrative of striking Passages in English History and Poetry. 
 By W i i.i.i AM How ITT. Med. 8vo. with nearly 40 Illustrations on Wood 
 designed and executed by Samuel Williams. One Guinea, cloth lettered. 
 
 By the same Author, 
 
 THE BOY'S COUNTRY-BOOK : the real Life of 
 
 a Country Boy, written by Himself. Fcap. 8vo. with nearly 40 Woodcuts 
 by S. Williams, 8s. cloth. 
 
 THE RURAL LIFE OF ENGLAND. New Edition, 
 
 uniform with the "Visits to Remarkable Places." Med. 8vo. with Wood- 
 cuts by Bewick and Williams. One Guinea, cloth lettered. 
 
 COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY. A 
 
 Popular History of the Treatment of the Natives by the Europeans in all 
 their Colonies. Post 8vo. 10s. 6d. cloth lettered.
 
 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS. 
 
 Miscellaneous Works continued. 
 
 A DICTIONARY OF PRINTING. By WILLIAM 
 
 SAVAGE. Nos. 1 to 6, price Is. 6d. each. 
 
 A DICTIONARY, GEOGRAPHICAL, STATIS- 
 TICAL, AND HISTORICAL, of the various Countries, Places, and Principal 
 Natural Objects in the World. With Maps on a large scale. By J. R. M'CuL- 
 LOCH, Esq. 8vo. Parts I. to VIII., price 5s. each. 
 
 TRAVELS IN THE WEST. CUBA, WITH 
 
 NOTICES OF PORTO RICO AND THE SLAVE TRADE. By D. 
 TURNBULL, Esq., Member of the Royal Academy of History at Madrid, and 
 of the Royal Patriotic and Economic Societies of Havana. 1 vol. 8vo. with 
 Map, 15s. cloth lettered. 
 
 Lately published, price 14s. the 2d Edit, of 
 
 MR. LAING'S THREE YEARS' RESIDENCE 
 
 IN NORWAY. 
 
 " For minutrnfs of information and amplitude of details regarding the habits, man- 
 nen, customs, and general condition of the Norwegians, thit work of Mr. Laing'l lurpaliei, 
 we think, any that has yet appeared on the same subject. " Scotsman. 
 
 NICHOLSON'S CAMBRIAN TRAVELLER'S 
 
 GUIDE; containing Remarks made during many Kxcnrsions in the Princi- 
 pality of Wales. 3d Edition, revised and corrected by his Son, the Rev. E. 
 NICHOLSON. In a thick volume, Svo. 20s. cloth lettered. 
 
 LIFE AND ADMINISTRATION OF EDWARD, 
 
 FIRST EARL OP CLARENDON. With Original Correspondence and 
 Authentic Papers never before published. By T. H. LISTKB, Esq. 3 vols. 
 Svo. Portrait, 48s. 
 
 LIFE OF FREDERICK II., KING OF PRUSSIA. 
 
 By LORD DOVER. 2d Edit. 2 vols. Svo. with Portrait, 28s. 
 
 " A most delightful and comprehensive work. Judicious in selection, intelligent in arrange- 
 ment, and graceful in style." Literarj Gazette. 
 
 HISTORY OF ENGLAND, from the Earliest Period 
 
 to the Death of Elizabeth. By SHARON TURNER, Esq. F.A.S. R.A.S.L. 
 &c. 12 vols. 8vo. 81 3s. 
 
 The same Work may also be had in the following separate portions: 
 
 HISTORY OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS; comprising the History of England from 
 
 the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest, fith Edit. 3 vols. Svo. 2Z. 5s. 
 
 HISTORY OF ENGLAND DURING THE MIDDLE AGES; comprising the Reigns 
 from William the Conqueror, to the Accession of Henry VIII.; and also the 
 History of the Literature, Poetry, Religion, the Progress of the Reformation, 
 and of the Language of that Period. 3d Edit. 5 vols Svo. 3/. bds. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII.; comprising the Political History 
 ot the commencement of the English Reformation : being the First Part ot the 
 Modern History of England. 3d Edition, 2 vols. 8vo. 26s. bdg. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REIGNS OF KDWARD VI., MARY, ND ELIZABETH ; being 
 the Second Part of the Modern History of England. 2d Edit. 2 vols. Svo. 32s.
 
 MESSRS. LONGMAN AND CO. S LIST OF 
 
 == g 
 
 Miscellaneous Works continued, 
 
 AN ABRIDGMENT OF MALTE BRUN'S AND 
 
 BALBl'S SYSTEMS OF GEOGRAPHY; compiled from Ihe original 
 Works, and from the French Abridgment and English Translations of Malte 
 Bum, \viili a can-lul comparison of Inter Authorities, and Tables of Population 
 and Statistics: also much important matter of a date subsequent to the French 
 Editions. Part 1. 8vo. price 6s. To be completed in Five Parts. 
 
 A HISTORY OF PRICES, with Reference to the 
 
 Onuses of their principal Variations, from 1792 to the present Time. Pre- 
 ceded by a Sketch of the HISTORY of the CORN TRADE in the last two 
 Centuries. By THOMAS TOOKK, Esq., F.R.S. 2 vols. 8vo. II. 16s. cloth. 
 A Continuation of the above, being 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF PRICES AND OF THE STATE 
 
 OP THE CIRCULATION IN 1838 and 1839; with Remarks on the CORN 
 LAWS, and some of the proposed Alterations in our Banking System. 8vo. 
 12s. cloth. 
 
 ON FEMALE IMPROVEMENT. By Mrs. JOHN 
 
 SANUFORIJ. Second Edition, 1 vol. foolscap 8vo. 7s. 6d. cloth. 
 By the same Authoress, 
 
 WOMAN IN HER SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC 
 
 CHARACTER. 5th Edit, foolscap 8vo. 6s. cloth. 
 
 " We do not tnote any work! in the whole range of female literature that we could more 
 honestly recommend ai a Christmas preient for a young to</y."-Scottish Guardian. 
 
 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION. Translated from 
 
 the French of Madame NECKER DE SAUSSCRE, by Miss HOLLAND. 2 vols. 
 foolscap, 12s. cloth lettered. 
 
 " A remarkable work, both at regard! iti intellectual and moral qualities, and it 
 calculated to serve important purposes in the conne of education in thii country ai well 
 as 114 France. To teachers and parents, and above all to mothers, tee can cordially 
 recommend it." Scottish Guardian. 
 
 LACON ; or, MANY THINGS IN FEW WORDS. 
 
 By the Rev. C. C. COLTON. New Edition, 8vo. 12s. cloth. 
 
 DESULTORY THOUGHTS & REFLECTIONS. 
 
 By the COUNTKSS OF BLESSIMGTON. Second Edition, fcp. 8vo. 4s. cloth 
 lettered, gilt edges. 
 
 " These terse and well-digested aphorisms are at remarkable for thtir moral value as for 
 their elegant and graceful se ttingf- Conservative Journal. 
 
 TEA. ITS MEDICINAL & MORAL EFFECTS. 
 
 By DR. SIGMOND. Foolscap 8vo. 5s. cloth lettered. 
 " A very curious and excellent little book." Literary Gazette. 
 
 By G. P. H.JAMES, Esq., 
 
 THE KING'S HIGHWAY : A Novel. 3 vols. post 
 
 8vo. U.lls. Od. 
 
 HENHY OF GUISE; OR, THE STATES OF BLOIS. 3 vols. 
 
 post 8vo. ]/. 11s. 6d. 
 
 THE LIFE OF EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE. New 
 
 Edition 2 vols leap. Map. 15s. cloth. 
 
 THE HUGUENOT: A Tale of the French Protestants. 3 vols. 
 THE GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL. 3 vols. 
 THE ROBBER. Second Edition. 3 vols. 
 ADVENTURES OF JOHN MARSTON HALL. 3 vols. 
 MAUY OF BURGUNDY ; Or, Revolt of Ghent. 3 vols. 
 ONE IN A THOUSAND ; Or, The Days of Henri Quatre. 3 vols. 
 ATTILA : A Romance. 3 vols.
 
 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS. 
 
 n 
 
 ONE VOLUME 
 
 CYCLOPAEDIAS AND DICTIONARIES. 
 
 A DICTIONARY, PRACTICAL, THEORETI- 
 CAL, AND HISTORICAL, OF COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL 
 NAVIGATION. Illustrated with Maps and Plans. By J. R. M'CULLOCH, 
 New Edition, with a new and enlarged Supplement, bringing the work down 
 to 1840. I closely and beautifully printed volume, 8vo. f containing upwards 
 of 1350 pages, 50s. half bound vellum. 
 
 A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, MANUFACTURES, 
 
 AND MINES. Containing a clear Exposition of their Principles and 
 Practice. By ANDREW URB, M.D. F.R.S. &c. In one closely and beauliinlly- 
 printed volume, Svo., containing 1242 pages, and illustrated by 1241 Engrav- 
 ings on Wood, '21. 10s. strongly bound in cloth lettered. 
 
 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GEOGRAPHY; com- 
 
 prising a complete Description of the Earth: exhibiting its Relation to the 
 Heavenly Bodies, its Physical Structure, the Natural History of each Country, 
 and the Industry, Commerce, Political Institutions, and Civil and Social Stale 
 of all Nations. By HUGH MURRAY, F.R.S. E. Assisted by Professor Wal- 
 lace, Professor Jameson, Sir W. J. Hooker, and W. Swainson, Esq. With 
 82 Maps, drawn by Sidney Hall, and upwards of 1000 other Wood Engravings. 
 Second Edit, corrected to 1840. In 1 (hick volume, Svo. of upwards of 1500 
 pages, (iOs. half-bound vellum. 
 ** Title pages are given to bind the work in two volumes, if desired. 
 
 AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF RURAL SPORTS; 
 
 comprising Hunting, Racing, Shooting, Fishing, Hawking, Coursing, the 
 Athletic Sports, &c. By DELABERE P. ELAINE, Esq., author of " Outlines 
 of the Veterinary Art,"" Canine Pathology," &c. 1 thick vol. Svo. illustrated 
 with six hundred beautifully executed Engravings on Wood. Price 50s. bound 
 in fancy cloth, lettered. 
 
 AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AGRICULTURE; 
 
 comprising the Theory and Practice of the Valuation, Transfer, Laying-out, 
 Improvement, and Management of Landed Property; the Cultivation and 
 Economy of the Animal and Vegetable Productions of Agriculture, a General 
 History of Agriculture in .ill Countries, &c. By J. C. LOUOON, F.L.S. &c. 
 With nearly 1300 Engravings on Wood. 1 large vol. Svo. 3d Kdit.2/. 10. 
 
 By the same Author, 
 
 AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GARDENING; com- 
 
 prising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, 
 and Landscape Gardening; including all the latest Improvements; R General 
 History of Gardening in all Countries, &c. New Edition, improved, with 
 nearly 1000 Engravings on Wood. 1 large vol. Svo. Zl. 10s. 
 
 AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PLANTS ; comprising 
 
 the Description, Specific Character, Culture, History, Application in the Arts, 
 and every other desirable Particular respecting all the Pl.ints Indigenous 10, 
 or Introduced into, Britain. By J. C. LODUON, F.L.S. &c. The Specific 
 Characters by an eminent Botanist; the Drawings by J. I). C. Som-rby, 
 F.L.S. Nearly 10,000 Wood Engravings. Second edition, corrected, large 
 vol. Svo. 31. 13s. (i<l. 
 
 HORTUS BRITANNICUS : a Catalogue of all the 
 
 Plants Indigenous to, or Introduced into, Britain. New Edition, wilh a new 
 Supplement, containing all the New Plants introduced into Krilain, up to 
 March 1839. Prepared under the direction of J. C. Lou DON, by W. H. 
 BAXTER; and revised by GEORUE DON, F.L.S., Svo. 3I. 6d. cloth. 
 SUPPLEMENT, separately, 8s.
 
 MESSRS. LONGMAN VND CO. S LIST OF 
 
 rn - 
 
 WORKS ON NATURAL HISTORY. 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE MODERN CLASSI- 
 
 FICATION OF INSECTS ; comprising an Account of the Habits and 
 Transformations of the different Families; a Synopsis of all the British, and 
 a Notice of the more remarkable Foreign Genera. By J. O. WESTWOOD, 
 Sec. Ent. Soc. London, F.L.S. &c. 2 vols. illustrated with above 130 
 Wood-cuts, comprising about Two Thousand Five Hundred distinct Figures. 
 Price 21. 8s. cloth lettered. 
 
 A MANUAL OF BRITISH COLEOPTERA; or 
 
 BEETLES; containing a Description of all the Species of Beetles hitherto 
 ascertained to inhabit Great Britain and Ireland, &c. With a complete Index 
 of the Genera. By J. F. STEPHENS, Esq. F.L.S. , Author of " Illustrations of 
 Briiish Entomology." 1 vol. post 8vo. 14s. cloth lettered. 
 
 DR. TURTON'S MANUAL OF THE LAND AND 
 
 FRESHWATER SHELLS OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. A New 
 Edition, revised and enlarged, by JOHN EDWARD GRAY, Esq. of the British 
 Museum. 1 vol. post 8vo. with Wood-cuts and Twelve coloured Plates, price 
 15s. cloth lettered. 
 
 CONVERSATIONS ON MINERALOGY. Third 
 
 Edition, enlarged, with 12 Plates, engraved by Mr. and Miss LOWRY. 
 2 vols. r.inio. 14s. cloth. 
 
 REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF CORNWALL, 
 
 DEVON, AND WEST SOMERSET, by Order of the Lords Commissioners 
 of Her Majesty's Treasury. By H. T. DE LA BBCHE, F.R.S. &c. Director of 
 the Ordnance Geological Survey. 8vo. with Sections, &c. 14s. 
 
 AN ETYMOLOGICAL AND EXPLANATORY 
 
 DICTIONARY of the TERMS and LANGUAGE of GEOLOGY, with 
 especial regard to Association; containing also many Terms of Mineralogy 
 and Science. By GEORGE ROBKRTS. Foolscap 8vo. 6s. cloth lettered. 
 
 BOOK OF NATURE; a Popular Illustration of the 
 
 General Laws and Phenomena of Creation. By JOHN MASON GOOD, M.D. 
 
 F.R.S. 3d Edit. 3 vols. fcp. 8vo. 24s. 
 
 " The belt phtloiophical digest of the kind ahleh we have teen." Monthly Review. 
 
 TAXIDERMY; or the Art of Collecting and Pre- 
 
 paring Objects of Natural History. 4th Edition, l-'nm. Plates, 7s. 6d. 
 
 ESSAYS ON NATURAL HISTORY. By CHARLES 
 
 WATERTON, Esq. of Walton Hall, Author of " Wanderings in South Ame- 
 rica." Third Edition, with a View of Walton Hall, and an Autobiography 
 of the Author. One vol. fcp. 8vo. 8s. cloth lettered. 
 
 CONVERSATIONS ON BOTANY. 8th Edition 
 
 enlarged, 12mo. with 22 Engravings, 7s. 6d. plain ; 12s. coloured. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO GEOLOGY; intended 
 
 to convey a Practical Knowledge of the Science; and comprising the most 
 important recent Discoveries; with Explanations of the Facts and Phenomena 
 which serve to confirm or invalidate various Geological Theories. By ROBKRT 
 BAKEWBM.. 5ih Edition, considerably enlarged from the 4th Edition, and 
 with new Sections and Cuts, price One Guinea, cloth lettered. 
 
 a
 
 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS. 
 
 Natural History continued. 
 
 BY JOHN LINDLEY, PH. D. F.R.S. L.S. &c. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE LONDON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, AND IN 
 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 
 
 THE THEORY OF HORTICULTURE; or, an 
 
 Exposition of the Principles on which the Operations of Gardening are 
 conducted. 1 vol. 8vo. with numerous Illustrations on Wood, 12s. 
 
 " trill henceforth be considered estential to the library of every gardener, young and 
 otdDr. Lindlry'i masterpiece, at far at the garden is concerned. It it not philosophy, 
 nor scientific research only which could produce such a work as this, but a combination of 
 tkete, with an intimate knowledge of the minutiae and manipulations of the gardener's art." 
 
 Gardener's Magazine. 
 
 SCHOOL BOTANY; or, an Explanation of the 
 
 Characters and Differences of the principal Natural Classes and Orders of 
 Plants, belonging to the Flora of Europe, in the Botanical Classification of 
 Decandolle ; for the use of Students preparing for their MATRICULATION 
 EXAMINATION in the University of London. In one- volume, foolscap 8vo. 
 with upwards of 160 Wood-cms, 6s. cloth Littered. 
 
 " A capital introductory work for all who Intend to study botany with teal i and ti not 
 only adorned, tut illustrated, by a hundred and iLrly- three wood-cull." Medical Gazette. 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY. 2d Edition, 
 
 with Corrections and considerable Additions, 1 large vol. 8vo. numerous Plates 
 and Woodcuts, 18s. 
 
 A NATURAL SYSTEM OF BOTANY; or, a 
 
 Systematic View of the Organization, Natural Affinities, and Geographical 
 Distribution of the whole Vegetable Kingdom ; together with the Uses of the 
 most important Specit-s in Medicine, the Arts, &c. 2d Edition, with nume- 
 rous Additions and Corrections. 1 vol. 8vo. 18s. cloth. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF THE BRITISH FLORA, arranged 
 
 according to the Natural Orders. 2d Edition, with numerous Additions, Cor- 
 rections, and Improvements, 12mo, 10s. 6d. boards. 
 
 A KEY TO STRUCTURAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, 
 
 AND SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. For the Use of Classes. With a List of 
 Medicinal Plants. 8vo. 5s. 
 
 FLORA MEDICA; or, a Botanical Account of all 
 
 the most remarkable Plants applied to Medical Practice in Great Britain and 
 other Countries. 1 vol. 8vo. 18s. cloth lettered. 
 
 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF HORTICULTURE. 
 
 2s. sewed. 
 
 GUIDE TO THE ORCHARD AND KITCHEN 
 
 GARDEN. By G. LINULKY, C.M.H.S. Edited by J. LINDLEY, Ph. D. 
 F.R.S. &c. 1 large volume 8vo. 16s. boards.
 
 MESSRS. LONGMAN AND CO.'s LIST OF 
 
 Natural History, Botany, $c. continued. 
 
 BOTANICAL WORKS, 
 BY SIR WILLIAM JACKSON HOOKER, K.H. LL.D. 
 
 REQIUS PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW, ETC. 
 
 THE BRITISH FLORA ; comprising the Flowering 
 
 PLANTS and the FERNS. 8vo. 4th Edition, with Plates, containing 82 
 
 Figures illustrative of the Grasses and umbelliferous Plants, 12s. ; or coloured, 
 
 16s. 
 
 * In this edition all the newly discovered Species are introduced. The 
 Linnivan arrangement is followed in the body of the work; but in the Appendix 
 are given the Characters of all the Natural Orders, with a List of the Genera, 
 referring to the pages where they are described. 
 Vol. II. Part 1. of the above (CRYPTOGAMIA), 8vo. 12s. Vol. II. Part 2, 
 
 (FUNGI), completing the work, by Sir W. J. HOOKER, and the Rev. M. J. 
 
 BERKELEY. 8vo. 12s. 
 
 MUSCOLOGIA BRITANNICA: containing the 
 
 Mosses of Great Britain and Ireland, systematically arranged and described; 
 with Plates. By Sir W. J. HOOKER, and T.TAYLOR, M.D. F.L.S. &c. 
 2d Edit. 8vo. enlarged, 31s. 6d. plain; Si. 3s. coloured. 
 
 ICONES PLANTARUM ; or, Figures, with brief 
 
 Descriptive Characters and Remarks, of NEW and RARE PLANTS, 
 selected from ihe Author's Herbarium. 2 vols. 8vo. with 200 Plates, price 
 'it. 16s. cloih lettered. 
 
 Also, Parts 1 & 2 (forming vol. III. price 28s. cloth) of a Continuation, com- 
 prising 100 Plates and Descriptions. To be completed in two more Parts, price 
 14s. each. 
 
 "Nothing can be more Intereittng to a man nf icience than the plants represented In 
 these volume* ; nothing can be in better taste or more faithful than the Jiguret ; and it il 
 difficult to conceive how any thing can be cheaper." Atheixeum. 
 
 BY SIR JAMES EDWARD SMITH, M.D. F.R.S. 
 
 LATE PRESIDENT OF THE LINNJEAN SOCIETY, ETC. 
 
 THE ENGLISH FLORA. 6 vols. 8vo. 3J. 12s. bds. 
 
 CONTENTS : Vols. I. to IV. the FLOWERING PLANTS and the FERNS, 
 price 2/. 8s. bds. 
 
 Vol. V. Parti. 12s. CRYPTOGAMIA: comprising the Mosses, Hepaticsc, 
 Lichens, Characeae, and Algae. By Sir W. J. HOOKER. 
 
 Vol. V. Part 2. 12s. The FUNGI completing the Work-by Sir W. J. 
 HOOKER, and the Rev. M. J. BERKELEY, F.L.S., &c. 
 
 COMPENDIUM OF THE ENGLISH FLORA. 
 
 2d Edition, with Additions and Corrections. By Sir W. J. HOOKER, 12mo. 
 7s. 6d. 
 
 THE SAME IN LATIN. 5th Edilion, 12mo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF PHY- 
 SIOLOGICAL AND SYSTEMATICAL BOTANY. New Edition, with 
 Illustrations of the Natural Orders (combining the object of Sir J. Smith's 
 " Grammar" with that of his " Introduction.") By Sir W. J. HOOKER. 8vo. 
 36 Plates, 16s. cloth.
 
 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS. 
 
 WORKS ON 
 AGRICULTURE AND GARDENING. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF~THE BREEDS OF THE 
 
 DOMESTIC ANIMALS OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS; .consisting of a 
 aeries of Coloured Engravings of the 
 
 HORSE the OX the SHEEP the GOAT the HOG, 
 From a Series of Oil Paintings, executed for the Agricultural Museum of the 
 University of Edinburgh, by Mr. Shiels, of ihe Royal Scotch Academy. 
 With Descriptive Memoirs. By DAVID Low, Esq. F.R.S.E., Professor of 
 Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh. 
 
 Part I. contains the Ox, No. I., atlas 4to., with Four beautifully-coloured Plates, 
 One Guinea. 
 
 Part II. contains the Sheep, No. 1., price 21s. 
 
 Part III. contains Ihe Hog The Berkshire, Siamese, Old English, and Wild 
 Breeds, price 21s. 
 
 Part IV. contains the Ox, No. 2. The Polled Angus, Galloway, Kerry, and 
 Zetland Breeds, price 21s. 
 
 Part V. The Sheep, No. 2. The Kerry, Cheviot, Exmoor, and Black-faced 
 Healh Breeds. 
 
 Part VI. The Horse, No. 1, on December 1. 
 
 ** To be continued every two months. 
 
 ' The first number of thli noble work mat published on the \it of February. It It drvotrd 
 to a collection of portraits of the best specimens of the various Breeds of the British 
 Domestic Animals. The writer of this revicit has had many an opportunity of standing by 
 Mr. Shiels while he was engaged in his undertaking, and admiring the fidelity with which 
 the general and the distinguishing features of each animal were seized and portrayed. We 
 
 tance with the distinctive characters of the different breeds,'and will constitute very appro- 
 priate and splendid ornaments of their parlours or portfolios." Veterinarian. 
 
 " Truly a magnificent work. -Nothing of the kind so accurate and beautiful, so useful 
 nnblic The ' tit t I li r f t liken gift darte ' j rti t I'h 
 
 subject of improvement in the breeds of domestic animals." Literary Gazette. 
 Just published, by the same Author, 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE ; 
 
 comprehending the Cultivation of Plants, the Husbandry of Domestic Animals, 
 and ihe Economy of the Farm. Third Edition, with Additions, and above 200 
 Woodcuts, 1 vol. 8vo. 18s. cloth lettered. 
 " No work on agriculture has appeared in our time which will bear a comparison with 
 
 manual of practical agriculture for the British empire ; and the judicious practical rules 
 and sound views of our author will unquestionably prove beneficial to the agriculturists 
 of other con<ri><.*-Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 
 
 BAYLDON'S ART OF VALUING RENTS AND 
 
 -rge, by 
 
 8vo. 10s. (id. cloth lettered. 
 
 " One of the mast useful works for all persons concerned in the management of land and 
 landed estates." Ben's Weekly Messenger. 
 
 " A work equally valuable to the principal or the messenger agent. The new statements 
 and calculations added by the editor of this edition will be found of great value." Murk 
 
 * May now be said to be re-written by one of the best practical agriculturists in the 
 country The excellent forms for account books which are given at the end of the volume 
 are so superior to those generally published, that we consider them alone worth the price 
 o the book." Gardener's Magazine.
 
 MESSRS. LONGMAN AND CO. S LIST OF 
 E3 
 
 Agriculture and Gardening continued. 
 
 THE ROSE AMATEUR'S GUIDE. Containing 
 
 ample Descriptions of all Ilie fine leading varieties of Roses, regularly classed 
 in their respective Families; their History and Mode of Culture. By T. 
 RIVERS, Jan. 2d Edition, greatly enlarged. 1 vol. foolscap, price 6s. cloth 
 lettered. 
 
 Among the additions to the present edition will be found, full directions for 
 raising New Ruses from Seed, by modes never before published, appended to 
 each family ; Descriptions of the most remarkable New Roses lately introduced ; 
 an Alphabetical List of all the New Roses, and of the Show Roses. 
 
 SIR HUMPHRY DAVY'S AGRICULTURAL 
 
 CHEMISTRY. With Notes by Dr. John Davy. 6th Edition, 8vo. with 10 
 Plates, 15s. cloth lettered. 
 
 CONTENTS. Introduction The General Powers of Matter which Influence 
 Vegetation The Organization of Plants -Soils Nature and Constitution of the 
 Atmosphere, and its Influence on Vegetables Manures of Vegetable and Animal 
 Origin Manures of Mineral Origin, or Fossil Manures Improvement of Lands 
 by Burning Experiments on the Nutritive Qualities of different Grasses, &c. 
 
 THE VEGETABLE CULTIVATOR. Containing 
 
 a Plain and Accurate Description of all the different Species and Varieties of 
 Culinary Vegetables, with the most approved Methods of Cultivating and 
 Cooking them. By J. ROGERS, Author of " The Fruit Cultivator." Foolscap 
 8vo. cloth lettered. 
 
 A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE CULTI- 
 VATION OF THE GRAPE VINE ON OPEN WALLS. By CLEMENT 
 HOARE. New Edition, with Additions, 8vo. 7s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 NEW EDITIONS OF MRS. MARCET'S CONVERSATIONS. 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY; in which the Elements 
 
 of that Science are familiarly Explained. 7th Edition, revised and enlarged, 
 1 vol. foolscap Svo. 7s. 6d. cloth lettered. 
 
 VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY; comprehending the 
 
 Elements of Botany, with their Application to Agriculture. 3d Edit. 1 vol. 
 fcap. Svo. with 4 Plates, 9s. cloth lettered. 
 
 LAND AND WATER. 2d Edition, revised and 
 
 corrected, with a coloured Map, showing the Comparative Altitude of Moun- 
 tains. 1 vol. fcap. Svo. 5s. (id. cloth lettered. 
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY ; in which the Elements 
 
 of that Science are familiarly Explained, and Adapted to the Comprehension 
 of Young Pupils, iidi Edition, enlarged and corrected, with 23 Engravings, 
 fcap. Svo. 10s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 CHEMISTRY ; in which the Elements of that Science 
 
 are familiarly Explained and Illustrated by Experiments. 13th Edition, 
 enlarged and corrected, 2 vols. 12mo. with IS Plates, 14s. boards. 
 
 10
 
 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS. 
 
 n 
 
 POETICAL WORKS. 
 
 MOORE'S COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS. 
 
 First Uniform Edition. Now in course of Publication, and to be completed 
 in Ten Monthly Volumes. (See Page \.) 
 
 MOORE'S LALL A ROOKH ; an Oriental Romance. 
 
 New Edition, in one volume royal 8vo. illustrated with 13 highly-finished 
 Engravings, executed under the superintendence of Mr. Charles Heath, from 
 designs by Stephanoff, Meadows, E. Corbonld, and Miss Corbaux. In fancy 
 cloth, lettered, with ornamental gilding, One Guinea; or wilh India Proof 
 Plates, Two Guineas. 
 
 Also in fcp. 8vo. with four engravings, from Paintings by Westall, 10s. 6d. 
 cloth. 
 
 MOORE'S IRISH MELODIES : with an Appendix, 
 
 containing the Original Advertisements and the Prefatory Letter on Music. 
 13th Edition, fcp. 8vo. with engraved Title and Vignette, 10s. cloth lettered. 
 
 POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT SOUTHEY, 
 
 Esq. Collected by HIMSELF. 10 vols. fcp. 8vo. with Portrait, Frontis- 
 pieces, and Vignettes, 2j. 10s. cloth lettered. 
 
 ** This Edition, which tlie Author has arranged and revised with the same 
 care as if it were intended for posthumous publication, includes many pieces 
 which either have never before been collected, or have hitherto remained unpub- 
 lished. Preliminary notices are affixed to the long poem*, the whole of the 
 notes retained, and such additional ones incorporated as the Author, since the 
 first publication, has seen occasion to insert. The Frontispieces and Vignettes 
 consist of views appropriate to the respective volumes. 
 
 POETICAL WORKS OF LETITfA ELIZABETH 
 
 LANDON (the late Mis. Maclean). New Edition, 4 vol. foolscap 8vo. with 
 Portrait by M'Clise, and four other Illustrations by Howard, &c. 28s. cloth 
 lettered. 
 
 JAMES MONTGOMERY'S POETICAL WORKS. 
 
 A complete collected Edition, comprising "The Wanderer of Switzerland," 
 "The West Indies," "World before tlie Flood," "Greenland," "Pelican 
 Inland," " Songs of Sion," " Poet's Portfolio," and all his smaller Poems. 3 
 vols foolscap, 18s. cloth lettered. 
 
 JOANNA BAILLIE'S POEMS, &c. New DRAMAS, 
 
 3 vols. 8vo. 36s. A SERIES of PLAYS, in which it is attempted to delineate 
 the stronger Passions of the Mind. 3 vols. 8vo. I/. 11s. fid. MISCELLANEOUS 
 PLAYS, 8vo. 9s. METRICAL LEOENUS, 8vo. 14a. 
 
 FAMILY SHAKSPEARE; in which nothing is 
 
 added to the Original Text; but those Words and Expressions are omitted 
 which cannot be read aloud in a Family. By T. BOWDLU, E*q. F.R S. 
 New Edition, 1 large vol. 8vo. wilh 36 Illustrations, after Smirke, Howard, 
 &c. 30s. cloth ; wilh gilt edges, 3Is. 6d. Or in large t)pe, without Illustra- 
 tions, 8 vols. 8vo. 4l, 14s. 6d. boards. 
 
 SELECT WORKS OF THE BRITISH POETS, 
 
 FROM BEN JONSON TO BEATT1E. With Biographical and Critical 
 Prefaces, by Dr. AIKIN. 1 vol. 8vo. 18s. cloth; or neatly done up, gill 
 edges, 20s. 
 
 11
 
 MESSRS. LONGMAN AND CO. S LIST OF 
 
 Poetry, <c. continued. 
 
 SELECT WORKS OF THE BRITISH POETS 
 
 FROM CHAUCER TO WITHERS. With Biographical Sketches, by 
 R. SOUTHEY, LL.D. 1 vol. 8vo. uniform with "Aikin's Poets," 30s. cloth; 
 or with gilt edges, 31s. 6(1. 
 
 THE MORAL OF FLOWERS. 3d Edition, royal 
 
 Svo. with 24 beautifully coloured Plales, 30s. half-bound. 
 
 " Full of cxqu\>itc poetry." Blackwood'i Magazine. 
 
 By the same Author, 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE WOODS. 1 vol. royal Svo. 
 
 with 26 beautifully coloured Plates, 36s. half-bound. 
 
 WORKS ON RELIGION, THEOLOGY, 
 
 ETC. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DELUGE ; vindicating 
 
 the Scriptural Account from the Doubts which have recently been cast upon 
 it by recent Geological Speculations. By the Rev. LEVKSON VKH.NON 
 HARCOORT. 2 vols. Svo. 36*. cloth lettered. 
 
 THE SACRED HISTORY OF THE WORLD; 
 
 Philosophically considered, in a Series of Letters to a Son. By SHARON 
 TURNER, Esq. F.S.A. and R.A.S.L. New Edition, 3 vols. Svo. 11 2s. boards. 
 
 THE SUNDAY LIBRARY ; a Selection of Sermons 
 
 from Eminent Divines of the Church of England, chiefly within the last Half 
 Century. With Notes, &c. by the Rev. T. F. DIBDEN, D.D. 6 vols. fcap. 
 Svo. with Portraits, 30s. cloth. 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY; 
 
 containing the Doctrine?, Duties, Admonitions, and Consolations of the 
 Christian Religion. By JOHN BURNS, M.I). &c. 5th Edition, 12mo. 7s. bds. 
 
 LETTERS FROM AN ABSENT GODFATHER; 
 
 OR, A COMPENDIUM OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION FOR YOUNG PERSONS. 
 By the REV. J. E. RIDDLE, M.A., Author of " First Sundays at Church," 
 &c. Foolscap Svo. 6s. cloth. 
 
 ORIENTAL CUSTOMS; applied to the Illustration 
 
 of the Sacred Scriptures. By SAMUEL BURLIER, A.M. &c. New Edition, 
 foolscap Svo. 8s. (id. cloth lettered. 
 
 DISCOURSES ON THE PRINCIPAL POINTS 
 
 OF THE SOC1N1AN CONTROVERSY. The Unity of the God, and the 
 Trinity of Persons in the Godhead; the Supreme Divinity of Jesus Christ; 
 the Doctrine of Atonement; on the Christian Character, &c. By RALPH 
 WARDLAW, D.D. Fifth Edition, Svo. 15s. cloth lettered. 
 
 12
 
 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS. 
 
 n 
 
 WORKS OF GENERAL UTILITY. 
 
 NEW GENERAL ATLAS OF FIFTY-THREE 
 
 MAPS, ON COLOMB1ER PAPER; wiih the Divisions and Boundaries 
 carefully coloured. Constructed entirely from New Drawings, and engraved 
 by SIDNEY HAI.L. Corrected to 1840. Folded in half, half-bound in russia, 
 91. 9s.; in the full extended size of the Maps, 101. 
 
 ** Three of the Maps, vise. Ireland, Southern Africa, and Turkey in Asia, have 
 been re-engraved from new designs. 
 
 ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF THE NAMES 
 
 CONTAINED IN THE ABOVE ATLAS, wiih References to the Number 
 of the Maps, and to the Latitude and Longitude in which the Places are to 
 be found. Royal 8vo. 21s. cloth. 
 
 TREATISE ON THE STEAM-ENGINE; His- 
 
 lorical, Practical, and Descriptive. By JOHN FARKY, Engineer. 4to. illus- 
 trated by numerous Wood-cuts, and 25 Copper-plates, engraved by Wilson 
 Lowry, from Drawings by Messrs. Farey. 51. 5s. Ms. Vol. II. in the press. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF PRACTICAL MECHA- 
 
 NICS. By the Rev. H. MOSEI.BY, M.A., Professor of Natural Philosophy 
 and Astronomy in King's College, London; being the First Volume ot Illus- 
 trations of Science by the Professors of King's College. 1 vol. fcp. 8vo. with 
 numerous Wood-cuts, 8s. cloth lettered. 
 
 A TREATISE ON ROADS : wherein the Principles 
 
 on which Roads should be made are explained and illustrated, by the Plans, 
 Specifications, and Contracts, made use of by THOMAS TEI.FOKU, Esq. on the 
 Holyhead Road. By the Rt.Hon. SIR HENRY PARNELI., Bart., Hon. Mem. 
 Inst. Civ. Engin. London. 2d Edit, greatly enlarged, with nine large Plates 
 (two of which arc new), 21s. cloth lettered. 
 
 PRACTICAL TREATISE ON RAILROADS AND 
 
 INTERIOR COMMUNICATION IN GENERAL. Containing the Per- 
 formances of the Improved Locomotive Engines; with Tables of the Com- 
 parative Cost of Conveyance on Canals, Railways, and Turnpike Roads. By 
 NICHOLAS WOOD, Colliery Viewer, Mem. Inst. Civ. Engin., &c. 3d Edit, 
 very greatly enlarged, with 15 large Plates (several of which are new, and 
 the rest have been re-drawn and re-engraved), and several new Wood-cuts, 
 price 31s. Od. cloth. 
 
 A POPULAR LAW DICTIONARY; Familiarly 
 
 Explaining the Terms and Nature of English Law; adapted to the compre- 
 hension of persons not educated for (he Legal Profession, and affording 
 Information peculiarly useful to Magistrates, Merchants, Parochial Officers, 
 and others. By THOMAS EDLYNE TOMI.INS, Attorney and Solicitor. Onelhick 
 volume, 8vo. 18s. cloth lettered. 
 " We have examined teveral tutijectt on which uie happen to have lame of the knowledge 
 
 of experience, and the iharpnels of intereil ; and in then ice find the tcorkfull, clear, anil 
 
 to the point." Spectator.
 
 MESSRS. LONGMAN AND CO. S LIST OF 
 
 Works of General Utility continued. 
 
 PLAIN DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING WILLS 
 
 in conformity with tlie NEW ACT, which came into operation on the 1st of 
 January 1839 By J. C. HUDSON, of the Legacy Duty Office, London. 10th 
 Ediiion, corrected, fcp. 8vo. price Halt' a-crown, neatly done up in cloth, gilt 
 edges. 
 
 By the same Author, 
 
 THE EXECUTOR'S GUIDE. 2d Edition, fcap. 5s. 
 
 cloth, gilt edges. 
 
 "Mr. Hudion li a sensible practical man, who seehi tuccesifully, to convey in plain and 
 concise language his instructions briejly and cheaply." Atheufcum. 
 
 *** The above may be had in one Volume, 7s. cloth lettered. 
 
 STEEL'S SHIP-MASTER'S ASSISTANT, AND 
 
 OWNER'S MANUAL; containing General and Legal Information neces- 
 sary for Owners and Masters of Ships, Ship-Brokers, Pilots, and other Persons 
 connected with the Merchant Service. New Edit, by J. STIKEMAN, Secretary 
 to the Ivijt India and China Association. With Tables of Weights, Measures, 
 Monies, &c., by Dr. KELLY. One large vol. 21s. bds. ; 22s. 6d. bd. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
 
 By Lieut. Col. P. HAWKER. 8lh Edition, greatly enlarged and thoroughly 
 revised, with new Cuts of Heads of Wild and Tame Swans, all his last new 
 Coast Gear, with many other original subjects; and containing altogether 60 
 Plates and Woodcuts. 1 vol.Svo. 21s. cloth lettered. 
 
 THE GUN ; or, a Treatise on the Nature, Principle, 
 
 and Manufacture of the various descriptions of Small Fiie-Arms. By 
 WILLIAM GREENER. I vol. 8vo. Plates, 15s. 
 
 THE BOOK OF ARCHERY. By G. A. HANSARD, 
 
 Esq., Gwent Bowman. 1 vol. medium 8vo. embellished with 15 highly- 
 finished line Engravings, and upwards of 70 other Engravings, illustrative of 
 the History and Use of the Bow, in all Countries, from the earliest Ages to 
 the present Time. 31s. Od. cloth lettered. India Proofs, 32. 3s. morocco. 
 
 HINTS TO MOTHERS FOR THE MANAGE- 
 MENT OP HEALTH. By THOMAS BULL, M.D., Physician-Accoucheur to 
 the Finsbury Midwifery Institution, &c. Second Edition, greatly enlarged, 
 foolscap 8vo. 7s. cloth lettered. 
 " Ife cannot urge itt value too itrongly on all whom it concern*." Eclectic Review. 
 
 By the same Author, 
 
 MATERNAL MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN, 
 
 in HEALTH and DISEASE. By THOMAS BULL, M.D. Author of " Hints 
 
 to Mothers on the Management of their Health." Fcap. 8vo. price 7s. cloth. 
 
 The first three chapters of this work point out in what the true principles 
 
 for the general management of health during the first twoyears consist. The fouith 
 
 shews how disease in the child may be early detccud by the mother. The tilth 
 
 comprises a few hints upon the maternal management of the Diseases of Children, 
 
 pointing out that the prevention of disease is the province of the mother its cure, 
 
 that of the physician. 
 
 DOMESTIC DUTIES ; or, Instructions to Young 
 
 Married Ladies on the Management of their Households, &c. &c. By Mrs. 
 WILLIAM PARKES. 4th Edit. 12mo. 10s. 6d. cloth lettered. 
 " A perfect vde meenm for the young married lady." New Monthly Magazine. 
 
 14
 
 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS. 
 
 Works of General Utility continued. 
 
 HINTS ON ETIQUETTE AND THE USAGES 
 
 OF SOCIETY. 
 
 By A<YH><yo's. 
 
 20th Edition, with numerous Alterations and Additions, by a LADY op RANK. 
 Foolscap 8vo. 2s. 6d. clolli lettered, gilt edges. 
 
 " An old proverb says' It it never too late to mend.' If, there/ore, any of our 
 readert should- and ice admit only the barest possibility of tuch a thing have been 
 addicted In ' bad habits,' we earneitly entreat that they will mend them the tooner the 
 better. The first step tovards this process will be to purchaie a copy of the truly elegant 
 and tasteful little volume brfore ul. It may be remarked alto, that the teuton of the 
 year is particularly favourable towards ' turning over a new leaf;' and the leaves of this 
 work are golden in more respects than one. In hit Preface to this, the Twentieth edition! 
 (what prouder eulogy can be required f< the author says 
 
 " ' On my return to England ajter two years' incessant travel 'from Van to Beertheba,' 
 I found the usages ' de la bonne societe' somewhat changed: with a new Reine, new feelings 
 and ti.ore refined observances had been introduced, Indeed, I confess I should have felt 
 
 slightly embarrassed, had not my ever attentive friend Lady , kindly taken care of the 
 
 Interests of society during my absence, by noting whatever fluctuations had occurred, and 
 that in so admirable a manner, that the instant adoption of her suggestions was as much a 
 matter of duty as of gratitude.'" Court Journal. 
 
 SHORT WHIST. By MAJOR A* * * * *. To which 
 
 are added, Precepts for Tyros, by Mrs. B ***. 6th Edit. fcap. 3s. cloth 
 lettered, gilt edges. 
 
 NEW EDITIONS OF MAUNDER'S TREASURIES. 
 
 THE BIOGRAPHICAL TREASURY; consisting 
 
 of Memoirs, Sketches, or brief Notices of the Lives of about 12,000 Eminent 
 Persons of all Ages and Nations, from the earliest period of History to the 
 present day; forming a NEW AND COMPLETE DICTIONARY OF 
 UNIVERSAL BIOGRAPHY. The whole surrounded with nearly 3500 
 Precepts and Maxims, original and selected. By SAMUEL MAUNUKK. 
 Second Edition, enlarged, price 8s. 6d. cloth ; or 10s. 6d. roan gilt. 
 " We know not a single volume in our language containing such a mass of Information." 
 
 Evangelical Magazine. 
 
 " An extraordinary book, whether we look at the labour necessary to its production, the 
 quantity of matter it contains, or the price at which it is sold." Spectator. 
 
 " A cariosity, as well as one of the most useful productions we have seen. It Is the 
 cheapest, the most complete, and the best compiled production of the sort which has probably 
 ever issued from the press." Globe. 
 
 By the same Author, 
 
 THE TREASURY OF KNOWLEDGE, AND 
 
 LIBRARY OF REFERENCE. Consisting of a new and enlarged English 
 
 Dictionary, a Grammar, Tables of Verbal Distinctions, with Examples, &c. a 
 
 Universal Gazetteer, a Classical Dictionary, a Compendium of Chronology 
 
 and History, a Dictionary of Law Terms, and various useful Tables. The 
 
 whole surrounded by above 3000 Apophthegms and Proverbs. The Eleventh 
 
 Edition, revised and greatly enlarged, price Us. 6(1. cloth; or Ills. (id. roan gilt. 
 
 " We have here, in a form admirably adapted for the traveller's portmanteau, the most 
 
 complete and generally useful publication which it has ever fallen to our lot to notice." 
 
 Athenffium. 
 
 SELECT BRITISH BIOGRAPHY. Foolscap 8vo. 
 
 4s. cloth lettered. 
 
 By (he same Author, 
 
 THE SCIENTIFIC & LITERARY TREASURY; 
 
 a New and Popular Dictionary of the Belles Lettres ; embracing every subject 
 of interest alluded to by Ancient Authors; together with the Discoveries and 
 Inventions of Modern Times. The whole treated in a familiar 51) le, and 
 every page of the work surrounded by facts, maxim-, or remarks illustrative 
 of the fact. 1 vol. fcap. 8vo. 
 
 15
 
 MESSRS. LONGMAN AND CO/S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 
 
 NEW WORKS 
 FOR COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS. 
 
 AN ENGLISH-GREEK AND GREEK-ENGLISH 
 
 LEXICON, for (he Use of Colleges and Schools ; to which is prefixed, a short 
 Grammarof the Greek Language'. By the Rev. J. A. GILES, LL.D. 8vo. 21s. 
 " This it a worthy companion to Riddle'i Latin Dictionary, containing alt the informa- 
 tion nrcettary to a student ; and, what it of equal importance, no more. The author it 
 generally tiiccfisful in developing the itructure and compaction of the Greek langnaf^; 
 avoiding the quibbling derivationl which disfigure the older Lexicon*, and etpecially t at 
 of Schrevflius, he pointi out the genuine radicali 10 far at they can be diicovered ici'ti. i r- 
 taint y. n AlheniEum. 
 
 A GREEK AND ENGLISH LEXICON TO THE 
 
 NEW TESTAMENT, especially designed for Colleges and Schools; but 
 also adapted to the Use of Students in Divinity, and Theological Readers 
 in general. By the Rev. S.T. BLOOMFI ELD, D.D. F.S.A. ; Editorof"The 
 Greek Testament, with English Notes," &c. 1 vol. foolscap Svo. 9s. cloth. 
 
 THE NEW ETON GREEK GRAMMAR ; or, the 
 
 Eton Greek Grammar in English : in which the Syntax and Prosody are 
 translated in parallel columns, and the ANALOGY of the GREEK and LATIN 
 LANGUAGES is explained. With many important Additions to the Text, and 
 Philosophical as well as Practical Notes. By CLEMENT MOODY, Magdalene 
 Hall, Oxford ; Editor of the New Eton Latin Grammar. 12mo. price 4s. cloth. 
 
 COMPLETE LATIN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY. 
 
 By the Rev. J. E. RIDDLB, M.A. One very thick vol. 8vo. 21s. cloth lettered. 
 By the s ime Author, 
 
 COMPLETE ENGLISH-LATIN DICTIONARY. 
 
 Svo. l(i.-. Od. cloth. 
 
 * The above may be bound together in one Volume. 
 
 AN ABRIDGMENT OF MR. RIDDLE'S LATIN- 
 
 ENGL1SH and ENGLISH-LATIN DICTIONARY, for Schools. 12. bd. 
 *,* The KM;. -LATIN, 5s. 6d. and LATIN- KM:, r-. may be had separately. 
 
 THE GREEK TESTAMENT, with copious English 
 
 Notes, Critical, Philological, and Explanatory. By the Rev. S. T. BLOOM- 
 FIELD, D.D. F.S.A. THIRD EDITION, greatly enlarged and very considerably 
 improved. In two volumes, Svo. with a Map of Pales-tine, 2/. cloth, lettered. 
 By the same Editor, 
 
 COLLEGE & SCHOOL GREEK TESTAMENT, 
 
 with English Notes. Second Edition, with Additions, and a new Map of 
 Palestine, adapted to the Gospel History. One thick volume, 12ino. price 
 10s. (id. cloth lettered. 
 
 THE LINGUIST; A COMPLETE COURSE 
 
 OF INSTRUCTIONS IN THE GERMAN LANGUAGE ; in which atten- 
 tion is particularly directed to Peculiarities in Grammatical Forms and Con- 
 struction. Exemplified by selections from the best Authors. By I). BOILBAU, 
 Author of "The Nature and Genius of the German Language;" "Key 
 to the German Language and Conversation," etc. etc. New Edition, care- 
 fully revised and corrected. 1 vol. 12mo. 7s. cloth. 
 
 thought, and in a pleatant, attractive way, thould furnish themielvet tcith a copy of the 
 Lingui3t."-St. James's Chronicle. 
 
 ** Messrs. Longman & Go's "School Catalogue" may be hail gratis of all 
 Booksellers in Town and Country. 
 
 London: Printed by Manning and Mason, Ivy-Lane, Paternoster Row. 

 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
 JAN 21 
 
 JAN 1 9 $2 
 
 RIC'O LD-L'Rt 
 C97. 
 
 w ' i<Jwl ' 

 
 A 000 087 361 2 
 
 A