mill *i)\' o it) ^ ^ ^nai o /ASl, :^g ITodi ^NNHil E ^3 -n I— ' i^i .iOii=ri ^1- C2C >JI;OFCAIIFOR(^ — < V o u_ 5i A^m IIV ^JiiJONYSoi^ "^/saaAinn-JWv >&Aavagiii^'^ ^oxh Mimmo/-^ ^lUBRARY(?/r ■Jll ipll I AWEUNIVERi-/A. •^ C^ ^ ^OfCAtlFORfc. ^OFCAUFO/iU;, , ^\^E UNIVERi//, o O '^/ya? liKAKV^r ^i i^fei i ^1 iC 6C u.OfC ^UIBRARYQr ^^IIIBRARYQ^ ^ o .^jOFCAllFOff/j^ aOFCAIIFO/?^ ^^WEUUIVERi/^ "^AaaAiNfi-iWV ^•lOSANCElfj'^ o ^&AavtiaiH>^ • ^lOSANCElfJV- o o "1]ONVS01^ "^A^iAINnjWV ^OFCAllFOffxA >;,OFCAllFO/?/(^ <^ . . LlBRARYO/r, WvVLlBRARYd?/, C5 .^WEUNIVERS/A ^•lOSANCElfx^ o %a3AiNa3v\v aOFCAIIFO/?^^ ^^.0FCAIIF0% .^'rtEUNIVER5'//i o ^^HIBRARYOa^ ^UIBRA!' .^•OFCAII' ^ the aiiti(|uit_v and condition of the so- called I'rinieval Man. Maiiv thiiii^s were said in tlie first six Lectures wliich had a possihle heariii<; on the > 10. 11. Spindle with potato for whorl, weighted with yarn .... 26 12. Knockin' stane from Shetland 38 13. Mallet for knockin' stane from Shetland 28 14. Old Scotch loom from 3Iid-Caldcr 29 15. Hindoo woman spinning j-arn 31 16. Ancient Egyptians spinning yarn . - 35 17. Modern Scotchwoman spinning yarn 35 18. Craggan from Barvas 43 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. Barvas pottery • 48 25. Barvas teapot — imitation of Staffordshire ware 48 26. Barvas teacup " " " 49 27. Barvas sugar-basin " " " 49 28. Barvas model of row ... 49 29. Quern from North Yell 52 Craggans from Barvas 43-45 I I LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. rut. TAOE ao. Srction of North Ytll Quern 55 81, Norec Alill, Slictland 58 !}2. Diiifxraiimtic section of Norse Mill, Slietlaiid 59 lV.i. Knockin' sfaiie, Slietliind 62 34. Mallet for knockin' stane, Shetland 62 (:(:] and ;U arc j^iven also as Figs. 13 and 13 on page 28.) :r». HIaek House of The Lewis, from photograjjh 68 3<5. CJround plan of Black House of The Lewis 68 37. Hcehivc-house, Ceann Resort, Uig, Lewis 77 35. Plan of beehive-house, Ceann Resort, Uig, Lewis 77 :i'.». Stone lid from Argyleshire 79 (Noticed at page 146.) 40. Group of .single beehive-houses, Uig, Lewis 82 41. Mass of beehive-houses, Lewis 82 42. Plan of " " 83 43. Plan of beehive-house with two doors 84 44. Plan and section of beehive-house at Stacseal, Lewis ... 85 45. Plan of large beehive-house with hypogeum, South Uist . . 86 4G. Restored elevation of '' " "... 87 47. Plan of Baptistery at Nocera Dei Pagani 88 48. Plan of long-chambered cairn at Yarhouse 100 49. Plan of short-cliambcrcd cairn at OrmicgiU 101 50. Plan of round-chambered cairn at Camster 102 51. Section of " " " 102 52. Cliambcrcd cairn at Clava . . . 103 53. Plan of circular cairn at Corriemony 103 54. ) ^_ > Stones with cup markings at Corriemony 104 50. Plan of cairn at Inverladnan, Strathspey 104 ^ ' [- Plan and section of cairn at CoUessie, Fifeshire 105 59. J Bronze dagger, with gold fillet for handle, found in cairn at GO. \ Collessie 106 6L j ■ Urns found in cairn at CoUessie 106 63. Group of modern cairns, Inverness-shire 108 64. ) ,.. > Modem cairns near Fort "William 109 60. \ 66. Eivlin, Shetland Ill 67. Scythe, Shetland 112 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 15 FIG. PAGE 68. One-Stilted plough, Shetland 113 69. Caschrom, Hebrides 113 70. ) ^, > Carts without wheels, Inverness-shire 114 71. ) 72. Cart without wheels, from " Burt's Letters " 115 73. Square bone button from The Lewis 116 74. Long bone button from The Lewis 110 75. Section of Orkney bone button 117 76. Bone button found in urn at Murthly 117 77. Tinder-box from Uust, Shetland 118 78. Brass tinder-box, with inner lid, steel, and flint 118 79. Crusie from Shetland 119 80. Crusie on stand 119 81. Small silver modern annular brooch from Inveruess-shire . 120 82. Annular brooch, made of a curtain ring and bodle-pin, from Knoydart 120 83. One side of highly ornamented brass annular brooch . . . 121 84. Other side " u u a 122 85. Annular brooch of brass, with decoration of lower style . . 123 80. Modern annular brooch of copper, entirely without deco- ration 123 87 ) i Shetland bismars 124 87a. ) 88. Indian bismar 125 89. Smoothing or ironiug stone from Shetland 140 90. Stone with hole in it, to be tied between the horns of a cow, Shetland 141 91. Sink stone of steatite, grooved, and with initials of owner cut on it 142 92. ) > Sink stones from Shetland, with lines on them, as used . . 143 94. ) ' I Stone sockets for spindle 145 96. Stone tip for spindle 145 97. Pounding-stone, modern, from Caithness 147 98. "Weaver's smoothing-stone from Fifeshirc 147 99. Shell lamp or crusie from Shetland 148 100. Weaver's smoothing-stone from*Lmlithgowshire .... 149 101. " " " Berwickshire 149 102. " " " Dumfriesshire 150 K; list or IM-rSTKATlONS. 10:{. WfJivci's Hinootliing-stonc from J.inlithgowshirc .... 150 104-i:{5. Kiulc stone implements IVoiu Shetland .... Ii54-100 \'M\. Cliidi clearg, or stone of Ardvoirloch 17G i:!7. Toasting-stone from Fordoun 257 i:iH. ) [ Toasting-stonc from Clova 257 * i Toasting-stone from Fordoun 258 142. Roman sculptured stoni", Cumbernauld 2G1 14:5. " " Bridgeness, Carriden 2G2 144. Miracle-stone of the Spey 269 145. Cradle-stone, Burgliead 279 146, 147. Crosses, Innis Maree 282 148. Death's head and motto 291 PART I. THE PAST IN THE PRESENT. THE SPINDLE AND WHORL. 19 L E C T U E E I . (IStii Apuil, 1S7C.) THE SPINDLE AND WHORL. In the summer of 1864 I liad occasion to. visit Fetlar, one of tlie Shetland group of ishmds. As I walked from the landing-place to the nearest township I overtook a little boy, and, while I was asking him some questions about the peo- ple and places, I observed that he was giving shape with his pocket-knife to a piece of stone. At first I thought his oc- cupation was the analogue of the purposeless whittle of the Yankee ; but on looking more attentively at the results and progress of his cutting, I saw that he had some definite ol)- ject in view, and I asked him what he intended to make out of the stone. " A whorl for my mother," was the ready re- ply. With equal readiness he gave me the half manufact- ured whorl, which I regarded as an important find. It is made of coarse steatite or soapstone, which is called Ivleber- stone in Shetland, and which is soft and easily cut. As we walked on, I asked the boy if I should find a fin- ished whorl in his mother's house. lie answered me in the affirmative, just as avc were close to her door, and T went in and told her what he had said. She immediately produced two spindles, each with a soapstone whorl on it, and I car- ried them both away. One of them is figured on p. 20. The other was loaded with yai-n, which had been sj)uii just be- 20 THE PAST IN TMK I'lJESEXT. fore luy visit. In tlio same liouse I saw a tliird wliorl, of a •lilToront form and made of clay. It is shown in Fig. 3. DuriniT that diiy's sojourn in Fetlar I had occasion to visit niaiiv hoiisi's, imd in most of them I found the spindle and tlu' wiiorl in actual use. Fig. 1.— Spindle and Steatite Whorl from Fetlar. Found iu actual use iu 1S64. The Spindle is a roughlj'-shaped piece of tlr wood, IH inches long, and abont half an inch thick in the middle, taper- ing somewhat to each end. Instead of a notch at one of the ends there is a ronghly-raade button like knob. Fig. 2— A more highly-finished Spindle and Whorl from the National Mu- seum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, for comparison with Fig. 1. The Spin- dle, which is 9 inches long, is made of hard wood, and is smooth and well polished. Pcrhajis, l)efore I go farther, I should briefly explain what a whorl is, and how it happens to be an object of interest to antiquaries. As it usually presents itself, a whorl is a perforated disk of stone, from an inch to two inches in diameter, and from a (piarter to half an inch in thickness. It is placed on the spindle, in order to act by its weight as a fly-wheel — in other THE TAST IX THE PRESENT. 21 words, to make tlie spindle rotate easily, while still unloaded with yam. Stone is the material of which whorls are commonly made, and their usual form is that of a perforated disk ; hut they are also made of other materials, such as bone or hunit clay, and they have other forms, such as the sphere or cone. When I say this much in way of descri])tion, I have perhaps said enough for my j^resent object. All I desire is, that their general consti-uction and purpose be understood. I am not gi%ang an account of whorls. I propose merely to tell some things about them which appear to me to teach lessons of caution to the student of antiquities. Fig. 3.— Clay Whorl IVoin Fetlar. Full size. , 4, 5, C, aud 7.— Examples of Whorl;- fiom the Collection in the Nalioiml Museum of Anti(iuitieB, Edinburgh. Full size. ._>j TIIH PAST I\ TIIK I'ltHSENT. I Imvc ^lilK lidwcvcr, to explain the interest whicli is taken liv :inti(|u;irirs in tlicse ohjects. Tluit such an interest exists is siitliciciitiv sli(»wii l»y tlie fact tliat wliorls appear in al- most vM'vy iiiiist'uni of o!(l things, wlii'tlu'i- in luirope or out of it ; and tliey generally appear in considerable numbers. Nor is this otherwise than it should be, since whorls are found associated Avith the builders and occupants of our /tnir/is ;iiid (ii'ili'-homes ; in Anglo-Saxon and Carlovingian graves; among the relics of the Swiss lake-dwellers; in the debris of that city whicli, according to Schliemann, had per- ished and was forgotten liefore the Troy of Homer had its foundations laid; among the vestiges of the Egyptians of the Pyramid times and the mound-builders of North Amer- ica ; associated, in short, with the " man without a story," not in sjK'cial localities, but almost every wdiere. An object (»f this kind has a proper place in collections of antiquities, since it may be almost if not quite as old as anything there. It is at least as old as the art of spinning, which is the oldest industrial art of which we have knowledge, and which, more- over, is an art practised at this present day by some of the least cultured people on the earth. 1 have just said that J had seen this possibly ancient thing in process of being made, as well as largely in actual use, in the corner of a country which is in the very front rank of progress. The most primitive of all knoA^ni methods of spin- ning is thus found holding its place among a people who luive for generations been spiiming by the aid of the most complex machinery — an art in its rudest state, side by side with the same art in its greatest perfection, both practised by the same people, the same in race, the same in capacity, the same in eivilization, and, from many points of view, the same in culture. Can any one- say that some of the inven- tions which congregate and culminate in our wonderful spin- ning machinery may not actually be due to a Fetlar man THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 23 whose mother knitted stockings for him, wlien a cliihl, of yarn Avhidi slie had made witli the spindle and wliorl i Snch a thing is beyond question possible, for Fetlar yields men as good as any in the kingdom — as capable of doing that, or any other sort of intellectual work. Yet, if the woman I speak of were suddenly entombed, spindle in hand, and if, centuries after, she were exhumed, when nothing remained of her but her bones and her whorl, some zealous antiquary might show one reason at least for relegating her to prehis- toric times. As yet, only the island of Fetlar has been spoken of as the part of Scotland in which the sj^indle and whorl are to be found in actual use. But that island is by no means the oidy part. Women may be seen using them here and there all over Scotland, though chiefly, of course, in outlying re- gions, remote from highways or thoroughfares ; that is, ei- ther actually remote or remote by some accident of position. This is stated as the result of personal observation. It will serve no present purpose, however, to detail the localities in which the spindle and whorl may still be found in use. The fact that they may be seen in Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides ; in the counties of Iloss, Sutherland, and Inver- ness ; and in the district of Galloway, is enough to show that the art of hand-spinning is widely tenacious of life in Scot- land. In some districts, where it has fully and conq^letely died out, a point of much interest presents itself. In certain parts of the main-land of Shetland, fur instance, (piite within hail of Fetlar, there remains no kno\vledge either of the ex- istence or use of such things as the spindle and whorl among the people ; yet, a century back and less, they were common objects there. So is it also with some parts of the outer Hebrides, where the sudden disajjpearance of the spindle and wlioi'l, and the complete obhvion into wliicli all aljont ■_>1 THK I'AST IN TIIK IM'J'.SENT. tlinii li:is ImIIi'Ii, iiiiule a deep impression on ray mind. It (lid s(» hc'i'imsf it iiapj)ens tliat in tlicse same districts whorls ari' still t(» 1)0 frcMjuently seen. Bein<^ of stone, tliey do not rot away liki' spindles, and they are often turned up in dig- giiigs ahout deserted townshijjs. By those who so find them tliey are treated with a superstitious respect and care, being i-egarded as charms, and known under the name of Adder Stones. It was frequently found that no knowledge existed as to the purpose for wdiich they had originally been made ; and in many cases it was not possible to persuade the pos- sessors of them that they were really commonplace objects, which had at one time, and perhaps not long ago, been used ill spinning, and that they were entirely destitute of any qualities potent either to prevent or to remove disease and misfortune. In the course of a few generations, it thus appears not only that all knowledge of the use of the whorl may be lost, but that there may grow round the object itself a religious belief in its supernatural origin and qualities. That the whorl can live long and obstinately in the midst of conditions which ought to cause its death, has been shown to be true. It is now further shown that it may die sudden- ly, and all al)(»nt it be quickly forgotten; and that, after a brief sojouni in the grave, it may reapjjear as a mysterious object having supernatural powers. Out of some districts all knowledge of spindle and whorl alike may disappear. Both may be equally forgotten. But in other places the whorl may die out before the spindle, and this may happen in two ways. The form of the spindle may l>e so changed as to make it no longer necessary to weight it with a whorl. Instead of being a rod of wood, slender from end to end, it may be left thick at the lower end. where the mass of wood will then sen-e, like the whorl, the purposes of a lly-wheel (Figs. 8, 9, and 1(>). This is a late modification, and the reverse of an improvement, for it THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 25 does not do all that is wanted so well as a spindle armed with a movaljle whorl. It is one of those changes so often seen in the declme of a snpplanted art, which are in the direction of a lower and not of a higher qnality. It is a movement of deterioration indicative of coming death. The Ficrs. S, 9, and 10.— Spincllc? so formed ns to mnko the use of !i whorl minecepsary. Fig. 8 is a polished and well-made Spindle, I'li inches long, found in a cottage at Cor- riebeg, on Lochicl-side. It has ncillier notch nor l)utlou at tlie upper end. The di- ameter increases greatly at the lower end, so as to serve the purposes of a whorl. Fig. 9 is more uncomtnon in its form. It is llj inches long, and has a button-like knob at the upper end. It was found in Duthil, luveruess-shire, in 1SC5. The woman using it had a distaff or rock— very roughly made. Tliough she used the spindle, she was nevertheless the owner of a spiuning-wheet. Fig. 10 comes from St. Kilda, and is C^ inches luug. It has neither notch nor button at the upper end. second way in which tlic whorl may di8aj)pear while the spindle remains in use is perhaps still more interesting. It has twice come nnder my notice ; once in the island of l.slay, and once in the parish of Daviot, within fonrtecn miles of the city of Inverness. In a remote corner of the last parish '2i\ Tin; I'AST IN TIIK I'lJKSKNT. I luwl occasion to visit a crofter's cotta<^o in the autumn of ISfUl; an«l sittin() TIIM I'AST IN TlIK IMIESEXT. wliicli has Ikh'Ii lirld to reveal tlie condition of tlic so-called priiiK'VMl inaii iiiid liis :iii:c on the eartli. I NEKD not, and shall not go to all the ends of the world ill «|iu'st of illustrations which our own country affords, and with many of which my opportunities of observation in Scothiiid iiave niade me acquainted. On the contrary, so far as possible, my witnesses shall be chosen from objects and ])ractices in the midst of which we live, even though their homeliness may at first seem a defect, and though near neighborhood and familiarity may, to some extent, sti'i[> them of the obscuring enchantment which remoteness and strangeness often lend. Yet, though I shall do this, and sliall in these lectures speak as often as possible of what is to l)e found and seen in Scotland, I shall not avoid, when the need arises, any length of journey to find what suits my object. Ac'cordingly, I proceed now to say something of the spindle and wliorl as they are used in India. I have spoken, and it is customary to sjDeak, of the man- ufacture of yarn by the spindle and whorl as a rude prac- tice, such as we might fittingly encounter among a barbar- ous and uncultured people. What it is desired now to show is that we are wrong as well right in this. That which has superseded hand-spinning is certainly a thing vastly supe- rior to it, and is assuredly the outcome of a higher culture ; yet, for all that, there went brains to the invention of the spindle and whorl; and it is beyond question that it can accomplish certain feats which no other machine ever in- vented can equal. It is a fact, though it may surprise some to learn it, that the hand-spinning women of India produce a yarn which is finer and has fcM'er filaments in it than any yarn otherwise or elsewhere manufactured. Repeated and serious efforts have been made by European spinners to pro- THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 31 duce tlie gossamer thread out of wliicli are woven those marvellous muslins of Dacca to wliicli have been given the poetic names of The Evening Deiv, The liunning Water, and The ]Vove?i Air. The spindle used in the manufacture of the yarn out of which these muslins are made is a slen- der piece of bamboo, not much thicker than a stout sewing- needle, and the whorl is a little ball or pellet of unbaked clay. The lower end of the spindle rests usually on a piece of shell, because, slender and light as the apparatus is, it is nevertheless too heavy to hang by the delicate thread. All this is in one sense i*ude enough. A slender j^iece of bamboo, a little ball of unbaked clay, and a fragment of a shell, are all the spinner needs. But the machine made of them is admirably suited for its work, and yields results which the best mechanicians of Europe have not been able to equal, mucli less to surpass. "With all our machiner}^ and wondrous appliances we have hitherto been unable to produce a fabric which for fineness or utility can equal The Woven Air of Dacca — the product of arrangements which appear rude and primitive, but which in reality are admirably adapted for their purpose."* With some reservation, there- fore — certainly with some qual- ification — must we speak and think of spindles and whorls as the implements of Ijarbarous and uncultured people ; as ca- pal)le of doing nothing l)ut rough, coarse jvork ; and as showing little skill in their contrivance. If it appears that Ficr. 15 Hindoo woman spinning; fine yarn. From Dr. Forbes Watson's "Textile Manufactures of India," ISUG, p. 04. "Textile Mamifactiu'cs of Iiulia," by Dr. Forbes Watson, ISOG, p. G4. 32 THE PAST IN THE rilKSKNT. tli(M-o is a ccrtiiin cleverness in tlic idea of tlic spindle, and a ciipability in it to do good work, which require us to qual- ify such epithets as rude and primitive* when aj^plied to it — if tliis results from a study of the spindle, much more certainly will it result from the study of many otlier objects which, by "general consent, w^e accejit as evidences of notli- iiii; l)iit barbarity and incapacity in those who make and use, or ^\•ho made and used them. It appears to be estab- lished tliat the spindle is the best implement yet contrived f(»r spinning extremely line yarn. As regards that particu- lar manufacture, therefore, it cannot be treated with con- tempt, but must, on the contrary, be treated wdth respect. It is the most efficient known instniment for at least one jiurpose ; and not to employ it, when the fulfilling of that purpose is an object, would be stupid. If muslins like those of Dacca are wanted, Dacca sj^iuning must be employ- ed till a better mode of S23inning yarn of the necessary qual- ity and lineness is discovered. ^Neither the simplicity nor the antiquity of the contrivance would necessarily show its employer to be wanting in culture or in capacity. It woidd be nearly as correct to describe the man who uses a stone knife to cut glass, and a bone knife to cut paper, as being in his stone age and an uncultured barbarian. It is true he is employing tools and cutting implements made of the ma- terials out of which the man of the stone period made his tools and cutting implements, but he only uses them for those purposes in which they prove more efficient than any tools he can make either of bronze or iron. Before we and the Hindoo spinners part company, there is cue otlier thing regarding them to which I should like • Primitive is a word of uncertain meaning, and I use it rarely, and always unwillingly, lest it should mislead. It is difficult, however, to discard it alto- gether, so much has it come to be employed in writings on prehistoric an- tiquities. THE PAST IX THE FRESENT. 33 to refer. It is tliis. Tliey do not belong to a savage, bar- barous, and nncivilized jieople. Progress in India lias cer- tainly not taken the directions which it has Iftiken among us, or among tlic nations of Europe generally ; but there may be great progress on lines which diverge very considerably from those on which we travel. All civilizations, whether in times far apart or in the same times, are not of one pattern. The differences, indeed, may be wide and deep. They are so, in point of fact, between us and the races of India. These races, however, have sho^vn a distinct and de- cided culture and civilization of their own. They jiossess a literature of no mean order ; they have worked successfully in the iields of scientific research ; they have acquired ac- complishments in the a^jplication of the fine arts to manu- factures which, at this very day, all the nations of Europe are trying to understand and copy; they co-02ierate, and tliere is a division of labor among them ; they have laws, and armies for defence and aggression ; and they have re- ligious beliefs, which we regard as utterly and deplorably wrong, but which, nevertheless, are far from destitute of lofty conceptions, while the sincerity of those beliefs is at- tested in conduct with at least as much self-sacrifice and conscientiousness as Christian nations show in testimony of the reality of the convictions which they avow. It appears, therefore, that what we commoidy regard as the nide and primitive stage of an art may be tlie only stage of that art whicli is known and practised even among a civilized and cultured j^eople, whose ability to advance beyond it we cannot possibly doubt. The only spinning among the natives of India is hand-spinning. They cannot be said to have yet passed beyond that to the invention and use of spiiming macliines.- It is not reipiiivd for our pres- * This statement remains correct, notwithstanding the fact that spinning niilla have of late years been erected in India bv British traders there, and though it 3 ;54 THE J 'A ST IN TIIK PUESEXT. cnt ])nr]i()SC! to show why tlicy liavo not done 80. It is only noeessiiry to show thiit sucli is the fact, and to add tliat wliat 18 tljns seen to he true of tlie s})indle and whorl may he CouikI tiiic also of many other similar things. Livingstone, in his first hook of travels, says that "the mode of si)iiming throughout South Central Africa is so very like the same occupation in the hands of the ancient Egy])tians, that I introduce a woodcut from the interesting work of Sir Gardner AVilkinson."* Accordingly, he gives a woodcut, with this written below it: "Ancient spinning perpetuated in Africa at the present day." In other words, the barbarous and savage tribes of South Central Africa make their yarn at this day by the aid of the same contriv- ance as that which was used by the ancient Egyptians, among whom the powers of the mind were carefully and successfully cultivated, and who have left abundant traces of a civilization which is still the wonder of the world, I reproduce and give on the opposite page the woodcut from Wilkinson's work, and by the side of it I place another woodcut, showing one of our own countrywomen — an Ile- 1 )ridean — similarly engaged. It seems desirable to inquire here what we are taught by the fact that savages now use a simple stone -age con- trivance which cultured Egypt used thousands of yeai^s ago, with which cultured India may be said still to content it- self, and which even cultured Europe goes on emijloying to a larger extent than is connnonly supposed. Does it not mean that the stone-age man contrived a way of doing im- portant woi-k which civilized and cultured races found ef- ficient, with which some of them remain satisfied, and which is ((uitc pos#il)lo that the natives may copy what they see, and that spinning by machinery may ere long be correctly described as a practice among the races of India. • " Missionary Travels in South Africa." Lond., 1857, p. 399. THE PAST IN THE PRESENT. 35 lias not l)een entirely discarded even by the most advanced races? May it not furtlier mean that the stone -a(>;e man intellectually is not altogether contemptible, whether we refer to the man whom we find to-day in his stone age or to the man of that stone age which we place in the re- mote past ? It would have been easy to have written of whorls from a point of view very different from that which has been chosen here. I might have spoken of the various materials Fig. IC— Ancient Egyptians spinning. From Wilkinson. Fig. 17.— Modern Scotchwoman spinning. of which they have been made ; of the different forms -which have been given to them ; of the rudeness of some, and the high finish of others; of the strange places and circum- stances in which they have occasionally been found, and the great age which lias consequently been given to them; of their ornamentation ; of the symbols which have been found on them ; of inscriptions in curious characters, and of rude figures of animals cut on them; and of many other such things. If I had spoken of these things only, I sliould have clothed the wht)rl with marvels and anticpiity, and should have left it j^erhaps an object of greater curiosity, ;j({ Till", PAST IN Till', I'lIKSKNT. hut MM (»l>je('t, as I tliiiik, liiivin^ less real interest than has hrcM i^iveii to it h_v the use of its story in tlie way whieh suitcil the present |)iiri)ose. 'I'hei-c is siiHietiines, it ajjpcars tf) me, an nnwillin£^ess to look at all sides of ohjeets elassed as ancient, lest something should he discovered which might reduce their age, and ren- der them ]iossil)Iy modern and commonplace. To some, no douht, it does make such a thing as a whorl a less interest- ini; and curious ohject to know that it may be either of veiT great age, or, in the most literal sense, a thing of yes- terday ; hut the study of antiquities has ceased to be the study of the merely curious, and takes rank now with the stiidv of history. The love of the wonderful, however, still holds sway to no small extent, and often shows itself in the manner alluded to, that is, in a certain unwillingness to see what nuiy overthrow accepted and cherished opinions. The very nuittcr of spinning furnishes apt illustrations of this. For instance, the discovery of cloth in the mounds of Ohio was regarded as a fact so novel in itself, and so much at va- riance with the prevailing ideas as to the degree of civili- zation and knowledge of the arts among the mound-build- ers, that it was considered necessary to hesitate about mak- ing it i)ublic. It is easy to understand this feeling. It was iu-ol>al)lv thou^•ht that further research might modifv the signiticance of the discovery. Yet why should there be hesitation about the publishing of what is believed to be a fact ( Prevailing ideas are not things to be protected. If they rest on error or imperfect information, why should they not fall ( The whole material from which arclia?olo- gists draw their conclusions is as yet very scanty; and most of their C(.»ncIusions can only be safely stated as probably correct in view of the information we possess, and as liable to change with a fuller knowledge. It so happened that subsequent discoveries left no doubt THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 37 that tliG art of weaving was known to the mound-builders of Xorth America. It was proved that they clothed them- selves, in part at least, in a cloth made of a uniform thread, and woven with a warp and woof. Prevailing ideas were therefore modified, and it became necessary to concede a higher degree of culture to the mound-builders than had previously been conceded. Nay more : on the assumption that the Red Indian did not possess the art of sj:)inning and weaving when he first became known to the white man, it was deemed necessary to alter the prevailing opinions even so far as to suggest that the prehistoric mound-builder was possibly in some way linked to tlie civilized races of Central America, or was, at least, a more highly cultured man than the lied Indian as first known to the European. This suggests the remark that, though the prehistoi'ic man in Europe, so far as we know him, is always more or less of a barbarian, it is otherwise in many parts of the world, as, for instance, in Central America and Cambodia, where high and remarkable civilizations, about whieli little or nothing is now known, have been followed by something like savage states of society, and where the prehistoric race was very great indeed wdien compared with the existing race. In these and many other countries the historic is the barbarous race, and the preliistorie the civilized race. The absence of the evidence of a knowledge of spinning by the mound-builders placed their culture and capacity low in the i)revailing opinion. That opinion, however, rested merely on negative evidence, and M'as ui)set by the discovery of cloth, and of the imj)lements for making it, in tlio Ohio mounds. This discovery carried opinion far in anotlier di- rection, dissevered the mound -builders from the existing savage Kcd Indians of Xorth America, and lifted them into apossil)le alliance with the ancient civilized races of Central America. This later opinii^n, however, again rests on nega- 38 TIIK PAST IN TIIK rUFSEXT. tivc evidence, tliat is, on the absence of a positive knowledge «.f wliether tlie Red Indian did or did not know how to spin and weave when the white man found him. The record on that i)oint seems as yet to 1)C silent. We have neither proof that he did, nor proof that he did not, know how to spin. That information, however, may some day he supplied. I take this illustration from America because it occurs to me as apt, without meaning to disclose by it the present state of arc'lueological knowledge there. That knowledge is rapidly becoming deeper and wider, in consequence of the assistance given to research both by the Union and the State Governments, and also as the result of the ability shown by those who conduct it. All that the illustration is intended to do here is to show how unsafe it is to rest conclusions -on the mere absence of some piece of infonnation wliich, if ob- tained, might lead to conclusions altogether different, per- ha]>s contrary. Strict methods of scientific research do not allow us to conclude, because something has not been found, that that something does not exist, and never will be found. TuE chief inferences which appear to flow from what has 1)een said are the following: 1. A mode of meeting one of the requirements of man's existence in all cold or tenq^crate regions, which is so sinq^le as to be commonly spoken of as rude and primitive, may nevertheless continue to be practised among a people who have the foremost place in the march of progress, who have even ac(piired a special distinction for their success in con- triving (»thor modes of meeting that particular requirement, and who send the products of these contrivances to all the markets of the world. In other words, an old art may long refuse to disappear wholly, even in the midst of conditions which seem to be necessarily fatal to its continued existence. 2. On the other hand, the complete extinction of such an THE PAST IX THE TRESENT. 39 art ill certain countries, or parts of countries, may come sud- denly, from causes wliicli we may not be able to assign ; and all knowledge and recollection of it may disappear with a like suddenness. In a few generations all about it may be so entirely forgotten tliat, when the people turn up the im- plements used in the art which have proved too hard for the teeth of time, they clothe them with mysteries and super- stitions, and treat them with veneration. That tliis may happen is proved by what has been said about the conversion of the whorl into an Adder Stone or Charm. In like manner the stone axe or celt becomes a Thunder-holt, and supernatural qualities are assigned to it. Thp lapse of ages is not necessary for this, as we naturally think and are accustomed to be told. A single century can do more in such matters than we commonly acknowledge. The dress of superstition, which clothes objects of which the use is forgotten, is far from being a thing rarely seen, though it presents itself in different asjDccts, and with varying de- grees of completeness. It is interesting, however, to remem- ber that it is the handiwork of the rude or so-called stone- age man which becomes an object of veneration in countries with a high civilization. The reverse would be nmcli more easily undei*stood. That a minie-rifle should be worshipped by a Bushman seems a not unnatural thing. It is more dif- ficult to see why, to nearly all the cultured nations of AVest- ern Europe, a stone celt becomes a Thunder-JjoJt, a whorl an Adder Bead, and a flint arrow-head an Elf Dart, and why these relics of a complete or comparative barbarism should be venerated in the midst of civilized and cultured people. The man who ought to know that these o1)jects are merely the tools or weapons of his l)arbaric forefathers is the very man who worships them ; and it seems to me that if we wish to study correctly the history of the human race as a whole, we can neither ignore nor omit the study of these curious wan- derings from conditions of high culture and civilization. 40 Tiir: i"AST in tiil: ruKSKM. 'A. Wlicn an old art dies out, in consequence of being sup- planted or superseded hy a new art, wliicli does the same tiling- ill a practically lietter way, the dying-out may be, and ])ei'haps always is, hy a process of debasement or degradation. It is not easy to over-estimate the value of this inference, since it means that the nide fonns of an implement may foll(»w as wi'U as precede tlie more finished forms — that it would be unsafe to say of two specimens of the same imple- ment that the ruder was necessarily the older — and that, of any paitieular kind of implement, the mdest forms of all may id- the very latest, or those fashioned when the imple- ment had all but passed out of use. 4. AVe sometimes, without good reason, sjieak contemptu- ously of an implement or contrivance as rude and primitive. Looking at the thing itself, rather than at its purj)ose and the way it fulfils it, we think of it as the outcome of a poor and feeble state of mind. But on careful examination we may find it suitable for its work, capable of doing it well, and indicating more ingenuity in contrivance and more skill in construction than we were ready to suppose from a su- ])erficial examination. If we desire only to find the evidences of a want of intel- lectuality in the works either of the early or of the existing savage, we shall certainly find them, and probably little else. But if, on the other hand, we look also for signs of intellect- uality and of a capacity for culture, we shall as certainly find more of these than we have been prepared to expect. 5. A very simple and a rude method of doing work, such, for instance, as liand-spiuning, may be the only way of doing that work which is jjractised even among races whom we cannot call barbarous, and who are widely separated from each other both in time and space, as, for example, among the peoples of ancient Egypt and present India. Still further, the very same nide and simple method of doing the work in question may be the only way of doing THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 41 that work among races "whom we unhesitatingly call barbar- ous, and wlio are also widely separated from each other Ijoth in time and space, as, for example, among the prehistoric lake - dwellers of Switzerland and the existing savages of South Central Africa. 6. In all scientific inquiries, but more, perhaps, in archseo- logical investigations than in any other, conchisions formed on merely negative evidence are to be distrusted. 7. We may fall into error if we fix the intellectual capac- ity of a nation, a community, or an individual, as low, be- cause we find that they practise, or he practises sometliing which we call, and perhaps correctly call, nide and primi- tive. Such a thing furnishes no proof of want of capacity ; frequently, indeed, it does not even furnish proof of want of culture. The mental jDOwer of those Scotchwomen who still use the spindle and whorl is not a whit inferior to that of those who do not use it, nor is their culture in any degree or respect below that of their countrywomen generally in a similar social position. So much for the inferences which aj^pear to me to flow from what has been said about whorls. It may be thought that I carry those inferences too far, seeing that they are all drawn fvou) the story of one object. It seems to me, how- ever, that they are fairly dra^ni, and I think it an advantage at once to reveal the general character of the lessons which are to be taught by the stories of many other objects in the lectures which follow. Perhaps surprise ma}' l)e felt that I should begin by treating of an object so seemingly insignificant, and that I should do so abruptly, and without some prefatory remarks to disclose the purpose at which I aim. But the suliject I have chosen is a difficult one, and I think a new one, and 1 42 THE TAST IN' Tlin PRESENT. m^k to be allowed to approach it in my own way. The dif- ticulty consists cliietiy in this: Many people — almost all reading peoi)lc — have some knowledge of the startling and precise conclusions which have been enunciated regarding the dcgra(K'(l condition of the so-called primeval man, and the iunnensity of his age on the earth ; on the otlier hand, few have a correct comprehension of the reasoning on which these conclusions rest, or of tlie nature and value of the data from which the reasoning proceeds. I think, there- fore, that it will be a useful work to beget a well-founded scepticism in regard to matters, the half-sight or one-sided examination of which 'may lead to an unscientific nse of them. THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 43 Lecture II. (21sT April, 1876.) CRAGGANS.— QUERXS.— XORSE MILLS.— KXOCKIX' STAXES.— TAINT- ED MILK AXD FISH.— BURSTIX. AVhex I visited the island of Lewis, in 1863, I liad the advantage of the company of Captain F. W. L, Thomas. In driving from Uig to tlie village of Barvas, on the west coast, we passed a stone-breaker sitting at the roadside eating his dinner out of a vessel which struck us as remarkable. "VVe found it, on closer examination, to be even a stranger thing than it seemed to us as w^e first caught sight of it. We waited till the stone-breaker had eaten its con- tents, and then we carried it off ; but we had acquired little infor- mation regarding its history, be- cause the stone-breaker and we had no language in common. Before reaching Barvas we had a detour to make and some business to transact. AVlien w^e got there, we found that our acquaintance of the road- side had preceded us. He had hurried home to tell of the profitable sale he had made, and while our horse was feed- ing we were visited by many people carrying vessels like the one we had bought, and offering tliem for sale. They are called craggans, and we learned that, at a period Fig. IS.— Crasgati from Barvas ; ^ inches high. 44 THK PAST IN TIIK TltHSENT. l.v no incMiis ivinotc, tliey liad been iiiiidc in m;iny of the villiii^cs «.l' TIk' Lewis, thoui^h jit tlie time of our visit their iMiinnfiicture was diiefly, if not entirely, confined to Barvas. The lollowiii,-- woodcuts (Figs. 19 to 2'i) sufficiently show their I'ltnii ;iiid cliaracter. Fig. Ui. — U.iiv.is i;rai,'i;an; "H inches liigh. Fig. 21).— Barvas Cragyau ; Si inches high. AV"e were told that it was woman^s work to make them, and one of the makers was pointed out to us as particularly skilful. Knowing that, after a couple of days, we should have again to pass through Barvas, we engaged her to show us the process of manufacture. This she duly did. The clay she used underwent no careful or special prej^a- ration. She chose the best she could get, and picked out of it the larger stones, leaving the sand and the finer gravel wliicli it contained. AVith her hands alone she gave to the clay its desired shape. She had no aid from anything of the nature of a potter s wheel. In making the smaller crag- gans, with narrow necks, she used a stick with a curve on it to give form to the inside. All that her fingers could reach was done with them. THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 45 ITaving shaped the craggan, she let it stand for a day to dry, then took it to the lire in tlie centre of tlie floor of her Fig. 21.— Bai-vas Criiggnu; 8 inches high. Fis;. 22.— Biirvas CraL'gau; 'J iuchcs high. Fig. 'Ji!.— Lewis Cfaggaii. Tulsia. hnt, filled it with l)nrniiig peats, and ]»iiilt l>urning ])eats all round it. When sufficiently baked, i^he witlidrew it from 4f* TIIK PAST IX THE rilESENT. the tire, ('iiiptied tlic aslicH out, and tlieii ])rnirc(l slowly into it and over it about a pint of milk, in order to make it less porous.* Tlie craggan was then ready for use and sale. It is desiral)le at once to realize, witli regard to these crag- gans, that there is nothing known in the way of jiottery moi-e i-ude. They are made of coarse clay containing sand and gravel ; they are not baked in an oven, but in an open fireplace ; they are shaped with the hands, without aid from any sort of potter's wheel ; they are unglazed ; they are globular and without pediment; they are nearly always en- tirely destitute of ornament, and such ornamentation as does occasionally occur on them is composed, of straight lines made with a pointed stick, or the thumb nail, or a piece of cord. The rudest pottery ever discovered among the relics of the stone age is not ruder than this, and no savages now in the world are known to make pottery of a coarser character. It is surely something very startling to be able to say this * Tiree Craggans : — The following notes are taken from a letter addressed to Mr. William MacGillivray, W. S., by Dr. Alexander Buchanan of Tiree, where craggans of small size are still occasionally made. He says that the only crag- gans now made in Tiree are small globular vessels, in which milk, drawn di- rectly into them from the cow, is warmed and given to persons showing a ten- dency to con.-sumption. Milk so treated is said to be " milk without wind," and is supposed by the people to have special curative effects. There never was, Dr. Buchanan thinks, any large factory of pottery on the island. Each little community had its own potter. In making the craggan now, he says that the red or blue clay, after kneading, gets its form without the use of anything like a potter's wheel, of which there is no trace or tradition, though in Gaelic legends no article is more frequently mentioned than the craggan. When shaped it is first dried before a common turf-fire, and then placed in the fire and subjected to great heat. When removed, fresh milk is poured into it, in order to give it a better surface, and make it less porous. One hundred and twenty years ago, he says, craggans were the only articles in common use in the island for culinary purposes ; large ones were used as pots for boiling, others were used to keep milk, and others as milking-pails ; they were even used as churns. But, he says, the process of manufacture has not improved with the progress of knowledge. THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 47 of the staple manufacture of a Scottish, village in tlie nine- teenth century. The wonder would have been less if I had been able to go on and say that the people of Barvas are really savages, clothed in skins, and eating raw flesh ; but I am not able to say anything of the kind. In intellectual j)ower and in their mode of living they are just w^hat their neighbors are. Besides, though it is true that they are now nearly the only community making this pottery, tliis singularity is of recent date. Within the century in which we live its manufact- ure was common all over The Lewis — all over the Hebrides, indeed — and it was not unlaiown in the villages on the west side of the mainJand. It was an art practised by peo^Dle not inferior in mental capacity to the people of Scotland gen- erally — by people who sent their sons into the centres of progress to occupy there as good a place as any, either as artisans, seamen, merchants, or ^professional men. The house in which the woman lived who made this pot- tery for our instruction was squalid and wi*etched enough ; but still we saw in it co.tons from Manchester, crockery from Staffordshire, cutlery from Sheffield, sugar from the West Indies, tea from China, and tobacco from Virginia. In that house, nevertheless, these rude craggans were made for sale. They were abundant in it, and were largely in actual use, as indeed they were also in many of the houses of the townshii^s round about. Here, then, \vas a woman, living in a wretched and per- ishable hut, ])uilt (without cement) of unquarried and un- sliaped stones, busily manufacturing just such pottery as was made by the early prehistoric inhabitants of Scotland — just such pottery as is now made by some of the most de- graded savages in the world — yet her comforts and wants M'ere ministered to not only by the great towns of England, but by tlie Indies, China, and America. 4S TIIK I'AST IN TIIK I'KESENT. If we liiiri('^, as the consecjuence, an ingenious speculation about an early and a late occupation of the ruined hut by successive people at long intervals and in different stages of progress and culture. THE PAST IX THE TRESEXT. 41) Expecting a visit from curious strangers, proud of her skill, and anxious to display it, our Barvas potter had pre- pared for us, in addition to the craggans, some imitations of Staffordshire ware and some models of animals. They were all equally like, or rather perhaps equally unlike, the Fig. ^(i. — r.arv.is fopy of u Teacup. Fig. 27.— Barvas Copy of a Sugur-basiu. objects of which they were understood to be copies. We obtained from her some of these imitations, and they are figured (along with some others of the same character, for which I am indebted to Dr. liobert Paterson of Leith) in the woodcuts 2-i to 27. Some models of animals we also Fig. 28.— Barvas Co\y; Ej inches long and 2 inches high. carried away ; but they have nearly all been lost. One of them, however — the model of a cow — remains, and is shown in Fig. 28. The figure of this animal may seem to imply even a low- er culture and ca])acity than the craggans. It is just such a thing as a child might make, and nothing superior to it in the way of modelling was seen. Better work, and none 4. r)0 TIIK PAST IN' Tin; I'KKSIvNT. worse, ill the direction of the iiiio arts, was done by tlie Caveiiieii. Vet the ohl woman who fasliioned the cow and tlie era<;«raiis was full of shrewdness — a theologian in her way, well versed in Church (juarrels aiul in the obligations of the Poor Law, and <[uite able to become well versed in a score of other things if the need and opportunity had arisen. Have we any sntticient reason for believing that the Cave jieople wei-e inferior to her, or, for that matter, inferior to any of us in ca2)acity for culture i? Wlien Captain Thomas and I reached Stomoway with our treasures, and exhibited them in the hotel, we found that the craggan was nearly as great a curiosity there as it afterward turned out to be in the south. Even the distin- guished proprietor of the island was scarcely aware of the existence of such a manufacture in his insular princij)ality. With this suggestive fact I conclude my notice of the Barvas pottery, formulating only three inferences, which seem fairly to flow from w^hat has been said : 1. That the very rudest known form of an art may co- exist in a nation with the highest — the AVedgwoods of Etru- ria with the INIaeleods of Barvas. '■2. That it w^ould be wrong and stupid to conclude from this that the nation must be composed partly of savages and partly of a highly cultured and civilized i)eople. 3. That persons capable of immediately receiving the very highest culture may practise an art just as it is prac- tised by the most degraded savages of whom we have any knowledge. I HKTLKX to the man whom we found eating his dinner out of the craggan, to say that he probably made that din- ner of meal ground in his own house. It is certain, at least, THE PAST IX THE TRESEXT. 51 tliat the people of the district in M'liioli lie lived f^till use the quern or lumd-niill — an object M-hich may be of great antiquity, and wliicli properly tinds a place in archceological collections, but which may also, in the most literal sense, be a thing of yesterday, fabricated and used by people enjoy- ing the advantages of a high civilization. hi Scotland rotating querns are found in hut circles, eirde-houses, crannogs, and brochs, and they certainly may belong to the prehistoric, if not to the stone period. Yet they are not only still in use in certain parts of Scotland but they are in common use. Tliose I myself have seen at work, I should count not by tens l)Ut l)y hundreds. They are most numerous perlia])s in Shetland, but they are com- mon in the Orkney and 1 lebridean Islands ; and in the west coast parishes of Sutherland, Iloss, and Inverness they can scarcely be called rare. Resting the opinion on what I have personally seen, I should be inclined to think that a census of the querns still in use in Scotland would show their num- ber to be thousands. This mode of grinding corn — a mode which dates from very early times, and is also still employ- ed by the savage races of many parts of the world — can, therefore, by no means be said to have died out of Scotland. So far otherwise is the fact, that there are not only thou- sands of people in Scotland who still use querns, but there are people who earn part of their livelihood by making and selling them. One man in Shetland, who thus occu])ied him- self, I visited ; and I found the selling price of a quern to be from three shillings and sixpence to five shillings. This price is lower than it is believed to have once been, because querns are now more rudely and more coarsely made than they were of oUl. The cause of this degradation is plain : only the poorer peoj)le are now the purchasers. It would be useless, therefore, to spend time in the manufacture of a well-linished and ornamented quern, because it would lind no buyer. The wealthier of the community get their mcul 52 THK FAST IN TIIK rUKSKNT. from tlic south, or tlioy send tlioir oats to he ground at tlie watcr-Miills uliicli exist hero and tliere even in tliose parts of" tlic couiitrv wlicre querns are still common. Only the jXMM-cr class — constituting^, liowever, the multitude in every (li.sti-ict — to whom the sendin"^ of corn to mills at a distance ■would prove difficult, continue to employ the quern. Thus ;ii;;iiii it is seen that wlicn a contrivance which has been widely used dies out, it does so hy a process of degradation; =J_ Fig. 29.— Qiiern from North Yell. and it follows that when a rudely made quern is found, it becomes at least as probable that it is later, as that it is ear- lier, than more finislied specimens, providing there is noth- ing in the circumstances in which it is found to reveal its age. Nothing rougher than the quern which is shown in Fig. 2!\ and which is now in the Edinburgh ^Museum of Antiq- uities, can easily be conceived. Yet I found it just as it THE PAST IX TEE PRESENT. 53 stands in the island of North Yell. I was liosi^itablj enter- tained in the cottage in which it was bought, and ate some bread made of meal which it had ground. Two specimens of the meal which had that day been manufactured by it were carried away, and are now in the Museum with the quern. Two specimens were taken, because the quern is capable of grinding coarse and grinding fine. This leads me to say something of the construction of querns. Till I saw them at work I had myself an imper- fect knowledge of this, and I have not found many others better informed. I thought the contrivance a much ruder one than it really is. The quern proper usually stands on a wooden tray, one end of which is built into the wall, and the other supported on two legs. Its position in Lewis houses is generally in the porch. In Shetland it usually stands in the living or day room. The under surface of the nether stone receives little or no fashioning, and the level is obtained by bedding it in clay. The hole in the centre of the under st,one is tightly tilled with a piece of wood, through which there is an aperture just large enough to allow the wooden spindle to pass. The iower end of this spindle rests on a narrow board, one end of which lies loosely on a recess in the wall, which acts as a ledge, and is usually prepared for the pur- pose by the simple process of taking a stone out of the wall. To the other end of the board a string is attached, and this string passes double through a hole in tlie front of the tray, and then over an oljlong wooden button which prevents it from falling back. B}- turning this l)utton the two plies of string can be twisted and so shortened, or untwisted and so lengthened. In this' way the position of the board, on which the lower end of the spindle rests, is raised or low- ered. The spindle, of course, rises or falls with it, and since the upper stone rests on the upper extremity of the spindle, ;Vt Tin: PAST IN Tin: rUKSKNT. it '\H clear tliat it also will rise and fall. 'I'liiis it is that the power of «,'rin(liMi; coarse and grinding iine is obtained. The actual iiicthnd of olitaiiiiiig the same end in our most complete mills is little more than a modification of the ar- rangement which 1 have just described, and which is thus both very ancient and (piite modern. TIh' iip|)(r stone is always the better finislied of the two. 'rhn.ngh the hole in its centre the quern is fed witli corn. Across this -hole, and lying loosely in two slots cut in the inider surface of the stone at the edges of the feeding-hole, is the wooden socket, which receives the upper end of the spindle. The handle of the quern is of wood, and is fixed in a hole sunk into the u])per stone, near its margin. Occasionally, when the (piern is of a largish size, the handle is on a dif- ferent i)lan : it is much longer, and one end of it lies loosely in a cup or hole, situated like the hole in which the short handle of the smaller quern is ti.xed, while the other end goes up to the roof of the cottage, and i:)asses loosely through a hole in a joist or rafter. In this way two persons at opposite sides of the quern can easily and safely be en- gaged together in turning it. A fixed handle, long enough to allow two persons to work the quern, would be apt, by its leverage, to break off the bit of the stone outside the hole in which tin- handle is fixed. The meal falls from all sides of the quern upon the tray, and is brushed up and swept out of one of the corners of the tray, where the ledge is intentionally wanting, into a basket of straw, made like a beehive. An examinati(Ui of the woodcut. Fig. 30, representing a diagramatic section of the Xorth Yell rpiern, will make this description easily undei-stood. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that I have not been describing a contenq)til»le piece of machinery, exhibiting no skill or ingenuity in its contrivance. The ends, it is true, THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 55 are attained by means which are very simple ; but that of itself does not give inferiority to a contrivance. It is true also that the hand of man is left to move that which else- where, in what we call the centres of progress, is moved by water or steam. But are there not circumstances in which Fig. 30.— Sectiou of Queni from North Yell. this may be the outcome rather of wisdom than of igno- rance or stupidity ? Till the conditions in which the Lewis and Shetland people live are greatly altered, would large steam-mills or water-mills be a gain to them. While the roads are few and l>ad, while the means of communication are difficult, and while the ])opulation continues to be scat- tered over the islands, instead of being in its bulk dra^vn together into villages on a well-roaded main-land, will it not best meet the wants of the isolated crofter to grind his corn at home, and would it not be foolishness rather than wisdom to build large steam or water mills before there were roads leading to them, and before there were crops within easy reach to keep them working ? In large towns tlic grocer roasts our coffee and grinds it by steam-power; but in country-houses each family has its little oven and little mill. These appliances are not so complicated or perfect as those of the grocer. In comparison witli his they may be called rude. But tlie man who gets his coffee roasted and ground for him while in town does not sink in intellectual power when he betakes himself to his detached country residence, and begins to roast and grind it for himself in a r,(; TIIH PAST IN TIIK I'KKSEXT. nidi' way, and with ('(miparatively poor maelunery worked l»v tlir hand. On tlie coiitniry, lie shows ability in supply- ing; liiinsclf with what hv. wants in the face of difficulties. The Shi't lander or Lewisnian, when he moves south, does not l)rin<2: his e '2\ feet wide by 44 feet high. The grinding-stones are rarely mure than 3 feet in diameter, sometimes being TUE PAST IX TUE TRESENT 59 as small as 2 feet 3 inclies. They deliver the nieal on the floor all round them, on a space marked off by a low ledge of wood. The contrivance for making the stones grind fine or coarse is nearly the same in character as that described when speaking of qnerns. The general appearance of a Xorse mill, as it is seen in Shetland, is shown in Fig. 31 ; and the plan of its construc- tion is made sufliciently clear by Fig. 32 to render further explanation unnecessary. It must not be supposed that there is a miller attached to Fi;^. a2.— Rouirli di;igiam:Uic section ofShelland Norse >[ill. each of these mills. AVhen there are more projirictors than one, any man who is part proprietor, when he wants meal, goes to it with his corn. Of course the co-proprietors must 00 TIIK I'AST IN Tlin rUKSKNT. w> arriin<;o ,tliat tlu'V (1<> not ,l((> tf»,<::etlier. In point of fact, the s()-c'jillt'(l NorsL' mill is nothing hut a lar^e quern driven ])y water, and it is usually the proi)ertj of a townslii]) or a <'<»nd)iiiati(iii of towiisliips, instead of being the jiroperty of an individual. In other words, these mills occur where thi're is a certain density of population, and where the dif- ficulties of ('oiiiiiiunicatioii are not very great; that is, they arc the outcome of the very conditions which, when still stronger, lead to the erection of the more pretentious mill familiar to us in the south. They occupy a place between it and the han(l-(iuern corresponding to the modified cir- cumstances of which they are begotten; and they are not the outcome of an intelligence either superior to that of the users of the hand-quern or inferior to that of the users of mills driven by steam, or driven by water overshooting or undershooting the wheel. T never found the door of a Xorse mill locked. Many of those I saw were unprovided with anything of the nature of a lock. I never detected any indication of an effort to pass to ths undershot or overshot wheel, and the reasons for this appeared good and sufficient. In the first place, water was in such abundance as to make the economizing of it no ob- ject ; and, in the second place, the introduction of the over- shot or undei'shot M'heel would have complicated the machin- ery l)y necessitating a change in the direction of the motion. This, moreover, W(»uld have added greatly to the cost, and woidd have left the crofters with the care of a piece of ma- chinery M-hieh would be liable to get out of order, which they could not easily repair, and which might prove to them a white elephant. The mill, as they make it, does all the little they want it to do in the way which best combines economy with efficiency. Many of the people who build these mills know, as well as any of us know, the general superiority of an ovei-shot wheel, and the unfitness of the THE PAST I\ THE PRESENT. 61 wheel tliej use to do anythiug more than the small amount of work Avhich they require of it. Kot a few of them thoroughly understand the waste of power in the mill they make. Speaking of this to a crofter, he said : " Quite true ; but I borrow all the ])ower I want from the bum as it flows past, and if I get all I need, where is the foolishness in leav- ing the rest unused ? I take what I require in the easiest, cheapest, and most direct -way ; and why should I waste my substance and labor on a fancy i It seems to me that my going to the deep-sea fishing in an open instead of a decked boat is a much stronger evidence of my being incapable and uncultured than the fact of my using either this mill or the hand-quern to grind my corn." That men in their quern age, or their craggan age, or their whorl age speak and think in this fashion is not fancy but fact. Whether men of the stone age did so, or could do so, nothing remains to tell. A few centuries hence — even one century hence — how little will remain of the Shetlander of to-day to reveal his mental power and culture ! How much, on the other hand, of what may then be turned up will tend to lead to conclusions far from the truth ! The single inference which I ask to be drawn from what has been said of the Norse mill, is that there may be two ways of looking at rude and primitive practices or objects ; and tliat these ways do not lead us to like conclusions when we attempt to use such practices and objects as aids in studying the condition of early man. I have still one other object to notice before ending this lecture. When speaking of the Daviot woman who used a spindle with a potato on it fur a whorl, it was said that she was seen (')2 TIIH PAST I.N TIIK I'llESl'^NT. sittini; oil ii kiuwliv" .staiie. It is id the stone on wliich sill' sat I Mill now about to s))o:il<, tluit is, of tlie Tiiiockini) xtiiiii' or pi'iiiiit i\ (■ |)ot-l»;irlc_v mill. 'IMiis coiitrivjincc is still found in common use in Sliet- land, and in occasional use in many other parts of Scotland. It consists of a lai-o-o stone, often a bowlder, with a cup-like excavation on one side. Intiinuiicr sheilling to which she had gone to milk the cows. She was a handsome, healthy, good-looking girl, barefooted and barelegged, with a hrat over her head to keep it and her face from the sun — the milkmaid of the poet, as she presents hei-self in The Lewis. On her back she carried a flat, open creel, half-fllled with weeds, and on THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 65 tliese weeds nestled two large globular craggaiis full of milk, eacli witli its moutli stopped by a handful of freshly- pulled grass. As we passed, we exchanged the usual salu- tation. She went her way, unconscious that she was in my eyes an archaic person ; and I went mine, finding in what I had seen the lesson which I now attemj^t to teach. % (iO THE PAST IN TlIK TKESENT. Lecture III. (25TII Ai'Kii,, 1ST6.) THE HEACK HOUSES AND THE BEEHIVE HOUSES OF THE HEBRIDES. In the last lecture it was shown that a kind of pottery, as rude as any j)ottery known to exist, is not only found in actual use, but is regularly manufactured in a part of our own country, and by people of as good mental powers as any in the land. The nidcst form of an art may thus coexist with the highest, the potters of Barvas and of Staffordshire being of the same period and of the same nation. This does not, however, imply that the nation in which it occurs consists partly of savages and jjartly of " civilized men," for it ap- pears that persons living under an advanced civilization, and capable of immediately receiving a high culture, may prac- tise an art as rudely as either the prehistoric or the existing savage. Such conclusions as these may have a close bearing on the study of the condition of early man ; and to show this I quote a i)assage from one of the many recent works on this subject. Dr. Daniel AVilson, in speaking of the varied and expressive examples of the ceramic art, observes that " to the ethnologist they are not less valuable than the characteristic fossils by wliich the geologist determines the relative ages of the under- lying strata.''* As I write, another reference to this subject ♦ Wilson's "Prehistoric Man,'' 1862, vol. ii., p. 78. THE PAST IN' THE PRESENT. 07 comes to mind, and I qnote it also to show wliat Dr. "Wilson meant, and how fully he is snpported, in sayinii; that exam- ples of pottery are to the student of man very nnieh the same thing as fossils to the geologist. Baker says : " Nearly all sav- ages have some idea of earthenware ; Init the scale of ad- vancement of a country between savagedom and civilization may generally be detenninod l)y the examples of its pottery."- Generally perhaps, but certainly not always, as we have seen. Fossils of this kind appear sometimes to travel far out of the strata to which they are generally sujiposed to belong. In the craggan, for instance, we have an object Mdiicli we are accustomed to regard, if I may so speak, as belonging to the lowest and earliest strata of man's condition or existence, presenting itself in the highest and latest strata. And it may be fairly asked if it is at all probable that this is the only thing of the kind which is thus so strikingly out of place ? Is it not probable, on the contrary, that it will prove but one of many when we begin to look for them ? This lecture will be devoted to a notice of some rude forms of dwelling which are "still to be seen in Scotland ; and I shall first describe a typical sjDecimen of the old black house, in which thousands of people have been bora, have lived, and have died, in the islands of Lewis and Harris. A similar house is to be found in many other parts of Scotland, but the old Lewis house, as I saw it fifteen to twenty yeai*s ago, suits my purpose better than any other. In the following woodcut I give a sketch of one of these houses, taken from a photograph by Captain Thomas, and also the ground-j)lan of another.f * Sir Samuel Baker's "Albert Xyanza," Lond., 1866, vol. ii., p. 4'.t. + Both of the woodcuts show these structures to be better finished than tliov really are. This is true in a special degree of the grouud-plan, which is much (58 TIIM PAST IN TIIH I'KKSHNT. Tlic tvpical <.l«l l.liK-k Ik.um' of Tlic Lewis is not simply ;i Iniiir mil. n. ken niiip'. It riitlier consists of a major block, Fig. 35.— Bliick House of The Lewis, from a Photograph. f.f forty or fifty feet, with a small porch-like wing at one side in front, and a larger projection or attachment at the Fi;;. 30.— Oroimd-plun or (li.i_-' un -howmsi arntncrpnient of rooms, furnitnre, etc., in one of the Black Houses of The Lewis. other side behind, which last serves as a barn. Access to all is gained by one door. By this the so-called porch is entered. fiHi roc:>iIar iiiul si|ii;ire. It ir: ini'ivly a tliajrram showing the arrangeiueiit of till' apartnu'iits uiul the ili#iio?al of the furniture. THE PAST I\ THE TRESEXT. 69 and on one hand there is frequently found that which is now seen in most museums of antiquities — tlie quern — not kept as a curiosity, but as a thinnt a bench of sods. On the other side there is often a rough three-legged stool for the use of the wife. The children and dogs crouch ])y the liivsiik' in 70 TIIK I'AST IN Tin: IMIKSKNT. tlic w.inn iishcs. On the \\(»iiiair.s side, with its l)ack to the cattli', tliciv is nc('iisi(»iially a nulo dremer with shelving, to hold such plati's and hasiiis as l)ehjng to tlie lioiisehold ; and lii'sidc it two or tliivo jtots generally find their place when out of use. I do not rcuieniher ever to have seen a tahle. A chair ol" any kind is a most nnusnal ohjcct. The teapot, the tea- kettle, and tinned iron vessels are also rare. The supply of niodi-rn crockery, even of the coarsest description, is confined to a few plates and l)asins. In the parish of Barvas and part of Uig it scarcely amounts to this ; because the people of these districts still use to a considerable extent the native pottery which has already been described. At the farther end of the ai)artment, if it nuiy be so call- ed, which we are i)resently describing, stand the beds. These are not the true box or shut-in bed. Such a form would involve too much wood and too finished workmanship. They usually consist simply of four rough, upright posts, hound togvthi'r l»y narrow side-stretchers, on which rests a wooden hottoni covered with loose straw. The two up- rights which are farthest from the M'all often reach the raft- ers, and are attached to them by straw ropes. Upon these there is a sort of inner roof constructed, and this inner roof is often covered with divots. The need of this roof-Avithin- a-roof (lej)ends on the fact that the outer roof is often far from water-tight. All sexes and ages occupy these beds. Indeed, they are often the only beds possessed. If the fam- ily he large, however, there may be one or more similar beds constructed in the barn, in Mliich the chest containino- the Sunday clothes atid other such valuables is also kept. The house itself is ci»nstrncted of rough, mdiewn, and un- shaped stones. The Malls are five or six feet thick,'with an outer and inner facing of dry stone-work, the interveninor space being turf. The rafters do not overlap the outer face of the wall, but ternnnate toward its inner edije, so that the THE PAST IX THE TRESEN'T. 71 rain falls from the roof iuto and not over the wall, whieli therefore is of necessity nearly always damjj. The walls are generally not more than six feet in height ; and on the top of them, round tlie roof, there is often a foot- path, on which children, shee]), fowls, and dogs may be con- stantly seen. In one case the public foot-path to a neigh- boring township led me over the end of one of these houses, provision being made for getting up and down by stones or steps projecting from the Avail. The rafters consist of undressed crooked branches of trees, bound together with ropes of straw. The thatch is of straw, loosely put on, and held down by heather ropes, which are weighted at the end with stones. This thatch is removed every year for the sake of the soot it contains, which is regarded as a valuable stimulating ma- nure. In order to increase the deposit of soot in the thatch there is no smoke-hole ; and further, with the same object, the straw is heaj)ed thickly on at the top, so that the roof does not tinish in a sharp ridge, but is more or less semicir- cular in its outline. The inside of the house, therefore, is a constant cloud of peat-reek, which the eyes of those who are unaccustomed to it cannot tolerate. The lowest jDOssi- ble seat affords the best means of partial escape from this irritation. Such smoke as is not dej^osited in the thatch oozes out over the whole roof, giving the house, when seen from a distance, the general appearance of a dung-heap in warm wet weather. The object of the roof is not sim{)lv to protect from rain and cold l)ut to accumulate soot, and it is consequently never completely Avater-tight. After heavy rain the water comes through and blackens everything on which it falls, bringing witli it the glistening pitchy pendi- cles of soot which usually fringe the rafters. Tliere is no glazed window; nay, there is fre(jut'ntly n(»t even a hole in the wall for tlie admission of light. The absence of this is very general in the old Lewis house of 72 TIIH I'AST IN TIIK I'ltKSENT. tlu! type I am (k'scril)iii^^ Such lif^lit as gains admission enters by the door, or throu<,di one or two small lioles in the eaves of tlie roof at the top of tlie "vvall, or throngli cliinks from deficiencies in tlie constraction of the roof. The (U)or is very low — sometimes barely live feet high. It is commonly made of undressed wood, but I have seen large sti-aw mats used as doors, and I luive also seen doors made of a cow's skin stretched on a rongli wooden frame. The dwelling I liave thus described is known as the hlack hoKSfi, distinguishing it thus from the white house of stone and lime; and there are thousands of them, more or less exactly of the same character, in various f»arts of Scotland. The liberal and enlightened management of The Lewis will probably soon cause their disappearance from that island. They are everywhere, indeed, becoming less numerous than they once were. I shall not dwell on the general wretchedness of these dwellings — the absence of privacy and separation of the sexes, the presence in the house of the cattle and their accu- mulated dung, the want of comforts, etc. For my present purpose it is sufficient if I draw attention to certain features of the building which seem to me to have a special interest and importance. These are : (1), The thickness of the wall — often six or seven feet ; (2), The way in which the wall is built — two facings of dry stone with turf between; (3), The very low door — often barely five feet high ; (4), The absence of any light-hole or windo\v ; and (5), The want of overlap- ping of the wall by the roof , so that such rain as does not simply wet the roof or fall through it runs down into the l)ody of the wall. To this last feature, more perhaps than to any of the others, I attach importance. If it were to be accepted as indicative of the intellectual state of the jieople, that state would certainly be of the very lowest. To a]ipe;u- to show an ignorance of the principle of the arch THE PAST IN THE PRESENT. T3 is nothing in comparison with this. To suppose, indeed, that the Lewis arrangement is really the outcome of igno- rance and stupidity, is to suppose a degree of ignorance and stupidity which have scarcely been found among any peo- ple on the face of the earth, either now or in any past thne. In point of fact, however, this plan of roofing the Lewis houses is not an expression of want of mind or want of knowledge. The people who adopt it know perfectly well the effects and advantages of making the roof throw the rain over the wall. Why they do not act up to the meas- ure of their knowledge may be a puzzle, but it is beyond all question that it does not arise either from want of capacity or want of culture. It is difficult, of course, to think of a community living in houses like those I have pictured as being in any other state than one of great degradation. Such a conclusion, however, M'ould be incorrect. The Lewis people, as a whole, are well- conditioned physically, mentally, and morally ; and there is certainly much more intelligence, culture, happiness, and virtue in those black hovels than in the comparatively well and skilfully built houses which go to make the closes of the Canongate and Cowgate of Edinburgh, or the closes of any similar great city. There is nnich more degradation, indecency, ignorance, stupidity, and savagery in the slums of great cities than in the most outlying and backward part of the country. The dregs of the population are precipi- tated into our closes and alleys, which arc jieopled l»y per- sons who are not only uncultured, but to a large extent in- capable of culture. On the other hand, the people found living in these l)lack houses are not the dregs of a commu- nity, but a whole comnumity. This constitutes a great dif- ference between the population of the closes and vcnnels of large cities and the people of outlying regions who are cut off from the suck of the stream of progress by their remote- 74 Tin: i'ast in tiim ru esext. ncss iiiid isolation, l)ut who sliow no unlitness to go with it. Verv I'l'W, ahiiost none indeed, riHc into greatness out of the ])oiinl:itilieillings in the neighborhood. We had good guides, and were not long in reaching Larach Tigh Dhubhstail, the sum- mer pasturage of the tenants of Crolista, twelve miles from L(»ch Koag. As we had been led to expect, we found one of these beehive -liouses actually tenanted, and the family hai)i)ened to be at home. It consisted of three young wom- en. It was Sunday, and they had made their toilet with care at the burn, and had put on their printed calico goAvns. None of them could speak English; but they were not illit- erate, for one of them was reading a Gaelic Bible. They showi'd no alarm at our coming, Imt invited us into the holi, and hospitably treated us to milk. They were courteously dignitied, neither feeling nor affecting to feel embarrassment. There was no evidence of any understanding on tlieir part that we should experience surprise at their surroundings. I THE PAST IX THE rUESEXT. Fig. 37.— Beehive -house (Ceann Resort, Uijr. Lewis). See "Proc. of Soc. of Autiq. of Scot.," vol. vii., p. ICl. confess, liowever, to having sliown, as well as felt, the effects of the wine of astonishment. I do not think I ever came upon a scene which more surj^rised me, and I scarcely know where or how to begin my description of it. By the side of a burn which flowed through a little grassy fflen — a sort of oasis in the midst of a ijreat waste of boic and rock — we saw two small round hive -like liillocks, not much higher than a man, joined to- gether, and cover- ed with grass and weeds (Fig. 37). Out of the top of one of them a col- umn of smoke slo'^v- ly rose, and at its base there was a hole about three feet high and two feet wide, which seemed to lead into the inte- rior of the hillock — its holloAmess, and the possibility of its having a human creature within it, being thus suggested. There was no one, however, actually in the l)(>h^ the three girls, when we came in sight, being seated on a knoll by the bum-side ; but it was really in the inside of these two green hillocks that they slept, and cooked their food, and carried on their work, and — dwelt, in short. The character of this dwelling will be most readily understood if I iirst describe its ground-plan (Fig. 38). It consisted of two ro(mis opening into ,u.-. .-h.Avii in Fig.37. each other. Though externally the two blocks looked round in tluMr outline, and were in fact Fl,?. 38.— riiin of I?orhivc-l a aiul /, doors ; /, bed ; arlv s(», intiTiiiillv llio one ajiai-tmcnt rniglit l^o described as iiTci^nilarly n»uiit as we might have found a chamber in the walls of the Broch of Mousa occupied as a sheilling. This feeling was strcn it was iiiliabited l)j four families, and the present tenant (18(tO) of Aird Bheag, an old inaii. lived in it when a boy for eight successive summers.'" Again, there are sometimes two door-ways. It is thought that this is a late feature, and that its object was to make "the fire draw," by rendering it always possible to close the door to windward. The plan of a hoh at Loch an Atli Kuadh shows this character (Fig. 43). Captain Tliomiis, op. fit., vol. iii., j>. l^'.'. 5^4 TlIK i'AST IN TIIK I'llKSKNT. Severai> of iIk' hc'i'liivc'-liousc's wliicli are now in niins have a skri)in^r-])lacc' in the thickness of the Avail. I have already alluded to this as an occasional feat- ure of some of the older black houses whicli are still occupied. But there is a niddiiication of tlie wall- lied to which I have for a moment to draw attention. It occurs in Bo'h Stacseal, between Stornoway and Carloway, of which a plan and section are given in Fig. 43.-Plan of Bcchive-hons=e on wost side of yitr, 44.-" Tllis hM loet to 1 inch. By per- mission, from Fergnsson's "History of Architecture," vol. i., p. 3S5. Lond., 1S65. * Captain Thomas, op. cit.,vol. vii., p. 179. f Ibid. vol. vii., p. 179. THE PAST L\ THE PRESENT. 89 facts teach — without tliouglit of tliat law wliieh has siicli im- portant bearings on the study and interpretation of those ves- tiges from which we try to read the story of prehistoric man. In another part of his paper Captain Thomas quotes from D]'. Daniel Wilson the remark that " it is curious that, as civilization progressed, primitive architecture became not only simpler but meaner," and Caj^taiu Thomas adds that there is sufficient evidence in the beehive-houses "of this descending progression,"'^ I can only welcome sentiments of this kind, which lit so well into the way which I take of looking at such matters. The meanest of all beehive-houses is that which men con- struct at this very day, to give up-putting or shelter not to men but to pigs and poultry. Such structures I have seen in the parish of Evie in Orkney, and they may be met with in other parts of that county, and also in Caithness. I have seen many, and have many sketches of them. I first came across them clustered about the strange deserted religious buildings on Einhallow — a little island in the tempeotuous Orkney seas, which has never yet been properly studied, and which some day may prove to be a sort of northern lona. Till recently these old buildings were turned to some ac- count as ordinary dwellings. When I visited them, how- ever, no one lived on the island, and I thought that these little solid beehive structures might prove an important an- tiquarian discovery. A better knowledge of the main-land taught me that they w^ere nothing but the pigsties of the people whom typhus had driven from the sacred island a year or two before my visit. Indeed, I had scarcely landed from Einhallow when, at Evie, on the main-land, I saw one of these structures tenanted by a pig, and learned that it had been built about ten years before. * Captain Thomas, op. cit., vol. vii., p. 183. 90 Tin; I'AST i.\ tiih present. 1 k'uvc tliis siilijcct with (lie rciiiiii'k tliut tlic ])celiivG- liouHe Cfrtiiiiily l)cl(iiii:;s to tin; iiiiui without a story, tliou^li till' mail with a story is fouiul still clin_i:;ing to it. It be- coiiu's thus a ])i-oloni;atioii of tlie prehistoric into tlic liis^ toric, forciui; us to rt'ali/e wluit we well know, tliougli -we have (lro])])((l into ii fashion of speaking and almost think- ing otherwise, that even for a so-called "old country" like ours there is hut a short road through the historic to the prehistoric, and that phrases like "immense antiquity" and '• enormous age" are sometimes made use of in reference to things to whicli they have no wx'll-aseertained appliea- bilitv. THE PAST IN THE PRESENT. 91 Lecture IV. (2Stu April, 1S7C.) CAVE LIFE.— CAIRNS.— RIVLINS.— THE SCYTHE.— THE ONE-STILTED PLOUGH. — THE CASCHROM. — WHEELLESS CARTS. —BUTTON.-^. — STONE COFFINS.— THE CRUSIE AND TINDER-BOX.— BROOCHES.— THE BISMAR. Labor, time, and skill are expended on the erection of beehive -houses, but there are dwellings which their occu- pants choose because they are ready-made, and I have now to speak of these ; that is, of the extent to which cave life may still be seen in Scotland. In August, 1866, along with two friends,^'- I visited the great cave at the south side of Wick 13ay. It was nine at night, and getting dark when we reached it. It is situated in a cliff, and its mouth is close to the sea. Very higli tides, especially with north-east winds, reach the entrance, and force the occupants to seek safety in the back ]iart of the cave, which is at a somewhat liigher level tluiu its mouth. We found twenty-four inmates — men. women, and chil- dren — belonging to four families, the heads of which were all there. They had retired to rest for the night a short time before our arrival, l)Ut their lires were still smoulder- ing. They received us civilly, ])erhaps with more than mere civility, after a judicious distribution of pence and * Mi. Malcolm M'Lennaii and Mi'. Ju^oph Andersou, 92 TlIK I'AST IN TlJi; I'UKSENT. tol)ar('n. To our ^rcat relief, the do^^s, wliicli were numer- ous and vieious, seeuied to underritand tliat we were made W('l<'(»ine. Tlie beds on wliicli we found tlicse people lying consist- ed of straw, grass, and brackens, spread upon the rock or t^liingle, and each was supplied with one or two dirty, ragged blankets or pieces of matting. Two of the beds were near the ])eat fires, which were still burning, but tlie others were farther back in the cave, where they were better sheltered. On the bed nearest the entrance lay a man and his wife, both absolutely naked, and two little cliildren in the same state. On the next bed lay another couple, an infant, and one or two older children. Then came a bed with a bundle of children, whom I did not count. A youngish man and his M'ife, not quite naked, and some children, occupied the fourth bed, while the fifth from the mcuth of the cave was in possession of the remaining couple and two of their chil- dren, one of whom was on the spot of its birth. Far l)ack in the cave — up-stairs in the garret, as they facetiously call- ed it — were three or four biggish boys, who were undressed, but had not lain down. One of them, moving about witli a tlickering light in his hand, contributed greatly to the weird-, uess of the scene. Besides the child spoken of, we were told of another birth in the cave, and we heard also of a recent death there, that of a little child from typhus. The Procurator-Fiscal saw this dead child lying naked on a large flat stone. Its father lay beside it in the delirium of typhus when death paid this visit to an abode with no door to knock at. r>oth men and women, naked to their waists, sat up in their lairs and talked with us, and showed no sense of shame. One of the men summoned the candle-boy from the garret, in order that we might see better, and his wife trinnued the dying fire, and then, after lighting her pipe, ]>roceedcd to suckle her child. THE PAST IN THE PRESENT. 93 In tlie afternoon of the next dav, with another friend,* J paid a second visit to this cave, when we found eighteen inmates, most of whom were at an early snpper, consisting of porridge and treacle, aj^parently well cooked and clean. One of the women was busy baking. She mixed the oat- meal and water in a tin dish, spread the cake out on a flat stone which served her for a table, and, placing the cake against another stone,t toasted it at the open fire of turf and wood. This was one of three fires, all situated about the centre of the wider part or mouth of the cave, each with a group about it of women and ragged children. There was no table, or chair, or stool to be seen, stones being so arranged as to serve all these puq^oses. There was no sort of building about the entrance of the cave to give shelter from the winds, which nmst often blow fiercely into it. Yet this cave is occupied both in summer and winter by a varying number of families, one or two of them being almost constant tenants. I believe I am correct in saying that there is no parallel illustration of modern cave life in Scotland. The nearest approach to it, perhaps, is in the cave on the opposite or north side of the same bay. Both of these caves I have had frequent opportunities of visiting, and I have always found them peopled. Only occasional use is made of the other caves on the Caithness and Sutherland coasts. Of these, perhaps, the cave at Ham, in Dunnet parish, is the most frequented. It is the nearness to a large town which gives to the Wick caves their steady tenants. The neighboring population is large enough to afford scope for trading, beg- ging, and stealing — all the year round. * SherifiE Russell. f Not long ago it was customary in some parts of Scotland, in Forfar.-iliiio and Kincardineshire, for instance, to toast the oatcakes before the open fire on stones specially made for the purpose. Some of these are figured in the Ap- pendi.x. 94 Till-: J'AST IN Till': prkskxt. The (.(•(•ii|);mts of tilt' Wick cavcs are tlie people com- iiioiilv kiiKwii liv the iKiiiu- of tinkers. Tliey are so called because they work cliictly in tinned iron. The men cut, hanuner, and shape, wliile the women do tlie soldering, r.ut tliey also make honi spoons, coup horses, tell fortunes, and Ix'ui: <"' f^tcal. One or two of them are known to have saved a little money ; and all of them are believed to pass more money through their hands than do thousands of those who live in a far less degraded state. A\'ht'n they do not occujiy these caves they live under canvas, and miserable things their tents are. They are nothing, indeed, but pieces of blanketing or canvas spread over bent sticks, which have their two ends fixed in the ground ; and they are not above four feet high, so that their occupants require to creep into them. Indeed, they are lit- tle more than low coverings of the rudest construction erect- ed over the beds of their tenants, who cannot be said to dwell in them ; they do nothing but sleep in them and use them as a shelter when the rain is heavy. They sit, and eat, and work in the open air, so that the tent life of tinkers is not mueli in advance of their cave life, and neither life is nuicli ahead of that of the most degraded savage. House life they have none. Such caves and tents as I have de- scribed constitute their only dwellings. The tinkers of the Wick caves are a mixed breed. Tlicre is no ii:\\)^\ blood in them. 1 make this assertion with con- tidence, having repeatedly visited Yetholm, and other places where gypsies are to be found, to enable me to form an opinion on the point. Some of them claim a West Island origin ; others say they are true Caithness men ; and others again look for their ancestors among the Southern Scotch. The parents of one Avoman were correctly said to be Irish, for her tongue betrayed her origin. Light and red hair, blue eyes, and a white freckled skin were common among them. They were not strongly built, nor had they a look THE PAST I\ THE TKESENT. 95 of vigorous bodily health. Their lieads and faces were usu- ally bad in form. Xot a few of the heads reminded me of those so often seen among persons who have been convicted of petty crime ; and as regards their faces, broken noses and scars were a common disfigurement, and a revelation, at the same time, of the brutality of their lives ; yet some among them might be called good-looking. One girl might have been painted for a rastic beauty of the Norse type, and there was a boy among them with an excellent head. It is possible that one or both of these may yet leave their par- ents, from dissatisfaction with the life they lead. This we might expect ; but it has been actually ascertained that those who are deserters from this wretched wandering life are al- ways the intelligent, the pleasant-looking, and the able-bod- ied. They are tempted to desert by the feeling that they have it in them to reach the greater comforts which they see so many enjoying in the community from which they are practically sejiarated. These people, however, are not, in any sense, a race ; they are only the dregs of a race — persons who have dropped out of the line of march. Nothing reveals this more clear- ly than an examination of the recruits which they must re- ceive to prevent their dying out. This examination I have made over and over again, and I have always found the recruits to be of a low type — poor creatures, morally, intel- lectually, and physically. These cave people, in short, are a counterpart of the population of our city closes. If they were transported to Edinljurgh or Glasgow, they would nat- urally and necessarily find their homes in its slums. They are not, however, one whit more degraded than the people who actually inhabit these slums, and whose houses are built of stone and lime, though we are able to say of them that they live in caves, where children are born, brought up, and die ; that they sit before strangers almost in nakedness, with- out feeling or showing a sense of shame ; that virtue and OG TIIK I'AST IN Tin; I'KKSKNT. (•ha.stity exist feebly amon<; tliein, and Ik^iioi- and tnitli more feeldy Ptill ; that they neither read n(.r write; that tliey go to no eliureli, and have scarcely any Hort of religious belief <.r worship; and that they know little or nothing of their liistory beyond what can be refen-ed to personal recollec- tion. I might almost write this last sentence as a description of the Bushmen of Australia or the savages of the Andaman Islands. But if I did so, and asserted that the same words do really describe both the cave people of Wick and these savages more accurately than we like to admit, I should l)robably be reminded of one important difference, namely, that the tinkers are workers in iron, while the savages be- long to the stone age and know nothing of the metals. I should answer this with a question, and ask Avhat reasons ex- ist for thinking that the manufacture of a tin kettle involves a greater effort of intellect or skill than the manufacture of a tiirit arrow-head I Is it correct to regard the maker of our elegantly-shaped and highly-finished Hint arrow-heads and celts as less of a skilled workman or less of an artist than the maker of tin pails and pannikins ? It is true, the first picks up a stone and out of it fashions the tool or weapon he wants; while the latter makes his pails out of one met- al coated with another metal, on the preparation of which much knowledge has been expended. But it was not ex- l)ended by him ; and, when he goes to a shop and buys his sheets of tinned iron, he picks them up in as full a sense as the stone-age man picks \\\) his flint nodule. In a fuller sense, I should rather say ; for we know that the stone-age man mined f(»r his nodules in order to reach the strata in which those lay which best suited his purpose ; while the tinker of the Wick caves takes his sheets of metal from the merchant without a question or a thought about where thev came fi'om or how they were prepared. If we had the men THE TAST IN TUE PRESENT. 97 here who made our old flint arrow-heads, can any one doubt their ability to learn arts greatly more ditheult than the art of working in tinned iron? It is by no means so certain, on the other hand, that we should succeed in finding men among the Wick tinkers who could be trained into skilled workers in flint. I FouxD no sculptures in the Wick caves, not even a rude figure or letter cut for amusement in an idle hour. Perhaps this is accounted for by the fact that the rock is very hard and ill-suited for carving; but to some extent it certainly has its origin in the degraded, feeble, and ignorant condition of the occupants. Nor did I find any refuse-heap in the caves or near them — a fact which I could only explain by the proximity of the sea. If the peoj^le ceased to inhabit these caves, they would leave absolutely nothing to show what their mode of life had been. Even the tin clijjpings, which are in al)undance among the loose stones, would disappear by corrosion long before the lapse of half a century. I do not now ask what information we possess to enable us to institute a comparison between the present cave people of Caithness and those who dwelt in the caves of the Dor- dogne, when the mammoth and reindeer existed in France, or those who inhabited Kent's Hole or the caves of Brix- ham when the bear and the hyena were among the Mild ani- mals of England. On this subject I shall have occasion to speak in a future course of lectures, and I think it must be plain to all that what has been now said of the cave life at Wick may then be Iielpful in di*awing conclusions which are fair and sound. It can scarcely fail to be so, if I am correct in thinking that it shows us : 1. That though a certain portion of a people arc found J),S TIIH TAST IN TIIK rKKSKNT. to live ill (Mvcs, it dues not follow tliat the whole, or even ii lari^e part of that people, do so. 2. That there may be an occasional, as well as a continu- ous, li\ iiii; in caves, and that the people who live in them occasionally may have other dwellings. ;5. That the cave dwellers of a nation may exhibit a de- gree of degradation Avhich may not be exhibited by the na- tion of which they form a part. In other words, that cave dwelling in a country may represent something abnormal or exceptional as regards that country and its peojile. If this be true in our time, it may have been trae in past times. 4. That working in metals does not of itself necessarily imply a greater mental power, or greater culture, than work- ing in stone. 5. That in all nations or races, and most clearly in those nations on which the civilizing forces are operating strong- ly, there is a sedimentary class, formed of and recruited from those who are incapable of holding a high place. Such per- sons are uncultured because they are incapable of receiving culture. This class presents itself, though in a manner less marked, in nations or races which have made little progress. Flocks of the coarsest breed of sheep produce sliotts, and so do the lowest races of men. Even where the tree of culture is low, and where those who reach the very top have but a short climb, there will be weaklings at the foot who cannot climb at all. In every state of society or degree of civilization this happens, though it is certainly most appai*ent in states of high civilization and culture. TuERE is. perhaps, nothing of man's work in Scotland which M'e deem older than our cairns. AVe connnonly think of them as mere heaps of stones, but recent explorations show them to be frequently con- THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. {)i) stracted on definite and very cnrious plans. "We should liave known more of this if tlie same intelligence had guided the exploration of cairns generally as directed the explora- tion of the cairns of Caithness. The work which a few years ago was done there by Mr. Joseph Andei-son, and which I had opportunities of watching as it proceeded, has greatly raised the dignity of cairns, and has made us realize that they were certainly not always the work of a poor and feeble people, nor even of a thin population. One of the Caithness cairns is 24:0 feet long and 7(> feet wide, and many cairns are of great size. Such memorial structures show health and power both in the intellectual and in the moral nature of those who built them. Xeither in conception and purpose, nor in execution, are they insignificant or poor. It does not affect this conclusion that no stone of them is fash- ioned into shape by any tool, and that inscriptions are want- ing on them. This merely discloses an absence of our cult- ure in their builders, not the absence of an ability to receive it. Many of our cairns were built l)y people in their stone age ; but they nevertheless reveal in their builders both in- tellectual capacity and correct sentiments, Xo one, I think, who fairly studies their grandeur, multitude, and purpose, can come to any other conclusion. I make these general remarks about cairns in order that some things regarding them, which I am about to state, may be better understood. Cairns, as I have said, are not always mere heaps of stones thrown together at random. Many of them, on the con- trary, are distinct structures, " with a regular ground-plan, and a well-defined exterior and interior elevation."- This is true of all the chambered cairns. They differ in their pattern and vary in their details, but the leading features of architectural construction are constant. The clKunbcr occupies the body of the cairn, and has regularly-built walls, * " Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. xii., p. 342. 100 TiiK I'AST IN Tin: ri:i;si;.\T. aiul a roul" rudely arched \>y overhi})!)!)!^^ stones. "A long ])assa. % plan of it is given in Fig. 53. This cuini lias another feature of interest, which presents itself also in the case of the cairn at Clava. On one of the standing stones, on the north-west side of the circle, there occnr the cnp- markings which Sir r\ James Sim])S()n described ill his work on Archaic 8cul2)ture8 (Edin., 1867). On another stone lying loosely on the top of the Fi-.:. SS.-Plai, of circular Cairn at Corriemony, cairn, l)llt known to l)e •" tileni:rqalu.r.,l..verne..-shire. Tl.cCairn 18 about 00 It'ct lu diaiueier and about 11 feet out of its proper position, •" Ji«isht. see "Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of . . Scot.," vol. X., p. 044. the same cnp- markings also occnr. These two stones are shown in Figs. 5-4 and 55. Another ilhistration of design in tlie construction of a cairn occurs at Inverladnan, in Strathspey, and is shown in Fig. 5G, which roughly rein'esents the ground-plan.* This c-^zs * "Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. x., p. 084. 1(»4 TllK I'AST I.N TIIK IMIEISEN'T. caini is simpler than tlic circuhM' cliaiiibL'red eairii, f-iiice, iiistejul of a elKinibur with a i^assage leading to it, it contains ^^V/. Fij,'. 54.— Stniuliiig Stoue with ciip-inarkiiiKs at Corrienio- iiy, iu Glen Urquhart, Inver- ui'ss-shire; 4 feet 7 iuches hiirh, 2 feet 4 inches broad, and T indies thicli. Fisr. 55.— Slab with ciii)-mai-kings at Corriemony, iu Glen Uiquhart, Invernes.s-shire; 8 feet long, 4 feet bioad, and 10 inches thick.— "Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. X., p. 644. ( iiily a sliurt cist, in whicli liiiman remains were fonnd. It does not follow, however, from its greater simplicity and smaller Fii?. 5G.— Plan of small Cairn over a short cist at Invcrladnan, in Strathspey, surrounded and traversed by a low flat line of loose stones somewhat resembling: a paved way. The dotted line A D shows the position of a wire fence, during the erection of which the cairn was destroyed. size, that it was the work of a more ancient and ruder people. A cairn of the bronze age may show still lower architect- THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 105 iiral features, and may be almost correctly described as a mere lieaj:) of stones erected over one or more graves. Of this we have an illustration in the sepulchral cairn at Col- lessie, a ground-plan and section of which are given in Figs. 57 and 58. The exploration of this cairn yielded the bronze dagger-blade, and the gold fillet to enciivle its handle, which 50 feet -I Fij^.'^. 67, 5S.— Plan, and section ou <•, (/, of Bronze-age Cairn at Collessie. — " Proc. of See. of Autiq. of Scot.," vol. xii., p. 441. are represented in Figs. 59 and 60. It yielded also the two urns shown in Figs. 61 and 62. Mr. Anderson, in describing this cairn,* says it " is struct- ureless. It has nothing of the nature of a wall, external or * " Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. xii., p. IU'>. ion Till-: I'AST IN TIIK I'ltKSKXT. iiitci-ii;il ; and thus, l'(.r :iii,i;lit tliat it ,slio\vs to tlie contrary, the people who reared it iiii_i;ht have been destitute of the c'«»nstriictive altility to erect a Avall, and yet tliey were in Fig. r;9.— Brouze D;i^:,'L'r-bla.le founu m m.; >,.mii] -.a L\>i,i-!»iL; iiit.-liire. Fi''. CO.— Gold Fillet which had eucircled ihc liaudle of Dagger (Fig. 50). Fig. 01.— I'm t'ouiid in central cist of Fig. 62.— Urn loiHui ?ix IVot tindei- thebaseof cniru at Collessie ; 9 inches in height. the cairn at Collessie; t inches in height. Llieir bronze age, wliile the people of Caithness, who con- strncted chanibei'ed cairns, were in tlieir stone ase. I do not infer from this, liowever,"' he i?oes on to say, "that these THE PAST IX THE rPvESEXT. 107 men of the ])ronze age in Fife were inferior in constructive capacity to the men of the stone age in the north of Scot Un id. But the facts have a very important bearing on the theor}- of tlie relative age of tlie two classes of cairns. They show that the rude, structureless cairn, enclosing a simple cist of slabs, is not on that account necessarily older than the elab- orately constructed chambered cairns. They show us that the less advanced structure may be characteristic of the more advanced civilization ; and hence we are taught that we should have erred completely if we had attempted to meas- ure the relative civilization of these two peoples by simj:»ly comparing the indications of constructive ability they have exhibited in the erection of their cairns." These views are so much in harmony with those I have long endeavored to teach, that I gladly quote them.' There are cairns which we know to be even later tlian those of the bronze age, and we find these still sim2)ler and ruder. I cannot tell what kind or size of cairn was erected in the ])resence of St. Columba over the grave of the de- crcjut chief of the Geona cohort by his companions who brought him to Skye to be baptized, but it must, I think, have been structureless ; and the same appears to have been true of the small cairn which is, or lately M'as, in the church- yard of Penmachno, in AV^ales, over the Christian Carausius — the pillar-stone in connection with the cairn bearing the Christian monogram of the chrisma^ and having inscribed on it, in ])ad Latin, tlie words cakavsivs nic ,)A( ri' i\ noc CONGKlilKS LAI'IDIM. But though 1 can say little of the character of the early Christian cairns, I am able to speak definitely of some which are late, for the j)ractice of building cairns in memory of the dead survives in Scotland. Indeed, it may still be call- ed a connnon ])raetice in certain parts of the north-west main-land. The place of interment in these districts is of- ten very far from the place of dwelling, and as the coftin is 108 THE PAST IN Tin; ri'.KSKXT. carrit'd \)\ iiicii ami not by liorsos, u halt is generally made on till! way to the grave, so that the bearers may rest and refresh themselves. Where the rest is taken a small cairn is erected, generally about four or fiv^e feet high, and three or four feet wide at the base. On tlie way from certain districts to the clnirch-yard there are some favorite halting- ])Ia('es, and at such places many of these small cairns will of course be found. I have seen several of tliese favored spots, and one of tjiem, situated in a bircli wood a few miles Fi^. 63.— Group ofMocleni Cairns uear Tor<;yle Inn, Inverness-shire. from Torgyle Inn, is represented in the above woodcut (Fig. 03) from a sketch 1 took in 1864. When a distinguished person is being carried to the grave, then the cairn is sometimes large and carefully constructed. There ai-e two such cairns on the roadside not many miles from Fort William, both of considerable size and pretension, which mark the halting-place of the funeral processions of two gentlemen who were well known and highly esteemed (Figs. (U and G5). I saw these also in 1804, and made the sketches from which the woodcuts are taken. THE PAST IX THE rRESKXT. 109 It is not possible to regard the practice now described as anytliing but a survival of the time monumental and sepul- chral cairn-building. In this light alone it is extremely in- teresting. But it also suggests a speculation as to whether some of the simpler and unchambered cairns, which have hitherto been always regarded as of great age, may not be much more modern than has been generally supposed. A cairn three or four times the size of that shown in Fig. G4 would be an imposing and enduring structure ; and there would be nothing about it to show that it was built in the late iron age. A\''e should not even find the name of the person in whose honor it was erected attached to it by any Figs. 64, 65.— Modern Caiins on the roadside not far from Fort William. sort of inscription. A century hence that name, though it is now well knoM'n to the people, will almost to a certainty be forgotten. Cairns of considerable size, undoubtedly modem, and forming part of a group many of which are known to be literally of yesterday, no doubt carried names with them on the public tongue of a generation back ; but these names are already completely lost. In archfeological studies we are too apt to forget the work which a single century is ca]>able of accomplishing. Indeed, it sometimes seems as if we derived gratification from referring an object or practice to an enor- mously remote period; and we are thus tempted to form hastv conclusions, and to be content with evidence which 1 1(1 TIIK I'AST IN TIIK I'liKSKNT. would not siitisfv iuiy jury of .scientitic iiien. P>ut tlic love of tlie Reiisatioiiiil oui»;lit to bo a feeling altogether unknown t(» the searcher after truth. Where Imndreds or tens of hundreds of vears are sutHcient, why slionld we desire tens of th(»usands or millions^ l\ray we not fairly infer, from what has l)een said aljont euirns, 1, Tliat we have no grounds for holding it imiiossible that some of our great cairns of complex structure are of as late a period as the beeliiye-liouses, which certain of them resem- ble, in so far at least as regards the structure of the contain- ed chamber. The fact that we have no knowledge of the late erection of any such cairn is no j^roof that all of them must be of vast antiquity. Till quite recently we did not know even of the existence of beehive-houses in our coun- try, nnu-h less of their being lately built and still occupied, 2. That the cairn of to-day is nothing but an utterly mean edition of the grand cairn of former times. In other words, that as cairn-building dies out it appears to do so by a proc- ess of debasement, the practice being represented in its last struggle for existence by the pitifully poor little heaps of stones to which a Highlander now refers, when, feeling sure of surviving you, he cheerily promises to mark his respect bv adding a stone to your cairn. I oxcE met a funeral procession, and soon after I saw the little cairn which had been built while it halted, and added my stone to it. One of the men who carried the coffin wore shoes made of the hide of the ox, untanned, and with the hair still on it. Such shoes are kno^m as rivlins, and are described in books of costume as " the shoes of the an- cient Briton."' This sounds well, and I find no fault with it. They are so described correctly, and they have properly THE TAST IN THE FREJhu'k. The gayest pairs, however, are as rude in idea and construction as the dullest. It was to the use of these shoes that flohn Elder referred in his famous letters to Henry YIII. of England (in 154-*2- 4:3), when he M-ishcd to show the extent of tlie barbarism 119 Tllfi PAST IN Tin; I'KHSKNT. uf tlic "Wilde Scots." They were re- iii;irkal)le and iKitewortliy then, yet thou- sands of them still exist. \ At Colinsbroch, in Dunrossness, on the way from Lerwick to Siimburgh Head, I once saw two men, with rivlins on their feet, whose occupations interested me. One of them was cutting grass witli the strange and rudely-shaped scythe sho\m in Fig. 67 ; and the other was breaking up hmd with a one-stilted plough. This last I had never seen before ; and, so far as I could learn, no one could see it in actual use anywhere in Scotland except in this particular part of Shetland. Even there, I understood that it was ceasing to be employed in 18(54:. In a country like ours, where so much mind has been given to the improvement of ploughs, and for the prosperity of which the plough does so much, I felt that the continued use of this rude implement was remarkal)le and noteworthy. Accordingly, I purchased the plough. Unfortunately, however, the specimen which I figure (Fig. 68) is not the one I bought, but a new one which came to me in its stead, the owner of the one I saw in use being ashamed to send so Fig. 67. -shethind Scythe, rudc a sjiccimen to Scotland.* * A Shetlander says he is going to Scotland, just as he might say he was go. ing to France or Norway. This habit is a survival of the time when Shetland was not a part of Scotland. THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 113 That the one-stilted plough should still be used in our country is remarkable ; yet, as an agricultural implement, it Fig. OS.— Shetland oue-stilted Plough. may be regarded as a long way in advance of the Caschrom or foot-plough, of which there are thousands now in use in the Hebrides and on the west side of the main-land. Tliis implement (see Fig. 69) consists of a piece of wood with a knee on it, the part on one side of the knee being consid- erably longer than the part on the other side, and the two forming together an obtuse an- gle. The longer part may be regarded as the handle. The shorter is securely fastened to a flat piece of wood, somewhat less than half the length of the handle, which is nuide sharp by a shoe- ing of iron. Xear the knee there projects a pin of wood. On this the foot is placed, and the iron-shod ])oint of the implement forced l)y it into the soil. Jf the hiin- 8 Fig. 69.— Caschrom or Foot-plongh of the Uebi'ides. 114 Tin: I'AST IN Tin-: i'imisknt. (Uu is then (lc'i)rc.ssc(l, the part of the iiiiplcinent forced into tlie soil rises tliroui;]i it. and breaks up the ground as it does so. Tlie work wliich the casehroiu does is iieitlier contemp- tible in (piantity nor quiditj, and tlierc has gone brain to its contrivance. AVhen we remember tlie littleness of tlie patches of land which in the Hebrides are, and can only be, brought under cultivation, and the peaty character of the soil, we bcirin to see the cleverness of its invention. Cer- tainly no plough, whether one or two stilted, could take its place and do its work. If it is right for the people to go on cultivating these little patches of peaty land, then the best instrument with wliich they can do it is probably the one they use. We too often fail to see, in what we call rude implements, that suitability for their purpose, in the circumstances of ^ feft f T6 ^ _ r II 1 -vw *** ..,,. j_, — Figs. 70, 71.— Two Caits without wheels. luveniess-shiie. their actual use, which we have just now seen in the ease of the casehrom. I was not a little surprised, for instance, when I saw in Strathglass, Kintail, and elsewhere, in the years 1803 and 18(U, carts in use without wheels (Figs. TO TITE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 115 and 71), exactly of the kind wliicli Bnrt fi^fures in his cele- brated letters (Fig. 72), and wliicli lie adduces as evidence of the backward and degraded state of the people of the North Highlands in 1745. But, -when I saw wliat tliese carts were employed in doing — namely, transporting peats, Fig. 72.— Cart without wheels. From "Burt's Letters." ferns, and hay from high grounds down very steep hills en- tirely without roads — I saw that the contrivance was admira- bly adapted for its pur^jose, and tliat wheeled carts would have been useless for that work. But I saw more than this : I saw that these carts were used in doing the exact analogue of what is done every day in the advanced south — even where the hand -plough has yielded to the steam- plough, and the sickle to the reaping-machine. When bowlders, for instance, are removed on sledges from the fields in which they have been turned up ; when trees are transported on sledges from the high grounds on M'hich they have been cut ; when a heavily laden lorry puts on the drag as it comes downhill, what is it that we see but carts without wheels — carts without wheels preferred to carts with wheels, whenever the circumstances in which they are to be used make the want of the wheels an ad- vantage? It is not always an evidence of capacity or skill to use elaborate or tine machinery. A rough, rude tool may for certain purposes be the most efficient, and may sliow wisdom both in its contriver and employer. It would IKi TIIK I 'A ST I\ TJIK rUKSKXT. certainly sliow a want of wisdom in tlie Kintail llighland- ers if they used wheeled carts to do the work they require nf tlicir wheelless carts. Indeed, tliey could not so use them, except by pnttiiii^ the dra^i; on hard and fast — being first at the trouble of getting wheels, and then at the trouble of ])reventing them from turning. I do not ask that this view be taken in regard to every rude-looking implement, whether now in nse or in disuse; but I cannot be wrong in holding that we ought to inquire whetlier such a view may not be taken. The omission to do this would be unscien- tific, and might leave us with only a half-sight of the truth, if it did not land us in absolute error, as it landed Captain Ihirt. A GOOD example of objects, which, so far as I see, can scarcely be regarded as having remained in use because of their fitness for a special purpose, or for a purpose influenced by special conditions, is found in the bone but- tons which may still be occasionally seen in the Outer Hebrides. They ai'e of two kinds. One is a flat square piece of bone (Fig. 73), about an inch way, having four holes cut through it, by which it is sewed to the coat. These buttons do not differ essentially from the round bone buttons, which can be bought in any shop for so small a sum that it is difficult to understand why any one should laboriously manufacture them for himself. The other form of but- ton which I saw in The Lewis has more fi,. T4.-I3one Button fom The Lewis. character about it. It is a roughly - cylindrical piece of bone, about one and a # # Fig. »3.— Square Bone Button eacll from The Lewis. THE TAST IX THE PRESENT. 117 half inclies long and a quarter of an incli thick (Fig. 74), At the centre of its length a groove goes round it, forming a sort of neck. The thread which fastens it to the coat era- braces this neck, and makes the button secure in its place. In the way of a dress - fastener, nothing sim- pler or ruder than this button, cither in idea or execution, was ever made, I also show, in Fig. 75, the section of a home-made bone button found in Orkney. Let us imagine the Barvas man, on whom . . Fig. 75.— Section I saw the buttons shown in Fig. 74, dead and of Bone Button l)urnt for burial. Nothing would remain of '""^ ' "*'^' him but his bones and his buttons. Suppose these to be swept up and placed in one of his own craggans as an urn, and then entombed in a stone-lined cist. If, a few years after, some antiquarian resurrectionist disturbed his ashes, to what age would they be assigned ? The form of the urn would be a puzzle, though the pottery would be found to be as rude as that of any urns. The bone buttons would scarcely be a puzzle; for a better made button than I saw on this Barvas man was actually found among burnt human bones in an urn which was dug up at Murthly (Fig. 7G). Burning Fin- 70— Bone But- ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ placiug him iu a stone coffin ton found with hu- ^vould probably be held as proving him to mail remains in ± t/ ^x o an urn dug up at be prehistoric ; yet cremation of the dead Muithly. . . , „ , . . ^ J ^ -. IS coming into lasluon again, and I have it from a trustworthy source that at Ness, in the island where this man lived, up to what may be called a recent period, few persons were buried in wooden coffins. There was one large wooden box, called The Chest of the Dead, and nearly every one whom death visited in the district was carried to the burial-ground in this chest, and there trans- ferred to a grave roughly lined with stones. Nothing, so far as I know, is anywliere recorded to tell of this old cus- -^^wm lis TIIK I'AST IN TlIK I'ltKSKXT. toiii; but WO often fail to realize liow quickly a custom like tliis ni:iy f:ill into disuse and he utterly forgotten, and how (it'tcii it li;i|)])('iis tli.'it no occasion to describe it arose while it was still fa- miliar. Fifty years ago luci- fer matches were unknown, and sulphur spunks and tin- der-boxes were in almost every house. Now there is pi-. 7t. -a TKuier-box n-om unst, in shet- scarcely a corner of the world !="''^ = f;""" '''"^^f ^" diameter, aud u >^ inches deep; made of tiiiiicd iron. The where lucifer matches may flint and steel, aud the lid for extiugnish- iug the lighted tiiKler, are in the inside. not be purchased ; while tin- der-boxes have so completely disappeared that it is very difficult to obtain a specimen, and we are already in igno- rance of the shapes they commonly took (see Figs. 77 and 78). Ill about half that time the discovery of paraffine has Fig. 7S.— Brass Tinder-box. with candle-socket ou the lid. The inner lid aud the steel find flint are shown. The flint was bought in a shop in Thornhill, where there were niauy hundreds for sale. The tinder-box is 4i inches in diameter, and IJ inches deep. THE TAST IX TUE TRESEXT. 119 swept tlie crusie or oil-lamii out of existence. Thirty or forty years ago there were probably millions of them in Scotland, and now they have a place in collections of an- tiquities, and can only be bought at a considerable j)rice Fig. 79.— A Crusie from Shetland, Fig. SO.— A Crusie iu stand, fruni tlie collection in whei-e it is called a Collie. the National Museum of Auti TIIK I'AST IN Till-: I'itKSKNT. Fi \V(.ni ill the Iluhridcs. It is now <;eiierally made of copper; ])ut I figure one made of silver, wliicli I l)OUglit at Inverie, from a woman wlio was wearing it (Fig, si). Tliis brooch consists simply of a ring, and a tongue hinged on the ring. No soldering is used in its manufacture. It is rude in ex- ecution and idea, and, for the ordi- ig. SI. -Silver Anmilai- Brooch j^^j.y purpOSeS of a brOOcll, is praC- fromliiverncss-shire. Full size. . . Onmmentiition very simple, but ticallj of little USC. still Celtic in character. ' \Ve have no reason to suppose that the amiular brooches hitherto found in Scotland are older than medineval. They are now disappearing, and in a few years will have altogether gone from actual life. They acquire a special interest, however, from the fact that the more highly - finished are believed to be the old- er. During the last century or half-century, only rude spec- imens have been made, and these often out of the old copper pen- ny. No person, who could afiiord to buy a highly - finished one, would now care to have it, un- less for scientific purposes or as a curiosity. A brooch of much greater utility could be bought for less money. So it has happened that such of these brooches as con- tinued to l)e made in recent times became ruder and ruder, both in ^''^- S2.- Annular Brooch from Knoydart, made of a curtain execution and pattern, till a sj^ec- i'"s and a bodie-piu. fuu imen, made out of a curtain ring and a bodle-pin, such as I found in Knoydart (Fig. 82), was reached. To illustrate this process of degradation, I give in Figs. THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 121 83 and 84 a representation of the two sides of a somewliat handsome annular brooch. It is made of brass, and the Fig. S3. — Highly ornamented brass Annulaf Bi'ooch ; 6f inches in diamctei'. character of its decoration is Cehic. It sliows, for instance, the interfaced ornamentation, and a certain Celticism also in the general pattern. In Fig. 85 I give a sketch of another annular Ijrooch, also made of brass, the ornamentation of which is on the same plan as that shown in Figs. 83 and S4-. but lower in charac- ter and execution. No one, I think, who compares the two l)rooclies will doul)t that the ornamentation on this brooch is a debased copy of that on the brooch shown in Fig. 83. It is scarcely conceivable that the reverse is true — that the high ornamentation of Fig. 83 has grown out of the very poor decoration of Fig. 85. At the same time it must 1)e borne in mind that it is difficult to say of any particular specimen that it is older or later than any other specimen. 122 TIIK l-AST IX TJIE I'KESENT. unless tliero 1)0 soiiuitliiiiijj in its liistoiy to reveal the fact, l)eeaiise it would l)e ])ossiI)le to iiuike s])ecinieiis of all the styles now or at any time, and all of tliese specimens would, of eourse, have the same age. The difficulty in regard to the particular s])ecimen, however, may not exist in regard to the type or style. Fig. 84.— Back of Fig. S3. In Fig. 8G I give still another of these annular brooches, recently made, and entirely destitute of ornament. It would not be easy to find a better illustration of that dying out by degradation, to wliieh I have so often re- ferred, than tliese woodcuts ma}' be fairly held to supply. If the view I take is correct, we have the oldest and best style in Fig. 83, and the newest and worst in Fig. 82, the downward steps being well shown in Figs. 81, 82, 85, and 80. THE PAST I\ THE TRESENT. 123 I HAVE frequently spoken of tlie singiiliir manner in wliicli the use of some rude way of aecomplisliiug an end refuses Fig. S5.— Brass Anniilai' Brooch. Decoration rude, but showing a trace of Celticism in its character. Si inches in diameter. to die out even among those who have a ])erfeet acquaint- ance with the better methods which have been discovered. Fig. SC— Riule modern Anuiihu- Brooch, without decoration. Copper. Full size. This struck me very forcibly when 1 came upon a Shet- lander weighing cheese with a bismar. lie has weighed no 124 TIIH I'AST l.\ TllK I'JiE.SKXT. more cliecsc with that hisiiiai', liowever, for 1 carried it off, aiul now ligure it (Fig. 87). It is ju,st a steelyard, with this Fii;. ST.— Shutlaud Bisinnr ; 32 inches long difference, that it has a fixed weight and movable fulcrnni instead of a fixed fulcrum and movable weight. Anothei- Shetland bismar is shown in Fio;. S7a. Fi". STa.— Shellaud Bismar. The Shetland bismar is made of wood, and is clums}' and ill-fashioned. I wish to direct special attention to the rude way in mIucIi it is made ; and I do so in order to point out that a weighing instrument may be found involving no higher knowledge of mechanics — in other words, as nide in its conception — which, nevertheless, is made of the most suitable material, and exliibits as much skill and taste in its construction as would be needed to make the most eleo-ant balance in Europe. Such an instrument, from the interior of India, is shown in Fig. 88. In the Shetland bismar the workmanship and the idea run parallel, both being low ; but in the bismar from India, though the idea is as low as in that from Shetland, the execution involves the highest at- tainments of the skilled artisan. Xotwithstanding this, I scarcely think any one will regard it as even probable that the maker of the rude bismar from Thule was inferior in- tellectually to the Indian maker of the elegant and highly- finished steel l)ismar. Does not this show that caution is needed when we attempt to gauge man's mental condi- THE PAST IX THE TRESEXT. 125 , SS.— Indian Steelyard oi' Bismar. India Museum. Sketched by Mr.Woou. Oue-fonith size. tion by means of liis works and prac- tices? Displays of great skill and re- finement prove capacity and culture ; but does it follow that incapacity must exist where such displays are not found i In this lecture I have brought under notice not one or two, but a considera- ble number of old Scotch things, and I have still more of them to refer to in the lectures which follow. I call them old ; but it will be understood that they are only old in a certain sense, since they have all been recently made and are still in use. They are neo-archaic. Perhaps some may think that, for the purpose I have in hand, it would have been sufficient if I had noticed one or two of these things, and had given the assurance that there were many more. I shall not occupy time in showing why I think otherwise, but content myself with pointing out that, if 1 had so re- stricted myself, I should not have been al)lc to ask whether the many woodcuts which illustrate these lectures might not be the illustrations of a book of travel in savage lands instead of a set of sketches, 120 Tin: PAST IN TIIK I'KK.SENT. niiiiiv of wliicli arc taken from a journal of recent travel in Scotlaml. Still further, if I had so restricted myself, I should have left untold a ff;reat deal of what is either new or little known and unrecorded, having an interest apart from the special use to which I have put it, in showing how de- sirable it is that we should argue hack from the known to the unknown wlien we inquire into the condition of early man. THE PAST L\ TUE PRESENT. 12' Lecture V . (2d May, ISTG.) CLASSIFICATION OF ANTIQUITIES INTO TUOSE OF THE STONE, BRONZE, AND IRON AGES.— STONE TABLE.— HEATING STONES.— IRONING STONES.— STONE SINKERS.— STONE SOCKETS AND SPL\- DLES.— STONE LIDS AND CRUSHERS.— STONE WEB SMOOTHERS.— RUDE STONE IMPLEMENTS OF SHETLAND. WiixiT I propose to do first in this lecture is to show the value and nature of a classification of antiquities into those of the stone, bronze, and iron ages — the respects in which this classification is practically useful — and the respects in which it leads to error, when its nature is imperfectly under- stood. It appears to me that hy doing this I shall secure a better understanding both of what has been already said and of what is to follow. Objects of antiquity arc divided into three classes — those of the stone age, of the bronze age, and of the iron age. This classification has a practical utility ; but, nevertheless, as will appear from what follows, it may lead to various errors. Antiquities of the stone age are regarded as the relics of men who were ignorant of the use of metals, and who de- pended "on stone, bone, wood, and other readily accessible natural products for their implements and their weapons of the chase and wai'." Those of the bronze age, again, are 12R TliH J'AST IX TIIK IMIKSK.XT. licld to 1)C tlio relics of men wlio liad acquired a knowledge of co])|KM-, or of (•o])per alloyed with tin, and who used this know li'd<;c; to make cutting implements of a more service- able character than those wdiich could be made of stone. Those of the iron age are the relics of men who had dis- covered the way to make and use iron, and wdio w-ere thus ac(jiKiiiit('(I with a material which superseded both In-onze and stone, as regards the character and value of the tool or Avcapon M'hich could be made of it. This is an ingenious classification, and it is one which has undoubtedly proved itself to possess a practical utility. It originated in Denmark. The discoveries which have been made there aj)pear to fit into it admirably ; as, indeed, is now held to be almost equally true of all Western Europe. It is not a classification, however, which has been shown to be applicable to all parts of the world. On the contrary, there are some states of civilization, both past and 23resent, which furnish no records, or very doubtful records, of a stone age ; while others yield no satisfactory evidence that they have passed from the stone through a bronze into the iron age. So far as Denmark is concerned, " the iron age is supposed to go back to about the Christian era, the bronze age to embrace a period of one or two thousand years pre- vious to that date, and the stone age all previous time of man's occupation of that part of the world." This is a tol- erably late and authoritative statement of what is believed to be true of Denmark. It is scarcely necessary to point out that it is vague and indefinite — full of round numbers, and even prefixing some of these with the safe and useful word "aJoM/." I take no objection to this, but it is well to note it. It is also desirable to remember that, even as thus guarded, the statement in question does not embody a belief which obtains universal acceptance at the hands of Danish archfeologists themselves. According to the writer whose THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 129 opinion has been quoted, less than four thousand years ago Denmark was peopled by the stone-age man. Of when he came to Denmark, and how long he occupied it, we know absolutely nothing. That he existed in Denmark about four thousand years ago is a guess, and it may be a rea- sonable guess, as regards that particular country. To other countries, however, even to those which are close to Den- mark, it may have no applicability. In them the stone age may have lasted longer or may have been sooner over ; the bronze age may have had a shorter or longer existence — a feebler or a better marked character ; and the iron age may have been entered with more or less directness from the stone age. This classification, therefore, docs not in any correct sense mark points of time or furnish dates, unless, perhaps, in re- gard to some particular district or country to which it has been shown to be applicable, and in which such collateral discoveries have been made as arc sufficient for the foun- dation of a guess at a date. Such a guess, however, depends on the collateral discoveries, and cannot be reached through the aid of the classification alone. Still less correctly does this classification indicate neces- sarily successive stages of capacity or culture. The relics of the stone age, wherever they are found, must, in the pres- ent state of our knowledge, be regarded as revealing the existence of man, in a rude and uncultured condition, at some time or other, in that i)luce. But it by no means fol- lows that the next stage of his culture will invariably have for its chief characteristic a knowledge of the usefulness of bronze and of the way to obtain it. It is quite conceivable that he should pass from the stone into the iron age without knowing anything al)out bronze. It is more than conceiv- able. The inhabitants of the heart of Africa are already in their iron age. They smelt the iron ore and manufact- ure good iron implements. They do much more than use 9 130 THE PAST IN TIIH I'llKSENT. tools and weapons of iron sent to them from more advanced countries ; tliey use tools and weapons wliich they them- selves have made out of the metal which they themselves have extracted from the ore. There are even centres of trade in iron among them — tribes, or portions of tribes, which give themselves up to this manufacture, and supply tools and weapons to those who, in a more special manner, give themselves up to agriculture, the chase, or war. In the fullest sense, therefore, these people are in their iron age, but we have no evidence as yet of tlieir having enter- ed it through a bronze age. But it is possible to go farther than the mere assertion that a nation may pass frond its stone into its iron age with- out passing through a bronze age, since it is scarcely cc»n- ceivable that any of the races now on the earth who are still in tlieir stone age will, as they advance in culture, pass through a bronze into an iron age. Such races in these times are certain to come into communication with other races familiar with all the uses of iron, and the implements of iron obtained from them will directly supersede the im- plements of stone. There is not the slightest chance of their coming into contact with a people who are in tlieir bronze age, and who would either furnish them with, or teach them the art of manufacturing weapons out of that material. Where, indeed, is there a nation now on the earth which may properly be described as in the bronze age of its culture ? Nay, more, where is there a nation of which it may be correctly said that it is even emerging from a bronze age ? There are people, perhaj^s, who use bronze more than we do ; but they have, at the same time, a full knowledge of iron, and employ it for a vastly larger number of purposes than they employ bronze, though they may still preferentially use that alloy in making certain implements for which they think it more suitable, perhaps for no better reason than force of habit. This state of matters, however, THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 131 can in no sense be regarded as descriptive of a people who are in the bronze age of their cukure — tliat is, of a people who are giving up, or have given up, stone for bronze in the manufacture of weapons and tools, and who are ignorant of the uses and superiority of iron. Still further, with reference to the errors which may arise from regarding this classification as indicating neces- sarily successive stages of culture, it is desirable that it should be understood that, though it may be correctly said of a people that they are in their iron age, this would not at all imply that they were in an advanced stage of culture or civilization. It may be true of them that they are in their iron age, while it is also true that l^iey are barbarians and savages. AVe ourselves were already in our iron age, and had been so for we do not know how, long, when the Romans paid us the first of those visits which exercised such an important influence over the destinies of our islands ; but we were also in a state of savagery, if we do not disbelieve what has been written of our condition at that time. At this very day the negroes of Central Africa are in their iron age ; yet, in the opinion of some, they are scarcely men ; and if men, they are men so low in the grade of civilization that from among them the slaves of the world are drawn. Woolly-headed, black-skinned, prognathous negroes, bought and sold and stolen like cattle, going naked, eating raw flesli, they are nevertheless in their iron age, and we have little or no evidence as yet of their ever having been either in a stone or bronze age. It is desirable to go still further in showing how this classification is defective when it is regarded as marking necessarily successive steps of progress, and to ask whether it is not difiicult to see why a man m'Iio uses bronze weapons should be inferior either in culture or caj^acity to a man who uses iron weapons. There are good reasons for believing that, in Western Europe, he was inferior in culture as well 132 TFIK I'AST IN TIIK rUKSENT. as earlier in time. The discovery of bronze, liowever, and the knowledge of liow to make it, may, as a mere intellect- ii:d ciTort, I»c regarded as ratlier above than below tlie effort which is involved in the discovery and use of iron. As re- gards bronze, there is first the discovery of copper, and the way of getting it from its ore ; then the discovery of tin, and the way to get it from its ore; and then the further discovery that, by an admixture of tin with copi:)er in prop- er proportions, an alloj^ with the qualities of a hard metal can be produced. It is surely no mistake to say that there goes quite as much thinking to this as to the getting of iron from its ore and the conversion of that iron into steel. There is a considerable leap from stone to bronze ; but tlie leap from bronze to iron is beyond question comparatively small. If, indeed, from bronze to iron in the progress of culture there be really a step at all, it certainly need not be a high one ; and, as certainly, whether small or great, it is a step which need not of necessity be taken at all, since among some races the apj)earance of bronze, for whatever purpose used, must follow and not precede iron. It ap- pears, therefore, that we require to examine the antiquities of each counti-y separately, and from them judge whether there is evidence in the history of its inhabitants (so far as that history is revealed by these antiquities) of the existence of successive stone, bronze, and iron ages constituting suc- cessive steps in tlieu* advancement. If it be asked how bronze was discovered, and introduced as a material out of which weapons could be made superior to those of stone, all the answer that can be given is that it is not known. It seems highly improbable, however, if not altogether absurd, that the human mind, at some particular stage of its development, should here, there, and everywhere — independently, and as the result of reaching that stage — discover that an alloy of copper and tin yields a hard metal, THE PAST IX tup: present. 133 useful ill the maTiufaeture of tools and weapons. There is nothing analogous to such an occurrence in the known his- tory of human progress. It is infinitely more probable that bronze was discovered in one or more centres by one or more men, and that its first use was solely in such centre or centres. That the invention should then be perfected, and its various applications found out, and that it should there- after spread more or less broadly over the face of the earth, is a thing easily understood. This, indeed, would just be the history of many similar discoveries. For instance, let us suppose a fourth age, later than the iron, and let us call it the gunpowder age. Every one in- stantly feels that there is really such an age in the history of the world and of man as a "whole. Its existence may at any rate be granted, for the passing purpose of throwing light on the unknown through a study of the known. How, then, would the case stand with gunpowder ? It is not nec- essary to enter into the controversies regarding its discov- ery. It may be assumed here that to an accident in the hands of an alchemist in Germany, about the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century, Eu- rope probably owes its knowledge of the explosive proper- ties of that mixture of substances which go to make what is understood by gunpowder. Before that time tlie battles of Europe were fought with swords, axes, spears, and bows and arrows ; and these furnished also the weapons of the chase. Fire-arms M'ere unknown. Ere the lapse of a single century, however, all the nations of Europe were familiarly and practically acquainted witli the [)n)perties and uses of gunpowder. And now, after the lapse of but a few centu- ries, it may be said that all the nations of the world — inclu- sive of many barbarous nations — are in that po^^ition. But does any one for a moment su])])ose tJiat this spread of knowledge, as regards gunpowder, has been due to a series ]r')4 TIIH I'AST IN TIIH riJESEXT. ol" iiult'j)t'iuk'iit (liscovei'ius liere and there over tlic eartlTs surface? or tliat tlie iisiii line of separation between the periods — that is, there is no sudden cessation of the use of stone when the use of bronze begins. The two things may not even be joined together by a mergence into eacli other, but by a true overlapping — of the same cliaracter as takes place, for example, between the periods of wooden ships and iron ships, which is not of the nature of a fusion of the wooden into the iron structure, but a continuance of both structures — the first losing, wliile the second gains. In the study of this classification, it should also be borne in mind that the relics of the stone period are imperishable, and that the material of which they are made has no intrin- sic value ; the material of which those of the bronze period are made is also very enduring, but it has a considerable intrinsic value, leading to the destruction of bronze objects when discovered : the relics of the iron age, again, are ex- tremely perishable. Hence we should expect that the relics of the stone period would be more abundant than those either of the bronze or of the iron period. This is probably the fact, and it is important to keep it in mind. Objects made of bone, of horn, and of clay, which often have a place among the relics of the stone age, are also difficult of destruc- tion, and of little value in themselves, and hence they, too, have been preserved when later and more precious objects have disappeared. Another thing to bear in mind in this study is that it is not the general use — the use for general purposes — of stone, bronze, and iron which constitutes strictly the basis of this classification, but rather the use of these materials for spe- THE PAST rX THE PRESENT. 137 cial purposes — namely, for tlie manufacture of cutting tools, weapons of war, and implements of the chase. Materials, liowever, used extensively in this way will certainly be used also to a greater or less extent in other ways — in the manu- facture, for instance, of domestic utensils or agricultural im- plements ; and thus it happens that all those who describe the relics of the stone age, describe many objects other than tools, and weapons of war, and implements of the chase. They describe whatever is believed to have been made by, or to have belonged to, the man of the stone period — his dwellings, monuments, pottery, domestic utensils, agricult- ural implements, etc. These need not be always of stone. They may be of the other readily available materials of which he made use, such as bone, horn, clay, and wood. There are some neo-archaic stone implements and objects occasionally to be seen in Scotland, which deserve here a brief notice. Some of them may perhaps be rightly regard- ed as survivals of the stone period ; and many of them might possibly be regarded as being of great antiquity, if they pre- sented themselves without a history. This might be true even of a stone table which I once saw in a wretched hovel at Ramscraigs, in the parish of Latheron, in Caithness. It was formed of two rude blocks or pillars of stone, made earth-fast, and standing about 2^ feet above tlie tloor. on wliich there was laid an undressed slab, 5 feet long and '2^ feet broad, to form the table -top. ?so tool had touched any of the stones of wliich it was made. The members of the family were sitting round it at dinner when it attracted my attention, and there was no other table of any kind in the house. When the turf hut in which I saw it falls to ruin, nearly all trace of a human habitation there will disappear, for the hovel will crumble to dust and be literally blown away; but the solid stone table will re- main. What will then l)c tlioiif::lit of it, wlien discovered ])y the aiiti<|uavy, it is not easy to tell. Ill 1807 I saw in Caitlmcss an object wliicli might easily' become an antiijuarian puzzle. It was a huge undressed monolith, inches thick and 30 inches wide, and standing 5 feet out of the ground. It was soHdly earth-fast, several feet of the stone being said to be below tlie surface. Its general look was that of an ordinary rude monolith or stand- ing stone. Such, indeed, at first sight, I thought it, and I only learned its true character when I made inquiries as to the meaning of a date which was cut on its face. I was then told that it had been erected about six years before my visit, to commemorate the marriage of a man not much liked in the district — erected, indeed, on the day of the marriage, the date referred to being the record. For some years after its erection, when that day came round, it was customary to whitewash the stone. \Yhen I first noticed the inscription, I concluded that it had been cut by some idle hand on one of our old standing stones ; but on reflection I came to the conclusion that this was improbable, because such stones are usually held in a sort of veneration, which tends to preserve them from any- thing like contemptuous treatment. Hence the inquiries I made and their interesting result. Perhaps the date which happens to have been cut on this stone may long fix its trae story to it ; but, without the date, a century hence or less it would almost certainly be regarded as of the same age as are other standing stones, from which there is nothing else to distinguish it. I pass from the modem stone table and the modem stand- ing stone to the notice of another object which has, perhaps, a somewhat better claim to be regarded as a survival of the stone ae:e. THE PAST IN THE PRESENT. 139 Before the use of metals, and while the people had no other vessels in which to hold water, or milk, or other Unids, except vessels of stone, or such clay vessels as were described in a former lecture, it is evident that the heating of these fluids, when that was desired, would prove a matter of some difficulty by any procedure to which we are accustomed. We hear of the Scotch in times past seething the flesh of the animal they hilled "in the skin of the beast, filling the same full of water ;"'^ and Froissart tells of their cooking their beef in skins stretched on four stakes.f But it was not thus they connnonly heated a fluid. This was done by the simple process of placing a hot stone in the vessel which contained the fluid, and which could not itself be safely sub- jected to the direct action of the fire. Xow it happens that this practice is still followed in some remote parts of Scot- land, and especially in the remote islands. Even when there are iron vessels in the house, the fluid is sometimes by preference placed in a vessel of earthenware and heated by plunging into it a hot stone — one or two stones being kept constantly in the fire to be ready for this use. I pos- sess more than one stone which I found so employed in Shetland. These heating stones soon crack and fall to pieces, and thus require to be frequently replaced. In form they are elongated, and they weigh from two to four or five pounds. It has been often stated to me that the cooking or heating of certain fluids is best done in this way, just as some people think that the best way of heating ale or por- ter is by plunging the liot jxjker into it. There occurs another use of stone in some of the districts in which I found the people heating water or milk in the * "Certaine Matters concerning the Realme of Scot.," Lond., 1603. — Sig. K. f Referred to in Dalyell's "Frag, of Scot. Hist.," Edin., 1798, p. U of "Des. Reflect." 140 TMH I'AST IN THK I'ltESENT. way just (lesoribc'd, wliicli sccnis to me interesting, though it could scarcely have existed in the stone age. Such an implement as 1 am going to describe would probably have been useless then, there being no w^ork for it to do. I sliall most readily make what I refer to understood if I say that, in certain ])arts of Shetland and Orkney, thp smoothing- iron with wliich clothes are dressed, or as we say ironed, is a stone. I iirst heard of these ironing stones through the late Mr. George Petrie of Kirkwall, and through him the one shown in the wood- cut. Fig, 89, came to me. But I know them to be in use also in the west of Shet- land. It is a large smooth water-worn stone. "When heated it is grasj)ed by the hand — a woollen holder in- tervening to prevent the fingers from being burat. I am assured that excellent work can be done with it ; but it is extremely difficult to understand why a tool now so curiously linked to iron by its very name, and which, when made of iron, is so inexpensive, should still be made of stone. Of course stone is even less expensive than iron. It costs nothing, and that perhaps is the chief cause of its being still used in this way among a people who require to consider cost carefully. Mere cheapness, however, would be a reason for such a use of stone everywhere ; and jierhaps we should not lose sight of the influence of isolation and re- moteness from cities, M'hicli lead to a certain independence of action, and the supply of wants out of what is available on the si)ot. In Norway, smooth, rounded lumps of glass are still used as smoothing-irons, and an implement of this kind was re- Fi'j. SO. — Stone used in O.l^.., . i..; .. .-luoothino;- iron for ironing clotties. It is a Inrge egg- shaped water-worn granite pebble, weighing 3 ponnds, and measii ring 5j inches in its long, aud 4 and 2i iuchea in its shorter diameters. THE PAST IN' THE PRESENT. 141 contly found in a A'iking grave at Ballinaby, in Islay. They are miicli smaller than the Orkney stone 1 have figured, be- ino; about 3 inches in diameter and 10 ounces in weisrht. It is understood that they are not heated when used. It may be difiicult to tell why stone should still be used to make such objects as the two which I am about to notice, and which 1 saw in Shetland. One was a stone substitute for the block of wood usually fastened to the end of a horse's stable halter. It weighed nearly 2 lbs., and was a roundish disk, slightly water-worn, with a hole through it. The other was a flattish, irregularly - shaped, water -worn piece of sandstone, 5|- inches long, about 3^ inches broad, and about three-fourths of an inch thick, witli a hole through it at one end, by which it was tied loosely between the horns of a cow, to prevent her from starting and running away (see Fig. 90). This stone I saw on a cow's liead, and others, not in actual use, were shown to me. There was one in the collection of antiquities at Lerwick, which was known to have been so used. It Avas placed in the local museum to explain the probable pui-])ose of a stone of exactly the same charac- ter, which had been found in circumstances leaving little doubt as to its great age. Fig. 90.— Stone 1, M>eii a cow's honis ia hhcilaiul. The hole, which i.s about 1 iuch ill diameter, has been rudely picked through from both sides. There is a class of stone objects which are nearly always to be seen in collections of antiquities, and which are now correctly called sinkers. Tliey have been often found un- der circumstances which indicate a ^rcat aire. "Worsaae ti*;- 142 TlIK TAST IN THE TRESEXT. iiivs tlioni ninoiiir tlic antiquities of tlie stone apje in Den- mark. They vary nmcli in fcjnii and in cliaracter. Most of tlieiu are simply bored stones— generally with one hole roughly picked or ground through them, but occasionally with two. Sometimes they have a groove cut down one face of the stone and running over its end, and another sim- ilar groove cut transversely to this ; or the groove may run round the circumference of a flattish ovoid water-worn peb- ble, giving it somewhat the api^earance of a ship's block. These stone sinkers I have frequently seen in use. As regards the first type, those which are simply broad stones, I have seen the same man with one of them at the end of one line, and at the end of the other a sinker of lead cast in a mould and tastefully shaped. Usually the bored sinkers are water-worn stones, selected for suitability of shape ; but sometimes they are made of a piece of stone roughly flaked into a proper form ; while at other times, where the soft soapstone is found, there is more or less neatness in their design, and they may even be found imitating the form of the leaden sinker, or having nidely cut on them the initials of their owner (see Fig. 91). It may liappen again that they are entire- ly natural stones, that is, both their Fi?. 91 -Sink stone of steatite f^^.j^^ ^^^^ ^lie hole througli them flora Shetland; weight, 14 oumccs. ~ may be due to natural agencies. A siidvcr of this last kind I once saw with a Shetlander. It was of flint, and he said he had brought it from " for- eign parts," because he thought it would be useful at home as a sinker. Of one of the types of sinkers, that showing the two grooves crossing each other, there was some difiiculty in see- ing the exact way in which the line and hooks were made fast to the stones, and what purpose the grooves served. Some stones of this kind have been found in circumstances THE PAPT I\ THE PRESENT. 143 indicating great age ; and I remember hearing a distinguisli- ed antiquary, no longer alive, speculating ingeniously as to \vlietlier they could really have served so comnionijlace a Figs. 92, 93. — Sink Stones from Walls, in Shetland. The larger is a roughly -flaked piece of sandstone, and the smaller a water-woni beach stone. lu order to make the cord firasp these stones securely, grooves are roughly cut in them in the way indicated by the woodcuts. The Inrirer stone is S inches long, and weighs 43 ounces ; the small- er, to which the book is still attached, is 5 inches long, aud weighs 11 ouuces. purpose as that of sinking a fisherman's line. But I have been able to set the (juestion at rest by procuring two speci- mens from the parish of AValls, through the Kev. James 144 TIIK PAST IN TIIH J'RKSE.NT. liusscll, with all the appliances on them exactly as they were when actually in use a few years ago. (See Figs. 1)2 and 93.) Sinkers of this form vary in size. They are gener- ally, 1 think, lai-ger than those of the bored form; and I understand that this is explained by the fact that they are chietiy used when fishing in deep waters. It is not solely, however, in those districts of our country which we regard as outlying and remote that we encounter fishermen using stone instead of lead or other materials for the manufacture of sinkers. On the Tweed to this day the nets are weighted by bored stones, and siDecimens of these are placed in museums of antiquities, not because they are themselves objects of antiquity, but because their history be- ing accurately known, they teach lessons of caution in deal- ing with objects not very dissimilar, about the history and use of which we have no accurate knowledge. There is another class of worked stones not unfrequently turned up, the use and age of which would certainly be a l)uzzle if they had not been still found in actual use. They may be of any age, and therefore they also properly aj^pear in collections of antiquities. I refer to the stones which were and are used as the sockets for the spindles or verti- cal axles of millstones, or as the sockets in which gate-posts turned. They are usually rough, unshaped bowlder stones, often of the hardest and toughest quality, and the deep, cup- like excavations found on them have a highly polished sur- face, with linear markings, which show that something has revolved in them. (See Figs. 94 and 95.) We can have no doubt as to what these stones are, because we find them still in use. Sometimes the spindle or gate-post which turned in them was itself tipped with stone. A specimen of a stone, said to have been used in this way, is shown in Fig. 96, and we THE PAST IX THE TRESEXT. 145 know of other specimens still revolving in tlieir sockets. The one I figure, perhaps, ceased to be an interesting object Pigs. 94, 95.— Stone Sockets in wliich spindles or vertical axles of millstones revolved. Views aud sections. when its probal)ly recent use became kno^vn ; but its interest in this way only to those persons Avho deal with an- tiquities merely as curiosities. To those who care less for the object itself than for the les- sons which are to ])c dra^vn from it, a knowledge of the purpose it served gave it a fresh and additional interest. Though depriving it of ;ill claim to be ancient, it left the stone useful to the student of antiquities. I once saw the post of a field- gate turning in a hollow in an -^c.^- earth -fast stone, and not one Ffg. 96.-stoue Tip f,.r s, hundred yards away I saw another gate entirely and 10 it lost )indle. skilful- 14r> TIIH I 'A ST I.\ TIIK I'KKSH.NT. \y iiiiulc of iron. The owner of the two jL?ates tlion^lit the old-fasliionwl one in many respects tlio better, and lie lialf coiiviiiced nie tliat he was riglit. lie wliollj convinced nie thiit the continued nsc of wliat we choose to call a rude meclianical amingement is no necessary evidence of men- tal incapacity in the user. Both of these gates w^ere set up. by him, and lie wished to know which of them was to be taken as the indication cither of his capacity or of his culture. There are two objects which have been frequently found in the ruins of the circular towers called Brochs, and in un- derground or Eirde-houses, and which may still be seen in use. The first is a flat, thin stone, roughly reduced by chip- ping to a circular shape, showing no polishing or grinding, and varying from 3 to 25 inches in diameter, and in thick- ness from one-quarter to three-quarters of an inch. I have seen these stones extensively in use in Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, the Hebrides, Sutherland, Ross, and Inverness. (See Fig. 39.) They are nothing but lids ; and they are to be found acting as lids on the top of the water-pail, meal- cask, cream-jar, sugar-basin, etc. Why j^eople should con- tinue thus to make lids of stone, even in districts where wood is abundant, it is very difficult to see, but the fact that they do so, it is important to know. The other object, often found in subterranean structures and in the ruins of brochs, is a cylindrical water-worn stone, the roughened and worn ends of which show that for some purpose or other it has been in frequent and steady use. If I said that stones of this kind were once used to break the bones of animals in order to get at the marrow, perhaps I should l)e right; and, as there is believed to be some- thing distant and mysterious about that practice, such a THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 147 use of tliem would impart a sort of dignity. But there can scarcely be a doubt that such stones were used for hun- dreds of purposes, and in all ages. I once saw one lying on the window-sill of a cottage in the parish of "Watten, and learned that it had been used in that house for fifty years and more to pound salt. The ends were roughened by its being used as a hammer to break all sorts of things — "maybe, even," as the owner said, "to drive a nail." Fig. 97.— PomidiDK-stoue fiom East Watten, in Caithness ; 'i inches long and al)out 2i inches iu diameter. A water-woin saudstoue pebble ; sides smooth, ends rough. This stone is shown in Fig. 97, and no one can detect a diiference between it and the pounding -stones which are often discovered in the exploration of broclis, eirde-houses, etc. In Fig. 98 I show another worked stone, which might readily become a puzzle to the aiiti(|narv. It is neatly made Fig. 9S — Weaver's Rubbing-stone from Fifephire ; 7 inches Inner, 2j Inches wide, and five-eighths of au inch thick. Hard black stoue, smooth and polislied. and highly polished. "When I first saw it, it was in the hand of a Fifeshire weaver, who was using it to calender his web. 148 THE PAST IN TIIK I'KESENT. With the oxec'])ti()ii, pcrliaps, of tlie stone just noticed, none of tlie oltjccts 1 li;i\e sj)oken of in tliis lectnre sliow Miiy appreciation of Iteanty cither in tlieir form or finish. It does not necessarily follow, however, when an object or implement has a cer- tain beauty of form or finish, that this will always arise from an ap- preciation of beauty in its user or maker. For example, every one Avill admit that the lamp shown in Fig. 99 is elegant and j^retty. Nothing, however, but the fact that it is easily obtained, leads the deep-sea fisherman at his station on Fetheland Point to employ a shell for a crusie. His doing so does not prove the existence in him of a sense of the beautiful ; nor, on the other hand, does his coarsely- made sinker prove tlie reverse. Weavers' smoothing or rubbing stones must have been at one time very numerous in Scotland. The one shown in Fig. 98 I found in use in a Fifesliire village ; but I have also seen them in other coun- ties, and they are said to be still common in Forfarshire. An im- Fiji.oo.-sheii Lamp, or Crusie. piemeut scrviug the same purpose is sometimes made of hard wood or bone, but of whatever material it is made it is called a stone. These rubbing-stones are generally, I think, of the same THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 149 shape as the Fifesliire specimen (Fig. OS). Professor Duns obtained one from Ililderston, in Linlithgowshire (Fig. 100). Occasionally, however, the shape is different. Sometimes, Fig. 100.— Smoothiiig-stone from Hiklerstoii, Liiilithgowshiie; 55 inclies in length. Gypseous alabaster. for instance, the weaver's smoothing-stonc is nothing but a rolled pebble, like the specimen sent from Berwickshire to Professor Duns, and rej)resented in Fig. 10 1. At other Fig. 101. — Sniootliiiig-stoiie from Herwickshire; 4 inches long. Rolled pebble of coarse quartz. times, these stones are rounded at one end. This form occurs in a specimen from Glencairn, in Dumfriesshire, 15(1 tul; I'AST IS Tin; 1'I{i;si:nt. and is Bliown in Vh^. 102/^' Aiiotlier stone of tins sliapo came to Dr. Duns from ]>atlif]!;ate, but its smaller size, and Fijj. 1(*2. — Smoothing- stone iVoni Glencaiii), DiiinlVit'sslure; &i iiiciies long. Heavy spar. Polished ou sides aud ends. the pointed form of one of its ends, perhaj)s, make it doubt- ful wlietlier it is really a weaver's smootbing-stone. It is represented in Fiij:;. l(>3.f Fig. 10.^. — Snioothing-stone IVom Bathgate, LiiilitliL'()\v.s|]ire ; \ii inches lung. Black- baud ii-ou-stoue. Carefully shaped. Very feM', if any, of tbe M'orked stones of wliieb I have spoken can be properly called tools. Xone of tliem cer- tainly can be called either cutting tools, or weapons of war, or implements of the chase. But we have recently found in Scotland a large number of worked stones of an extreme- ly rude character, and their claim to l)e regarded as tools or implements is as good as that of the drift and cave flints, * See " Pix)C. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," New Series, vol. i., p. 280. t Duns. — '• Pfoc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," New Series, vol. i., pp. 280-281. THE PAST LV THE PRESENT. 151 M-liile their scientific importance may some day prove to be not much, if at all, inferior. To these worked stones I de- sire now, as briefly as possible, to direct attention. Many hundreds of them have been found — some hundreds by my- self — and no doubt many more remain to be picked up. It is not necessary here either to tell of the history of their discovery or to describe minutely the character of the stones themselves. This has already been done else- where,* and I can trust to their form, size, and general char- acter being sufficiently disclosed by the numerous figures I am able to give on pages 155 to IGO (Figs. 10-la to 135). All I desire to do at jjresent is to bring under notice such things regarding them as touch the aim of these lectures. As yet, these rude worked stones have been chiefly found in one part of Scotland, namely, in Shetland, but a few have been discovered in Orkney and in St. Kilda. They have been found, however, not in one but in many jiarts of Shet- land; and it is probably correct to say that they have al- ways occurred in considerable numbers in every locality in Shetland in wliich they have appeared. They have been usually picked up on the surface of the crround — that is, unlniried — but tliev have also been found in the heart of a large tumulus, in a cairn, in association with curious underground sti-uctures, on the outside of short stone cists with urns in tlieiiuaiid in tlie inside of a kistvaen with a skeleton and well -polished stone celt. Specimens found in any such exceptional circumstances as these, how- ever, are as yet but few in number. (See Figs. 109, 114, and 116.) * They have been described in the " Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. vii. and vol. viii., and in the " Mem. of the Anthropological Soc," vol. ii. i:,'J TIIK I'AST IN' TUK PRESENT. TliL'j arc iicarlv all made of sandstone — of greater or less coarseness and Iiai-diu-ss in dilTei-ent specimens. A few are made of clay slate, also varying in (juality. Still niore rare- ly the material is a micaceous schist, and one, I think, is made of hornblendic rock. They are, in the main, of an extremely rude character — as rude, I believe, as any stone imi)lements wliicli have ever been found anywhere in the world. But while this is true of them generally, it is also true that some of them show considerable finish. In the great majority the form is entirely due to a rough process of flaking. It is doubt- ful if any specimen has been found which shows polish- ing, or indications of an intention to polish, unless, per- haps, the knife -like imijlements (Figs. 134 and 135); hut a considerable number of them appear to have been shaped and dressed by picking with an implement more or less pointed. I sjDcak of finish as distinct from design, because the form of the rudest is as steady and clear as that of the better finished. It happens that only those of one form or type show a higher finish — those, to wit, which are more or less distinctly handled. All the handled speci- mens, however, do not show this better finish, some of them being as rude as any that have been discovered, and exhib- iting the very same kind of rudeness. Perhaps one of the unhandled implements (Fig. 127), shai3ed entirely by flaking or chipping, may be said to show a certain taste in its design, and one two or of the handles (Fig. 123) may also be considered as exhibiting a certain effort at decoration ; but with these exceptions none of the speci- mens we possess disclose any thought of beauty in the minds of their makers. It may happen, however, that well-finished and prettily-shaped specimens may yet be dis- covered. THE PAST IX THE PRESENT. 153 Along with these implements have been found many well-known objects, such as sinkers, whorls, pounders, pol- ished knives, a polished celt, an urn, etc. ; but these appear among or with them so exceptionally as to render the inti- macy of the association as yet somewhat uncertain. This at least, in the mean time, is the safe view to take. Just as happens with the rude implements of the drift and caves, it is only in rare instances that these Shetland implements show marks which may be regarded as indica- tions of their having been used, though the stone of which they are made is of such softness as to make use easily leave its trace. Perhaps in no instance can the signs of use be regarded as entirely beyond question. This is even tnie of the forms which are distinctly handled. I need not say that this is a point of interest, since what is true of these Shet- land stones is similarly and equally true of the rude worked stones which have been found elsewhere in circumstances which have led to their Ijeing regarded as of vast antiquity. The circumstances under which nearly all of these Shet- land rude stone imi)lements have been found are not such as to indicate any great age. They are just the circumstances, indeed, in which things of yesterday are found ; and we can assign no reason for thinking them old, except the fact that a few of them have presented themselves in a seemingly true association witli tumuli, stone cists, subterranean structures, and other things which are accepted as ancient. If rudeness were an evidence of age, these stones miglit belong to what is called the early stone jieriod. It is clear, however, that rudeness of itself is not a proof of great age, though it has often been used as if it M'ere so in speculations as to the age of the implements found in the drift and else- 154 TIIH I'AST IN Tin: rilESKNT. Avlicrc. '' It lA true tluit perfect works arc reached by a se- ries of upward pteps from imperfection ; but it is true, also, that wlieii lU'W discoveries supplant an old art, in which great skill inay have been attained, the old art often dies out by a process of degradation. Its higher productions are first ousted, and only its inferior ones continue to appear — grow- ing less and less perfect as the skill needed for high-class work becomes lost and forgotten. Illustrations of this may at the ])resent time be seen in those remote parts of our country wliich follow the general progress at a distance, and in which the native art and skill are sickened, but are not yet altogether extinguished, by the faint hold which the outside progress has obtained. It becomes at least possible, therefore, that the ruder forms of implements may l)oth pre- cede and follow the more finished forms, and that the over- laj^ping of the so-called stone and metal periods may yield stone implements of as rude a character as the hand of man has ever fashioned. These Shetland stones may thus come to be a useful check on incautious conclusions, especially in those inquiries which relate to the condition and capacity of early man." It was thus I wrote in 1866, when I first brought Fig. 104.— Rude stone Impleineiit from Shetland. Kxccptioual form. Weight, 2 ponuds 5 ounces ; length, P} inches. these rude Shetland implements under the notice of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries,* and one of my objects in these lectures is to establish the correctness of the views to which I then gave expression. ♦ " Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. vii. THE PAST IN' THE PRESENT. 155 Fi-'. 104<(. Fig. 106. Stone Implements from Shetland, shaped by flaking. Fig. 104a weighs 11 pounds 12 ounces, and is 'iO inches long. Fig. 10.5 weighs 7 pounds :5 ounces, and is 'iOi inches long. Fig. 10(5 weighs pounds 9 ounces, and is 19 inches long. This form is common. Fiir. lOT Fi?. 109. Stone Implements from Shetland, shaped by flaking. Fig. 107 weighs 2 pounds 3 ounces, and is 9J inches long. Fig. 108 weighs 1 pound, and is 7J inches long. Common form. Many spccimena of this form are small, not more than 3 or 4 inches long. RlDK Stonk Imi'I.kmknts from Shktland. 156 THE PAST IS THE PRESENT. Fi-. 10,.. Stone Implements, showing a dcgice of rough pick-dressing. Fig. 109 was found close to the end of a short stone cist in a barrow- in Orkney. It weighs 28 ounces, and is 1 1^ inches long. Fig. 110 comes from Shetland, and wciirhs 52 ounces, and is l"2f inches long. Form not uncommon. FU. 112 Fig. 111. . .^. 112. Stone Implements from Shetland, shaped bv flaking. Frequent form. Fig. Ill weighs 5 pounds 10 ounces, and is 14i inches long. Figs. 11 '2 and 11.3 were verv large, but their weights and length are not known. It is possible that Figs. Ill to 115 may be fragments of long implements. RroE Stoke Imple-vexts from Shftlaxd and Ork.\et. THE PAST IN THE PRESENT 157 Fi''. 114. Fig. 115. Stone Implements, shaped by flaking. Probably fragments. Frequent form. Fig. 114 was found at the end of a small cist in a barrow near the circle of Bookan, in Sandwick, Orkney It weighs 2 pounds 9 ounces, and is 9+ inches long. Fig. 115, from Shetland, weighs 2 pounds 2 ounces, and is 7 inches long. Fig. 119 weighs 2 pounds 12 ounces, and is (y\ inches long. 158 TIIK PAST IN TIIK ritKSE.VT. Fi''. 120. Fig. 121. Ilaiullcd Stone Implements from Shetland, shaped by flaking, and very rude. Fig. 120 weighs 18 ounces, and is 7^ inches long. Fig. 121 weighs 4 pounds 12 ounces, and is 13 inches long. Fis. 122. Fig. 123. Fig. 124. Fragments of Handled Stone Implements from Shetland. Such frag- ments are numerous. Ri'DE Stone Implements fkom Shetland. THE TAST IX THE TRESEXT. 159 Fijr. 125. Cliili-like Stone Implement from Shetland, shaped by flakinj^, but showins; some pick-dressing and smoothuess at the small end. Weighs G pounds 10 ounces. 21i inches lonfr. Exceptional form of Stone Imple- ment from Shetland, shaped by Haking, but showinj; some taste in design. Weiglis 11 ounces. 7i inches long. Fig. I'-'T. Spade- like Implement found in Shetland. Weighs 2 pounds 10 ounces. 12 inches lonsr. RrnE Stone Implements from Shetland. 160 THE PAST IX THE rilEHENT. Fijj. 1'28. I ■-. ■-'■ Fig. no. Sphcriciil Stones from Shetland, found with other rude implements. Vary from about 3 to 6 inches in diameter. Shaped by flaking. Fij;. lai. Pounder, found with rude stone imple- ments in Shetland. Weighs 2 pounds 1 ounce. Fig. \i->. Fig. 133. Found with rude stone implements in Shet- land. Not uncommon. Fig. 132 weighs 2 pounds 3 ounces, and is 5+ inches long ; and Fig. 133 weighs li pounds, and is 5 inches lonir. Fragments of Stone Knives found in Shetland. Form not uncommon. Thin, smooth, and well-dressed. RcDE Stose Implements from Shetland. THE PAST IX TUE TRESEXT. 161 Lecture VI. (4tii May, ISTC.) OLD CLOCK WEIGHT.— SUPERSTITIONS.— CARRYING FIRE ROUND HOUSES AND FIELDS.— YIRDING A QUIK COK.— SACRIFICING A BULL.— WORSHIPPING WELLS.— DRINKING WATER OUT OF THE SKULL OF A SUICIDE.— TASTLNG THE BLOOD OF A MURDERER. —THUNDER-BOLTS, ADDER-BEADS, AND ELF-DARTS. If I find an oblong stone weighing a few pounds, and having a hole throngh it at one end, and if I say that thou- sands and thousands of years ago it was fastened by a thong of liide to the end of a stick, and so formed into a sort of flail, to he used as a weapon of defence and aggression by the primeval man of these regions, when his development liad made such small progress and his intellectual power was so low that he could contrive nothing better to protect him- self or destroy his enemies — if I say all this of such a stone with a proper amount of ex cathedra confidence — I shall not be required, unless I am treated in a diUerent way from that in which the tellers of such things have been generally treated, to show that I am stating conclusions that have been arrived at by the strict methods of inquiry which are fol- lowed in ordinary scientific research. I shall ol)tain a ready belief, and the stone will be liaiidknl and looked at reveren- tially, as a thing rendered half sacred by the halo of anti(j- uity and myster}^ with which it is surrounded. It would be almost cruel if some one followed with a dem- onstration that this marvellous stone was really a clock 11 ic.o Till-: I'AST IN Tin: i-kesent. wi'ietuate species. The ])liysical form and constitution of the animal are tlius kei)t in liarmonj with its environments, and it does not lose its fitness to perjDetnate itself in the circumstances in which it is placed.f No one, I imagine, goes farther than this with tlie M'ork of natural selection, till it is assumed that the surroundings in A\ Inch animals live arc, and have ever been, liable to great and continuous clianges, which give new characters and con- ditions to the struggle for existence, and call into special play powers of the animal which in other conditions had been little used or needed. This, it is held, may lead, in the long run, to structural clianges, and in tliat way to the for- mation of new species. For the moment, however, it is not necessary for me to treat Natural Selection as more than a perpetuator and maintainer of species. While we keep to that, we are in the region of observed fact. When we go farther, I think I may correctly say that we are in the region of theory. That Natural Selection acts strongly on the life-history of animals is beyond question ; and Mr. Wallace points out '' that its effect depends mainly upon their self-dependence and individual isolation. A slight injury, a temj^orary ill- ness, will often end in death, because it leaves the individual powerless against its enemies. If an herbivorous animal is a little sick, and has not fed well for a day or two, and the licrd is tlien ])ursued by a beast of prey, the poor invalid inevitably falls a victim. So in a carnivorous animal, the least deficiency of vigor prevents its capturing food, and it soon dies of starvation. There is, as a general rule (among * Wallace, op. cit., p. clxii. \ Ibid., p. clxv. WHAT IS CIVILIZATIOX? 185 the brutes), no mutual assistance between adults which ena- bles them to tide over a period of sickness ; neither is there any division of labor ; each must f uliil all the conditions of its existence."* So long as man stands in isolation he must be subject to this law, exactly like other animals. But, in actual fact, we have no knowledge of num living in that state of " self-de- pendence and individual isolation" in which we iind other animals living. So far as we know, man has always and everywhere combined with man to defeat the law. The combinations may be weak and small ; but he never stands quite alone, and has never to fulfil all the conditions of his existence. The most distinguished advocates of evolution, I think, admit this. Mr. Wallace, for instance, says that, " in the rudest tribes the sick are assisted at least with food ; less robust health and vigor than the average does not en- tail death. I^either does the want of perfect limbs or other organs produce the same effects as among animals. Some division of labor takes place ; the swiftest hunt, the less ac- tive fish or gather fruits ; food is to some extent exchanged or divided. The action of natural selection is therefore checked ; the weaker, the dwarfish, those of less active limbs or less piercing eyesight, do not suffer the extreme penalty which falls upon animals so defective."! But more than this is true. The advantage or victory which man gains for himself gives him a directing influence over other existences. He not only defeats the operation of the law of natural selection as regards himself, l)ut in the very accomplishment of this he takes away, in tlie case of otlier living things, some of that power from nature which, apart from his interference, she universally exercises. He * Wallace, op. cit., p. clxii. ■{• Ibid., j). clxii. ISO AVIIAT JS CIVILIZATION? docs tliis, for instance, -wlicn lie cultivates j^lants and domes- ticates animals. lie introduces these living things, as it were, into the associations whicli he forms, and substitutes in rcirard to them man's selection for natural selection. Tt thus appears that the law which inexorably destroys all animals "that cannot in every respect help themselves" is set aside in the case of man, as the result of co-operation and the division of labor. In other words, the defeat of the law is attained by man in society, and is not attained by man acting singly or in isolation. Societies or unions for such a purpose are the result of man's superior intelligence, but no intellectual power which he has ever displayed would be sufficient for the purpose without combination. It is not, however, as the direct and immediate result of their moral nature that men act in concert for protection, and for the acquisition of food and shelter ; that the weak and helpless among them are not left to j)erish; that the sick and wounded receive assistance ; that the game of the successful hunter is shared with the less successful, or ex- changed for weapons which even the sick or the deformed can fashion ;* that the property of each is protected by all ; that those fitted for special occupations can follow them with a result which averts the fate otherwise consequent on the neglect of a search for game and roots. It is not as the direct and immediate result of their moral nature that such things as these happen among men ; they combine to make war with nature — to resist and defeat a natural law — and these things are at once the weapons with which the victory is gained and the fruits of the victory. In isolation man is * Wallace, op. cit., pp. clxii., clxviii. "WHAT IS CIVILIZATIOX? 187 even more lielpless to resist this law of Xatiire than other an- imals ; but he becomes strong in proportion to the strength of the associations which self-interest prompts him, and nat- ure fits him to form. He has been well described as " a be- ing apart, since he is not influenced by the great laws which irresistibly modify all other organic beings."* He succeeds in escaping that influence in consequence of the possession of what we call mind. Yet mere knowledge would not suf- fice — the mere knowledge, for instance, of the use of metals, and of the way to fashion out of them weapons for the chase or war, or tools for use in agriculture or the arts. Before this law of Nature can l)e controlled he must form associa- tions to use these weapons and tools in the accomplishment of works which are only possible to united efforts. Man individually is an organism — a bundle of organs — each organ useful, and together forming a complete whole. In like manner a human association is an organism — the different members forming the bundle of organs — each hav- ing a separate and useful function, and together forming a complete and powerful whole. Just as the individual man has eyes, ears, hands, legs, etc., so a human association has organs to make war or hunt, to fabricate weapons, to culti- vate the soil, to herd the flocks — soldiers, farmers, carpen- ters, blacksmiths, house-builders, hatters, etc., all the way do\ni to the makers of pin-heads and pin-points. In this way the variously constituted find jilaces of usefulness. The association, indeed, cultivates actively different quali- fications in its different members, and so develops them into such organs as are needed to give vigor to the organism as a whole. Individually, no doubt, each man is thus render- ed more powerless than he naturally is to struggle for ex- istence, but the association gains in strength. The man who * Wallace, op. cit., p. clxviii. ISS WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? devotes his life to giving eyes to needles may do so to the advantage of tlie association of wliich he is a member, Ijut lie certainly does not, by the acquisition and exercise of such a special expertness, increase his own fitness to encounter the struiTirle for existence if he stood alone. He becomes a mere organ of an organism, but as such he both draws strength from and gives strength to the organism. AVhen the cripple who can see mounts the strong back of his brother who is blind, they make together a man who can see and walk, and so they can both accomplish the journey which to each separately is impossible. In this little soci- ety of two we see that happening, in a small and sim23le way, which presents itself, with much complication, in large associations of men. By no amount of culture or intellectual force can an iso- lated man overcome the destroying effects of the great law of natural selection. But he knows that in association with his fellows he can disarm the destroyer, and he forms asso- ciations accordingly. ISTot as an individual, but in society, he undertakes this noble work, using to that end the won- derful attributes with which we find him endowed in every state in which we have yet known him. In this aspect of dignity the matter presents itself to me ; but I do not fail to perceive that it may have another aspect to some. Since it refers to a war with the laws of Nature, the work may be regarded rather as evil than good in its character ; and such a view will not be found to be entirely without suj^port, when we examine the roads which are travelled to reach the end, and find them paved with selfishness, cruelty, and other vices. That the end is the thing we call civilization it will be my endeavor to show in what follows, though it almost ajjpears to me that 1 have already said enough to show that civiUzation is nothing more than a complicated outcome of a loar icaged with Nature hy man hi Society to prevent her WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 189 from putting into execution in his case her law of Natural Selection. All men — everywhere and in all stages of prog- ress — from states of very low to states of very high civili- zation — are banded together, weakly or powerfully, to fight this fight, and the measure of success which attends the struggle of each hand or association so engaged is the meas- ure of the civilization it has attained. I thus indicate on the threshold the view I take of the nature and origin of civilization. So far as 1 know, it is a view M'hich has not previously been formulated. I have more, however, to say toward the elucidation and establish- ment of the position I take. I have something more, for instance, to say about man and his relation to the law of Natural Selection. In the way I have indicated man is able to keep himself in harmony with his environments. So far as he is con- cerned, there can be no change of physical stiiicture as the result of natural selection. This is the conclusion, I think, whicli is reached by such evolutionists as Mr. Wallace. I am referring now to those slow developmental results which are held to attend the operation of tliis law, and wliicli, in a sentence or two, I shall explain as nearly as may be in the words of Mr. Wallace. It is alleged, for instance, that "when any slow changes of physical geograpliy or of cli- mate make it necessary for an animal to alter its food, its clothing, or its weapons, it can only do so by a correspond- ing change in its own bodily structure and internal organi- zation. If a larger or more powerful beast is to be cajit- ured and devoured, as when a carnivorous animal which has hitherto preyed on sheep is obliged, from their decreasing number, to attack buffaloes, it is only the strongest which can hold — those with most powerful claws and formidable canine teeth that can struiri;le witli and overcome such an 100 "WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? animal. Natural selection immediately comes into play, and by its action tlie.se organs ^rnulually become ada])ted to tlieir new requirements."* Those individuals which have them survive to propagate, and the peculiarities are trans- mitted to their offspring. Thus it is said a new animal may come into existence with a new structure ; and through slow changes of this nature, continued over ages, a new species may be evolved. Ee this as it may in regard to other animals, nothing of the kind liappens in the case of man. " Under similar cir- cumstances he does not acquire longer nails or teeth, great- er bodily strength or swiftness. lie makes sharper spears or a better bow, or he constructs a cunning pit-fall [or he invents the gun], or he combines in a hunting-party to cir- cumvent his new prey.^f There is nothing, therefore, in what man does — when his environments change — to bring about any alteration in the form or structure of his body. So far as that is concerned, lie remains stationary ; and he must have remained stationary, in his physical structure, ever since he had those powers of mind which enable him to resist the ordinary operation of this law, and therefore ever since his origin, if at his origin he was thus endowed. In assigning this excejitional position to man, and hold- ing that, as the consequence of it, his physical structure does and can undergo no change, I am only doing what has been done by such an evolutionist as Mr. "Wallace. I have al- ready shown that he holds this opinion ; but he maintains that man is nevertheless subject to this law, the results be- ing manifested in a different way. Though man's bodily form and structure may escape the operation of natural se- lection, he thinks that the capacities which enable him to do such things as those which have been referred to — namely, * Wallace, op. cit., p. clxii. f Ibid., p. clxiii. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 191 to form combinations, build houses, manufacture clothing, plant seeds, domesticate animals, etc. — are modified by nat- ural selection. In other words, in the case of man, the fit- ness which leads to survival is held to show itself in mental and not in bodily qualities. The weak-bodied may prac- tically have equal advantages with the strong -bodied, but the weak-minded perish and the strong-minded survive. It does not appear, however, that evolutionists contem- ])late the manifestation of such a result as this in anything like a struggle between the individuals forming an aggre- gate, but only in relation to struggles between different ag- gregates, which are therefore treated in this matter as units of the human species, and subject as such to the law which would affect man as an animal if he acted indc'i^endently of his fellows. But the law of natural selection, as an evolu- tionary agent, cannot immediately affect groups or masses. Its first and direct action must be on individuals. A struggle for existence certainly takes place between tribes, races, or nations — that is, between the different asso- ciations which men have formed, and which act se]3arately and independently. In that struggle the weaker are push- ed aside or exterminated ; but this carries the operation of the law of natural selection no farther than the point M-hich makes it a law tending to keep mankind, as a whole, to a uniform standard. Such a struggle between tribes or races neither implies nor involves anything new in their environ- ments — that is, any such change in them as would be calcu- lated to call into active operation powers which, in other circumstances, were little used or needed, and to give such a si:)ecial development to those powers as might end in pro- ducing men altered in structure either for the better or the worse. Men combine to defeat the law of natural selection in regard to the individuals combining ; l)ut that law no doubt still continues to operate fully as between the various com- 102 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION'? biiiiitions so formed; and it will not cease to operate until there occurs a coalescence of combinations, when it will be defeated, in regard to the combinations, also, in the same M-ays and with the same results as cause or attend its defeat within the aggregates separately in regard to the individ- uals forming them. It is difficult to see, therefore, how the evolutionary opera- tion of natural selection can jiresent itself in the case of man, as we know him, either as regards his mind or his body. It is evident that a change in the mental caj)acity of a race must be a change in the mental capacity of the indi- viduals comj)osing the race ; and mental capacity cannot be modified without some modification of the brain, through wdiicli mind is manifested. In other words, a structural or bodily change must accompany a mental change. The brain must increase or diminish in size and comj)lexity, and the cranium must undergo corresjjonding modifications. This L5 admitted; but it is assumed as probable that such a change of the brain and skull has actually taken place ; and Mr. Wallace tells us that our best chance of findins: the vastly remote small-brained and small-headed progenitor of man is on the widest area of land in the warmer region of the earth, which has not been submerged since Eocene or Miocene times.* Up to the present time, however, this progenitor of man has not been found. Hitherto no trace of him has been dis- covered. We have as yet no knowledge of the existence of such a 2Ian at any tiine on the earth. Very important testimony on this subject has recently been borne by Eudolj^h Yirchow, than whom there is per- haps no more prominent scientist in Europe. In an address * Wallace, op. cit., p. clxvii. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 193 delivered in September, 1877, to tlie German Association of Naturalists, wlien speaking of the often-made assertion that some of tlie vertebrata — not necessarily the ape, as is com- monly supposed — appear in the connection of ancestors to man, he says : " I am bound to declare that every positive advance wliieh "\ve have made in the jirovince of prehis- toric anthropology has actually removed us farther from the proof of such a connection."* He goes on to say : "When we study the fossil man of the quaternary period, who must of course have stood comparatively near to our primitive ancestors in the order of descent, or rather of as- cent, we always find a Man^ just such as men are now." " As recently as ten years ago," he points out, " whenever a skull was found in a peat-bog, or in pile-dwellings, or in ancient caves, people fancied they saw in it a wonderful token of an inferior state, still (piite undeveloped. They smelt out the very scent of the aj^e ; only this has continu- ally been more and more lost. The old troglodytes, pile- villages, and l)og-people prove to be quite a respectable so- ciety. They have heads so large that many a living person would be only too happy to possess such." He tells us that "our French neighbors, indeed, have warned us against inferring too much from these big heads. It may have been that their contents were not merely nerve- substance, but that the ancient brains may have had more interstitial tissue than is now usual, and that, in spite of the size of the brain, their nerve-substance may have remained at a lower stage of development."' But, with reference t(> this, he adds, " This is but the sort of familiar talk which is brought in as a kind of prop for weak minds. On the whole, we must really acknowledge that there is a complete absence of any fossil ty})e of a lower stage in the develop- * "Freedonjj of Science in the Mo<;lcrn State," R. Virchow (London, 1878), pp. 58, 60, and 61. 13 104 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? iiieiit of man. Nay, if we _ly liave been luoiv useful to liiiii in iiis Bolitude than the special or professional culture he had received. An uncultured labor- er, for instance, might have been better off. Though still possessing his culture, he would have ceased eonqiletely to live in a state of civilization. Culture is not civilization. If it were, we should have in every company as many degrees and kinds of civilization as there are per- sons in the company, while in reality the whole company stand on the same level as regards their state of civilization. Individuals may be highly cultured in various or in special directions ; but, as individuals, they are not, and cannot be civilized. Civilization only affects aggregates, and can only appear in societies of men — in tribes, that is, or states, or nations. As Bancroft says, " it is something that lies be- tween men, and not within them."* It is not an attribute of the individual. Culture, on the other hand, is a strictly personal possession. It is almost unnecessary to point out that these views are in no way affected by our finding it the business and inter- est of a highly-civilized association to cultivate in individual members the acquisition of those different arts and kinds of knowledge which may be serviceable in the maintenance and furtherance of its civilized condition — which may add to the material comforts and prosperity, or to the enjoy- ments and pleasures, of the aggregate. Association thus appears to be the very first requisite of that action the fruit of which we recognize as a state of civ- ilization. Ko such state ever has birth till men meet with men, and band together for mutual help or protection. It is the offspring of banding together, and is a quality of * Bancroft, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 56. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 207 the whole society so formed. It is not a quality of the in- dividuals composing the society, and is "not transmittable by generation tlirough individuals." It belongs to the whole association, and does not go with the individual member when he leaves it. So long as he remains in the association he must possess its civilization and participate in its advan- tages. When he leaves it, on the otlier hand, he cannot take its state of civilization with him — though, of course, he can take his culture,* which, as I have said, is a personal possession. 5. What is the Unit of a Civilized Association? It is desirable at this stage to ask what constitutes the in- dividual or the unit in a civilized association. I have hith- erto used the word individual in its common sense — that is, as meaning a single person, whether man, woman, or cliild. But it appears to me that thie true unit of the association which we are studying is the family. Civilization could not possibly occur in associations con- sisting exclusively of men, or exclusively of women, or ex- clusively of children. These, indeed, would not constitute human societies. They would be only societies of sections of mankind, and the correct way of naming them would be associations of the male form of man, the female form of man, and the innnature or " neutral " form of man. Males and females together constitute mankind. Keither men nor women separately do so. And since children, whether born or unl)orn, are really a part of tlieir parents so long as they depend for nurture on tlicir parents, it seems clear that they must go with them. It thus appears that associations or societies of men, whether in high or low states of civilization, are made up 208 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? of faiuilios. This view derives support from the fact that when they break up, they break up into families. The an- cient { 'iiutafiy or city, or state, was, in the most literal sense, an association of families. It is true the family of the Ilo- man Civitas was larger than the family I speak of, since it included children of all ages ; but, in doing this, it became more than the unit, since the adult children might and should be parts of other families forming other units. A Civitas, indeed, was simply a ifnion of families for pur- poses of defence and aggression. When families formed an association with these objects, they formed a Civitas and became a city people, or a civilized people, as distinguished from a savage people, or people of the woods, as the word savage (silvaggio) means.* No doubt this view of the social unit fails to take into account adult men and women who have not entered into family relations. Sucli persons are practically numerous in human associations, and their position is often important and prominent. But in the ideal society they do not ap- pear, and if in any society they become the majority, the declension of that society is, of course, inevitable. The importance of considering the unit of civilized hu- man societies as the family, in the sense I have given to the family, lies chiefly in this, that there are relations between parents and immature children, depending on laws of nat- ure, with which the association cannot interfere without en- dangering its prosperity. To this subject I shall have occa- sion to refer when I speak of the causes of decline in high civilizations. * In old Scotch documents, when these are in English, barbarians are called " wild men of the woods," and when they are in Latin, " homines sylvestres." WHAT IS CIVILIZATION y 200 6. "What are the Steps by which Civilizations are reached ? I iiAVK arrived at tliat point now when I can properly and advantageonsly notice some of the more important fac- tors which contribute to the begetting of states of civihza- tion, and some of the steps by which a high civihzation is reached. Tlie iirst combinations of men arc probably formed for the purposes of w^ar. These purposes are, on the one side, the protection of life and property — that is, the prevention of murder and robbery ; and, on the other side, the taking of life and property — that is, the perpetration of murder and robbery. Men are moved to combine to obtain advantages and rights which are conferred by might. They unite to protect what they have got — their lives and property ; and to take from others what they have got — their lives and property. Out of evil, as well as good, civilizations thus appear to spring.* Men unite to make themselves strono; in the struo-ii'le for existence. They know that they can overcome in combina- tion where they would perish as individuals, and therefore they combine. They form societies to defeat a law of nat- ure ; and to make war on their fellow-creatures seems to be an inevitable part of this contention with nature. At first sight nothing but wickedness thus presents itself as the starting-point of civilization ; but a second look discovers good as well as evil in civilization from its very birth. For instance, we see in it from the outset an effort to secure the greatest good of the greatest number. In societies as they * See Bancroft, op. cit., vol. ii , p. 29. 14 210 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? start tliero arc no flasscs or class privileges. These societies are coinmoiiwealtlis' and the wars waged by tliem are really for the general good. If a tribe occupies a country rich in game and abounding in edible j^lants, that tribe fights to jiold it against another triljc lighting to get it. The object of each tribe is to secure conditions of life which will make the struggle for existence as light as possible to all within it — which will make it easy for all to obtain food, clothing, and shelter. Selfishness, of course, may be said to show itself on the part of the defender as well as on the part of the aggressor, for the one wishes to keep and the other to gain an advantage ; but both act for the general weal of the respective associations. It must not be supposed, however, that the roads travelled by a savage society emerging from its savagery, or passing from a very low to a higher civilization, are essentially dif- ferent from the roads which highly-civilized societies travel in maintaining their civilizations. War does not cease where civilization is ripe, nor are its purposes changed. It may no long-er be conducted in what is called a rude and barbar- ous way. It may even be exalted into a science. Its re- spectability may be influenced by speaking of a raid as a campaign, and by other such uses of language. Its weai> ons may show greater skill in contrivance and greater beau- ty of finish. But evil docs not cease to be evil though it be spoken of in mild and polished phrases ; and, in one sense, it matters little whether men go into battle with stone axes, bronze swords, or iron guns. Are not the promptings to war still the same, and do not its spirit and its issues remain unchanged '( Do savages never light for their faith and their homes ? On the other hand, do men in a state of high civilization never fight for revenge or ag- grandizement ? Is the business of war less bloody and cruel because the sword or the bullet takes the place of the tom- ahawk i In what lies the difference between strikins; down WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 211 a foe with a stone hammer, cutting him down with a bronze sword, or sliooting him down witli a rifle ? Does the bru- tality of war depend on the ignorance shoAvn in tliu con- trivance of its instruments? Science lias improved the weapons of war, l)ut wliat blessings flow from this '. Has human nature been elevated by the contrivance of breech- loaders ? Does the making of a giant gun constitute prog- ress in a people's worth ? Does war really become less hor- rible and cruel when there are international rules for con- ducting it, as if it were a game of cricket or foot-ball — when some things are decided to be fair and others to be unfair ; as, for instance, that it is allowable to kill by explosive bombs or explosive torpedoes, but not by exjilosive bullets — when nice points of etiquette and West Endism are intro- duced into it by tlie shoddy ^philanthropy of a general con- vention ? Is the ferocity of war — are its horrors and cruel- ties — really lessened by shifts like these ? Is not the bloody business essentially the same in its nature, and the same too in its purposes, in the hands of men who lay ambushes and carry off scalps as trophies, as it is in the liands of men who blow up forts by secret mining, or ^\x^?> by skulking tor- pedoes ? We have dropj)ed into a way of talking of civil- ized toarfare as if it meant something different from — something more than — a warfare between consolidated States with great resources as distinguished from a war- fare betweefi small States, loosely held togetlier and with limited resources of weapons and men. But what more tli:in tliis does it really mean? Do we not delude ourselves when M'e think that we really believe that, in a so-called civilized M'arfare, humanity and benevolence take the place of selfishness and cruelty ? Ought we not to recognize in war one of the many threads which run all through our high civilization, and connect it with that savagery of which we proudly but ignorantly boast that we bear no trace ? Is war a transaction into which a high civilization or a high 2\-2 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? culture can ever introduce love and mercy? Does it n(;t ratlier seem to be the outcome of sometliing persistent in man, whether he is cultured or uncultured, civilized or un- civilized ? One of the earliest fniits of the wars, out of which civil- izations spring, would be the notion of projierty. Things which had been gained or made with a view to the comfort and security of the aggregate, would be felt to be its prop- erty. There would soon follow the notion of private or personal ownership — at first, of course, only in reference to those things wliicli were of the nature of movables. In re- gard to land, the idea of a personal ownershij) would arise more slowly. Perhaps, indeed, there is never, even in the highest civil- izations, a personal ownership of land which is as complete, for example, as the personal ownership of a knife or a spade — the aggregate always retaining some direct or indirect in- terest in, and control over, land as a possession. A very con- siderable advancement was made in the Roman civilization before any family could sell its land. For a long period the land was the property of the family only in the sense that it could not be taken from it. It was not property which the family could give away or sell. The land of a family, though immediately its own, belonged remoteTy to the ag- gregate, and neither the aggregate nor the family could alienate or sell it. The property of the aggregate, namely, its fields and hunting-grounds, would be held by the "right of might'' — the tribe as a whole doing battle for it against robbers from without. Ihit the recognition of a personal proprietorship, say in a tomahawk, would soon lead to Laws overriding the " right of might "' within the association, and giving in its WHAT l.S CIVILIZATION y 21:5 stead a legal riglit. Men would combine primarily to resist attacks from without — or rather for purposes of aggression as well as defence — and it would be a natural outcome c»f this banding together, that, M'ithin tlie association, the weak should be protected against the strong, and the good against the bad. All — both the weak and the strong — as elements of the association, would have their uses, and it would soon be felt that there could be no true co-operation and division of labor without a respect for the rights of personal prop- erty enforced, under Rules or Laws, by the aggregate. Such j^rogress as that just noticed is always due to lead- ers — that is, to the men of strongest intellect . and force of character in the association. In all young societies these men would be brought to the front by war, and in all prob- ability the qualities which would chiefly characterize them would be personal j^i'owess and courage. The multitudes would follow him who had shown the least fear and had killed most of the common enemy. Such a man, however, would not probably be inferior to his followers in mental capacity. On the contrary, the likeliliood is that he would be superior ; for men of courage and bodily vigor are not usually found among the feeble-minded. Though such leaders, therefore, might gain their i^jsition primarily as the result of their physical strength and fearless character, it would practically happen that thov would generally over- top their fellows also in mental and moral power. They would thus be the best men in the society to direct its oper- ations in the struggle for existence — to resist the attacks of enemies, whether human or brute ; to secure abundant sup- plies of food; to (lis(M)ver the best luinting-grounds ; to de- vise ways of killing game ; to make clearances and choose sites for villages ; to invent weapons, tools, and domestic utensils ; to suggest the domestication of aninuds and the i>14 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? cultivation of ])lants — to guide the association, in short, into a liiglier state of civili/atioii. It is true that much of tlie progress so made woukl not 1)0 taken as the result of independent discoveries or inven- tions, but would he the outcome of communications by one society to another. Our knowledge of what is happening, and of what has happened witliin the period of history, leads clearly to this conclusion. The lied Indians of Xorth America, for example, have now many domestic animals, but they received them from us within a century or two of the present time. They have guns and gunpowder too, as, indeed, have savage races in many parts of the world — not, however, as the result of in\'entions or discoveries made by themselves, but as the result of communication M'ith people in a different, and generally in a higher, state of civilization and culture. Notwithstanding this, such leaders would still be the au- thors of progress. Though they might not be inventors themselves, they would prove the ready appreciators of the value of the inventions communicated to them by others. It does not follow that such leaders as I have been speak- ing of would not be unscrupulous, cruel, and tyrannical. They would assuredly be despots, for the government of every early civilization must, and perhaps ought to be, a desj^otism. Bancroft points out that though despotism is an evil, it is, in certain states of society, " as essential to jn'ogress as any good," and he reminds us that many other things appear as aids to progress at certain of its stages, which at other stages form the greatest drags on it.^ Lead- ers of infant societies grow out of wars, and war and des- potism are inseparable. Even when constitutional govern- * Bancroft, op. cit., vol. ii., pp. 33, 61. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 215 ment lias been readied, -war entails a partial despotism. How else do we explain such things as states of siege and martial law ? The leaders, therefore, of whom I speak here, would certainly be despots — with the virtues possibly of courage and chivalry ; and they would almost certainly be cruel in enforcing discipline and obedience, and in exacting reverence. It is often referred to as a marvel that a passionate un- tamed trilie of savages should render obedience and homage to their leader with so much submissiveness as they do — even giving life up unresistingly at his caprice or for his pleasure. This cannot be satisfactorily explained by tlie dread they have of him as a man — inspired by his feats of strength and by his fearlessness and daring. There must be something more than this, and all the accounts we have of savage societies seem to show that superstitious feelings are at its root. " The strongest and most cunning of the tribe, he upon whom leadershi]) naturally falls, comes to be re- garded as specially favored of the gods," and as possessed of supernatural power." This is neither difficult to under- stand iK)r wonderful, for is there not a diviiiitv hedsins: kingsliip in the very highest states of society as well as in the rudest ? Wherever it occurs, such a superstition is nothing but a form of worship, a manifestation of the natural cuUns wliicli is a part of man's constitution, and which appears in every state of culture and civilization. And it Avould be unfair to conclude that, as a mere intellectual effort, there is more dif- iiculty in accepting a belief like tliat t(t wliicli I have refer- red, tlian there is in accepting many beliefs which ])rcvail in the highest civilizations. Ko one. I tliink, will dispute this who ffives the matter consideration. * Bancroft, op. cit., vol. ii., p. G9. 210 WHAT IS ('IVIUZATlONy Man, as I liavc paid, is iiKtved to combine, in order to ob- tain and si'cui'c advantaii:es and comforts. Hunger is liai'd to bear, and lie wants to make bimself sure of food. Cold kills him, and he must have clothing and shelter. lie is ready to struggle for these and other like ends, but he can do little alone; therefore he forms combinations in which all shall labor together. The first object of such a combination is to secure for all who form it the absolute necessities of existence. But labor soon brings more than this ; the fruits and value of labor begin to be appreciated, and a more comj)lete co-operation springs up. Manufacturing and trading increase. The divi- sion of labor is developed, and the resulting comforts are multiplied to each. Men are no longer dependent on the chase for a supply of food, nor is each one obliged to till his own field. The maker of weapons and tools can buy with these things the fish, the game, and the corn he needs. There is something diflierent now from a daily struggle for daily necessities. AVealth and property begin to be accu- mulated, and their possessors can secure the necessaries of life without being obliged to work for them. They can get others to do the work, and thus is reached that most im- portant of all steps in the history of the march of civiliza- tion, the possession of leisure. Till this state is reached, there are no opportunities for intellectual culture. As Ban- croft admirably puts it, "the mind must be allowed some respite from its attendance on the body before culture can commence."* The importance of this is not seen merely in a wider general culture within the association, through the greater general leisure which comes of a greater general prosperity and wealth ; its importance is, perhaps, more strongly seen in the opportunity which arises for the de- velopment of an entirely new class of workers — men de- * Bancroft, op. cit., vol. ii., pp. 42, 55. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 217 voted to the acquisition of knowledge to be used eventually for the general advantage. "When a society has arrived at such a point in its civilization as to render laborers of this class even jiossiblc — still more, if a point has been reached wlien the society sees and acknowledges it to be for its good to give positive encouragement to the growth of such a class — then we may properly cease to follow the steps by which its civilization will grow. The easy attainment of further advancements is plain. It has been shown that out of evil good appears to come, and that in the good itself when reached there remains much evil. Upon the very surface of the highest civiliza- tions many things appear which are also to be seen in the lowest. The features, indeed, both good and bad, which are common to the highest and to the lowest, arc numerous and important. I shall not occupy time by asking whether civilization is a blessing or a curse — whether nuui in a state of civilization is happier than man wild and unfettered.* But there are some good reasons for thinking with Bancroft that " civili- zation has its vices as well as it virtues — savagism its advan- tages as well as its demerits," and that while " the evils of savagism are not so great as we imagine, its pleasures are more than we are apt to think.-'f If some of the best qualities of the highly civilized are to be detected in the savage, and some of the worst quali- ties of the savage in the highly civilized — if there are good things common to both and evil things common to both — if the two conditions are mere decrees of each other — if the * Bancroft, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 34. f Il/ul., vol. ii., p. 37. 218 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? same Innnan nature appears in l)ot]i states — if tliesc tiling arc; true, tlieii i)erliaps there may also be some truth in the saying that "civilization is as much the natural state of man as savairism." WHAT IS CIVILIZATION •- 219 Lectuke III. 7. CAN CIVILIZATION BE LOST, AND IS THE SAVAGE IN A STATE OF DEGRADATION?— 8. DO MEN IN A STATE OF HIGH CIVILIZA- TION SHOW ANY DESIRE TO RETURN TO A RUDER AND SIM- PLER LIFE? 7. Can Civilization be Lost, and is the Savage in a State of Degradation? It is universally admitted that a nation may pass out of a state of savagery — in other words, out of a low state of culture and civilization — into a state of high civilization. We ourselves furnish an illustration. Less than two thou- sand years ago we were barbarians, and now we boast that nowhere in the world is there a civilization more advanced than ours. Is it possible that we shall ever lose it ? Is civilization a thing which is maintained by an effort, as well as acquired by an effort? Do civilizations become old and decrepit, and die out by a reversion to the savagery out of which they emerged? Are there any outgrowths of civilization which tend to destroy its vigor? Are there any seeds of disease bred within itself? In the world, as a whole, arc the centres of civilization permanent, or are they forever shifting? These are intei'cstiiig and important questions, which I shall now make an effort to answer. The tendency to go on forever becoming something bet- ter and noljler does not exhibit itself in the history of man, 220 WHAT 18 CIVILIZATION? 80 far as \\v know it. Some of tlio advocates of tlic doc- trine of evolution hold that the existence of sucli an intrin- sic tendency in emrijildiKj is an incorrect conception of tlie doctrine. "VVe are told, for instance, by Herbert Si:)encer, that " thon^Ii, tnkinii^ the entire assemblage of societies, evo- lution juay be held inevitable as an ultimate effect of the co-operating factors, intrinsic and extrinsic, acting on them all through indefinite j^eriods of time, yet it cannot be held inevitable in each particular society, or even prol)al)le. A social organism, like an individual organism, undergoes modifications until it comes into equilibrium with envi- roning conditions, and thereupon continues without further change of structure. When the conditions are changed meteorologically or geologically, or by alterations in the Flora and Fauna, or by migration conserpient on pressure of population, or by flight before usurping races," or by other such things, then " some change of social structure is entailed. But this change does not necessarily imply ad- vance. Often it is toward neither a higher nor a lower structure. Where the habitat entails modes of life that are inferior, some degradation results. Only occasionally is the new combination of factors such as to cause a chano-e con- stituting a step in social evolution, and initiating a social type whicli spreads and supplants inferior social types. For with these super -organic aggregates, as with the organic aggregates, progression in some produces retrogression in others: the more evolved societies drive the less evolved societies into unfavorable habitats, and so entail on them decrease of size or decay of structure."* What INfr. Spencer here says appears to me to divide itself into these two things: First, taking all the human societies of the world together, evolution is inevitable — in other words, the going on forever becoming something ^pcncer, op. cit., pp. 107, 108. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION"? 221 nobler and better must occur in the assemblage of societies as a whole. Second, no such result is inevitable or even probable as regards each particular society ; it undergoes change when the environments change, but that change will only occasionally be a change for the l)etter — it will often be toward something lower, not toward something higher. The first of these, that relating to the inevitable appear- ance of evolution in the mass of human societies, scarce- ly claims to be more than a speculation. The second, how- ever, that relating to particular societies, may be said to rest on actual observation or trustworthy records. Indeed, as observati(jn and research M'ideii, the fuller and wider is the information we possess about these hqoses from a higher to a lower condition. Mr. Spencer writes of them thus : '' Egyp- tians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, Jews, Greeks, Romans — it needs but to name these to be remind- ed that many large and highly-evolved societies have either disa2:)peared, or have dwindled to barbarous hordes, or have been long passing through slow decay. Euins show us that in Java there existed in the past a more developed society than exists now ; and the like is shown by ruins in Cambo- dia. Peru and Mexico were once the seats of societies, lar^e and elaborately organized, that have been disorganized by conquest ; and where the cities of Central America once contained great populations, carrying on various industries and arts, there are now but scattered tribes of savages." " Unquestionably," he adds, " causes like those whicli pro- duced these retrogressions have been at work during the whole period of human existence. Always there have been cosinical and terrestrial changes going on, which, bettering some habitats, have made others worse ; always there have been over -populations, spreadings of tril)es, contlicts with other tribes, and escape of the defeated into localities unfit for such advanced social life as they had reached ; always, 222 WHAT IS CIVIFJZATIOX? wIktc evolution has l)ccn uiiinterfered witli externally, there have been tliose decays and dissolutions wliicli complete the cycle of social clianraetise arts which we think characteristic of a forward position in civ- ilization ? In Egypt, for instance, as Mr. Tylor points out, "the extraordinary development of masonry, goldsmith's work, weaving, and other arts which rose to such a pitch of excellence there thousands of years ago, have died out un- der the influence of foreign civilizations which content- ed themselves with a lower level of excellence in these things."t It even appears that the sort of knowledge * Tylor's "Eaily History of Mankind," 2a Ed., Lond., 1870, p. 188. t Ibid., p. 184. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 220 wliicli we tliiuk least likely to be lost may disappear. It is to siicli a loss that Sir Thomas Browne refers when he says of Egypt, that now "she poreth not upon the heav- ens, astronomy is dead nuto her, and knowledge maketli other cycles."* The descendants of the peo2:)le who Luilt the cities of Coj)an and Palenqne, in Central America, still live where the old builders of these cities lived, but their special cult- ure and their civilization have totally disappeared, and the ancient cities, " with their wonders of masonry and sculpt- ure," are now deserted. But nothing, perhaps, illustrates this sort of degradation better than the coins of the old colonial cities of Greece. The early examples of these coins are beautifully designed, and executed with a skill which, perhaps, no existing nation can surpass. Less than 500 years, however, produced an almost incredible change. Scarcely can the figures be made out on those of them which are late, so rude is the copy of the old engraving ; and it would be impossible to decipher the name of the city on some of them, if we had not the power of compar- ing the late with the early coins. It would seem, indeed, as if all tlie feeling of the artist and all the cunning of tlie workman — almost as if the very knowledge of the letters of the alphabet had been lost by those who survived the de- cay of that old Greek culture and civilization which had been imposed on them, and under which they had long lived. ISTo theory of their having failed to rise in culture to the level of their governors can remove the fact I have referred to from its place as an illustration of the occur- rence, within a short period, of a rem;irkablc degradation. The art of irrigation l)y watercourses acquired in a coun- try, the successful cultivation of which necessitates irriga- tion, seems likely to be as difficult to lose as any art. Yet * Quoted by Tylor, op. cit., p. 184. 230 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? wo arc told tliat wlieii tlic S])aiiiards conquered "the Moors and J'cniviaiis, "wlio wore skilful irrigators, and liad con- structed great M'orks to bring water from a distance to fer- tilize the land/' tliey allowed these works, for the most part, " to go to rack and ruin ; and in Peru, as in Andalusia, great tracts of land wliich liad been fruitful gardens fell back into parched deserts ; M'hile in Mexico the niins of the great native a(|ueduct of Tetzcotzinco tell the same tale." In these countries, as, indeed, in British India under our own rule, the results of a high special culture of a conquer- ed race are seen to decline in the face of a culture of its conquerors wliich is lower in that special direction. Tjlor points this out, and, speaking of Mexico, shows a sequel which is very curious. " The Si^aniards in America," he tells us, " became themselves great builders of watercourses, and their works of this kind in Mexico are very extensive, and of great benefit to the drier regions where they have been constructed. But Avhen a portion of territory that had been under Spanish rule was transferred to the United States," whose civilization may, perhaps, be correctly called the most progressive in the world, "what the Spaniards had done to the irrigating works of the Moors and Peruvians the new settlers did to theirs. In FroebeFs time they were letting the old works go to ruin."'"^ This instructive illustration of an oscillation of progress and decline becomes of greater interest from the changes which befell the land as the consequence — its condition alter- nating between that of a fruitful garden and an arid waste. The lost fertility of a country, however, is not usually at- tributable so much to the loss of a special art possessed by its inhabitants as to a general decay in the people's culture and civilization, from causes which are inherent in the civ- * Tylor, op. cit, pp. 186, 187. WHAT I.S CIVILIZATION? 231 ilizatioii itself. A remarkable illustration of lost fertility of this kind is given by Mr. Marsli in his work, entitled " The Earth as Modified by Human Action." He tells ns " that the fairest and frnitfulest provinces of the Koman Empire, precisely that portion of terrestrial surface Avhich, about the commencement of the Christian era, was endowed with the greatest superiority of soil, climate, and position, which had been carried to the highest pitch of physical improvement, and which thus combined the natural and artificial conditions best fitting it for the habitation and enjoyment of a dense and highly -refined and cultivated population, are now com])k'tcly exhausted of their fertility, or so diminished in productiveness as, with the exception of a few favored oases that have escaped the general ruin, to be no longer cajjable of affording sustenance to civilized man. If to this realm of desolation we add the now M-asted and solitary soils of Persia and the remoter East that once fed their millions with milk and honey, we shall see that a territory larger than all Europe, the abundance of which sustained in by-gone centuries a population scarcely inferior to that of the M-hole Christian world at the present day, has Ijcen entirely withdrawn from human use, or, at best, is thinly inhabited by tribes too few in mimbers, too poor in superfluous products, and too little advanced in culture and the social arts to contribute anything to the general moral or material interests of the great commonwealth of man."* Besides the direct testimony of written history to the an- cient fertility of the now exhausted regions which are here referred to — namely, Northern Africa, the great Arabian Peninsula, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and many otlicr provinces of Asia Elinor, Greece, Sicily, and parts even of Italy and Spain — Mr. Marsh points out that " the nuiltitude and extent of yet remaining architectural ruins, and of de- * Marsh, "The Earth as Modified l>y Human Action," Lond., 1874, pp. 4, 5. :>'^'2 WHAT IS CIVir-IZATIOX? oayod works of internal iniprovcnicnt, bIiow that at former ei)oclis a dense population inhabited those now lonely dis- tricts. Such a jjopulation could have been sustained only by a jH-oductiveness of soil of which we at present discover but slender traces ; and the abundance derived from that fertility serves to exjjlain how large armies, like those of the ancient Persians, and of the Crusaders and the Tartars in later ages, could, without an organized commissariat, se- cure adequate supplies in long marches through territories which in our times would scarcely allord forage for a sin- ijle regiment."* From all that has been said, I think we can scarcely hesi- tate to conclude that civiKzations are lost as well as gained ; that all existing savages possibly are, and that some of them certainly are, in a state of civilization below that which their ancestors occupied ; and that there is no intrinsic tendency in human societies separately to pass ever on and ever up to something better, and higher, and nol)ler. A state of high civilization is difficult to keep as wejl as difficult to gam. This is the teaching of facts, and not a speculation. So also it is not a j)robability, but a well- known fact, that the seats of civilization change. The cen- tres of progress in the world are not always the same. They seem rather to be forever shifting. One nation rises up and another goes down. Empires are founded, flourish, and de- cay. "Where, for example, is that Ttoman Empire now, which two thousand years ago planted the seeds of a high * Marsh, op. cit., p. 4. (Note. — la discussing tiie question, What is civilization ? I am sometimes obliged, where quotations are frequent, to use the word civilization without strict regard to what I think its real meaning. I am not able, for instance, always to maintain a distinction between civilization and culture. But I do not tliiuk that the argument will suffer by this.) WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 233 civilization among the barbarians of Great Britain i It will scarcely, I think, be saying too much, if I say that the British Empire stands now veiy much where the Roman Empire stood then, and occupies a like dangerous place of breadth and prominence. Where are Xineveh and Baby- lon, and what is the condition now of those rich garden- lauds of which they were the capitals ? The learning of the country of the Pharaohs is wiped out and gone ; yet Egypt was once the home of the leaders in scientilic research. The poor people who squat round the ruins of Copan and Palen- que are incapable of understanding how their forefathers erected those marvels of architecture — so great with them is the fall from a high estate. AVhat do we know of the builders of the palaces of Cambodia, except that they must have been a highly civilized and cultured people? Their country is now in the possession of barbarians. Were the provinces of Armenia and Mesopotamia always a fruitless waste? Is it not on the record that they were once the .gardens of the world, thickly occupied by a prospering peo- ple ? If it had not been written on the page of history that they once were so, ruined buildings and M'orks of industry would have revealed the fact. In like manner, we iind among the practices, customs, and beliefs of existing sav- ages things which could only have risen when the tribes were associated and subordinate to some common rule — things which arc above the level of their j^resent condition, and which seem the outcome of a stronger civilization and a higher culture than now exist among them. These things disclose the falling away from a higher state, though not perhai^s from a high state, and they teach the same lessons as are often taught by ruined cities, ruined monuments, or ruined aqueducts. Taking the whole world into view, it would seem as if there were ahvavs nations in it Mhieh are lusinir and nations 234 \\U\T IS CIVILIZATION? wliicli arc fijiiining a liigh civilization, and as if tlic scats of culture Avcru forever clianging. That tliis is true of tlie pe- riod ^vitll -wliicli -written or monumental history deals can scarcely be (jucstioned ; and if this he so, have we any right to conclude that it may not be tme of all earlier periods if Are we not bound, on the contrary, to admit that what is certainly true of the later history of man in the world is at least possibly true of his whole history ? In such matters do we not find that the soundest arguments are those which proceed from the known to the unknown? May it not, therefore, happen that, dealing with the human race as a whole, there never has been a time in its history when there did not occur among men states l)oth of high and of low civilization ? If it should appear that this has always been the case, then is it not also possible that there may never have existed a time in the history of mankind, as a whole, when there were not, among those composing it, persons po- tentially as good, persons exhibiting as high a capacity, as any among those who now go to make up mankind ? So far as concerns the period which is embraced in history, wheth- er written or read from monuments and relics, I think this may be held as almost certainly true. The master-builders of the Pyramids, for instance, were assuredly capable of fully receiving all the scientific knowledge possessed by Newton, Watt, Thomson, Stephenson, or any such men of modern times ; while Moses, and David, and Homer, and the old Sanscrit writers have never been excelled in literature. What in these respects may have been true of the men of the period not embraced in history, we cannot, of course, so surely know; but we are able to say that all discoveries hitherto made show that the prehistoric man was as good physically as the historic man, and, if the size of the head be taken as the test, as good also intellectually. WHAT IS CIVILIZATIUX? 235 8. Do Men in a State of high Civilization show any desire to return to a ruder and simpler life? It will be admitted that all the things which gather round or grow upon a high state of civilization are not necessarily true parts of it. Some sort of relationsliip tlierc may be, and perliaps always is, but it is not necessarily a blood re- lationshi]). There are various fashions or customs, for in- stance, wliieh men living in difterent hinds of civilization agree to adopt and observe. They are often spoken of as eonventional'd'ics. Tliey occur in every state of civilization, whether high or low, though, of course, they differ greatly in the different states. Perhaps they are not less numerous and binding in states of savagery than they are in states of high civilization. I speak of them as growths on civiliza- tion, but they are often considered a true part of it. I think I may almost say that they are sometimes regarded as its chief part and very essence. I shall deal here with one class only of these growths on civilization, which 1 take from the every-day life around us, and which I shall sufficiently indicate by saying that they are characterized by a certain Wed Enillsm or Jine-manner- ism. It is not " genteel,^'' " in good forrn^^ or " the mode " to do this or do that, wear this or wear that, or say this or say that. In the matter of dress, for instance, there are many of these conventionalities. It is not necessary to par- ticularize them, because every one will readily understand to what I refer. A score of such things as I have in view vill at once suggest themselves as things which cannot be treated with contempt by those who desire to be regarded as among the relined and cultured. They are s]iokcn of as marks of a high civilization, or, by those who do not con- found civilization with culture, as differentiators between the cultured and the uncultured. 23G WHAT IS CIVILIZATION"? 1 neitlicr praise nor coudeiiiii these things. It is possible that they may be good, useful, and wise ; or they nuiy be absurd, and nonsensieal. All I wish to point out here is that, though we tolerate and submit to them, they really eonstitutc a sort of tyranny under Avhich we secretly fret, pining for the chance of a temporary escape. Does not the exquisite of Rotten Row, for instance, weary for his flannel shirt, and shooting-jacket, and hob-nailed boots? Do not bankers and lawyers and doctors sigh for a loose necktie, a soft hat, and a tweed suit ? Do not " well-constituted men " want to fish, or shoot, or kill something — themselves, by climbing mountains, when they can find nothing else ? In short, does it not appear that these conventionalities are irk- some, and are disregarded when the chance presents itself? and does it not seem as if there were something in human nature pulling men back to a rude and simple life ? Per- haps this only shows itself in regard to those " restraints of refinement '' which are not healthy in their nature ; and it is not difiicult to believe that there may be a want of good health in all mere West End gentilities. It is not the less desirable, however, to inquire whether men sit contentedly and pleasantly under their rule. To find that they do not, I think, adds, on the whole, to the respectability of human nature ; but it has an importance in the present discussion, in so far as it seems to show that there are in- herent in that nature desires after things which more or less characterize the conditions of savage life, such, for in- stance, as the love of sport and danger, the enjoyment of a life of liberty in the open air, and the dislike of a pol- ish due to mere varnish. Whatever the significance of the fact may be, it certainly appears that among the high- ly civilized these " restraints of refinement " are from time to time thrown off as irksome, and are replaced by indul- gence in those field-sports and in that free life in the woods WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 237 wliicli all savages lead and love. The highly civilized and cultured appear to be drawn toward these things ; but the interests, real or supposed, of the association of which they are members practically hinder a free yielding to the inclination. 238 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? Lecture IV. 9. HOW ARE THE GREAT CIVILIZED NATIONS FORMED, AND IN W^HAT WAYS MAY CIVILIZATION BECOME SUICIDAL? 10. ARE CIVILIZATIONS OF DIFFERENT PATTERNS, AND WHAT HOPE HAVE W^E OF A HIGHER PATTERN THAN ANY YET REACHED? 9. How are the great Civilized Nations formed, and in what ways may Civilization become suicidal? In tlic development of tlie Liglier civilizations an impor- tant factor is found in that combination or coalescence of aggregates to -wliicli allusion lias been made. Mr. Spencer, I think, makes this very clear.* Xo two societies are or can be identically conditioned. Among the chief causes of the differences, as Mr. Spencer shows, are "the peculiarities of the habitat in respect of contour, soil, climate, flora, fauna, severally affecting, in one mode or other, the (social) activities, whether militant or in- dustrial,-' and also the "particular organizations and prac- tices of surrounding societies," which must determine the character and extent of the offensive or defensive action for which each society becomes prejjared.f A coalescence of societies must therefore be a combina- tion of dissimilar societies, and when the differences existing in societies which thus coalesce are not too great, they must * Spencer, op. cit., p. Gl-1. •]- Ibid., pp. 590, 591. WHAT IS CIVILIZATIOX ? 239 be advantageous. Indeed, every prospering or progi*essing society, liowever small it be, must be made up of parts wliieli are unlike ; and to a certain extent it constitutes a gain, when the number of such unlike parts is increased, as must result from a coalescence of societies which are differ- ently conditioned. This, indeed, appears to l)e the very foundation of the di- vision of labor, which can scarcely present itself extensively in societies which are not made up of unlike parts. The members of the great societies formed by a coalescence of small ones are, therefore, likely to be conditioned in a man- ner more favorable to advancement than the meml)ers of small societies. In the co-operation which they dis2)lay, the division of labor will occur more easily and to a greater ex- tent. Tlie number of separate occupations will l)e increased, and those who follow them will do so more exclusively.* Among the rcrr.lts of this, as Mr. Spencer shows, there will be a breaking up of the ruling class into political, relig- ious, and military sections. It will no longer be necessary for the whole society to take a part in wars, either of ag- gression or defence, or in tlio preservation of good order witliin the society. These things will be left to standing armies of soldiers and policemen, and will constitute their sole business. Those, on the other hand, who are concerned in the industrial activities of the society, M'ill be left to fol- low their various avocations continuously, and to develop that co-operative division of labor which not only adds to productiveness, but actually creates places of fitness for ex- ceptionally constituted members. Such members might not find suitable occupations in smaller societies Avith simpler * On this subject see Spencer, op. cit., pp. 491, G14, en, etc. To show my indeljtedncss to him, and also to supply ii fuller statement of his views, some quotations from his " Principles of Sociology " are given in the Appendix. 240 WHAT IS (1VIIJZATI0N-? orijjanizatioMR, and for want of them tlicy would perish. Thus the hiw of natural selection is more effectually defeat- ed, and the civilization rises in degree. In every society, whatever its size, and whatever the de- gree and jiattern of its civilization, tliere are what Mr, Spen- cer designates two leading activities — the militant and the industrial. Among other ways in wdiich these two activities are distinguished from each other there is this — that the first, the militant, involves wdiat has been called a compul- sory co-operation, and the second, the industrial, what has been called a voluntary co-operation. It is probably always true that the w^eaker the militant activity, and the stronger the industrial in any society, the higher is its civilization. This, at least, is almost certainly true of every large and old society. But it happens that in all human societies there are influences at work tending to keej) alive and to foster the militant activit}^ ; and Mr. Spencer admirably shows that when this does not manifest itself in actual warfare, it may be seen in the tendency to centralized administration and compulsory regulations affecting labor — in other words, in in- terferences with the voluntariness of co-operation.* It is to this aspect of the militant activity that I desire now briefly to direct attention. When a society, through its government, interferes with the voluntariness of co-operation, and makes regulations af- fecting labor, it may be looked on as dictating, in regard to its members, very much as it would if they were soldiers. It charges itself with their bodily welfare and their mental welfare. It leaves little to the free action of the units, con- trolling that action by all sorts of rules. This is, perhaps, the ripest development of any civilization, but may it not * Speuccr, op. cit., pp. G03-006. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION '? 241 be of the nature of that rij)encss %vliic]i is tlie precursor of decay ? All sorts of tilings, great and small, directly or indirectly affecting the voluntariness of individuals, are controlled and regulated by an association which exhibits its tendency to militarism in this way. Poor Luvs, lunacy laws, and factory acts are passed, and their administration is directed by State officials. Lodging-houses are licensed, and the management of shij)S and mines is controlled by a central authority. The ignorant are protected against adulterations of their food by public analysts, and the weak are saved by law from overwork. In short, the whole life of the members of the aggregate is taken charge of by the government of the ag- gregate, just as the individuals of an army are by its com- manders. The civilization of a society must, of course, be high and ripe to make government on these lines possible. Indeed, it is as high a manifestation as we can get of the struggle to defeat the law of natural selection. It is an effort to secure equal advantages for the weak and for the strong, and to re- duce to a minimum the disadvantages of stuj^idity. The aggregate — that is, the State — makes jirovision for the maimed, the halt, and the blind ; for the poor in j^i^i'se, the sick in body, and the sick in mind ; for the thriftless and improvident, that they shall not suffer; for the vicious, that they shall be restrained from sin ; f(jr M'onien, that coarse and heavy work shall nut be done by them; for chil- dren, that they shall do no work till they have reached a certain age ; for men, that their hours of work shall l)e short; and for all, tliat their food shall be unadulterated, and that the conditions in which they work and live shall be healthy. All these things most clearly tend to control the operation of the law of natural selection. They give to the stupid and the weak some of the advantages which are naturally possessed by the intelligent and strong. They are 1(3 242 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION:' special contrivances to prevent survival of tlie fittest only, and to defeat the law of natural selection. AVlien the gov- ernment of an aggregate acts thus in many directions, it fol- lows of necessity that the aggregate must jiossess a high civ- ilization. Sucli things, indeed, constitute its height. Witli- out them it would be low. Nevertheless, it is clear that there are many sources of danger to tlie continued prosj)erity of a high civilization in \vhich the militant activity of the aggregate is allowed to take the shape in question too strongly. If anything, for example, leads to an undue prej)onderance of the weak in a society, there may come a time when the material out of M-liich leaders emerge is neither sufficient in quantity nor quality — and without good leaders civilizations can neither arise nor be maintained. In advanced and highly civilized aggregates there exists a class probably even lower than is ordinarily found among the less civilized. These are the dregs of society — the "shotts" of the flock — to be found in the slums of great cities. In lower states of civilization such jiersons, left more to the operation of that natural law from which, in the higher civilizations, they are protected to the utmost, die off and disappear. Fewer of them, at any rate, survive, and the weaker of the weak are those who perish. It thus becomes a question whether the average level of bod- ily and mental capacity may not be much the same in highly civilized communities and in those with a comparatively low civilization; but whether this be the case or not, it seems al- most certain that the range is greater among the highly civ- ilized. Among them we may fairly expect to find a weaker class — just able to survive in consequence of the wider pro- tection given by the aggregate. Indeed, it may perhaps be correctly regarded as an aim of civilization to extend this range ; and so long as the extension is brought about by fos- tering strength as well as by protecting weakness, the attain- ment of the object may l)e deemed a gain to the civilization. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 243 But when the efiorts are confined to the care and protection of the weak, in such a way as to give scarcely any advantage or help to the strong, then leaders cease to be raised ; the range between the highest and lowest is reduced by curtail- ment at the upper end, and increased solely by extension at the lower, and in this way a cause of decline is introduced into the civilization. It thus appears that though civilization may be said to rise with the success attending the elforts of a combination of men to defeat the law of natural selection in their case, such a defeat cannot become absolute in any civilization without ultimately involving what may correctly enough be described as the death of that civilization by a sort of suicide. There is another way in which this mode of manifesting the militant activity of aggregates may prove dangerous. In high civilizations the relations of the State or aggre- gate to children are apt to be confounded with the strictly parental or family relations. The child, as I have already endeavored to show, is only connected with the State as part of the family. There may be some difficulty in show- ing when this position ends, and when the child becomes a member of the State ;"''^ but it has been well said that it is the interest of the State to foster the parental instincts, and prolong the care taken of offspring. So long as the human being is immature, whether before or after birth, it is and should be, like the young of other animals, protected from the operation of the law of natural selection by the parental instincts. This is the law of the family. It is the law of nature, in regard to the young, that the parents shall be the combatants in the struggle for existence. But the law of * Spencer, op. cit., p. '795. 244 V^'IIAT IS civil, IZATIOX? nature for tlic mature is that tlicy tliemselves shall be the combatants. Each mature individual has to face the stiiig- -17 ferent pattern, and that this is not necessarily synonymous Avitli different stages of progress. These differences of pattern are perhaps accounted for and exphiined to some extent by differences of race, but there is no g^ood reason for regardins; this as a factor of niucli importance. The environments of a people, on the other hand, are seen to operate powerfully in moulding their civilization. Although the races peoj^ling two such countries as Greenland and India were the same, we could not conceive that civilizations would arise in these countries M-liich would not exhiljit strong differences. In two regions so differently conditioned, the struggle to defeat natural se- lection would necessarily be conducted in very different ways — the forces to be overcome would l^e different, and the means of overcoming tliem would be different — the re- sult would be two states of civilization differing from each other in many respects. In both countries a considerable success in defeating the law and a hii!-h civilization mio-ht be attained; but it might l)e, on the other hand, that in one or other country the difhculties of the struggle would be so great that nothing more than a small success would be pos- sible, and nothing more than a low civilization attainable. That, for instance, miglit be true of Greenland, where the environments — the climate, the soil, the llura, the fauna, etc. — would certainly be very hostile to the efforts of any com- fact, «// are alike mcinbors of the complex ami liighly-developed organism, aiul are influenced by its eliaractciistics. It may sometimes be necessary to the vigor of a civilization that the en- vironments of some members of the aggregate shall be unfavorable as com- pared with those of others. This may show itself in various ways, and need not involve the living in remote and inaccessible places. The aggregate meets to some extent the special and unfavorable environments of such members by making exceptional provisions and arrangements for their safety and wcll-l)e- ing, as it docs, for instance, in the case of exceptionally dangerous occupations which arc pursued for the general advantage. These and many other such aspects of the question have not been discussed here, because it did not appear necessary to do so. 248 WHAT IS civiiJZATioxy Mnation, even with luadcrs of mark. There is truth in Inmdiii's saying that man is to a large extent the expres- sion of the soil on wliicli he lives — meaning by soil the whole surroundings, inclusive of climate; and it may be held as certain that tliese not only control tlie rate and degree of civilization, but give it also a pattern or special character. TuE environments of a society, however, are not the only things which mould its civilization. The modifying influ- ence of creeds, beliefs, or superstitions is also very great. Perhaps 1 shall best succeed in showing the oi^eration of such an influence if I contrast the effects of a religious be- lief which has a special god for every state or society — a god existing only for it, and giving j^rotection to no other state or society — with a belief which, as De Coulanges says, "presents to the adoration of all men a single God, a uni- versal God, a God wdio belongs to all, who has no chosen people, and who makes no distinction in races, families, or states.'-'^ The first of these beliefs is that which is still, and appeai-s in all ages to have been, common among people in states which we describe as barbarous — that is, in states of low civ- ilization. It is, indeed, a mere extension of ancestor-worship, which gives a special god to every family. This only goes a little farther, and gives a special god to every combination of families or clvHas. Though this form of religious belief, modified in a hundred ways, is generally, perhaps, that of tribes or races which are in a low state of civilization, and which we call barbarous or savage, yet it may also present itself as the belief of a people who have reached a civihza- tion which can only be regarded as high. It was the belief, for instance, of ancient Greece and ancient Rome. * De Coulanges, op. cit., p. 523. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? 240 It is scarcely necessary to point out that such a belief must produce special laws, and originate a special form of government. But it has another product of greater interest here, to which I shall briefly direct attention. Such a belief necessarily limits human associations, and confines them within a certain area. Where it jirevails, the growth and strengthening of states of civilization by the coalescing of societies is practically hindered. Societies in which such a l)elief exists cannot join together, and, by a combination of their experiences and acquirements, give an immediate advance to the larger society so formed. As is shown by De Coulanges,* these special gods not only pro- tected the people whose they were, but they were hostile to all others, and could not accept adoration from foi'cigners. The conversion of one society to the creed of another was thus impossible. A State could not give uj) its gods, nor could the gods give up a State. The connection was not severable. In such circumstances propagandism was not thought of. How could a people, indeed, be asked to join that into which they could not be received, or to leave that to which they were inseparably and supernaturally joined i The idea of gods of tribes necessarily involves the existence of separate tribes, and in that way becomes a hinderance to the growth of civilization by preventing the formation of large associations through the coalescence of smaller ones. It may be objected to the views now enunciated that great nations have been formed out of societies having these sj>e- cial gods, and the Roman Empire may be instanced. But it must be remenil)ered that this empire was not formed till the labors of philosophers and the consequent decline of the influence of the sacerdotal class had shaken trust in tlie old faiths. This is well shown by De Coulanges. Though * De Coulanges, op. cit., pp. 520-523. 250 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION-? many of tlic ceremonies continued to be observed, the lead- ers of tlie people, and eventually the bulk of the ])e(jj)le, had ceased to be under the thraldom of the ancient religion. If we turn now to the other creed, that in which God ap- pears as " a unique, immense, universal being, alone animat- ing the worlds," and standing in exactly the same relation to all the families of men on the earth, we shall find that its influence on the growth and pattern of civilization is quite as great, but very different. We have no longer to deal with the domestic religion of a family, nor with the national religion, if I may so speak, of a city or tribe. This claims to be the religion of the whole human family, and all men under it are equal. The right to practise the worship of this God is not the privilege of any nation, and under it the spirit of propagandism at once takes the place of the sj^irit of exclusion.* It seems to me almost unnecessary to point out that a religious belief of this kind, instead of tending to keep so- cieties of men ajxirt, tends strongly to draw them together. The creed is no longer a barrier to union; it becomes an invitation to union. It is impossible not to see how great must be the consequences of a belief like this on the prog- ress and pattern of civilization — how much stronger it tends to make it, and how much farther it tends to carry it. Is it possible that this faith may some day become uni^-er- sal among men, and that the fruit of it will be a union of unions — combinations and coalescences of great empires — till there is on the whole earth but one people, worshipping one God in one tongue ? And would such a change lead to a j^attern of civilization higher than any yet attained ? I cannot answer these questions ; but I think I may safely affirm that under no other faith is such a future possible. * De Coulanges, op. cit., pp. 521-524. APPENDIX APPENDIX. 253 PRIMITIVE LOOM FROM MIDCALDER, EDINBURGH. FOR ■WEAVING AVAISTBAND TAPE OR TAPE FOR BRACES. (Page 29, Fig 14.) The frame of tliis loom is composed of a ])iece of rough wood Si- feet long, and about 2 inches square, •uith three uprights fixed on it — one at each end, about 7 inches high, and one in the middle, about 9 inches. The warp is simply tied ou one of the end uprights, and is loosened as required. The woven stufi" is passed over a pin fixed at right angles near the top of the other cud upright, and is kept stretch- ed by having a weight attached to it. The separation of the threads of the warp, technically called the shed^ which allows the passage of the shuttle with the weft, is made by each alternate thread of the warp passing over a pin which projects at right angles from near the top of the middle U2)riglit, and then through loops of small twine about 3 inches long, and attached to a second pin in the middle upright about 5^ inches below the upper pin. Tlicse threads, forming one-half of the warp, are thus, when the web is tightened for weaving, held at a pretty sharp angle, while the loose threads forming the other half of the warp are left free in the natural line of the warp, and can be easily moved up and down to form the slicd and allow the passage of the weft. The weft is driven up by a wooilcn spatha, %\ inches long and 1^ inches broad, shaped somewhat like a table-knife. The shuttle is simply a pin of wood on which the weft is wound. This loom is the property of the Rev. George ^Murray, of Balmaclcl- lan. The description of it is written by !Mr. John Edward Sibbald, F.S.A., Scot. II. THE CRAGGAN IN OLD HIGHLAND TRADITIONS. (Page -10.) Captain Thomas informs me tliat the craggau is often mentioned in Highland traditions. 254 ArrEXDix. For instance, in one of tlic ''Traditions of tlie Macaulays,"' wliicli lie has collected and is about to publi.sli, a man is represented as ordering liis wife to " milk the cows, wliicli were in the house, into a craggan, and boil it on the fire." In a foot-note referring to this, Captain Thomas says: "The craggan (Krukka. led.) is the most primitive form of na- tive pottery in use in the British Isles. Although in general use in the last generation in Skye (Dr. Millar), as well as in the Long Island, it is now only made in the west of Lewis." " The form of the crag- gan," he adds, " does not differ from the form of clay vessels used l)y the Zulus now." III. SKYE CUAGGAXS. (Page 47.) In a i^aper by the Rev. Alexander M'Gregor, A.M., of Inverness, which was read to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland this year (1880), it is stated that some of the Skye craggaus were large enough to hold three or four gallons. In these large vessels, which Mr. M'Gregor describes as having flat bottoms, the people are said to have stored their oil. I have never seen craggans either of this size or form, and I think it probable that none of them are now made. Mr. M'Gregor says that within the last half-ceutury craggaus were largely manufactured in those districts of Skye which yielded a suit- able clay. He describes the process of manufacture thus : The first part made was the circular bottom, which was placed on a board or flat stone, and on this the sides, about an inch in thickness, were built up in the desired form. The outside of the craggan was care- fully scraped, so as to give it a better appearance. The inside was left untouched, as access to it was difiicult. When finished, the crag- gan was left for some weeks to dry. After it had become sufficiently hard, it was burnt in a peat fire, and during this part of the process was often cracked or broken. "When in The Lewis I frequently heard of these craggans of great size ; but it is interesting to have such definite and trustworthy infor- mation as to their recent existence. It is also of interest to learn that all craggans were not of the globular shape shown iu Figs. 18 to 25, pages 43, 44, 45, and 48. APPENDIX. 255 IV. TUE SUETLAXD SXUFF-QUERX. (Page 53.) Thkre are querns and querns — querns for one purpose, and querns for another — and they are not all the same either in size or construc- tion. The Shetland snufl-quern, for instance, is smaller and simpler than the meal -quern — the comparatively complex arrangements of the latter being not adopted in the case of the snuff-quern, because they were unnecessary, and would in practice have interfered with its utility. The Shetland suutf-qucrn, such as was in actual use about fifty years ago, consists of two tliiu circular stones, one mucli smaller than the other. The lower or larger stone is about 18 inches in diameter, and about an inch thick. The upper or smaller stone is about 9 inches in diameter, and about three-quarters of an incli in thickness. The lower stone served both as one of the grindiug-stoncs, and as the tray which received the ground tobacco as it escaped from between the two stones. The snuff-quern was generally held on the knee of the grinder, who filled the eye or centre-hole of the upper stone with tobacco leaves, dried in a pan on the fire; and then with a lamb's horn, the point of which was placed in a cuj) or hollow cut near the edge of the upper stone, be pushed it round. It was prevented from leaving its place on the lower stone by a pivot of iron or wood fixed firmly in a bole in the centre of the lower stone, and passing loosely through the eye or centre-hole of the upper stone. This mill ground fine or coarse ac- cording to the rate at which it was fed, and not as the result of any mechanical arrangement. It is altogether a much ruder piece of machinery than the meal- quern described at page 53; but, nevertheless, it was made by the people who were uyng, at the time they made it, the more complex quern. They had good and suflicient reasons, however, for adopting the simpler form of mill when they wished to grind tobacco. It suited the purpose better; and that being so, it was wisdom, and not fool- ishness, to adopt it. 256 < APPENDIX. V. SHETLAND BURSTIN AND HEBRIDEAX GRADDAN. (Page G4.) Mahtix, in bis " Western Islands" (1703), p. 204, says, " Tlie ancient ■way of dressing Corn, wiiich is yet us'd in several Isles, is call'd Grad- dan, from the Irish word Orad ; which signifies quick. A Woman sitting down, takes a handful of Corn, holding it by the Stalks in her left hand, and then sets fire to the Ears, which are presentlj^ in a flame ; she has a Stick in her right hand, which she manages very dexterous- ly, beating off the Grain at the very Instant, when the Husk is quite l)urnt, for if she miss of that, she must use the Kiln ; but Experience has taught them this Art to perfection. The Corn may be so dressed, winowed, ground, and baked within an Hour after reaping from the Ground. The Oat-bread dressed as above is loosening, and that dress'd in the Kiln Astringent, aud of greater strength for Labourers: but they love the Graddan, as being more agreeable to their taste."' With reference to this. Captain Thomas, in his " Traditions of the Macaulays," quotes as follows from a correspondent : " I have often seen the above speedy mode of making bread of what was only stand- ing corn a very short time before, in Harris, and both bread and meal arc much sweeter to the taste than what is kiln-dried." This is a recent experience and opinion. Graddan, 1 am told, is merely the Hebridean variety of the Shetland Burstin,yv\nc]i last. Captain Thomas says, he had tasted, but had not relished. TOASTING OR BAKING STONES. (Page 93.) TnEKE Is a stone object, unnoticed in the lectures, which not long ago was common in some parts of Scotland, but which has now passed completely out of use — so completely that, when one of them was APPENDIX. 257 presented to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 187G, few persons could tell the purpose for which it had been made. I Fig. 137.— Baking or Toasting Stoue from Fordouu. refer to the baking or toasting stone, for toasting oat-cakes before an " open lire " — that is, a tire on the hearth, and not in a grate. Fig. 13S. Fig. 13!t. Frout of Tonster from Clovn. Forfarshire. Bnck of Toaster from Clova, Forfarshire. From a Sketch by Mr. Ower. From a Sketch by Mr. Ower, 17 258 ArPENDIX. TIic s))0(umcii -whicli Mr. Allen Matthcwson placed in tlic Museum is shown in Fit^. 1157. It is made of red .sandstone, and is 13 inches high, 11:| inclics wide, an51. APPENDIX. 259 jecting part at the bottom it bears tlie date 178G. It was found at Clova, in Aberdeenshire.* In the Dundee Museum tl)ere is a hiirhly decorated specimen, the front and back of wliich I am able, throus^li the kindness of Mr. Mat- tliewson, to sliow in Figs. 138 and 139. It bears the date 1074, but it is known to have been actually used l)y the motlier of the lady who gave it to the Museum. It weighs 17:^^ lbs., and is 9^ inches wide at the base, and from 14 to 15 inches high. It came from Longforgan, in Perthshire, and is said to have been once the property of a woman who was reputed to be a witch, antl who lived in the Carse o' Gowrie. The two woodcuts sufficiently show the character of this stone. The ledge on which the cake rested is shown in Fig. 188, which rej)- resents the front of the stone, or the side exposed to the lire. The fourth specimen of a toasting-stone Avhich I have to notice is in the possession of Mr, Sturrock, of Dundee, and comes from For- doun, in Kincardineshire. The front and back of it are shown in Figs. 140 and 141. It weighs 19 lbs., and is about 12 inches high, and 12 inches wide at the base or pedestal, which is about 3} inches thick. The part bounded by the circle is thinner, lacing only an incli and a half thick. The usual ledge for supporting the cake appears on the front of the> stone, which in this instance, unlike the Longforgan speci- men, is more highly decorated than the back. It bears the date 1701. VII. THE LATE USE OF STONE CISTS. (Page 117.) " I n.WE already alluded to the process of degradation by which the ch:niil)er of the cairn was reduced to a simple cist. The cist of the later pagan times was usually so short as to necessitate the doubling up of the body. Even this form, repugnant as it must have been to Christian feelings, furnishes us with one well-authenticated instance of survival. I allude to the remarkable cemetery at Alloa, described by Dr. Stuart, in which a cist, three feet long, had two crosses incised on its cover. The full-length cist of stones (a further degradation) was used in many northern church-yards to a late date. Along the uorthern and western coasts there are isolated burials of the bodies of shipwrecked sailors, sometimes in considerable groups, in shallow * Sec "Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. xil., p. 01-1. 2(50 AI'I'KNDIX. graves above the bcacli, in wliicli tlie bodies have Ijeen laid in cists made of flat stones gathered from the neighboring strand. In fact it was the Poor Law Act which, by obliging the Inspector of Poor to defray the expense of a wooden coffin and decent burial for all penni- less or friendless unfortunates, finally extinguisiied in Scotland a cus- tom wliich had survived, in one form or other, from the time when the first burials were made in its soil."* VIII. THE TINDER-BOX. (Page 118.) My attention has been called to an article on " The Production of Fire," in the Penny Magazine for 26th July, 1834, from which the fol- lowing extract is taken : " The flint and steel, with the tinder and match, of some kind or other, have long been the instruments of getting a light in the civil- ized world. . . . Within the present century the aid of chemistry has been called in, . . . and instantaneous lights have become quite com- mon, under the various names of Promethians, lucifers, etc., although, from its superior cheapness, the tinder-iox will probaUy alicays Tceep its place in domestic usey The Italics are mine. They are intended to fix attention on the prophecy with which the quotation ends. No doubt it was thought a very safe prophecy when made. Yet we find it so far from fulfil- ment that it is now a matter of considerable difiiculty to get posses- sion of a tinder-box. In less than half a century the practice of get- ting fire in this way has entirely died out. It is probable that there were millions of tinder-boxes in the country in 1834, when the writer in the Penny Magazine uttered his prediction, but tliey are now scarce and costly objects, and already they find a place in museums of an- tiquities. IX. WERE THE PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND SAVAGES AT THE TIME OF THE ROMAN INVASION. (Pages 131, 219, 232.) I HAVE spoken of the inhabitants of this country as having been, •at the time of the Roman invasion, in a state which may be correctly * Mr. Anderson, " Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. xi., pp. 369, 370. 261 Fig. 142.— Roniau Sculptured Stone, iU inches long, found at Aiiiiebog, Cuniberuauld. Diimbaitonshire. spoken of as a state of savagery, 3Ir. Wallace saj'S: "All tiic evidence we have proves that tliey were savages, as much so as the Soutli Sea Islanders."* The late Dr. Hunt, however, alleges that this is "not " Jouruul of Authiop. Soc," vol. ii., p. lS(i. 2(i2 ArrEXDix. Ibundcd on known facts, but on tnulition calleil history. It is brought forward us an argument that the Britons were slaves and savajjes two to ^••;;\i^^-e.->. APPENDIX. 263 tliousand years ago, and, tliorefore, that some people that are savages now will in that time be equal to us. But the whole thing is an ab- surdity, inasmuch as you cannot prove the fact, except on the barest traditional evidence."* Dr. Hunt appears to have spoken in ignorance when he made this statement, for the oi)ini()u referred to rests on evi- dence furnished by coutemi)orary records. There was a stone, for in- stance, discovered in 1868 on the farm of Arniebog, in the parish of Cumbernauld, with a figure, assumed to be tliat of a captive Briton, sculptured on it almost certainly by the Romans themselves while they were still in this country. It is shown in the Avoodcut, Fig. 142. Dr. Buchanan, of Glasgow, wu'ites thus of it: "The figure of the cap- tive is particularly interesting, for it aflbrds a portrait by Roman hands of a native Briton. He is naked, on one knee, with his hands tied be- hind his back, as if ready for decapitation. The countenance is that of a young man of about twenty-two years of age; the features not at all savage; the nose good, slightly aquiline; no beard or mustache; the hair rather short, and apparently plaited round the brow ; the body plump and muscular ; the whole figure exhibiting a strong, well- built mau."t Tliis, if I am not mistaken, is very much like those descriptions of savages with which we are familiar. At the same time, it is clearly the description of a man who, in the course of time, may cease to be what we call a savage. On another Roman slab, discovered in the same year at Bridgeness, near Carriden, Linlithgowshire, a group of four captive Britons, one a woman, is represented. Mr. Buchanan describes them thus: "All are naked. Behind them is a Roman soldier on a stallion, fully armed with a helmet, slueld, and brandishing a spear. He is galloping among and slaying the captives. One has been decapitated, the head lying beside the body; a second has been thrown on his back, with his feet in the air; a third has been knocked pnrtially down, and is trying to recover himself The female is sitting with her hands screcun ing her bosom and person. "| Tliis remarkable stone is admira1)ly sliowu in Fig. 143. "When it was presented to the Society, Dr. .Tolin Alexander Suiitli drew atten- tion to the interesting representation of the group of armed Caledo- nians, " naked, as Ilerodian describes tliem in his ' History' — exhibit- * "Journal of Anthrop. See," vol. ii., p. ISO. t Buchanan, "Proc. of Soe. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. ix., p. 473. t Ibid., vol. ix. ,p. 47G. 2G4 AITEXDIX. iiiy, proI)iibIy, tlicir st;itc of coiiipjirative barbarism in contrast to Koman civiliziitiuii.'* There is still another stone, sculptured by the Romans, and found in Scotland, which represents two Caledonian natives, both naked, and with their arms tied behind their backs. It is in the Ilunterian Mu- seum, Glasgow, and is tlgured in the "Caledonia Komana," 2d edit., Plate ix., Fig. 1. With such facts as these before us — and they could easily have been multiplied — it is assuredly wrong to regard, as Dr. Hunt did, the opin- ion that the ancient Britons were " in a savage state at the time of Julius CiXisar," as having " only the barest traditional evidence for a foundation." X. THE DISCOVERY OF BRONZE. (Page 133.) I HAVE not failed to bear in mind that those discoveries which seem to influence the condition of mankind as a whole are generally the crowning results of many different discoveries, made by many men, working either on the same or on converging lines of research. Some- times it may even be diflicult to say, with reference to any special dis- covery of this character, what person made it, so near to the making of it may many persons have been. But, nevertlieless, the cope-stone is usually in practice laid by an individual ; and more than this my ar- gument does not assume, and does not require. The advantages of these discoveries, Avhen tliey are once made, may be fully accessible to people who are themselves utterly unfit to make them. The possession of such advantages by such people, however, does not occur as a necessary result of their having reached a certain " development " — that is, a certain stage in the growth of their capac- ity. This is evident from the fact that people of extremely ditierent capacities (and also of extremely diflerent degrees of culture) may possess them. So fiir, indeed, as man's natural history is known, there is nothing to show that he exhibits a growth of capacity which is marked by * Dr. Smith,"Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. viii., p. 113. APPENDIX. 265 anything like crises or stages — ou rcacliing one of which, for example, he must necessarily be acquainted with bronze, and on reaciiing an- other, with iron. The phenomena of puberty mark a stage or critical epoch in the growth of a girl, but there is nothing to show that man exhibits a growth of cai^acity marked by crises or stages in any way analogous to this. It can scarcely be doubted, indeed, that the man who is fiimiliar with the uses of iron may sometimes be lower in capac- ity, and poorer, too, in culture, than the man who never heard of iron. XL GUNPOWDER DISCOVERED IN CUINA. (Piige 133.) There are nations, like the Chinese and Japanese, whose policy shuts off communication with other nations. Great discoveries made by nations so conditioned cannot, of course, spread as they do when made by a cosmopolitan people. So it may have happened that gun- powder was long known only to the Chinese, if, as is sometimes alleged, it was really discovered in China before being discovered in Europe. Such an exceptional occurrence, however, does not affect my argu- ment. XII. THE MIRACLE-STONE OF THE SPEY. (Pnges 161-178.) The following account of The Miracle-stone of the Spey* is given in further illustration of the views expressed in the sixth lecture. I have collected and given an account of many strange superstitions still cxising in remote parts of Scotland,! but I have recorded no such wonderful illustration of a living superstition as that furnished by The Miracle-stone of the Spei/, wliich was erected in 1865 close to the * Taken from " Vacation Notes," by Dr. Arthur Mitchell, " Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. x., 187.5. + " Supeystitions rclatinc: to Lunacy," by Dr. Mitchell, "Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. iv., 18G2. 266 APPENDIX. banks of the river, near the Boat of 74: APPENDIX. coniplctt'djtlie clavic is borne along tlic principal street to .1 small hill near the northern extremity of the promontorj- called the ^ Doorle^ on the summit of Avhicli ;v freestone pillar, very much resembling an an- cient altar, has been built for its reception, the spoke fitting into a socket in the centre. Being now firmly seated on its throne, fresh fiu'l is heaped on the clavie, while, to make the fire burn the brighter, a barrel with the ends knocked out is placed on the toj). Cheer after cheer rises from the crowd below, as the efl'orts made to increase the blaze are crowned with success. " Though formerly allowed to remain on the Doorie the whole night, the clavie is now removed when it has burnt about half an hour. Then comes the most exciting scene of all. The barrel is lifted from the socket and thrown down on the western slojie of the hill, which appears to be all in one mass of flame — a state of matters that does not, however, prevent a rush to the spot in search of embers. Two stout men instantly seizing the fallen clavie, attempt to demolish it by dashing it to the ground : which is no sooner accomplished than a final charge is made among the blazing fragments, which are all snatched up in an incredibly short space of time. " Up to the present moment, the origin of this peculiar custom is involved in the deepest obscurity." The main object in the observance of the superstitious ceremony just described was to secure the fruitfulness of the industry of the place — in other words, to secure a good fishing. It acknowledges the existence of a power presiding over, or controlling, increase and fertility. Of course, as actually observed in our day, it is nothing more, per- haps, than an idle ceremony — an occasion for laughter and frolic — without any meaning soberly attached to it. But, beyond doubt, as once practised, this would be otherwise. Even after all exact knowl- edge regarding the nature and origin of such a ceremony as the burn- ing of the clavie had been lost, there would naturally remain a real, though not an openly avowed belief, that it concerned the well-being of the community that it should be observed. Believing that this was probably true, it occurred to me that I should find in the Church Rec- ords of the district, if those of a sufficiently remote period had been l^reserved, some evidence of an effort on the part of the Church to suppress the ceremony by punishing those who took part in it. Ac- cordingly, I visited the Rev. James "Weir, of Drainie, who is clerk of the Presbytery in which Burghead is situated, and with his help ex- APPENDIX. 275 ainined the records. Relevant entries were soon discovered, and tliese were afterward carefully extracted by Mr. Weir, who found otiier en- tries after a more minute searcli. I liad also an opportunity, through the Kev. Dr. Brander and Mr. John Nicoll, of examining the Session Records of the parish of Dufl'us, in which Burghead is situated, and in these also references to the clavie were found. From the Kirk-Ses- sion Records of the parish of Inveravon I also obtained an interesting entry through the Rev, Dr. Sellar of Aberlour. As brieflj^ as I can, I shall indicate the character of the references to the l)urning of the cUivie which occur in these Church Records.* In the first allusion to the superstition in the existing Records of the Presbytery of Elgin (11th of January, 1655), the word clatie does not occur. The ceremony is described as the carrying of fir torches about the boats. It is often spoken of much in the same way, both in these Records and in those of the Kirk-Sessions ofDrainie and DufFus, even when tlie word clavie occurs. For instance, it is called (23d of December, 1705) the '■'■ jjracticc of carrieing lighted clevies or torches about y' ioats,'''' or carrying " a torch off candles about the boats.^'f The people are charged with burning '•'■their clavies about their loats,'^ or with kind- ling "a clavie of firre^'' or "a candle^'' and going about the boats. In one entry the ceremony is described as ^'burning torches — crossing the boats therewith;'''' but I do not find anything to show that the use of the word ^'^ crossing '''' in this entry had any special significance. J * These entries are given in exlen^o in the "Proc. of Soe. of Autiq. of Scot.," vol. X., pp. 652-059. " Vacation Notes," by Dr. Mitchell. t In this extract, and in most of those which follow, the words contracted or given in obsolete characters arc not written out — 7 being written for con, y for th, etc. The other signs are used as they appear in the MSS. X In the Church Records the word clavie appears to be used as the equiva- lent of torch. It is not probable, however, that these two words are quite sy- nonymous. Perhaps the most likely meaning is that suggested to me by Mr. Andci-son. lie thinks that it is an old or altered form o{ clivvie, which Jamie- son gives as a Banffshire word, meaning a cleft stick for holding a rush-light. In Shetland the same word takes the shape of cUvin, the tongs; and Mr. Laurenson states that the word is still in use among the fishermen. Tliis makes the etymology of the word plain. The clavie would not be the torch, but the tiling which carried the torch, or which carried fire in any shape. The Rev. Walter Grigor, of New Pitsligo, the author of the " Dialect of Bann'shire," informs mc that he has "heard the word, but not often, and not for a long time." lie says that he has never met it in any ballad or stor}-. He gives me a sketch of an instrument for holding "^r candles,''^ which BuflSciently an- 276 ArrHNDix. It appears from these records that the liiiniing of tlie clavie took ])lace " o/i If nciD yeires ercH," or on '•/ lad dmj of Dec'. \ or on '■'■new yeires daijy It is often spoken of in these records — tliat is about two hundred years ago — as an " old " custom, and is called a " heathenish and Idola- trous eiistoine" a " Siqyerstitious, Idolat7-oiis, and sinfuU custome,'''' an '•'■ ahominuUe Jieathenish j^i'^ictice,''' and a ^' great and gross scandall and Idolatrous custome.'''' Tlie religious character of the ceremony is brought out by a state- ment in one of the entries (3d of February, 1689), that, in addition to carrying fire round the boats, the peojjle '■'•did carrie meat and drink to the hoat side, and did cast drinh upon the boat.'''' One man is accused of having " hade a burning clavie paying a snperstitious worship, and blessing the boats, after the old hethnish custome, contrarie to all rules of Christian- itie.'" But perhaps this aspect of the matter is best brought out by what is said of the ceremony in the Kirk-Session Records of Invera- Ton, which I quote below in full : Extract from the Kh-k-Sessiou Eecords of the Parish of luveravon. 16th Aug>, 1704. '■'■ Ane Act against Clavies: That whereas it hath been the custome and 2>ractise of many in this parish of Inveratine, to goe about y folds and comes with kindled Torches of fir r, super st it iousUe and IdolatrousUe as- scribing y^ power to the fire sanctifieing y" comes and cattell qch is only proper and pccidiar to the true and living God a p>ractise j)roper rather to the heathens who are ignorant of Qod than to be j)ractised by them y' live under the light of the glorious Oospell. Therfor the Session did and here- by doeth enact that ichosoever shall be found guiltie of thefors^ superstitious and heathnish j^ractises shall be p>roce€ded ag^ as scandalous persons and censured according to the demerit of y crime and if it shall be found that they be children not capable of Church censure that in y case their names swers to Jamieson's description of the cUvvie. A modification of this instru- ment I myself once saw in actual use in the parish of Keith. I made a sketch of it ; but failed to record the name by which it went. Mr. Grigor says it is known as " the j)cer n!a«." It has been siiirgested to me by that distiniruishcd Celtic scholar, Mr. John F. Campbell, that clavie may come from the Celtic word cliabh, a basket ; and certainly the baskct-lookins; instrument in which the fire is now carried at Burghead gives support to this view of the origin of the word. APPENDIX. 277 le kept in record and they declar\l incapable of any Church-primledfje xclicn arrived att the years of discretion or any testimoniall from the Session till they remove the scondall. The Session closed tcith j^rayer.''' Tlie Prcslntcry and Kirk -Session Roconls of Elgin, Drainic, and Dufi'iis show that the burning of the cdavie was customary, not in Burghead only, as is generally supposed, but in many, if not in all, of the fishing villages on the Morayshire coast, where the object was "fAe hlessing of the loatsy But this extract from the Invcravon Records presents the ceremony to us, under the same name, in a Banflshire par- ish far inland, and with a similar object — namely, the blessing of the cornlields so as to secure fertility or good crops. Probably further search would disclose that it was at one time, and that perhaps not a very remote time — observed widely in Scotland. From more than one source, indeed, I have heard that the Inveravon practice was common in some districts of Scotland till (piite recent times, and something very like it is said to be still customary in parts of IrcUmd. The Church seems to have exerted itself to the utmost to '■'■restrain and sup2»'€ss^'' this '■'■heathenish cusfomc,'''' by severely punishing those who took part in it. Those " who were found guiltie''^ were required to '■'■ malce pid)lich acknoicledgment off the same before the conyrcgHne in sack- cloath, and to stand as many dayes as the Sessiones should Judge ftt.^'' On " accepting and submitting to discipline^'''' they were '• sharp)ly rebiiked and exhorted to ser'ums repentance.'''' \Vliere there was any mitigating cir- cumstance, a fine was sometimes deemed sufficient, after a ^'publick profession of repentance.''^ But ^^ those j/sons more in accession in this transgression y" oy"," were required to '■'•satisfy the discipline in sacco,'' '■'■to testify y' Repentance by standing at y' pillar''' or to stand "'in the Jogcs tiro dayes.'''' It thus appears that the Ciiureh in the .seventeenth and eighteenth centuries strongly condemned and very severely pun- ished those who took any part in the burning of the clavie,\<\\'ic\\ was openly declared to be, in the opinion of the Church, a worship oijire, in which a power was ascribed to Jire which was " only proj)er and 2>e- culiar to the true and living God,'" "rt practice pi-oper rather to the hea- thens'''' than to them ^^that live under the light of the glorious Gospcll.'''* There is no doubt, therefore, as to the serious way in which the Church in former days regarded the bwn'ing of the cluvie. The ceremony is still * See p. 276. — Extract from the Kirk-Scssion Records of the parish of In- vcravon, IGth of August, 1704. 278 APrEXDix. observed — ]irol)ril)ly witli a liiglicr ritual and greater picturesqueness than ever — but the Churcli treats the observers with indifl'erence. XIV. THE CKADLE-STOXE. (rage 103.) TiiEKE is anotlier superstitious practice at Burgliead, in Avliich, as in the hurning of the clask, "a giver ofincrease " appears to be recognized. It is known as the superstition of the Cradle-stone, and, as now ob- served, it is entirely childisli.* I first saw the cradle-stone in 18G3, and then noted the superstition with which it is connected. It is a memorial slab built into the wall of tlie burial-ground called the Chapel-yard, at the south-east corner. It is 35 inches high Ijy 20 inches wide. Close above it, and also built into the wall, there is a hewn lintel-like stone, 37 inches long, by li inclies thick. On the narrow exposed face of this stone there is no sculpturing. The woodcut (Fig. 145) shows the position on the cradle-stone of a cup-like hollow, which is quite round and smooth, and measures 4 inches in width and 2^ inches in depth. Tliis hollow has been pro- duced by tlie children of Burghead, who are in the hal^it of striking the spot with a beach-stone (which is also represented in the wood- cut), and then quickly putting their ears to the place, wlien tlie sound of a rocking cradle and the ci'ying of a child arc said to be heard, as if coming from a cavern deep under ground.t I am told that during last century the stone Avas not visited liy cliildren, but by women, who believed they were to become motliers if tlicy heard the rocking of the cradle and the crying of the child after tapping on the stone. The ciq) on this stone closely resembles the well-known o/ps de- scribed bjf Sir James Simpson in his '"Archaic Sculptures.'' If it had been found on a rude undressed "monolith," and if the sui^erstition referred to had entirely died out, there would have been some diffi- * See "Vacation Notes," by Dr. Alitcliell, "Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. X., pp. G45-G4T. + The inscription is nuieb worn out by the constant rubbiug of the clothes of tlie children a,sO Ali'K.NDIX'. "situateil on a shelving rock on the Loch Avon side of Cairn^forni, with hand-mude cups on them about a, foot wide and correspondingly deep," that "sitting on them is said to be efficacious in cases of bar- renness.'"* • XV. BURIAL OF A LIVING COCK FOR THE CURE OF EPILEPSY.. (Page 104.) FoK the cure of cpilci)sy there is still practised, in the north of Scot- land, wliat may be called a formal sacrifice. On the spot where the ci^ileptic first falls a black cock is buried alive, along with a lock of the patient's hair, and some i^arings of his nails. I have seen at least three epilectic idiots for whose good this is said to have been done. A woman, who assisted at such a sacrifice, minutely described to me the order of procedure. In this instance, in addition to what I have named, three coins were also buried along with the cock. Dr. G. informs me that some time ago he was summoned to see a poor man who had suddenly died, and who had been subject to epi- leptic seizures. His friends tohl Dr. G. that at least they had the com- fort of knowing that everything had been done which could have been done. On asking what remedies they had tried, he was told that among other things a cock had been buried alive below the epi- leptic's bed, and the spot was jjointed out. Not many years have elapsed since this sacrifice was openly offered to the demon of epilep- sy in an improving town, to which the railway conveys the traveller, and w'hich has six churches and ten schools for a population of about four thousand. The occurrence of such a tiling so recently, in a com- munity so privileged, is certainly a marvel deserving of record. An old fisherman was asked by Dr. G. if he knew of other cases in which this heathenish ceremony had been performed, and he at once pointed out two sjjots on the public road or street where epileptics had fallen, and where living cocks had been cruelly buried to ap^jease the j^ov/er which had struck them duwn.f * "Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. x., p. C45. + Taken from Paper on Superstitions relating to Lunacy, by Dr. Mitcliell. " Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," vol. iv. Ai'rKXDix. 281 I liave ncarl\' ahvaj's fouiul that the i)Coj)U; who liad performed this ceremony hesitated to speak of it with freedom, and the same may be said of all such superstitions among the Highlanders. " Si de veritate scandaluni sumitur, utilius permittitur nasci scandalum, quam ut Veri- tas rclinquatur."' XVI. IXNIS MAREE. SACRIFICE OF BULLS. — VIRTCE-WELLS RESORTED TO FOR THE CURE OF LUNACV. (Page 165.) [The following account of Innis Marec, which is taken from a paper on the "Superstitions of the West Highlands of Scotland" ('' Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot," vol. iv.), is intended to show, more fully than is done in the sixth lecture, what we know of the recent sacrifice of bulls in Scotland. It will be useful, also, from the reference in it to a virtue-well on the island, which was resorted to for the cure of lunacy.] In the autumn of last year (1859), while in the neighborhood of Locli ]\Iaree, which has been well dcscriljed, "in its barrenness and loneliness, as the most utterly savage and tcrrillc of any ])art of tliis land of mountain and flood,"* I heard much of the marvellous virtues of a well on one of the smallest of the many richly wooded islands which rise in clusters out of its waters, and which so soften the gran- deur and wildness of the scene as to make the eye resting on that part of the loch see nothing there but an e.vquisite picture of calm beauty. So much was told to me of the power "unspeakable in cases of luna- cy "f possessed by these waters, that I resolvetl to satisfy curiosity by a visit. Eilcan Maree, or Innis ^Iarec.| is a small, low islanrie thereof, that notice maj- be given to those concerned. "Dingwall, 6 August, 1678. Inter alia, That day Mr. Roderick Mackenzie, minister at Gerloch, by his letter to the prebrie, declared that he had summoned by his officer to this prebrie day Hector Mac- kenzie in Mellan in the i^arish of Gerloch, as also Johne Murdoch, and Duncan ^Mackenzies, sons to the said Hector — as also Kenneth M'Ken- zie his grandson, /or sacrificing a hull in ane heathenish manner, in the Hand of tM) Ari'EXDlX. religion in tlie rites, and less barbarity in tlic form of immersion. Ac- cording to iiiin. the patient was taken to tlie "Sacred Island, made to kneel before the altar, wlierc his attendants left an offering in money — he was then brought to the Avell, sipped some of tlie holy water, and a second offering was made; that done, he was thrice dipped in the lake, and the same operation was repeated every day for some weeks.'"* I did not learn that any form of words is at ])resent in use, nor do any of the writers referred to make mention of such a thing. Nor does it appear that the feast-day of the saint is now regarded as more favorable than any other. Tiicre is an unwillingness to tell a stranger of the particular cases in which this superstitious jiractice had been tried, but several came to my knowledge. About seven years ago a furious madman was brought to the island from a neighboring parish. A rope was passed round his waist ; and with a couple of men at one end in advance, and a couple at the other behind, he was marched to the loch side, and l)laccd in a boat, which was pulled once round the island, the patient being jerked into the water at intervals. He was then landed, drank of the water, attached his oflering to the tree, and, as I was told, went home in a state of happy tranquillity. The last case of which I heard came from a parish in the east of Ross, and was less liapjiy in its issue. It was that of a young woman, Avho is now (1860) in one of our asylums. Another case was reported in the Inverness Courier of tlie 4tli of November, 1853, and is quoted at length by Dr. Reeves in bis i^aper on Saint Maelrubha.f XVIL CULTURE AND THE WANT OF IT IX THE SAME MAX: THE PIJOD- UCTS OF HIGH CIVILIZATIONS DO NOT SHOW A COMPLETE HAR- MONY OR FREEDOM FROM INCONSISTENCY. (Page 1C5.) The following woodcut furnishes a curious illustration of the way in which the evidence of culture- may coexist with what we commonly accept as an evidence of the want of it. * Penn.int, op. cit., j). 330. t Sec "Proc. of Soc. of Aut. of Scot.," vol. iii., p. '2SS. ArPEXDix. 291 It is taken from a riibhing of a grave-slab, in the burial-ground of the Elgin Cathedral, on which a death iu 1G03 is recorded. Fig. 143.— Death's Ilead and Jfottn fioni a Grave-slab iu the Burial-ground of Elgiu Cathedral. Both the motto and the lettering represent a fair degree of culture, far above that of any people whom we could call savage. But the Death's Head, however looked at, is just such a thing as we might believe to be the work of an uncultured savage. It is coarse and brutal in idea; and in execution it is much poorer than many sculpturings known to be the work of the lowest savages in the world. The repulsive and rudely executed Death's Head and the well-let- tered motto are synchronous, but tliey look as if they had got together by some great mistake. They indicate two states of culture very re- mote from each other, but in point of fact they coexisted in one man. XVIII. TlIK "WILD AND MEER IRISH." [Extracts from Fyiies 3[orj-soii's " Description of Ireland," Dublin, 1735, vol. ii., pp. 372-37S.] TiiEY ".sileep under tlie canopy of heaven, or iu a poor house of clay, or in a cabin made of the boughs of trees, and covered with turf, for 292 Ari'KMUx. such arc tlic dwellings of tlic very lords uiuuiig tlieni ; and in -sucli places they make a lire in the midst of the room, and round about it they sleep \\[Hm I lie ground, without straw or other thing under them, lying all iu a circle about the fire, with their feet toward it; and tlieir bodies being naked, they cover their heads and upper parts with their mantles.'' "The foresaid icild Irish do not thresh their oats, but burn them from the straw, and so make cakes thereof "TJicy drink milk warmed with a stone first cast into the fire." "These pieces of flesh, also the entrails of beasts unwashed, they seethe in a hollow tree, lapped in a raw cow's hide, and so set over the fire." "What do I speak of tables? — since, indeed, they have no tables, but eat their meat upon a bundle of grass." "At Cork, I have seen with these eyes young maids stark naked, grinding of corn with certain stones to make cakes thereof." I give these quotations merely to show that, though I have taken my illustrations from Scotland, which I happen to know well, I should probably have found illustrations quite as telling had I gone in quest of them either to Ireland or to England. I do not think I am wrong in saying this of England as well as of Ireland. If they have not been found there, it is probably because they have not been looked for. XIX. EXTRACTS FROM MR. ALFRED R. WALLACE'S FARER OX " THE ORL GIX OF IIUMAX RACES, AND THE AXTIQUITY OF MAX DEDUCED FROM THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTIOXr The following extracts are taken from ]\Ir. Wallace's paper on " The Origin of Human Races, etc.," which appears iu the "Journal of the Anthropological Society" for 1864 (vol. ii., p. 158), and which has been well described by Mr. W. R. Greg as " a perfect model of suc- cinct statement and lucid reasoning." They are long, but not longer, I think, than they require to be to disclose correctly his views and the extent of my obligation. I do not reach the conclusions which Mr. AVallace reaches, but I have found his paper full of suggestiveness, and it has furnished me with many arguments, which I have endeavored AITEXDIX. 293 to use fairly in my attempt to show tliu nature ami origin of civiliza- tion. " lu order to make my ari^^ument intelligible, it is necessary for me to explain very briefly tlie tiieory of ' Natural Selection' promulgated by Mr. Darwin, and the power Avhich it possesses of modifying the forms of animals and plants. The grand feature in the multiplication of organic life is that of close general resemblance, combined with more or less individual variation. The child resembles its parents or ancestors more or less closely in all its peculiarities, deformities, or beauties ; it resembles them in general more than it does any other in- dividuals; yet children of the same parents are not all alike, and it often happens that they differ very considerably from their parents and from each other. This is equally true of man, of all animals, and of all plants. Moreover, it is found that individuals do not differ from their parents in certain particulars only, -while in all others they are exact duplicates of them. They differ from them and from each other in every particular: in form, in size, in color, in the structure of 'internal as well as of external organs; in those subtle peculiarities ■which produce differences of constitution, as well as in those still more subtle ones which lead to modifications of mind and character. In other words, in every possible way, in every organ and in every function, individuals of the same stock vary. "Now, health, strength, and long life are the results of a harmony between the individual and the universe that surrounds it. Let us suppose that at any given moment this harmony is perfect. A certain animal is exactly titted to secure its prey, to escape from its enemies, to resist the inclemencies of the seasons, and to rear a numerous and healthy offspring. But a change now takes place. A series of cold ■winters, for instance, -come on, making food scarce, and bringing an immigration of some other animals to compete with the former inhab- itants of the district. The new immigrant is swift of foot, and sur- passes its rivals in the pursuit of game; the winter nights are colder, and require a tliicker fur as a protection, and more nourishing food to keep uj) the heat of the system. Our supposed perfect animal is no longer in harmony with its universe ; it is in danger of dying of cold or of starvation. But the animal varies in its offspring. Some of these are swifter than others — they still manage to catch food enough; some are hardier and more thickly furred — they manage in the cold nights to keep warm enough ; the slow, the weak, and the thinly clad soon die off. Again and again, in each succeeding gener- 2!)4 , Al'l'ENDIX. ation, tliG same thing talics place. By this natural process, which is so inevitable that it cannot be conceived not to act, those best adapted to live, live; those least adapted, die. It is sometimes said that we have no direct evidence of the action of this selecting power in nat- ure. But it seems to me we have better evidence tlian even direct observation would be, because it is more universal, viz., the evidence of necessity. It must be so; for, as all wild animals increase in a ge- ometrical ratio, while their actual numbers remain on the average sta- tionai^', it follows that as many die annually as are born. If, there- fore, we deny natural selection, it can only be by asserting that in such a case as I have supposed, the strong, the healthy, the swift, the well clad, the well organized animals in every respect, have no ad- vantage over, do not on the average live longer, than the weak, the unhealthy, the slow, the ill-clad, and the imperfectly organized indi- viduals; and this no sane man has yet Ijeen found hardy enough to assert. But this is not all ; for the offsjiriug ou the average resemble their parents, and the selected portion of each succeeding generation will, therefore, be stronger, swifter, and more thickly furred than the last; and if this process goes on for thousands of generations, our ani-' mal will have again become thoroughly in harmony with tlie new conditions in which he is placed. But he will now be a different creature. He will be not only swifter and stronger, and more furry, he will also probablj'^ have changed in color, in form, jDcrhaps have ac- quired a longer tail, or differently shaped ears ; for it is an ascertained fact that when one part of an animal is modified, some other parts almost always change, as it were, in sympathy with it. Mr. Darwin calls this '■correlation of growth,'' and gives as instances that hairless dogs have imperfect teeth ; blue-eyed cats are deaf; small feet accom- pany short beaks in j^tigeons ; and other equally interesting cases. " Grant, therefore, the premises: 1st. That peculiarities of every kind are more or less hereditary. 2d. That the offspring of every animal vary more or less in all parts of their organization. 3d. That the universe in which these animals live is not absolutely invariable — none of which propositions can be denied; and then consider that the animals in any country (those at least which are not dying out) must at each successive period be brought into harmony with the surrounding conditions ; and we have all the elements for a change of form and structure in the animals, keeping exact pace with changes of whatever nature in the surrounding universe. Such changes must be slow, for the changes in the universe are very slow ; but just as these slow changes become important, when we look at results after ArrENDix. 295 long periods of iiction, as wc do when we perceive the alterations of the eartli's surface during geological epochs; so tiie parallel changes in animal form become more and more striking according as the time they have been going on is great, as we see when we compare our living animals with those which we disentomb from each successively older geological formation. "This is briefly the theory of 'natural selection,' which explains the changes in the organic world as being parallel with, and in part dependent on, those in the inorganic. What we now have to inquire is — Can this theory be applied in any way to the question of the origin of the races of man ? or is there anything in human nature that takes him out of the category of those organic existences, over whose successive mutations it has had such powerful sway ? " In order to answer these questions, we must consider why it is that ' natural selection' acts so powerfully upon animals, and we shall, I believe, find that its effect depends mainly upon their self-depend- ence and individual isolation. A slight injury, a temporary illness, will often end in death, because it leaves the individual powerless against its enemies. If a herbivorous animal is a little sick, and has not fed well for a day or two, and the herd is then pursued by a beast of prey, our poor invalid inevitably falls a victim. So in a carnivo- rous animal, the least deficiency of vigor prevents its capturing food, and it soon dies of starvation. There is, as a general rule, no mutual assistance between adults, wliich enables them to tide over a period of sickness. Neither is there any division of labor; each must fulfil nil the conditions of its existence, and therefore 'natural selection' keeps all up to a pretty uniform standard. " But in man, as we now behold him, this is different. He is social and sympathetic. In the rudest tribes the sick are assisted at least with food ; less robust health and vigor than the average does not en- tail death. Neither does the want of jierfect limbs or other organs produce the same effects as among animals. Some division of labor takes place; the swiftest Iiunt, the less active fish or gather fruits; food is to some extent exchanged or divided. Tlie action of natural selection is, therefore, checked ; the weaker, the dwarfisli, those of less active limbs or less piercing cyesiglit, do not suffer the extreme pen- alty which falls upon animals so defective. " In proportion as these plij-sical characteristics become of less im- portance, mental and moral qualities will have increasing influence on the well-being of the race. Capacity for acting in concert, for protec- tion, and for the acquisition of food and shelter; sympathy, which 29C APPENDIX. leads all in turn to assist cacli other; the sense olriglit, whicli cliecks depredations upon our fellows; the decrease ol" the combative and de- structive propensities; self-restraint in present appetites; and that in- telligent foresiglit which prepares for the future, are all qualities that from their earliest appearance must have been for the benefit of cacli community, and would, therefore, have become the subjects of 'natural selection.' For it is evident tliat such qualities would be for the well- being of man; would guard him against external enemies, against internal dissensions, and against the efiTects of inclement seasons and impending famine, more surely than could any merely physical modi- fication. Tribes in wliich such mental and moral qualities were pre- dominant would therefore have an advantage in tiie struggle for ex- istence over other tribes in which they were less developed, would live and maintain their numbers, while the others would decrease and finally succumb. '•Again, when any slow changes of physical geography or of cli- mate make it necessary for an animal to alter its food, its clothing, or its weapons, it can only do so by a corresponding change in its own bodily structure and internal organization. If a larger or more pow- erful beast is to be captured and devoured, as when a carnivorous animal which has hitherto preyed on sheep is obliged, from their de- creasing numbers, to attack buftaloes, it is only the strongest who can hold — those with most powerful claws, and formidable canine teeth, that can struggle with and overcome such an animal. Katural se- lection immediately comes into play, and by its action these organs gradually become adapted to their new requirements. But man, un- der simihar circumstances, does not require longer nails or teetli, greater bodily strength or swiftness. He makes sharper sjjears or a better bow, or he constructs a cunning pitfall, or combines in a hunt- ing party to circumvent his new prey. The capacities which enable him to do this are what he requires to be strengthened, and these will, therefore, be gradually modified by 'natural selection,' while the form and structure of his body will remain unchanged. So when a glacial epoch comes on, some animals must acquire warmer fur, or a covering of fat, or else die of cold. Tliose best clothed by nature are, therefore, l^reserved by natural selection. Man, under the same circumstances, will make himself Avarmer clothing, and build better houses; and the necessity of doing this will react upon his mental organization and social condition — will advance them, while his natural body j-emains naked as before. " When the accustomed food of some animal becomes scarce or to- ArPEXDix. 297 tally fails, it can only exist by beconung adapted to a new kind of food, a food, i)crliaps, less nourishing and less digestible. ' Natural selection ' will now act upon the stomach and intestines, and all tiieir individual variations will be taken advantage of to modify the race into harmony with its new food. In many cases, however, it is prob- able that this cannot be done. The internal organs may not vary quick enough, and then the animal will decrease in numbers, and finally become extinct. But man guards himsell" from such accidents by superintending and guiding the operations of nature. lie plants tlie seed of his most agreealjle food, and thus procures a sup[)ly in- dependent of the accidents of varying seasons or natural extinction. He domesticates animals whicli serve him either to capture food or for food itself, and thus clianges of any great extent in his teeth or digestive organs are rendered unnecessary. Man, too, has every- where the use of fire, and by its means can render palatable a va- riety of animal and vegetable sul)stances, wliich he could hardly otherwise make use of, and thus obtains for liimself a supply of food far more varied and abundant than that which any animal can command. "Thus man, by the mere capacity of clothing liimself, and making weapons and tools, has taken away from Nature that jiower of cliang- ing the external form and structure which she exercises over all other animals. As the competing races by which they are surrounded, tlie climate, the vegetation, or the animals which serve them for food, are slowly changing, they must undergo a corresponding change in their structure, habits, and constitution, to keep them in luxrmony with the new conditions — to enable them to live and maintain tlieir numbers. But man does this by means of his intellect alone; which enables him Avith an unchanged body still to keep in harmony witli the ciianging universe. "From the time, therefore, when the social and sympathetic feelings came into active operation, and the intellectual and moral faculties became fairly developed, man would cease to be influenced by 'nat- ural selection' in his physical form and structure; as an animal he Avould remain almost stationary; the changes of tlie surrounding uni- verse would cease to have upon liim tliat powerful modifying cflect which it exercises over other i)arts of the organic world. But from the moment tliat his body became stationary, his mind would become subject to those very influences from which his body liad escaped; every slight variation in his mental and moral nature which should enable him better to guard against adverse circumstances, and com- 298 APPENDIX. bine for mutual comfort and protection, would be preserved and accu- mulated; tlio better and liiglier specimens of our race wouid^tlierefore increase and si)rc:id, tlie lower and more brutal would give way and successively die out, and that rapid advancement of mental organiza- tion would occur which has raised the very lowest races of man so far above the brutes (although ditfering so little from some of them in ]ihysical stature), and, in conjunction with scarcely perceptible modifications of form, has developed the wonderful intellect of the Germanic races." (Vp. 1G0-1G4.) "If these views are correct; if in proportion as man's social, mor- al, and intellectual faculties became developed, his physical structure would cease to be affected by the operation of 'natural selection,' we have a most important clew to the origin of races; for it will follow that those striking and constant peculiarities which mark the great divisions of mankind could not have been produced and rendered permanei.t after the action of this power had become transferred from physical to mental variations. They must, therefore, have existed since the very infancy of the race ; they must have originated at a pe- riod when man was gregarious, but scarcely social, with a mind per- ceptive but not reflective, ere any sense of right or feelings of symimthy had been developed in him. "By a powerful eflbrt of the imagination, it is just possible to per- ceive him at that early epoch existing as a single homogeneous race without the faculty of speech, and jjrobably inhabiting some tropical region. He would be still subject, like the rest of the organic world, to the action of 'natural selection,' which would retain his physical form and constitution in harmony with the surrounding universe. He must have been even then a dominant race, spreading widely over the warmer regions of the eartli as it then existed, and, in agreement with what we see in the case of other dominant species, gradually becom- ing modified in accordance with local conditions. As he ranged farther from his original home, and became exposed to greater ex- tremes of climate, to greater changes of food, and had to contend Avith new enemies, organic and inorganic, useful variations in his constitu- tion would be selected and rendered permanent, and would, on the principle of 'correlation of growth, 'be accompanied by corresponding external physical changes. Thus arose those striking characteristics and special modifications which still distinguish the chief races of mankind. The red, black, yellow, or blushing white skin ; the straight, the curly, the woolly hair; the scanty or abundant beard ; the straight AITEXDIX. 299 or oblique eyes; the various forms of the pelvis, the cranium, and otli- er parts of the skeleton. "But while these changes had l^en going on his mental develop- ment had correspondingly advanced, and had now reached that con- dition in whicli it began powerfully to influence his whole existence, and would therefore become subject to the irresistible action of ' nat- ural selection.' This action would rapidly give the ascendency to mind : speech would probably now be first developed, leading to a still further advance of the mental faculties, and from that moment man, as regards his physical form, would remain almost stationary. The art of making weapons, division of labor, anticipation of the fut- ure, restraint of the appetites, moral, social, and sympathetic feelings, would now have a preponderating influence on his well-being, and would therefore be that part of his nature on which 'natural selection' would most powerfully act ; and we should thus have explained that wonderful persistence of mere physical characteristics, which is the stumbling-block of those who advocate the unity of mankind." (Pp. 165, IGG.) " These considerations, it will be seen, enable us to place the origin of man at a much more remote geological epoch than has yet been thought possible. He may even have lived in the eocene or miocene period, when not a single mammal possessed the same form as any ex- isting species. For, in the long series of ages during which the forms of these primeval mammals were being slowly specialized into those now inhabiting the earth, the power which acted to modify them would only affect the mental organization of man. His brain alone would have increased in size and complexity, and his cranium have undergone corresponding changes of form, while the whole structure of lower animals was being changed. This will enable us to under- stand how the fossil crania of Dcnise and Engis agree so closely with existing forms, although they undoubtedly existed in company with large mammalia now extinct. The Neanderthal skull may be a spec- imen of one of the lowest races then existing, just as the Australians are the lowest of our modern epoch. "We have no reason to suppose that mind and brain and skull modification could go on quicker than that of the other parts of the organization, and we must, therefore, look back very far in the past to find man in that early condition in which his mind was not sufiicicntly developed to remove his body from the modifying influence of external conditions, and the cumula- tive action of 'natural selection.' I believe, therefore, that there is no 300 AITEXDIX. a priori reason against our finding the remains of man or liin works in the middle or later tertiary deijosits. The absence of all such remains in the European beds of this age lias little Aveight, because as we go farther back in time, it is natural to suppose that man's distribution over the surface of the earth was less universal than at present. Be- sides, Europe was in a great measure submerged during the tertiai7 epoch, and though its scattered islands may have been uninhabited by man, it by no means follows that he did not at the same time exist in warm or tropical continents. If geologists can point out to us the most extensive land in the warmer regions of the earth, wliich has not been submerged since eocene or miocene times, it is there that we may expect to lind some traces of the very early progenitors of man. It is there that we may trace back the gradually decreasing brain of former races, till we come to a time when the body also begins mate- rially to diifer. Then we shall l)ave reached the starting-point of the human family. Before that period, lie had not mind enough to pre- serve his body from change, and would, therefore, liave been subject to the same comparatively rapid modificatious of form as the other mammals." (Pp. IGG, 167.) "Here, then, we see the true grandeur and dignity of man. On this view of his special attributes, we may admit that even those who claim for him a position as an order, a class, or a sub-kingdom by himself, have some reason on their side. He is, indeed, a being ajoart, since he is not influenced by the great laws wdiich irresistibly modify all other organic beings. Nay, more; this victory which he has gained for himself gives him a directing influence over other existences. Man has not only escaped 'natural selection' himself, but he actually is able to take away some of that power from Nature which, before his appearance, she universally exercised. "We can anticipate the time when the earth will produce only cultivated plants and domestic ani- mals; when man's selection shall have supplanted 'natural selection;' and when the ocean will be the only domain in whicli that power can be exerted, which for countless cycles of ages ruled supreme over all the earth." (P. 1G8.) "In the latter part of the paper,' the argument is tlie contrast be- tween change of body and change of mind. By the former was meant change of organization, of the limbs particularly, and of other external physical characteristics. By the mind I always include the brain and skull — the organ of the mind — the craninm and the face ; and there- ArPEXDix. 301 fore, when I afterward contrasted change of external form with change of mind, of course I do not mean to say that the cranium which con- tains the organ of mind was stationary." (P. 181.) "Again, no weak animal — no animal born with a sickly constitu- tion — lives to propagate its kind : but man does. Hundreds of weak individuals live to a comparatively healthy and comfortable old age, and have large families. Tliis is a special case, in which man controls nature ditferently to the animals. He controls nature so much tliat he is an exception to all the rest of animated beings."' (P. IS-t.) XX. EXTRACTS FROM MR. HERBERT SPEXCER'S "PRIXCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY." It would be difficult to write about Civilization from any point of view without frequent reference to Mr. Herljert Spencer, and accord- ingly the quotations from his work on " The Principles of Sociol- ogy"* are numerous in the four Lectures which deal with that sub- ject. I have given them there, however, as briefly as I could ; and, therefore, I append the following extracts, in which many of tliem appear at greater length. Mr. Spencer's own views are thus made clearer, and my obligation to him, at the same time, is more fully dis- closed. "There exist various groups of super-organic phenomena, of which certain minor ones may be briefly noticed here by way of illustration. " Of such the most familiar, and in some respects tlie most instruct- ive, are furnished by the social insects. The processes carried on by these show us co-operation, witli, in some cases, consideral)le division of labor; as well as products of a size and complexity far Ijeyond auy that would be possible in the absence of united eflbrts. "It scarcely needs to particularize tliese truths as sliown us l)y bees and wasps. All know that these form (tliough, as we shall jiresently see, only in a qualified sense) communities — communities such tliat the units and the aggregates stand in very definite relations. Between the individual organization of the hive-bee and the organization of the * Second Edition. Lend, and Edln., 1S77. ;j(l2 API'ENDIX. hive as an orderly ale, and, I believe, liiglily probable, that letrofjrossion has been as frequent as progression. "Evolution i.s commonly conceived to imply in everything an in- trinsic tendency to become something higher; l)ut tliis is an erroneous conception of it. In all cases it is determined by the co-operation of inner and outer factors. This co-operation works changes until there is reached an equilibrium between the environing actions and the ac- tions Avliich tlie aggregate opposes to them — a complete equilibrium if the aggregate is without life, and a moving equilibrium if the ag- gref^-ate is living. Thereupon evolution, continuing to show itself only in the progressing integration that ends in rigidity, jjractically ceases. If, in the case of the living aggregates forming a species, the environing actions remain constant from generation to generation, the species remains constant. If the environing actions change, the spe- cies changes until it re-equilibrates itself with them. But it by no means follows that this change in the species constitutes a step in evolution. Usually neither advance nor recession results; and often, certain previously -acquired stiuctures being rendered superfluous, there results a simpler form. Only now and then does the environ- .ing change initiate in the organism a new complication, and so pro- duce a somewhat higher type. Hence the truth that, Avhile for im- measurable periods some types have neither advanced nor receded, and while in other typestthere has been further evolution, there are many types in which retrogression has happened. I do not refer merely to such facts as that the tetrabranchiate Cephalopods, once multitudinous in their kinds, and some of them very large, have now dwindled to a single medium-sized representative; or to such fticts as that the highest orders of reptiles, the Pterosaurki and Binosaurin, which once had many genera superior in structure and gigantic in size, have become extinct, while lower orders of reptiles have sur- vived ; or to such facts as that in many genera of mammals there once existed species larger than any of their allies existing now ; but I refer more especially to tlie fact that among parasitic creatures we have almost innumerable kinds which are degraded modifications of higher kinds. Of all existing species of animals, if we include parasites, the greater number have retrograded from a structure to which their re- mote ancestors had once advanced. Often, indeed, progression in some types involves retrogression in others. For always the more evolved type, conquering by the aid of its acquired superiority, tends to drive competing types into inferior habitats and less profitable modes of lite: usually implying some disuse and decay of the higher powers. ArPEXDix. 305 "As with organic evolution, so with super - organic evolution. Though, taking the entire assemblage of societies, evolution may be held inevitable as an ultimate effect of the co-operating factors, in- trinsic and extrinsic, acting on them all through indefinite periods of time ; yet it cannot be held inevitable in each particular society, or even jirobable. A social organism, like an individual organism, un- dergoes modifications until it comes into equilibrium with environing conditions ; and thereupon continues without further change of struct- ure. When the conditions are changed meteorologically or geolog- ically, or by alterations in the Flora and Fauna, or by migration con- sequent on pressure of poi)ulation, or by flight before usurping races, some change of social structure is entailed. But this change does not necessarily imply advance. Often it is toward neither a higher nor a lower structure. Where the habitat entails modes of life that are in- ferior, some degradation results. Only occasionally is the new combi- nation of factors sucli as to cause a change constituting a step in social evolution, and initiating a social type which spreads and supplants inferior social types; for with these super-organic aggregates, as with the organic aggregates, progression in some produces retrogression in others: tiie more evolved societies drive the less evolved societies into unfavorable habitats, and so entail on them decrease of size or decay of structure. "Direct evidence forces this conclusion upon us. Lapse from high- er civilization to lower civilization, made familiar during school-days, is further exemplified as our knowledge widens. Egyptians, Babylo- nians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, Jews, Greeks, Romans — it needs but to name these to be reminded that many large and highly-evolved societies have cither disappeared, or have dwindled to barbarous hordes, or have been long passing through slow decay. Buins show us that in Java there existed in the past a more developed society than exists now; and the like is shown by ruins in Cambodia. Peru and 3Iexico were once the scats of societies large and elaborately organized, that have been disorganized by conquest; and where tlie cities of Central America once contained great populations carrying on various industries and arts, there arc now but scattered triljcs of savages. Unquestionably, causes like those which produced these retrogressions have been at work during the whole period of human existence. Always there have been rosmical and terrestrial changes going on, which, bettering some habitats, have made others worse; always there have been over-populations, spreadings of tribes, conflicts with other tribes, and cscajjc of the defeated into localities unfit for 20 300 AITHNDIX. such advanced social life as tlicy had readied ; always, where evolu- tion has been uniiiterfercd with externally, there have been those decays and dissolutions which complete the cycles of social changes. That sui)planting of race by race, and thrusting into corners such in- ferior races as are not exterminated, whicli is now going on so active- ly, and wliich has been going on from the earliest recorded times, must have been ever going on ; and the implication is that remnants of inferior races, taking refuge in inclement, barren, or otherwise unfit regions, have retrograded. " Thus, then, the tribes now known as lowest must exhibit some social phenomena which are due, not to causes now operating, but to causes that operated during past social states higher than the present. This a 2»'iori conclusion harmonizes with the facts; and, indeed, is suggested by facts that are otherwise inexplicable. Take, for exam- ple, some furnished by the Australians. Divided into tribes wander- ing over a wide area, these savages have, notwithstanding their antag- onisms, a complex system of relationships, and consequent interdicts on marriage, which could not possibly have been framed by any agree- ment among them as they now exist; but which are comprehensible as having survived from a state in which these tribes were more close- ly united, and subordinate to some common rule. Such, also, is the implication of the circumcision, and the knocking out of teetli, which we find among them, as among other races now in the lowest stages; for, when we come hereafter to deal with bodily mutilations, we shall see that they all imply a suljordination, ])olitical or ecclesiastical, or both, such as these races do not now exhibit. "Hence, then, a difficulty in ascertaining inductively what are prim- itive ideas. Of tlie ideas current among men now forming each of the most rudimcntaiy societies, there are doubtless some which have descended by tradition from a higher state. These have to be dis- criminated from tridy j^rimitive ideas; so that simple induction does not suffice.'' (Pp. 106-110.) "Along with that increase of mass censed by union of primary so- cial aggregates into secondary ones, a further unlikeness of parts be- gins to arise. The holding together of the compound cluster implies a head of the whole as well as heads of the parts; and a differentia- tion analogous to that which originally produced a cliief, now pro- duces a chief of chiefs. Sometimes the combination is made for de- fence against a common foe, and sometimes it results from conquest by one tribe of the rest. In this last case the predominant tribe, in ArPENDIX. 307 the maintenance of its supremacy, develops more highly its military character: so becoming unlike the others. '• How, after sucli clusters of clusters have been so consolidated that their united powers can be wielded by one governing agency, there come alliances with, or subjugations of, other such compound clusters, ending from time to time in coalescence — how when this happens there results still greater complexity in the governing agency, with its king, local rulers, and petty chiefs — how, at the same time, there arise more marked divisions of classes — militar\', priestly, slave, etc. — it needs not to point out more specifically. That complication of struct- ure accompanies increase of mass, is sufficiently obvious."' (P. 491.) "Every society has been at eacli past period, and is at present, con- ditioned in a way more or less unlike the ways in which others have Ijeen and are conditioned. Hence the production of structures chai'- actcrizing one or other of these opposed types is, in every instance, furtliered, or hindered, or modified, in a special manner. Observe the several kinds of causes. "There is, first, the deeply organized character of the particular race, coming down froni those prehistoric times during which the diffusion of mankind and differentiation of the varieties of man took dace. Very difficult to change, this must in every case qualify differ- ently the tendency toward assumption of either type. " There is, next, the efl'ect due to the immediately preceding mode of life and social type. Nearly always the society we have to study contains decayed institutions and habits belonging to an ancestral society otherwise circumstanced ; and these pervert more or less the effects of circumstances then existing. "Again, tlierc arc the peculiarities of the habitat in respect of contour, soil, climate, flora, fauna, severally affecting in one mode or other the activities, whether militant or industrious; and severally hindering or aiding, in some special way, the development of either type. "Yet further, there are the complications caused by the particular organizations and practices of surrounding societies. For, supposing the amount of offensive or defensive action to be the same, the nature of it depends in cacii case on the nature of the antagonist action ; and hence its reactive effects on structure vary with the character of the antagonist. Add to tJiis that direct imitation of adjacent societit?s is a factor of some moment." (Pp. ."i'.tO, ."iOl.) auS APPENDIX. "Small differences, however, seem advantageous. Sundry instances point to the conclusion that a society formed from nearly allied peo- l)les, of which the confjuering eventually mingles with the conquered, is relatively well fitted for jjrogress. From their fusion results a com- munity which, ileterniined ia its leading traits by the character com- mon to the two, is prevented by their differences of character from being determined in its minor traits — is left capable of taking on new arrangements determined by new intiuences; medium jjlasticity al- lows those changes of structure constituting advance in heterogeneity. One example is furnished us by the Hebrews; who, notwithstanding their boasted purity of blood, resulted from a mixing of many Semitic varieties in the country east of the Nile, and who, both in their wan- derings and after the conquest of Palestine, went on amalgamating kindred tribes. Another is supplied by the Athenians, whose progress had for antecedent the mingling of numerous immigrants from other Greek states with the Greeks of the locality. The fusion by conquest of the Romans with other Aryan tribes, Sabini, Sabelli, and Samuites, l^receded the first ascending stage of the Roman civilization. And our own country, peopled by different divisions of the Aryan race, and mainly by varieties of Scandinavians, again illustrates this effect pro- duced by the mixture of units sufficiently alike to co-operate in the same social system, but sufficiently unlike to prevent that social sys- tem from becoming forthwith definite in structure.'' (P. 593.) '' Of chief interest to us here are the transformations of the militant into the industrial, and the industrial into the militant. And espe- cially we have to note how^ the industrial type, partially developed in a few cases, retrogrades toward the militant type if international conflicts recur. ''When comparing these two types, we saw how the compulsory co- operation which military activity necessitates is contrasted with the voluntary co-operation which a developed industrial activity necessi- tates; and we saw that where the coercive regulating system proper to the one has not become too rigid, the non-coercive regulating sys- tem proper to the other begins to show itself as industry flourishes unchecked by war.'" (P. GOO.) "Akin in spirit is the general sanitary dictation which, extending for these many years, has now ended in the formation of several hun- dred districts olRcered b}' medical men, partly paid by the central government and under its supervision. "Within the organization of APPENDIX. 300 the medical profession itself we see a congruous change; intlependent bodies who give diplomas are no longer to be tolerated, but there must be unification — a single standard of examination. Poor-law administration, again, has been growing more centralized: boards of guardians having Iiad their freedom of action gradually restricted by- orders from the Local Government Board. Moreover, while the regu- lating centres in London have been absorbing the functions of provin- cial regulating centres, these have in their turn been usurping those of local trading companies : in sundry towns municipal bodies have become distributors of gas and water, and now it is urged (significant- ly enough by a military enthusiast) that the same should be done in London. Nay, these public agencies have become builders too. The supplying of small houses having, by law-enforced cost of construc- tion, been made unrcmunerative to private persons, is now in provin- cial towns to be undertaken l^y the municipalities; and in London the Metropolitan Board liaving proposed tliat the rate-payers should spend so much to build houses for the poor in the Ilolborn district, the Secretary of State says tliey must spend more ! Of like meaning is the fact that our system of telegraphs, developed as a part of the industrial organization, has become a part of the governmental organ- ization. And tlicn, similarly showing tlie tendency toward increase of governmental structures at tlie expense of industrial structures, there has been an active advocacy of State purchase of railways— an advocacy which has been for the present suspended only because of the national loss entailed by purcliase of the telegraphs. How per- vading is the influence we see in tlie schemes of a coercive philanthro- py, which, invoking State power to improve people's conduct, disre- gards the proofs that the restrictions on conduct enacted of old, and in later times abolished as tyrannical, habitually had kindred motives. Men are to be made temperate by impediments to drinking — shall be less free than hitherto to buy and sell certain articles. Instead of ex- tending the principle proper to the industrial type of providing quick and costless remedies for injuries, minor as well as major, which citi- zens inflict on one another, legislators extend the principle of i)revcnt- ing them by inspection. The arrangements in mines, factories, ships, lodging-houses, bakehouses, down even to water-closets in private dwellings, are prescribed by laws carried out by officials. Not by quick and certain penalty for breach of contract is adulteration to be remedied, 1)ut by public analyzers. Benefits are not to be bought by men with the money their eflicient work brings them, which is the law of voluntary co-operation, l.)Ut benefits are given irrespective of 310 AIM'KNDIX. cHoit cxpeiidud : Avillioiit regard to their deserts, men shall have pro- vided at the public cost free libraries, free local museums, etc. ; and from the savings of the more worthy shall be taken by the tax-gath- erer moans of supplying the less worthy who have not saved. Along with tlic tacit assumption that State authority over citizens has no assignal)le limits, which is an assumption proper to the militant type, there goes an unhesitating faith in State judgment, also proper to the militant type. Bodily welfare and mental welfare are consigned to it witlK)iit the least doubt of i-ts capacity.'' (Pp. C04, 605.) " "We saw that societies are aggregates which grow ; that in various types of them there are great varieties in the degrees of growth reach- ed; that types of successively larger sizes result from the aggregation and reaggregatiou of those of smaller sizes ; and that this increase by coalescence, joined with interstitial increase, is the process through which have been formed the vast civilized nations. '"Along with increase of size in societies goes increase of structure. Primitive wandering hordes are without established unlikenesses of parts. With growth of them into tribes habitually come some differ- ences, both in the powers and occupations of their members. Unions of tribes are followed by more differences, governmental and industrial — social grades running through the whole mass, and contrasts be- tween the differently occupied parts in different localities. Such dif- ferentiations multiply as the compounding progresses. They proceed from the general to the special : iirst the broad division between rul- ing and ruled ; then within the ruling part divisions into jjolitical, re- ligious, military, and within the ruled j^art divisions into food-f)rodu- cing classes and handicraftsmen ; then within each of these divisions minor ones, and so on. " Passing from the structural aspect to the functional aspect, we note that while all parts of a society have like natures and activities, there is hardly any mutual dependence, and the aggregate scarcelj' forms a vital whole. As its parts assume different functions they become de- pendent on one another, so that injury to one hurts others; until in highly-evolved societies general perturbation is caused by derange- ment of any portion. This contrast between undeveloped and devel- oped societies is due to the fact that with increasing specialization of functions comes increasing inability in each part to perform the func- tions of other parts. " The organization of every society begins with a contrast between the division which carries ou relations, habitually hostile, with envi- APrENDIX. 311 roning societies, and tlie division which is devoted to procuring nec- essaries of life; and during the earlier stages of development these two divisions constitute the whole. Eventually there arises an inter- mediate division serving to transfer products and influences from part to part. And in all subsequent stages evolution of the two earlier systems of structures depends on evolution of this additional system." (Pp. G14, Glo.) " The many fiicts contemplated unite in proving that social evolu- tion forms a part of evolution at large. Like evolving aggregates in general, societies show integration, both by simple increase of mass and by coalescence and recoalescence of masses. The change from ho- mogeneity to heterogeneity is multitudinously exemplified ; up from the simple tribe, alike in all its parts, to the civilized nation, full of struct- ural and functional unlikenesses beyond enumeration. With jiro- gressing integration and heterogeneity goes increasing coherence. The wandering group dispersing, dividing, held together by no bonds; the tribe with parts made more coherent by subordination to a domi- nant man ; the cluster of tribes united in a political plexus under a chief with sub-chiefs; and so on up to the civilized nation consoli- dated enough to hold together for a thousand years or more. Si- multaneously comes increasing definiteness. Such organization as tiie primitive horde shows is vague; advance brings settled arrangements that grow slowly more precise ; customs pass into laws which, while gaining fixity, also become more specific in their applications to vari- eties of actions; and all institutions, at first confusedly intermingkcV, step by step separate, at the same time tliat each within itself marks ofi" more distinctly its component structures. Thus in all respects is fulfilled the formula of evolution, as a progress toward greater size, coherence, multiformity, and definiteness." (Pp. G17, 018.) "Already in the more advanced nations, that process which dis- solved the larger family aggregates, dissipating the tribe and the gens, and leaving only the family proper, has long been completed ; and already there have taken place partial disintegrations of the family proper. Along with changes which, for family responsibility, substi- tuted individual resjjonsibility in respect of offences, have gone changes which, in some degree, have absolved the family from responsibility for its members in other respects. "When by Poor Laws public pro- vision was made for children whom their parents did not or could not adequately sujiport, society in so far assumed family functions; as also 312 AITHNDIX. when undertaking, in a measure, the charge of parents not supported by their cliildren. Legislation has of late further relaxed family bonds by relieving parents from the care of their children's minds, and, in place of education under parental direction, establishing edu- cation under State direction; and -where tlie appointed authorities have found it needful partially to clothe neglected children befr)rc they could be taught, and even to whip children by police agency for not going to school,* they have still further substituted for the respon- sibility of i^arents a national responsibility. This recognition of the individual, even when a child, as the social unit, rather than the fam- ily, lias indeed now gone so far that by many the jiaternal duty of the State is assumed as self-evident ; and criminals are called ' our fail- ures.' '' (Pp. 737, 738.) "In Chap. II. were indicated the facts that, with advance toward the highest animal types, there goes increase of the period during which offspring are cared for by parents; that in the human race parental care, extending throughout childhood, becomes elaborate as well as prolonged ; and that among the highest members of the high- est races it continues into early manhood : jiroviding numerous aids to material welfare, taking precautions for moral disciiJline, and em- ploying complex agencies for intellectual culture. Moreover, we saw that, along with this lengthening and strengthening of the solicitude of parent for child, there grew up a reciprocal solicitude of child for parent. Among even the highest animals of sub-human types, this aid and protection of jDarents by offspring is absolutely wanting. In the lower human races it is but feebly marked: aged fathers and mothers being here killed and there left to die of starvation; and it becomes gradually more marked as we advance to the highest civil- ized races. Are we, in the course of further evolution, to reverse all this ? Have those parental and filial bonds which have been growing closer and stronger during the latter stages of organic development suddenly become untrustworthy ? and is the social bond to be trusted in place of them? Are the intense feelings which have made the ful- filment of parental duties a source of high pleasure to be now re- garded as valueless ? and is the sense of public duty to children at large to be cultivated by each man and woman as a sentiment better and more efficient than the j^arental instincts and sympathies ? " So far from expecting disintegration of the family to go fiirther, * See Times, 2Sth of Feb., 1877. APPEXDIX. 313 ■vve have reason to suspect that it has already gone too far. Proliably the rhythm of change, conforming to its usual law, has carried us from the one extreme a long way toward the other extreme ; and a return movement is to be looked for.'' (Pp. 739, 740.) "The salvation of every society, as of every species, depends on the maintenance of an absolute opposition between the regime of the family and the regime of the State. "To survive, every species of creature must fuIGl two conflicting requirements. During a certain period each member nmst receive benefits in proportion to its incapacity. After that jieriod. it must receive benefits in proportion to its capacity. Observe the bird fos- tering its young or the mammal rearing its litter, and you see that imperfection and inability are rewarded; and that as ability increases, the aid given in food and warmth becomes less. Obviously this law, that the least worthy shall receive most, is essential as a law for the immature: the sjiecies would disappear in a generation, did not par- ents conform to it. Now mark what is, contrariwise, the law for the mature. Here, individuals gain rewards proportionate to their mer- its. The strong, the swift, the keen-sighted, the sagacious, profit by their respective superiorities — catch prey or escape enemies, as the case may be. The less capable thrive less, and on the average of cases rear fewer ofispring. The least capable disappear by failure to get prey or from inability to escape. And by this process is main- tained that average quality of the species which enables it to survive in the struggle for existence with other species. There is thus, dur- ing mature life, an absolute reversal of the princijile that ruled during immature life. " Already we have seen that a society stands to its citizens in the same relation as a species to its members; and the truth which we have just seen holds of the one holds of the other. The law for the undeveloped is that there shall be most aid where there is least merit. The heli)less, useless infant, extremely exiffcant, must from hour to hour be fed, kept warm, amused, exercised ; as during childhood and boyhood the powers of self- preservation increase, the attentions re- quired and given become less perpetual, but still need to be great; and only with approach to maturity, when some value and elliciency have been acquired, is this policy considerably qualified. But when the young man enters into the battle of life, he is dealt with after a contrary system. The general principle now is that the benefits which come to him shall be proportioned to his merits. Though parental 314 APPENDIX. aid, not abruptly ending, may still sometimes soften the effects of tliis social law, yet the mitigation of them is but partial ; and, apart from parental aid, this social law is but in a small degree traversed by private generosity. Then, when middle life has been reached and l^arental aid lias ceased, the stress of the struggle becomes greater, and the adjustment of payment to service more rigorous. Clearly with a society, as with a species, survival depends on conformity to both of these antagonist principles. Import into tlie family the law of the society, and let children from infancy upward have life- sus- taining supplies proportioned to their life-sustaining labors, and the society disappears forthwith by death of all its young. Import into the society the law of the family, and let the life-sustaining supplies be inversely proportioned to the life-sustaining labors, and the society decays from the increase of its least worthy members and disappear- ance of its most worthy members : it must fail to hold its own in the struggle with other societies, which allow play to the natural law that prosperity shall vary as efficiency. "Hence the necessity of maintaining this cardinal distinction be- tween the ethics of the Family and the etliics of the State. Hence the fatal result if family disintegration goes so far that family policy and State policy become confused. Unqualified generosity must re- main the principle of the family while offspring are passing through their early stages ; and generosity, more and more qualified by jus- tice, must remain its principle as offspring are approaching maturity. Conversely, the principle of the society must ever be justice, quali- fied by generosity in the individual acts of citizens, as far as their several natures prompt ; and unqualified justice in the corporate acts of the society to its members. However fitly in the battle of life among adults, the strict proportioning of rewards to merits may be tempered by private sympathy in favor of the inferior; nothing but evil can result if this strict proi)ortioning is so interfered with by public arrangements that demerit profits at the expense of merit.'" (Pp. 740-743.) "Already I have given reasons for thinking that the powers and functions of parents have been too far assumed by the State ; and that probably a reintegration of the family will follow its present undue disintegration. It seems possible that, from the early form in which social and family organizations are compulsory in character, we are passing through semi -militant, semi -industrial phases, in which the organizations of both State and family are partly compulsory, partly APPENDIX. 315 voluntary, in cliaractor; and that along with complete social reinte- gration on the basis of voluntarj' co-operation, will come domestic re- integration of allied kind, under wliich the life of the family will again become as distinct from the life of the State as it originally was. Still, there remain the theoretical difficulties of deciding how far the powers of jDarents over children may be carried; to what extent dis- regard of parental responsibilities is to be tolerated ; Avhen docs the child cease to be a unit of the family and become a unit of the State? Practically, however, these questions will need no solving; since the same changes of character which bring about the highest form of fam- ily will almost universally prevent the rise of difficulties which result from characters of lower types proper to lower societies.'' (P. 759.) XXI. EXTRACTS FROM THE SECOXD VOLUME OF MR. HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT'S "XATIV'E RACES OF THE PACIFIC STATES OF NORTH AMERICA:" LONDON, 1875. " Often is the question asked, "What is civilization ? and the answer comes, The act of civilizing ; the state of being civilized. What is the act of civilizing ? To reclaim from a savage or barbarous state ; to educate; to refine. "What is a savage or barbarous state ? A wild uncultivated state; a state of nature. Thus far the dictionaries. The term civilization, then, popularly implies both the transition from a natural to an artificial state, and the artificial condition attained. The derivation of the word civilization, from cicis, citizen, civitas, city, and originally from coitus, union, seems to indicate that culture which, in feudal times, distinguished the occupants of x;itics from the ill-man- nered boors of the country. The word savage, on the other hand, from silca, a wood, points to man primeval ; sihcKtrcs homines, men of tlie forest, not necessarily ferocious or brutal, but children of nature. From these simple beginniugs both words have gradually ao(|uircd a broader significance, until by one is understood a state of comfort, intelligence, and refinement; and by the other, humanity wiKl and bestial. "Guizot defines civilization as an 'improved condition of man re- sulting from the establishment of social order in place of the indi- vidual independence and lawlessness of the savage or barbarous life ;' Buckle as 'the triumph of mind over external agents;' Vircy as 'the 31 G AITEXDIX. development more or less absolute of tlic moral and intellcctuiil fac- ulties of man united in society;' Burke as the exponent of two princi- ples, ' the spirit of a gentleman and the spirit of religion.' 'Whatever be tlie characteristics of what we call savage life,' says John Stuart ]\Iill, ' the contrary of these, or the qualities which society puts on as it throws off these, constitute civilization;' and, remarks Emerson, 'a nation that has no clothing, no iron, no alphabet, no marriage, no arts of peace, no abstract thoughts, we call barbarous.' "]\ren talk of civilization and call it libertj-, religion, government, morality. Now liberty is no more a sign of civilization than tyranny; for the lowest savages are the least governed of all people. Civilized liberty, it is true, marks a more advanced stage than savage liberty; but between these two extremes of liberty there is a necessary age of tyranny, no less significant of an advance on primitive liberty than is constitutional liberty an advance on tyranny. Nor is relig- ion civilization, except in so far as the form and machinery of sacer- dotal rites, and the abandonment of fetichism for monotheism become significant of intenser thought and expansion of intellect. No nation ever practised grosser immorality, or what we of the present day hold to be immorality, than Greece during the height of her intellectual refinement. Peace is no more civilization than war, virtue than vice, good than evil. All these are the incidents, not the essence, of civ- ilization. ''That which we commonly call civilization is not an adjunct nor an acquirement of man; it is neither a creed nor a polity, neither science nor philosophy nor industry; it is rather the measure of pro- grcssional force implanted in man, the general fund of the nation's wealth, learning, and refinement, the storehouse of accumulated re- sults, the essence of all best worth preserving from the distilla- tions of good and the distillations of evil. It is a something be- tween men, no less than a something within them ; for neither an isolated man nor an association of brutes can by any possibility be- come civilized. " Further than this, civilization is not only the measure of aggre- gated human experiences, but it is a living, working principle. It is a social transition ; a moving forward rather than an end attained ; a developing vitality rather than a fixed entity ; it is the effort or aim at refinement rather than refinement itself; it is labor with a view to improvement, and not improvement consummated, although it may be and is the metre of such improvement. And this accords with latter- day teachings. Although in its infancy, and, moreover, unable to ex- APPENDIX. 317 IDlaiii things unexplainaljle, the science of evolution thus far has proved that the normal condition of the liiimaa race, as well as that of jihysi- cal nature, is i)rogrcssional ; that tlie i)lant in a congenial soil is not more sure to grow than is humanity with favorable surroundings cer- tain to advance. Nay, more, we speak of the progress of civilization as of something that moves on of its own accord ; we may, if we Avill, recognize in this onward movement the same principle of life mani- fest in nature and in tlie individual man. "To things we do not understand we give names, with which by frequent use we become familiar, wlien we fancy that we know all about the things themselves. At the first glance civilization appears to be a simple matter; to be well clad, well housed, and well fed, to be intelligent and cultured, are better than nakedness and ignorance ; therefore it is a good thing, a thing that men do w^ell to strive for — and that is all. But once attempt to go below this placid surface, and investigate the nature of progressional phenomena, and we find ourselves launched upon an eternity of ocean, and in pursuit of the same occult Cause, wliicli has been sought alike by philosophic and l)arbaric of every age and nation; we find ourselves face to face with a great mystery, to which we stand in the same relation as to other great mysteries, such as the origin of things, the principle of life, the soul-nature." ' (Pp. 3-5.) "The instincts of man's animality teach the organs to perform their functions as perfectly at the first as at the last; the instincts of man's intellectuality urge him on in an eternal race for something better, in which perfection is never attained or attainaljle ; in society we see the constant growth, the higher and yet higher development; now, in this ever- onward movement are there instincts which originate and govern action in the body social as in the body individual? Is not society a bundle of organs, with an imi)lanted Soul of Progress, which moves mankind along in a resistless predetermined march ?" (Pp. ID, 20.) "In tlie brute creation this element of progress is wanting. The bird builds its nest, the bee its cell, the beaver its dam, with no more skill or elaboration to-day than did the bird or bee or beaver prime- val. The instinct of animals does not with time become intellect ; their comforts do not increase, their sphere of action does not enlarge. By domestication, stocks nuiy be improved, but nowhere do we see animals uniting for mutual improvement, or creating for themselves 318 Ari'KNDix. an artificiiil existence. So in man, wliosc nature comprises both tlic animal and the intellectual, tlie physical organism neither perceptil)ly advances nor deteriorates. The features may, indeed, beam brigliter from the light of a purer intellectuality cast upon them from within, but the hand, the eye, the heart, so far as we know, is no more perfect now than in the days of Adam. "As viewed by Mr. Bagehot, the body of the acconiiilished man ' liecomcs, liy training, dift'ercut from what it once was, and different from that of the rude man — becomes cliarged with stored virtue and acquired faculty, which come away from it unconsciously.' But the body of the accomplished man dies, and the son can in nowise inherit it, whereas the soul of his accomplishments does not die, but lives in the air, and becomes part of the vital breath of society. And, again, ' power tiiat has been Uiboriously acquired and stored vp as statical in one generation,' sometimes, says Maudsley, ' becomes the inborn faculty of the next; and the development takes place in accordance witli that law of increasing speciality and com2)lexity of adaptation to external nature which is traceable through the animal kingdom; or, in other words, tliat law of progress, from the general to the special, in development, whicli tlie appearance of nerve force among natural forces and the complexity of the nervous system of man both illus- trate.' On the other side, John Stuart Mill is just as positive that culture is not inherent. 'Of all vulgar modes,' he remarks, 'of escap- ing from the consideration of the effect of social and moral influences on the human mind, the most vulgar is that of attributing the diver- sities of conduct and character to inherent natural diflerences ;' and, says Mr. Buckle, ' we cannot safely assume that there has been any permanent improvement in the moral or intellectual faculties of man, nor have we any decisive ground for saying that those faculties are likely to be greater in an infant born in the most civilized part of Europe, than in one born in the wildest region of a barbarous coun- trj'.'" (Pp. 21,22.) "It is easier to tell what civilization is not, and what it does not spring from, than what it is and what its origin. "Nor, as Ave have seen, is this act of civilizing the eftect of volition ; nor, as will hereafter more clearly appear, does it arise from an inher- ent principle of good any more than from an inherent principle of- evil. The ultimate result, though diflicult of proof, we take for grant- ed to be good, but the agencies employed for its consummation num- ber among them more of those we call evil than of those we call srood. APPENDIX. 319 The isolated individual never, by any possibility, can become civilized like the social man." (P. 26.) " For example, as I have said, and -will attempt more fully to show- farther on, association is the first requisite of progress. But what is to bring about association ? Naked nomads will not voluntarily yield up their freedom, quit their wanderings, hold conventions and pass resolutions concerning the greatest good to the greatest number ; pa- triotism, love, benevolence, brotherly kindness, will not bring savage men together; extrinsic force must be employed, an iron hand must be laid upon them w Inch -will compel them to unite, else there can Ite no civilization; and to accomplish this first great good to man — to compel mankind to take the initial step toward the amelioration of tlieir condition — it is ordained that an evil, or what to us of these latter times is surely an evil, come forward — and that evil is War." (P. 28.) "Then comes in superstition to the aid of progress. A successful leader is first feared as a man, then reverenced as a supernatural being, and finally himself, or his descendant, in the flesh or in tradition, is worslii[)ped as a god. Then an unearthly fear comes upon mankind, and the ruler, perceiving his power, begins to tyrannize over his fel- lows. Both superstition and tyranny are evils; yet without war, su- perstition, and tyranny, dire evils, civilization, which many deem the highest good, never by any possibility, as human nature is, could be." (P. 39.) "Institutions and principles essentially good at one time are essen- tial evils at another time. The very aids and agencies of civilization become afterward the greatest drags upon jjrogress. "The very evils which are regarded as infamous by a higher cult- ure were the necessary stej^ping-stones to that higher life. As we liave seen, no nation ever did or can emerge from barbarism without first placing its neck under the yokes of despotism and superstition ; tliereforc despotism and superstition, now dire evils, were once essen- tial benefits." (P. 33.) • "livery age and every nation has its special line of march. Liter- ature and the fine arts reached their height in pagan Greece; mono- theism among the Hebrews; science unfolded in Egypt, and govern- ment in Rome. 320 APPEXDIX. "In every individual there is some one talent that can be cultivated more advantageously tlian any otheV; so it is witli nations, every peo- ple possesses some natural advanlajfe for development in some certain direction over every other people, and often the early history of a na- tion, like the precocious proclivities of the child, points toward its fut- ure ; and in such arts and industries as its climate and geographical position best enable it to develop, is discovered the germ of national character. Seldom is the commercial spirit developed in the interior of a continent, or the despotic spirit on the border of the sea, or the j)redatory spirit in a country wholly devoid of mountains and fast- nesses. It cannot be said tiiat one nation or race is inherently better fitted for civilization than another; all may not be equally fitted for exactly the same civilization, but all are alike fitted for that civiliza- tion Avhich, if left to itself, eacli will work out." (P. 40.) "Leisure is essential to culture ; before leisure there must be an ac- cumulation of wealth; the accumulation of wealth is dependent upon the food supply ; a surplus of food can only be easily obtained in warm climates. But labor is also essential to development, and excessive heat is opposed to labor. Labor, moreover, in order to produce lei- sure, must be remunerative, and excessive cold is ojJiDosed to accumu- lation. It appears, therefore, that an excess of labor and an excess of leisure are alike detrimental to improvement.'' (P. 49.) "Thus we have seen that a combination of physical conditions is es- sential to intellectual development. Without leisure there can be no culture, without wealth no leisure, without labor no wealth, and with- out a suitable soil and climate no remunerative labor.*' (P. 55.) "The obvious necessity of association as a primary condition of de- velopment leaves little to be said on that subject. To the manifesta- tion of this Soul of Progress a body social is requisite, as without an individual body there can be no manifestation of an individual soul. This body social, like the body individual, is composed of numberless organs, each having its special functions to perform, each acting on the others, and all under the general government of the progressional idea. Civilization is not an individual attribute, and though the atom, man, may be charged with stored energy, yet progress constitutes no part of individual nature; it is something that lies between men, and not within them ; it belongs to society, and not to the individual ; man, the molecule of society, isolate, is inert and forceless. The isolated APPENDIX. 321 man, as I have said, never can become cultivated, never can form a language, does not possess in its fulness the faculty of abstraction, nor can his mind enter the realm of higher thought."' (Pp. o.j, 5G.) "Under the regime of universal mediocrity the nation does not advance ; it is to the great men — great in things great or small — that progress is due ; it is to the few who think, to the few who dare to face the infinite universe of things, and step, if need be, outside an old- time boundary, that the world owes most." (P. 57.) " The moment two or more persons unite for the accomplishment of some purpose which shall tend permanently to meliorate the con- dition of themselves and others, that moment progress begins. The wild beasts of the forest, acting in unison, were physically able to rise up and extirpate primitive man, but could beasts in reality confederate and do this, such confederation of wild beasts could become civilized." (P. 58.) "The human race has not yet attained that state of homogeneous felicity which we sometimes imagine; upon the surface we yet bear many of the relics of barbarism ; under cover of manners we -hide still more. "War is a barbarism which civilization only intensifies, as in- deed civilization intensifies every barbarism which it does not eradi- cate or cover up. The right of every individual to act as his own avenger ; trial by combat ; justice dependent upon the passion or caprice of the judge or ruler, and not upon fixed law ; hereditary feuds and migratory skirmishes — these and the like are deemed bar- barous, while every nation of the civilized world maintains a standing army, applies all the arts and inventions of civilization to the science of killing, and upon suflScient provocation, as a disputed boundary or a fancied insult, no greater nor more important than that Avhich moved our savage ancestors to like conduct, falls to, and after a respectable civilized butchery of fifty or a hundred thousand men, ceases fighting, and returns, perhaps, to right and reason as a basis for the settlement of the difliculty. War, like other evils which have proved instruments of good, should by this time have had its day, should have served its purpose. Standing armies, whose formation Avas one of the first and most important steps in association and partition of labor, are but the manifestation of a lingering necessity for the use of brute force in place of moral force in the settlement of national disputes. Surely, rational beings who retain tlic most irrational practices concerning 21 322 APrEXDIX. (lie simplest piiiicii)lcs of social life, cannot boast of a very high order of what wc arc jDleascd to call civilization. Morality, commerce, lit- erature, and industry, all that tends toward elevation of intellect, is directly opposed to tlic warlike spirit. As intellectual activity in- creases, the taste for war decreases, for an appeal to war in the settle- ment of difficulties is an appeal from the intellectual to the physical, from reason to brute force.'' (Pp. GO, Gl.) " Union and co-operation spring up for purposes of protection and aggression, for the accomplishment of purposes beyond the capacity of the individual." (P. 64.) XXII. EXTRACTS FROM "THE ANCIENT CITY," BY FUSTEL DE COULANGES. [Willard Small's Trauslatiou. Boston, 1S74. Pp. 521-528. — Let Cite Antique. Cin- quierae Edition. Paris, 1ST4. Lib. v., chap, iii., pp. 472-451.] "With Christianity not only was the religious sentiment revived, but it assumed a higher and less material expression. "While pre- viously men had made for themselves gods of the human soul, or of the great forces of nature, they now began to look upon God as really foreign, by his essence, from human nature on the one hand, and from the world on the other. The divine Being was placed outside and above phj-sical nature. "While previously every man had made a god for himself, and there were as many of them as there were families and cities, God now appeared as a unique, immense, universal being, alone animating the worlds, alone able to supply the need of adora- tion that is in man."' (P. 521, Small's Trans.) " Christianity changed the nature and the form of adoration. Man no longer offered God food and drink. Prayer was no longer a form of incantation ; it was an act of ftiith and a humble petition. The soul sustained another relation with the divinity ; the fear of the gods was replaced by the love of God. " Christianity introduced other new ideas. It was not the domestic religion of any family, the natiffnal religion of any city, or of any race. It belonged neither to a caste nor to a corporation. From its first APPENDIX. 323 appearance it called to itself tbe whole human race. Christ said to his disciples, ' Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to ev- ery creature.' " This principle was so extraordinary and so unexpected, that the first disciples hesitated for a moment; we may see in the Acts of the Apostles that several of them refused at first to propagate the new doctrine outside the nation with which it had originated. These dis- ciples thought, like the ancient Jews, that the God of the Jews would not accept adoration from foreigners; like the Romans and the Greeks of ancient times, they believed that every race had its god, that to propagate the name and worship of this god was to give up one's own good and special protector, and that such a work was contrary at the same time to duty and to interest." (P. 522.) " In all this there was something quite new ; for everywhere, in the first ages of humanity, the divinity had been imagined as attaching himself especially to one race. Tiie Jews had believed in the God of the Jews; the Athenians in the Athenian Pallas; the Romans in Jupiter Capitolinus. The right to practise a worsliip had been a privilege. "The foreigner had been repulsed from the temijle; one not a Jew could not enter the temple of the Jews; the Lacedaemonian had not the right to invoke the Athenian Pallas. It is just to say that, in the five centuries which preceded Christianity, all Avho thought were struggling against these narrow rules. Philosophy had often taught, since Anaxagoras, that the god of the universe received the homage of all men, without distinction. The religion of Elcusis had admitted the initiated from all cities. The religion of Cybele, of Serapis, and some others, had accepted, without distinction, worshippers from all nations. The Jews had begun to admit the foreigner to their relig- ion ; the Greeks and the Romans had admitted him into their cities. Christianity, coming after all this progress in thought and institutions, presented to the adoration of all men a single God, a universal God, a God who belonged to all, who had no chosen people, and who made no distinction in races, families, or states. " For this God there were no longer strangers. The stranger no longer profoned the temple, no longer tainted the sacrifice by his presence. The temple was open to all who believed in (Jod. The priesthood ceased to be hereditary, because religion was no longer a patrimony. The worslnp was no longer kept secret; the rites, the prayers, the dogmas were no longer concealed." (Pp. 523, 524.) 1^24: APrKNDIX. "From this great consoqucncos (lowed, as well for the relations be- tween nations as lor tiie government of states. " Between nations religion no longer commanded hatred ; it no longer made it the citizen's duty to detest the foreigner; its very es- sence, on the contrary, Avas to teach him that toward the stranger, toward the enemy, he owed the duties of justice, and even of benevo- lence. The barriers between nations or races were thus thrown down ; the jjomcurium disappeared." (P. 524.) "The people were also taught that tliey Avere all descended from the same common father. With the unity of God, tlie luiity of the human race also appeared to men's minds ; and it was thenceforth a religious necessity to forbid men to hate each other." (P. 524.) " Christianity completes the overthrow^ of the local worship ; it ex- tinguishes the prytauea, and completely destroys the city-protecting divinities. It does more ; it refuses to assume the empire which these worships had exercised over civil society. It professes that between the State and itself there is nothing in common. It separates what all antiquity had confounded. We may remark, moreover, that dur- ing three centuries the new religion lived entirely beyond the action of the State; it knew how to dispense with State protection, and even to struggle against it. These three centuries established an abyss be- tween the domain of the government and the domain of religion; and, as the recollection of this period could not be effaced, it followed that this distinction became a plain and incontestable truth, which the ef- forts even of a part of the clergy could not eradicate.'' (Pp. 525, 52G.) " Christianity taught that only a part of man belonged to society ; that he was bound to it by his body and by his material interests ; that when subject to a tyrant, it was his duty to submit ; that as a citizen of a republic, he ought to give his life for it, but that, in what related to his soul, he was free, and was bound only to God. " Stoicism had already marked this separation; it had restored man to himself, and had founded liberty of conscience. But that which was merely the effort of the energy of a courageous sect, Christianity made a universal and unchangeable rule for succeeding generations ; what was only the consolation of a few, it made the common good of humanity."' (Pp. 526, 527.) " Christianity is the fii'st religion that did not claim to be the ArPEXDix. 325 source of law. It occupied itself with the duties of men, not with their interests. 3Ien saw it reguhitc neither the laws of property, nor the order of succession, nor obligations, nor legal proceedings. It placed itself outside the law, and outside all things purely terrestrial. Law "was iudepeudent; it could draw its rules from Nature, from the human conscience, from the powerful idea of the just that is in men's minds. It could develop in complete liberty; could be reformed and improved without obstacle; could follow the progress of morals, and could conform itself to the interests and social needs of every genera- tion." (Pp. 527, 528.) XXIII. MR. W. K. GREG'S " EXIGMAS OF LIFE."* Since these Lectures were in type I have seen Mr. W. R. Greg's sug- gestive essay entitled " Civilization antagonistic to the Law of ' Nat- ural Selection.' " His line of thought, however, is not the same as that which I have been following, though I think we both start from Mr, Wallace's paper. Mr. Greg looks on civilization as something which interferes with the operation of the law of '• Natural Selection," while I look on it as the outcome of an interference with that law. There is no civilization, as I see the matter, without such interference. A state of civilization only appears when natural selection i's more or less completely con- trolled, and the more complete the control the higher is the civiliza- tion. Mr. Greg's paper is chiefly devoted to an examination of " the ten- dency in communities of advanced and complicated civilization to multiply from their lower rather than their higher specimens" (p. 118), and on this subject he says much that appears to me to support tiie views I have expressed as to the decay of civilizations. "It is no longer," lie says, "the strongest, the healthiest, the most perfectly or- ganized; it is not the men of the finest jj/tys/^/f/f, the largest brain, the most developed intelligence, the best morale, thixt are 'favored' and successful 'in tiie struggle for existence' — that survive, that rise to the surface, that 'natural selection' makes the ])aronts of future gen- erations, the eontinuntors of a i)icked and jicrfeeted race. . . . The va- * Fourth Edition, 1873. 326 APPENDIX. rioiis influences of our social system combine to traverse the righteous and salutary law which God ordained for the preservation of a worthy and improving humanity; and the 'varieties' of man that endure and multiply their likenesses, and mould the features of the coming times, are not the soundest constitutions that can I)C found among us, nor the most subtle and resourceful minds, nor the most amiable or self- denying tempers, nor the most sagacious judgments, nor even the most imperious and persistent walls, but often the j^recise reverse — often those emasculated by luxury and those damaged by want, those rendered reckless by squalid poverty, and those wliose physical and mental energies have been sapped, and whose characters have been grievously impaired by long indulgence and forestalled desires " (pp. 103, 104). Mr. Greg's essay is largely devoted to shov.'ing that this opinion is correct, and that the result is due to the "disturbing and conflicting element" which "civilization, with its social, moral, and material complications, has introduced." (P. 103.) Speaking of the suspension of the law of natural selection, he says : "It even dawns njion us that our existing civilization, ^chicli is the re- mit of the operation of this 1/ao in j)nst ages, may be actually retarded and endangered by its tendency to neutralize that law in one or two most material and significant particulars " (p. 98). The words which I have put in italics sliow that Mr. Greg regards civilization in early stages as the actual result of the uncontrolled operation of the law of natural selection, which is the opposite of the view I have taken. Farther on he says: "My thesis is this; that the indisputable effect of the state of social progress and culture we have reached, of our liigh civilization in its present stage and actual form, is to counteract and suspend the operation of that righteous and salutary law of 'nat- ural selection ' in virtue of which the best specimens of the race — the strongest, the finest, the worthiest — are those which survive, multiply, become paramount, and take jirecedence ; succeed and triumph in the sti'uggle for existence, become tlie especial progenitors of future gen- erations, continue the species, and propagate an ever-improving and perfecting type of humanity.'' (Pp. 98, 99.) Mr. Greg says: "A republic is conceimlJe ... in which all candidates for the proud and solemn j^rivilege of continuing an untainted and perfecting race should be subjected to a pass or a competitive exami- nation, and those only be suffered to transmit their names and families to future generations who had a jnire, vigorous, and well-developed constitution to transmit; so that paternity should be the right and APPENDIX. 327 fuuction exclusively of the elite of the nation, and humanity be thus enabled to march on securely and without drawljack to its ultimate possibilities of progress." According to my views such a " republic " would necessarily be in a very low state of civilization. Mr. Greg goes on to say: "But no nation — in modern times, at least — has ever yet apin-oached or aimed at this ideal ; ... no government and no statesman has ever yet dared thus to supplement the inadequacy of personal patriotism by laws so sapiently despotic. The faces of the leading peoples of the existing world are not even set in this direction — at present notably the reverse. . . . We are learning to insist more and more on the freedom of the individual will, the right of eveiy one to judge and act for himself. AYe are growing daily more foolishly and criminally lenient to every natural propensity, less and less in- clined to resent, or control, or punish its indulgence. We absolute- ly refuse to let tlie poor, the incapable, the lazy, or tiie diseased die." Such things as tliese, though perhaps described somewhat differently, I liave treated as tlie usual marks of a ripe civilization — though marks of a ripeness which may indicate approaching decline. ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. PART I. THE PAST IN THE PRESENT. Lecture I. — The Spindle and "Wiiorl. PAGE Whorl of Kleber-stonc in Fetlar in process of being made . . . I'J Spindles and wliorls comuiou in Fetlar 20 Different kinds of wborls and their purpose 21 Why whorls are of interest to antiipiaries 22 The whorl still used and made, and spinning Avith spindle still practised, in a country advanced in civilization and using com- plex machinery in spinning 23 A lower capacity or culture in user of spindle must not be assumed . 23 Spindle and whorl have disappeared suddenly and lately from some districts of Scotland 23 Whorls found iu such districts alreadj- treated as charms .... 24 Whorl may disappear before spindle 24 Form of spindle changed to make whorl unuecessary 24 This a late change, and the reverse of an improvement 24 A potato may take the place of whorl — seen in Daviot and Ishiy . . 2G From a stone whorl to a potato whorl is degradation 26 Old arts when supplanted die out by a process of decline .... 27 Illustrated by influence of in-inting on production of manuscripts — Dr. Balfour's "Sampler," illustration 27 Daviot woman using potato whorl, sat on a " /iwoc/ii/i' static" — an old-world look all round her 27 Other spindle users seen with similar accompaniments — Gleukens spinner and song — old Scottish loom 2S Not the Avhorl only both a living thing and a relic of aiitiiinily . . 29 The whorl still u.sed hero and there all over Enroiic 29 Not writing the history of the whorl, but only using it to disclose certain lessons 29 These lessons chiotly drawn from familiar objects and practices, but also from objects and practices of any part of the world ... 30 332 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. PAGE Wrong as well as li^lit in thiiikiiii; sitiiidh; -spiiiiiiiij; :i riulc prac- tice, ouly euitablo to a barbarous and niicultnrcd pcoplo . . . '50 Tlio spindle can accomplish feats -which no machine yet invented can cqnal — does so in India, Dacca mnslins .50 Spindle and Avhorl of the Hindoo spinninf;;-womon described . . . :{1 With reservation we nuist speak of spindles and whorls as the im- plements of barbanms and uncultured people 31 The spindle docs good work, and cannot be treated with contempt . 32 The most efficient known implement for at least one purpose ... 32 Neither simplicity nor antiquity of spindle necessarily shows its employer to be wanting in culture or capacity 32 As correct to call the user of a stone knife to cut glass, or a bone knife to cut paper, uncultured and barbarous 32 Hiudoo spindle-spinners not savage or uncivilized 33 All civilizations not of one pattern 33 Civilization and cultui'e of Indian races not like ours, but still high . 33 The so-called rude stage of an art may be the only stage of that art known among a civilized and cultured people, whose ability to advance beyond it we cannot doulit 33 Spinning in. Central Africa like spinning of ancient Egyptians — like spindle-spinning in Scotland iu our day 34 Savages use a contrivance which cultured Egypt used thousands of years ago, with which cultured India still contents itself, and which cultured Europe employs to some extent 34 The possible meaning of this as regards the savage 34 To some it makes the whorl less interesting to know that it may either be of great age or a thing of yesterday 33 The love of the wonderful iu the study of antiquities — cherished opinions 36 Discovery of cloth in Ohio mounds at variance with prevailing opinions as to civilization of mound-builders, and therefore not willingly made public 36 Subsequent discoveries showed that weaving was known by mound- builders 36 Prevailing ideas therefore modilied, and a higher culture conceded to mound-builders 37 The prehistoric man not always a barbarian 37 Not so, for instance, in Central America or Cambodia 37 In many countries the historic the barbarous, and the prehistoric the civilized race 37 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 333 PAGE Negative evidence misleading 37 The chief inferences from the study of tlie whorl 38-41 Useful to Leget a well-founded scepticism in regard, to nuitters the one-sided examination of whieli may lead to an nnscientific use of thorn 42 Lecture II. — Craggans. — Querns. — Norse Mills. — Knockin' Stanes. — Tainted Milk and Fish. — Burstin. Stone-breaker iu Barvas eating his dinner out of a Craggan ... 43 Craggans recently made in many Lewis villages, but now chidly in Biuvas 44 Jlade by women 44 Process of niunufactiirc 44 No pottery ruder 46 Tiree Craggans — Dr. Buchanan (footnote) 46 Startling to find such pottery now made in Scotland 46 Nevertheless the people wlio make and use it not low in capacity or culture 47 Foreign products and manufactures seen in house of Barvas manu- facturer 47 If she were buried, house and all, what would a (lig,i;ing on the spot disclose a century hence ? 48 Barvas imitations of StatFordshire ware 48 Bai'vas modelling — tbe Cow 49 Better work, and none worse, in the direction of the iine arts done by the Cave-men 49 Barvas modeller — intelligent and will-infornHMl 50 Were the Cave people inferior to her ' 50 Craggans a curiosity even in Storuoway .... 50 Inferences from t lie notic(» of the Barvas pottery 50 Querns in collections of antiiiuilifs 51 Made and used by people in a high state of civilization 51 Circumstances in which sometimes found 51 In commou use still in some parts of Scotland 51 334 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. PAGK Hundreds seen at work HI Most mxinorou.s in Shetland, but coinmoii in other part« 51 Tliousand.s of them still in use in Scotland 51 Used by the savage races of many i)arl.s of the world 51 Still made for sale in Scotland — their price 51 Not so tastefully made now as formerly 51 The reason — dying out by degradation 52 A rudely-made quern may be more modern than a highly -finished one 52 Modern North Yell quern — no quern ruder 52 Grinds coarse and grinds fine 53 Construction of Shetland quern described 5:5 Not a contemptible piece of machinery 54 Use of quern uo mark of ignorance or stupidity 55 Couutiy gentleman who grinds bis own coffee in a rude and sim- ple way not inferior to townsman who gets coffee from grocer ground by complicated machinery 55 The Shetlander, when he comes South, allows steam to grind corn for him as readily as any one 56 Song of the quern (footnote) 5G Good reasons why some old things continue to be used 56 Perhaps not very different from reasons whicli lead to their inven- tion and use by prehistoric or existing savages 56 Conclusions from what has been said about querns 56 Small water-mills — so-called "Norse mills" 57 Money value of 57 Construction of, described 58 Occur where there is a certain density of population GO The outcome of same conditions which lead elsewhere to erection of large mills 60 Use of them does not show superiority to user of quern, or inferi- ority to user of large steam mill 60 The "Norse mill" does the little it is wanted to do in the way which best combines efficiency with economy 60 Builders of it know well tho merits of an overshot Avheel, and the loss of power in the driving-wheel they make 60 A crofter's view of the waste of power 61 Did men of the Stone Ago speak as well and wisely? 61 Inference from what has been said about " Norse mills " 61 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 335 f>AOB Knockin' stano, or primitive pot-barlcy mill tlescribcd G2 Tlio fair quality of the work it does not to bo forgotten wLeu con- sidering tbo significance of its rudeness G3 Tlic tastes of a people modified b^' such practices as have been noticed G3 Tbo Lewis crnggun and tainted milk G!i The Slu'tlander's relisb for tainted fisli 03 Tiio upper class in Shetland retincd G3 The relish for a "high" llavor in game simihir in origin and nature to the liking for tainted milk and tainted tish 63 Burstin, how its flavor came to be liked • G4 Lewis milkmaid on her way from sheilling with craggans in creel . 64 Lecture III. — The Black Houses and the Beehive Houses OF THE Hebrides. A kiud of pottery as rude as any known to exist made and used in our own country GG The rudest form of an art co-existing with the highest — Barvas and Stalfordshiro pottery 66 The nation in which it occurs does not necessarily consist partly of "savages" and partly of " civilized men" 66 Bearing of such a conclusion on the study of early man ■ 66 Pottery to the ethnologist what fossils are to the geologist — Dr. Daniel Wilson 66 The scale of advancement of a country between savagedom and civ- ilization may generally bo determined by the examples of its pot- tery — Sir Samuel Baker 67 The craggan shows that this is not always true 67 Not in'obablo that the craggan is the only thiug which docs so . .67 The Black House of The Lewis, as seen fifteen or twenty years ago, described 67 The ?)frtcA; /(OHSC opposed to )(7(i7e /(OH.sfi of stone and lime 7'i Features of special interest in the /opulat ion of city closes . ... 95 A dcscriptiou of them might be almost a description of savages in their stone age 96 One important difierence between Wick tinkers and snch savages— the tinkers are workers in iron, while the savages know nothing of the metals 96 Does making a tin-kettle involve a greater display of intellect than making a flint arrow-head? — Does not, and why 96 Makers of flint arrow-heads could easily learn to "work in tinned iron, but donbtful if Wick tinkers could bo trained into skilled A\-orkers in flint 97 Can we compare the cave people of Caithness with those w ho dwelt in the caves of the Dordogne? 97 Conclusions from what has been said of the Wick caves 97 Few things deemed older than cairns 98 Not mere heaps of stones, but often constructed on deOnite and cu- rious plans 93 Not always the work of a feeble people or a thin population ... 99 One Caithness cairn 240 feet long and 70 feet wide 99 AXALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 339 PAGE Sucli a njcniorial .structure not poor in couccptiun, purpose, or exe- cution 99 Cairns built by stone-ago peojile — reveal, nevertheless, intellectual capacity and correct sentiments in tlicir l)uil(lers 99 Cbambered cairns have a regular gronnd-plan and a well-deliiied exterior and interior elevation 99 Horned and cbambered cairns (long and short) of Caithness — at Yarhonse, and at Orniiegill 100 Long cairns in Stratlmaver 100 Cairns of different districts may yet be found to possess distinctive architectural characters 100 Circnlar-chambered cairu at Canister, Caithuess Idl Circular-chambered cairn at Achnacree in Argyleshiro 101 Cairn at Clava with cup-stones 102 Cairu at Corriemony with cup-stones 103 Cairn at Invcrladnan showing design in construction 104 Simiile cairns not necessarily more ancient than cairns on definite plans 104 Structureless bronze-age cairn at Collessie, a mere heap of stones . 105 Bronze dagger-blade with gold fillet to encircle handle, and urns found in it 105 Mr. Anderson on lower character of later cairns 107 Cairns of Christian times — cairn erected in the presence of St. Co- lumba — cairn in church-yard of Penmachno 107 The latest and most insignificant cairns of all erected in the High- lands in our day, where funeral processions halt — near Torgyle and near Fort William 108 A survival of the monumental and sepulchral cairn 109 Without inscriptions or tool-dressed stones 109 Names of those to whom erected soon forgotten 1((9 Wo arc too apt to forget the work which a single century is capa- ble of accomplishing 109 Where hundreds or tens of hundreds of years are sufJicient, why re- quire tens of thousands or millions ? 110 Conclusions from what has been said about cairns 110 Eivlin — shoo made of the hide of the ox, nntanned, and with hair still on 110 Commonly described as "the shoe of the ancient Briton" . . . . 110 No ruder or older form of shoo liuown Ill '^iO ANALYTICAL TAI5LK OV COXTf:.VTS. PAGE Appears in tombs of Egypt, ami iiiCi rior to moccasin of Nortli Amer- ican Itidiau in Common in Slietlaiid, Orkney, and the Ilcljiides Ill Thousands of people in Scotland still wear the rivliu Ill Kcforrod to in John Elder's letters to Henry VIIL of England, as showing the barbarism of the " Wilde Scots " Ill Shetland scythe ll'-i Shetland one-stilted i>lough 113 The Hebridean caschrom, or foot-plough 113 Caschrom does the -work required of it efficiently 114 Suitability of so-called rude implements to circumstances of their actual use 114 Carts -nithout wheels still used in Kintail 114 Kefcrred to by Burt as evidence of backward state of Highlands in 1745 115 Used in doing work for which they are better suited than wheeled carts 115 Sledges transporting trees from high grounds, and lorries Avith drags on, really wheelless carts 115 Not always an evidence of capacity to use elaborate or tine ma- chinery 115 A rough, rude tool may show wisdom in its contriver and em- ployer 115 Not to ask if this view may be taken, unscientific 116 Bone buttons in Outer Hebiides 116 Not in use because of special fitness for a special purpose .... 116 Orkney bono button 11~ Bono button found in urn at Murthly 117 If Barvas man were burnt, his ashes placed in a craggau, for an urn, and buried in a stone cist, to what age would he be assign- ed when afterward dug up ? 117 Recent burial at Ness in stone cists — " The chest of the Dead '' . .117 Old practices may quickly fall into disuse and be forgotten . . . 113 Illustration from what has happened in the case of tinder-boxes, crusies, and wooden locks 118 These things now so scarce as to be costly, and to find a place in collections of antiquities 119 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 341 rAOB Annular brooches — one of silver found at Inverie I'JU Mucb later and ruder one, made of a curtain ring and u bodle-pin, found in use in Knoydart , 1'20 Only rude si)ecimeus made duriug last century or half-century . . 1-20 Handsome and old specimen — with Celtic ornamentation .... 121 Another specimen — with ornamentation lower in character — al- most certainly later 121 Difficult to say of any particular specimen that it is older or later than any other specimen 121 Difficulty does not exist in regard to the type 122 Kecent specimen entirely destitute of ornament 122 The dying out by degradation illustrated by these brooches . . . 122 A rude way of accomplishing an end may refuse to die out, even among those who know the better methods 123 The Shetland bisniar an illustration of this 123 It is clumsily made, and low in its idea 124 An instrument as rude in idea may show workmanship of a high class — as occurs in the Indian bismar 124 The maker of rude Shetland bismar not inferior in capacity or cult- ure to the maker of elegant Indian bismar 124 Caution needed in attempts to gauge man's mental condition by some specimen of his work 124 Objects referred to in lecture only old in a certain sense .... 125 They are neo-archaic 125 Might furnish illustrations of a book of travel in savage lands . . 125 Lecture V. — Classificatiox of Axtiquities ixto those of the Stoxe, Bronze, AND Iron Ages. — Stone Table. — Heating- stones. — Ironing-stones. — Stone Sinkers. — Stone Sockets and Spindles. — Stone Lids and Crushers. — Stone Web Smoothers. — Rude Stone Implements of Shetland. Classification of objects of antiquity into those of the stone, bronze, and iron ages has a practical utility 127 May lead to error, when its nature is imperfectly utidiistood . . . 1J7 Strict basis of the classifieation US Originated in Denmark, and seemingly ai>plicable to it and West- ern Europe 12S 342 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. PAGE Not shown to bo applicable to all parts of the world 128 "Wliat dates it has beeu thought to fnniish in regard to Denmark . 128 These, however, merely guesses 129 Tho classification does not mark points of (irne or furni.sli dales . . 129 Collateral discoveries may sometimes give grounds for a guess at a date 129 The classification does uot indicate necessarily successive stages of capacity or culture 129 By no means necessary that a bronze age must follow a stone age, etc 129 Men may jiass directly from the stone to the iron ago 129 The savages of the heart of Africa in their iron ago 129 Scarcely conceivable that any of the stone -ago men now on tho earth will pass througii a bronze into an iron ago 130 Is there a nation now on earth in its bronze age ? 130 There are people, perhaps, who use bronze more than wo do, and Avhy, but they are uot in their bronze age 130 People in their iron age need uot be in an advanced stage of cult- ure or civilization 131 We were in our iron age, aiul savages, when the Eomaus invaded Britain , .... 131 Negroes of Central Africa in their iron age, yet from them tho slaves of the world drawn 131 Is a man who uses bronze weapons uecossarily inferior to a man who uses iron weapons ? 131 As regards "Western Europe, he appears to have been lower in cult- ure as well as earlier in time 131 The discovery of bronze uot higher than tho discovery of iron as an intellectual effort . . . , 132 How bronze was first discovered 132 Improbable that the human mind, at a particular stage of develop- ment, should here and there — indepeudently, and as the result of reaching that stage — discover that an alloy of tiu and copper yields a hard metal suitable for tools, etc 132 More probable that bronze was discovered in one or more centres by one or more men, and that the invention then spread over the face of the earth, as such inventions are known to do . . . 133 A fourth age — a guupoAvder age — supposed. 133 lu Europe gunpowder proljably discovered in one place .... 133 The knowledge of it spread rapidly over Europe and the world — ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 343 FACE did so by the operation of the ordinary agencies wbich promote among men tlio diffusion of a knowledge of such tilings as elfoct their safety and well-being 133 When stone age is talked of, there is usually meant both a stage in actual culture, and a stage in capacity for culture 134 Whether this true or not of stone age, nothing like it probably true of bronze or ii'on ages 134 Savages may pass from stone to iron or gunpowder ago, without showing advance in culture or capacity 134 Captain ilorcsby and the New Guinea savages 134 Conclusions from what has been said of this classification . . . . 135 Overlapping of the ages 135 Stone-age relics imperishable, intrinsically valueless, and not likely to be destroyed 136 Bronze-age relics also enduring, but intrinsically valuable, and like- ly to be destroyed 13fl Iron-age relics very perishable, and intrinsically of no value . . . 136 What we may expect from this 136 Class of objects forming strict basis of classification — other objects described with them 136, 137 Stone table at Eamscraig 137 Recent monolith with inscription in Caithness 13d Heating stones in Shetland 139 Ironing stones in Orkney and Shetland 140 Difficult to say why such things continue to be used 140 Used in Norway 140 One found in a Viking grave at Ballinaby,Islay 141 Stone substitute for block of wood fastened to a horse's stable-halter 141 Stone fastened between a cow's horns 141 Stone sinkers — appear among antifjuities of the stone age . . . . 141 Various forms of, noticed 142 Interesting specimens from Walls 143 Speculations as to age and purpose, 1)efore real ago aiul puri)o.se known 143 Still used on the Tweed 144 Teach les-sons of caution 144 Stone sockets and tips for spindles 144,145 Such objects lose their interest when known to be eominonplace and recent — should not do so 145 344 ANALYTICAL TAliLE OF CONTEXTS. PAOE Stone lids for water-pails, cream-jars, sugar-basins, etc 14G Modern pounding-stone or cruslier, from Watteu 147 Weaver's rubbing-stone from Fife 147 Shows some finish and taste 147 Does not follow that there was an appreciation of beauty in its maker or user 148 Illustration in shell lamp used by Fethcland fisherman 148 Weaver's smoothing -stones, from llildcrstou, Berwickshire, Glen- cairn, and Bathgate 149 Rude worked stones from Shetland 150 Their claim to be tools or implements as good as that of the cave or drift flints 150 Their scientific importance perhaps not inferior 151 Many hundreds have been found 151 Chiefly in Shetland, but some in Orkney and St. Kilda 151 Numerous in localities in which they occur 151 Picked up usually on surface of ground, tliat is, nuburied .... 151 Have been found in heart of tumulus, in cairn, on outside of short stone cists having urns in them, and in inside of a kistvaen with skeleton and well-polished celt 151 Usually made of sandstone 152 As rude as any stone implements found anywhere in the world . . 152 Their form generally due to a rough jirocess of flaking 152 No polished specimens yet found 152 Some shaped and dressed by picking 152 Som§ with handles show care in their finish and form 152 One specimen without a handle shows some taste in design . . . 152 AVell-fiuished specimens may yet be found 152 Sinkers, whorls, i^olished kuives, etc., found with them 153 Show no signs of use 153 Circumstances under which found do not indicate great age . . . 153 If rudeness were evidence of age, they would be very old .... 153 Remarks on this subject formerly made 154 Figures of rude stone implements 155-lGO ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 3i5 Lecture VI. — Old Clock "Weight. — Superstitions. — Carrying Fire round Uouses and Fields. — Yirding a Quik Cok. — Sacrificing a Bull. — Worshipping Wells. — Drinking Wa- ter OUT of the Skull of a Suicide. — Tasting the Blood of a Murderer. — Thunder- bolts, Adder-beads, and Elf- darts. r.VGE Oblong stone with, hole in it, asserted to have been fastened Ijy a thong to the end of a stick, and so formed into a weapon to be used like a flail hy the " primeval " man, vrheu his mental power was so low that ho could not contrive a better weapon . . . IGl Assertion readily believed, and stone handled reverentially . . . IGl Not necessary to show that assertion is the outcome of strict meth- ods of inquiry IGl Cruel to show that stone was an old clock weight, and tUe story about the flail and primeval man nothing better than a pretty conceit IGl This is very much wliat is done in these lectures 162 Hitherto oulj' material and tangible objects spoken of 1G2 Customs and habits furnish illustrations equally good 1G2 Some superstitious relics of old pagan beliefs — or of a belief not Christian, hut neither old nor pagan 1G3 Carrying of fire round fields, boats, etc 163 lutcuded to secure fertility, and perhaps a survival of lire- worship . 163 Now a meaningless frolic, yet not neglected without uneasiness . . 1G3 Some superstitious practices undoubtedly of pagan origin . . . . 163 For instance, burying a living cock for the cure of epilepsy . . . 164 Unwillingly spoken of by those who do it — who may be neither ig- norant nor irreligious 164 A nation, as a whole, need not consist of the uncultured and inca- pable, because many belonging to it exhibit certain aspects of "savagery" 165 Products of high civilizations never show freedom from inconsisten- cies — the i'iiw who reach a high culture give color to the state of civilization — all derive advantage, though many may still bo uncultured and incapable of culture 16.5 Sacrifice of bulls in Applecross two hundred years ago 165 346 . AX.\XYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. PAGE Dealings of Dingwall Presbytery vitli tills inaet ice Km Otlicr saints concerned in bull sacrifices as well as St. Monric . . 106 Tiic licatheuish character of the bull sacrifice in Applccross shown by Avhat is said of it iu tlie Presbytery records 1G6 Not a sacrifice uiadc by heathens, but by Christians 1G7 The adoration of -wells continued largely to our day 1G7 Oftcriugs ou tree beside Avell on Tunis JIarcc, and on bush above Craignckwell 167 Customary to visit virtue wells on the 1st of May, and often for the sake of frolic 168 Nowadays visitors are generally in earnest 168 Visits to virtue-wells kept more or less secret 168 A supernatural power coutrolliug human affairs, and influenced by certain rites, acknowledged 168 Some such wells have the names of Christian saints attached to them, but saints not appealed to 169 Seems almost iucredible that people suiTounded by enlightenment can put faith in the value of such idle ceremonies 16D A way of looking at matters of this kind which is important, be- cause it must present itself when we attempt to determine the condition of early man from a study of existing man as he is seen in low states of civilization 169 Not the ignorant only who are superstitious 169 Are not all persons, in ditFerent ways and degrees, the slaves of sn- lierstitious feelings ? 169 In the study of those superstitions, which constitute a whole relig- ion, as they practically do in the case of savages, we should re- member this 170 The false beliefs and foolish practices, of savages at once accepted as the outcome of feeble and uncultivated intellectual powers . 170 This view not wholly right 171 Overlooks the fact that, as a mere intellectual effort, the accepting of all involved in accej)ting Christianity is not much less ditli- cult than the accepting of many heathen beliefs 171 No right to infer from a man's being a heathen that he is neces- sarily inferior intellectually to the man who has accepted our higher faith 171 In like manner, no right to infer that the man who goes to battle ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 347 PAGE armed ■with a stone celt is inferior intellectually to the man who goes to battle armed -svitli a steel sword 171 The powers acknowledged in the religious beliefs vre call supersti- tions generally malevolent and local ITl In this they resemble pagan beliefs 172 What an intelligent man and good Christian w ho had shown a faith in virtue-wells said on this subject 172 Childish and silly superstitions 172 Many of them coarse and repulsive 172 Drinking water out of the skull of a suicide, or tasting the blood of a murderer to cure epilepsy 172 Such superstitions not rare among us 172 Not confined to the lowest stratum of society 17:> The depth of that stratum 173 "We talk of ourselves in lump as highlj- civilized — an error, if wo mean that Tve are in the mass highlj^ cultured 173 High culture confined to the thousands — does not embrace the millions 173 Would embrace all, if the test of culture were the use of such things as fabrics from power-looms, etc 173 Such things the outcome of culture, but what have the millions to do with their existence ? 173 They benefit by them, as a result of the state of civilization in which thej'^ live, but they neither called them into existence, nor could they keep them in existence 173 Stone axes or celts often treated as possessing supernatural power, and called thunder-bolts 174 This regarded as showing that the period w hen celts were in actual nso in the country must bo very remote 174 Such a conclusion not necessarilj' correct 174 Less than a single century suflicient to tnuisform a whurl into an adder-bead and amulet 174 Why should ages be needed to transform a colt into a thunder-bolt ' 175 The remarkable diffusion over the face of the globe of the thunder- bolt, adder-bead, and elf-bolt superstitions 175 Why celts, whorls, and arrow-heads should wear the sauu> dress of superstition in so many countries a iiuzzlo 175 348 ANALYTICAL TAliLE OF CONTEXTS. PAOB A greater \my./.]c, why tlieso countries sliould bo the more advanced countrit;.s of llio world 175 Tho stone-ago savage knows wlio made the celt and what it was made for, and perhaps could scarcely deify it 175 This does not lessen difficulty of understanding why the cultured iron-age man gives it a celestial origin and supernatural power. 176 Curing or charm stones 176 Stone of Ardvoirloch — Clach Dearg — belief in its powers to heal diseases of cattle 170 Not necessarily tho uncultured who come under the sway of such superstitions 177 The people of Newcastle, in the reign of Charles I., sent to Scotland for the loan of the Leo Penny, and offered £6000 for permission to keep it 177 What Glasgow Synod of Presbyterian Church said about the Lee Penny 177 In the seventeeuth century the Eeformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland tried to extinguish well-worshippings, etc 177 Left other superstitions untouched — allowed to the king the mirac- ulous power of "curing the cruelles" 178 One hundred persons cured of the "cruelles" by Charles I. in Holy- rood Chapel in 1633 178 Illustrations of the sway of barbarous and cruel superstitions over the learned and pious abundant 178 Will that sway ever be at an end ? 178 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 349 PART II. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? Lecture I. — AViiat is Civilization? — 2. IIow does the Law OF Natural Selection affect Man ? PAGE 1. What is Civilization? 181 We give names to tbiugs, use them familiarly, and then think Ave know all abont the things themselves 181 So it is "with civilization — we do not attach to the word any precise meaning 181 Of importance that archtcologists shonld have an exact understand- ing of what civilization means 181 2. How DOES the Law of Natural Selection affect Man ? 183-197 There is a variety in the offsi)riiig of animals 182 Animals have a struggle for existence 182 Outcome of these two things — the strong selected for survival . . 183 Also, a general resemblance between ottspring and parents . . . 183 The stronger must resemble parents more closely than the weaker . 183 In this way Natural Selection keeps the stock to a prettj' uniform standard 183 The work of Natural Selection goes no farther than this, till it is assumed that the surroundings of animals undergo great and continuous changes 184 Operates to extent described chielly as result of the self-dependence and individual isolation of animals 184 So long as man stands in isolation, he is subject to the law of Nat- ural Selection like other animals 185 No knowledge of man thus self-dependent and isolated 185 He always and everywhere combines with his fellows to defeat the law in regard to himself 185 Combines also to defeat it in regard to other living things . . . 185 The law thus set aside by raau through co-operation 185 Men combine to defeat it as the result of their sujierior intelligence — not as the result of their moral natures 18G 350 ANALYTICAL TA15LE OF CONTEXTS. PAOR Jleio knowledge or intellect, Avitliout coiiibiiialiDii, not eiiongli . . 1H7 A combination of ineii :in orgaui.sni like ail individual iJKiu . . . Ifi7 How tlio variously constituted find places of usefulness in a combi- nation thus sbown 1B7 Difterent qualifications in different members cultivated by the com- bination — the individual not rendered stronger by this . . . 187 lie is a mere organ of an organism, giving strength to, and getting strength from, the organism 188 The cripple on the back of his strong, blind brother 188 Only in association can man succeed in this uoble work ... 188 No amount of intellect or culture would suffice 188 Called a noble work, but may be otherwise regarded 188 The end of it the thing we call civilization 188 Enough already said to show what civilization is 188 In the case of man, change of physical structure cannot result from Natural Selection 189 The developmental results held to attend the operation of the law explained 189 Sucli results cannot occur in the case of man, and why 190 Man's exceptional position in this matter admitted by evolutionists iu so far as physical structure is concerned 190 Is held that the law, nevertheless, operates in the case of man . . 190 In his case mental and not bodily qualities constitute the fitness which leads to survival 191 Such a result not held to be manifested in a struggle between the individuals of a combination 191 Only in relation to struggles between difterent combinations. . . 191 Natural Selection, however, as an evolutionary agent, cannot imme- diately affect masses 191 Its first and direct action must be on individuals 191 There is a struggle between tribes and races which leads to the destruction of the weak — only tends thus to keep mankind as a whole to a uniform standard 191 No sucli newness in the environments involved as would call special powers into special play, and so end in producing men altered in structure either for the better or the worse 191 Meu combiuo to defeat the law of Natural Selection in regard to the individuals combining 191 The law coutiuues to operate as between the combinations . . . 101 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 351 PAGE Only ceases to operate when there is a combination of comhiuations 192 Then defeated, just as it is in regard to individuals in separate com- binations 192 Difficult to see, therefore, how Natural Selection, as an evolution- ary agent, can afl'ect man either in mind or body 192 A change in the mental capacity of a race must be a change in the mental capacity of the individuals composing it 192 A change of mental capacity involves a structural change of the brain 192 L5rain must increase or diminish in size and complexitj', and the cranium must be corresi)ondiuglj- modilied 192 Such change of brain and skull said to have probably taken place . 192 Where Mr. Wallace tliiuks we may possil)ly find traces of the small- headed progenitor of man 192 He has not yet been found ; hitherto no trace of him has been dis- covered 192 What Vircdiow says about the remains of the most ancient man yet found 192 Ho Avas a ITwH just such as JLfau is now 193 No evideuce as yet that man's bodily structure or nunital capacity has been fuvoi'ably influenced by evolution 194 All societies of men reach and keep their civilization under the leadership of a strong and cultured few 19-1 The great bulk of highly civilized societies made up of the con)par- atively weak aud uncultured 194 Proportion of tho Aveak and inicultured probably greater in high than in low civilizations 194 More than probable that the range between the best and worst minds is greater 194 Rough way of estimating the proportion of cultured to uncultured in our civilization 194 In(iniry into the proportion of })e()pl(^ w lio live in houses of one, two, or three rooms, for all Scotland 194 Inipiiry into the proportion of jieople who live in houses of one, two, or three rooms, for Edinburgh and Glasgow 195 Not implied that great intellectual ])ower and high culture do not occur among people living in small houses 195 What would be left if wc took out of Glasgow all persons living in houses of moro than four rooms, or all persons whoso luinies are in the Postal Directorv ? 19G 352 AiXALYTICAL TA15LE OF CONTEXTS. PAGE If ii coiiipiiriililc lliiiig liiipponcd to .1 nation, there would be an end of its civilization 193 Tlio cultured would take tbcir culture -with tbeni 196 Tlicy could neither leave uor take their civilization 190 The chief conclnsions from the inquiry into the way man is affected by Natural Selection 196, 197 Lecture II. — 3. Can the Brutes be Civilized ? — 4. Can Man IN Isolation be Civilized ? — 5. What is the Unit of a Civilized Association? — 6. What are the Steps by which Civilizations are reached ? 3. Can the Brutes be Civilized? 198-203 Bancroft says they cannot 198 Kemarkable associations among them, in which co-operation and division of labor appear 198 Insects, perhaps, furnish the best illustrations 198 How Mr. Spencer shows that co-operation and division of labor among them are not of the same nature as such things are in societies of men 199 The seeming division of labor among insects the result of structural differences 199 More dlETicult to show that such a thing as the orderly action shown by gregarious birds is not the analogue of what happens in so- cieties of men 199 The difficulty increases when we deal with great works like those of beavers 200 Such things certainly exhibit a kinship to states of civilization . . 200 They seem to interfere with the law of Natural Selection .... 200 In the existing state of knowledge, unsafe to conclude that they have any such object in view, or any such result 200 An important difiference between societies of men and of brutes . . 200 Neither progress nor change in the habitudes of lower animals . . 200 Therefore civilization among them must always be of one pattern and degree 200 Among men it is both of diti'erent patterns and degrees, and is al- ways changing 2C0 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 353 PAGE IIow the matter stands Avitli Ijnites in domestication 201 Easy to see how they may be held to be civilized 201 They get a more or less true place iu human associations .... 201 Is civilization a denaturalization? 20;J Seems to be so in the case of the domestic animals 202 As mere animals they are not improved 202 Different acquirements are cultivated in them, as different ac- quirements are cultivated iu carpenters, masons, lawyers, doc- tors, etc 202 In human and brute members alike, those qualities cultivated by the association which are for its general advantage 203 In regard to both this is done, though it may involve hardship or death to individuals 203 4. Cax ]\L\x IX Isolation be Civilized ? 204-207 This is plainly impossible 204 Civilization can onlj' present itself in a community or nation . . 204 The condition of man isolated from childhood no doubt influenced by his environments 204 lie would acquire a certain culture 204 Would have mainly to depend, like the brutes, on strength and powers of endurance — would be entirely savage 204 Yet he might be the sou of a Lord Chancellor, and might himself have become a Lord Chancellor in other circumstances . . . 205 How it would fare with an adult, highly cultured and belongiug to a civilized community, placed in isolation 20.") ^Yould soon become a savage 205 \Vould take his culture with him, but not his civilization .... 205 In such circumstances a low culture might be more useful than a high culture 205 Culture not civilization 20G If it were, there would be in everj' company as many degrees and kinds of civilization as there are persons in the company . . . 20i) Individuals are not and cannot be civilized 2(»0 Civilization affects the aggregate, and belongs to it 200 Culture is a personal possession 20(5 The interest of civilized aggregates, to foster culture 200 Association essential to the begetting of a state of civilization . . 200 All forming the association possess the advantages of its civili- zation 207 23 354 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF C'(JNTEXTS. PACK f). What is tiik Unit ok a Civim/.kd Association?. . . 207,208 Tlio true unit of tlic civilized association is the family 207 Civilizations could not occur in associatious consistiug exclusively of men, or of women, or of children 207 These would only bo societies of sections of manliind 207 Cliildrcn, born or unborn, really a part of their i)arents 207 When societies of meu break up, they break up into families . . . 208 The family of the Roman civltas 208 The State cannot safely interfere with the natural relations be- tween parents and their immature offspring 208 Of imijortauce to regard the family as the unit of society .... 208 Barbarians in old Scotcli documents called " wild meu of the woods," or "homines sylvestres" (/oof«o/e) 208 6. "What are the Steps by which Civilizations are reached? 209-218 The first combinations of meu formed for the purposes of war . . 209 These iiurposes are to keep life aud property, and to take life and property 209 Meu unite to defeat a law of uatui'c, and war with their fellow-men seems an inevitable part of this contention with nature . . . 209 The beginnings of civilization thus appear to be evil 209 Good also in them 209 From the outset the good of the greatest number considered . . . 209 Highly civilized societies maintain their civilization in ways not essentially different from those travelled by savage societies passing from a low to a higher civilization 210 War does not cease when civilization is ripe 210 It may be exalted into a science — its weapons may be improved — there may be rules for conducting it — but the jn'omptiugs aud the issues are unchanged 210 May we not see in war one' of the many threads connecting high civilizations with savagery ? 211 An early fruit of the wars out of which civilizatious spring is the notion of property 212 The notion of property belonging to the aggregate soon followed by the notion of private or personal ownership 212 A personal ownership in land arises slowly, and perhaps is never in any state of civilization as complete as the personal ownership of a thiug like a knife 212 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 355 PAGE Rules and laws witliiu tho association for tlio protoetion of private property . . , 212 Protection of the property of the weak by aggregate necessary to secure a true co-operation and division of labor 213 Progress due to leaders 2i:> Leaders in youug societies brought to the front by war .... 2i:» Primarily gain their position by courage and strength 213 Such men would also stand out intellectually 213 Progress largely the outcome of communications liy one society to another, and not of independent discoveries 214 Illustration from the present state of the red Indians 214 Leader's of infant societies tyrannical and probably cruel .... 214 The govcrunicut of every early civilization a despotism .... 214 Civilizations grow out of wars, and war in every state of civiliza- tion entails a partial despotism 214 Aids to progress at certain stages drags on it at others 215 Homage rendered by savages to desi»otie leaders accounted for . . 215 They are regarded with superstitious feelings — as specially favored of the gods 215 A divinity hedges kingship even in high states of civilization . . 215 In the combinations which men form, all have to labor . . . . . 216 The value of labor soon appreciated, and a more complete co-opera- tion follows 216 Wealth and property begin to be accumulated 216 Some members of aggregate get others to work for them .... 216 So comes leisure, and after it culture 216 The growth of a cultured class encouraged 217 All further advancement plain and easy 217 Out of evil good appears to come 217 In the good reached evil remains 217 Civilization a blessing or a curse ? 217 The evils of savagery peihaps not so great as wo imagine, and its pleasures mon; than wo think 217 Can civilization be as much the natural state of man as savagism ? . 218 356 ANALYTICAL TAlJLE OF CONTENTS. Lectuuk III. — v. Can ("ivflizatiox he Lost, and is the Savage IN A State ok Degradation? — 8. ])o Men in a State of High Civilization show any Desire to return to a Ruder and Simpler Like? PA OF. 7. Can Civilization be Lost, and is the Savage in a State OK Degradation? 219-237 Uuivcrsally admitted that iiit'ii may pass out of savagery into a state of liigli civilization 219 Less tljau two tlionsaud years ago we- were barbarians, and now wo boast of the bigbest civilization in tbe worhl 219 Sball we ever lose it ? 219 Do civilizations decay ? 219 Are tbe centres of civilization forever sbifting? 219 Tbe tendency to go on forever becoming sometbing nobler and bet- ter not seen in tbe known bistory of man 219 Sucb a tendency in everytbing beld to be an incorrect conception of tbe doctrine of evolution 220 Mr. Spencer's opinion — evolution inevitable in tbe buman societies of tbe world all taken togetber 220 Xo sucb result inevitable, or even probable, as regards eacb partic- ular society 221 Tlie last opinion rests on observation — tbe first on speculation . . 221 Mr. Spencer on lapses fiom a bigber to a lower condition .... 221 Tbe occurrence of retrogressions a reality 222 The tbeory of universal progression untenable 222 No adequate Avarraut for tbe notion that the lowest savagery bas always been as low as we find it 222 Mr. Spencer on tbis point 222 Tbat existing savagery is sometimes, at least, a falling away from a bigber state, rests on observation and bistory . . . . . . 223 Illustrations from Africa and North America 223 Savage communities bave witbin them a class corresponding to tbe poi»ulation of tbe slums of great cities 224 A people in a low state of civilization may disappear from a dis- trict, and leave it unpeopled 224 llhistration from Livingstone 224 Mr. Tylor on degeneration of culture and existing savagery . . . 224 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 357 PAGE If the lo-ivest known savages are possiblj' iu a state of degradation, tliey cannot furnish us with correct conceptions of the condition of the so-called primeval man 225 They have been held to reveal that condition 225 The opinion that some existing savages are in a state of degrada- tion held by great travellers and historians 225 By Von Martins, for instance 225 Tylor's opinion that these declines affect the history of particular tribes rather than the history of culture as a whole 225 It is the actual condition of particular tribes which is nsed to teach the condition of i»rimcval man 22G Von Humboldt of the same opinion as Von Martins 226 Niebnhr's ojiinion 22G The strngglc for existence operates among tribes and nations as it does among individuals acting independently 227 This a matter of history 227 Some perish utterly iu the struggle — others are pushed back into the wilderness, and fall into a lower state of civilization . . . 227 The Ba-Kalahari and the Digger Indians 227 Savages become more savage, as avcU as the highly civilized less civilized 228 Degradation and development alike occur within the actual range of history 228 Why may they not have occurred beyond that range ? 228 Egypt and Central America 228,229 The coins of the old colonial cities of Greece 229 The art of irrigation, and the Spaniards and Annuicans iu IVrn, Andalusia, and Mexico 229 The results of a high special culture of a coniiuered race may de- cline iu the face of a culture of its conquerors, which is lower iu that special direction 230 The lost fertility of a country due to a general decay iu the peo- ple's culture and civilization from causes inherent in the civili- zation itself 2150 Illustration by Mr. Marsh 2:U Cannot hesitate to conclude that civilizations nniy be lost as well as gained . 2:V2 All existing savages possibly, and some of them certaiidy, iu a state of civilization below that which their ancestors occupied . . . 232 358 ANALYTICAL TAIiLE OF CONTEXTS. PAGF. A state of Iiigh civilization iliflicult to koop as well as to gain . . 232 This tiie teaching of facts 232 That the seats of civilization cliaugo, the teaching of facts also . . 232 The centres of progress seem to be forever shifting 232 AVhere is the Eoman Empire now ? 232 British Empire very much where Roman Empire once stood . . . 233 Occupies a like dangerous place of breadth and prominence . . . 233 Niueveh, Babylon, Copan, Palenque, Cambodia, Armenia, etc. . . . 233 Traces of a higher state in practices, customs, etc., of existing sav- ages 233 In the world as a whole there are always nations gaining and na- tions losing civilization 233 The seats of culture forever changing 234 Clearly true of the i^eriod with which written or monumental his- tory deals 234 Can we say that it maj' not be true of all earlier periods ? . . . . 234 Was there ever a period when there were not in the world both states of high and states of low civilization? 234 Is it not possible that, in the history of mankind as a whole, per- sons iiotcutially as good as any now among mankind, may have always existed in some part of the world ? 234 TVithiu the historic period this almost certainly true 234 What may have been true of the men of the period not embraced in history we cannot so surely know 234 Nothing yet discovered to show that the prehistoric man was not as good as the historic man, both intellectually aud physically . 234 8. Do Men in a State of men Civilization show any desire TO KETURN TO A RUDER AND SIMPLER LIFE ? . . . . 235, 237 All things which gather round a high state of civilization not nec- essarily true parts of it 235 Fashions or customs — known as convinlioiHdities 235 Occur in every state of civilization 235 As numerous and binding in low states as in high 235 Sometimes considered the essence of the state of civilization . . . 235 Keference here only to those of them -which are characterized by West Endism and Jinc-mannci'ism 235 Such things neither praised nor condemned 23i> Though submitted to, they really constitute a sort of tyranny . . 236 The "restraints of refinement" irksome 236 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 359 rAGE Perhaps this only true of those of them -which are not healthy in their nature 236 All West End gentilities perhaps iu that position 23G It seems as if sometbiug iu human nature pulled it back to a rude and simple life 236 Adds to the respectability of human nature 236 Though it may he the pulling back to a life which all savages load aud love 236 Lecture IV. — 9. How are the Great Civilized Xatioxs form- ed, AXD IN AVIIAT AVaYS MAY CIVILIZATION BECOME SciCI- DAL? — 10. Are Civilizations of Different Patterns, and WHAT IIoPE have we of a Higher Pattern than any yet REACHED ? 9. How ARE THE GREAT CIVILIZED NATIONS FORMED, AND IN WHAT Ways may Civilization become suicidal? . . 238,245 The coalescence of aggregates an important factor iu the develop- ment of the higher civilizations 233 No two aggregates identically conditioned 238 A coalescence of aggregates therefore a coalescence of dissimilar aggregates 238 This dissimilarity au advantage, if not too groat 238 Every prospering society must be made up of unlike parts 239 This the very foundation of the division of labor 239 Large societies thus more favorably conditioned for advancement than snudl ones 239 The co-operative division of labor more complete in them .... 239 Places of fitness for the variously constituted more certainly fouhd iu them 239 Natural Selection more eftectually dcfoatod 2-10 A rise of the civilization the result 240 Spencer's militant and industrial activities 240 The militant a compulsory co-operation 240 The iiuliistrial a volnntary co-operation 210 The weaker the militant activity, aud the stronger the industrial, the hi^rhor the civilization 240 360 ANALYTICAL TAliLK OF CONTEXTS. r\<:p. Tliis triio at least of old societies 240 IiilIiUMiees always at -work losteiing iiiilitarism 240 "Wiiicli need not show itself in actual wailiire — may show itself in iiitcrferoucos with volimtaiiuess of co-operation 240 Keguhitions affecting labor and the free action of the niiits a sort of uiilitarisni 240 This a ripe developiueut of civilization 240 A ripeness that may he the precursor of decay 241 Poor laws, lunacy laws, factory acts, etc., the on tcoiiie .... 241 The aggregate taken charge of by the government, as sohliers are by their coniiuanders 241 As high a manifestation as we can get of the struggle to defeat the law of Natural Selection 241 An effort to reduce to a minimum the disadvantages of weakness and stupidity 241 "Which really constitutes the highness of a civilizati«)T/i/(s 244 10. Ark Civilizations of Different Patterns, and what Hope HAVE WE OF A Higher Pattern than anv yet reached ? 245-250 All civilizations the outcome of cflbrts to defeat the law of Natural Selection 245 The struggles to accomplish this ditierently conditioned in diflerent l^arts of the world, and results vary 245 Thus diftorent patterns of civilization appear 245 No two civilizations of the same pattern 245 Existing civilizations in Europe, India, China, and Japan arc diflerent 246 These difler from the extinct civilizations of Egypt, Rome, Babylon, Cambodia, and Central America 24(5 Varieties of pattern in low as well as in high civilizations. ... 24fi Illustrations from the heart of Africa 24(5 'Meaning of S(tiu((ie {fooiiiolr) 24U Differences of race not a strong factor in producing ditlerences of liattcrn in civilization 247 The environments of a people operate itowcrliilly 247 Identical civilizations in Greenland and India nut conceivablo . . 247 Tlu; modifying inllnence of cree, liatl lost trust in the old faiths .... 24'J Tiio other creed, in -winch (Jod stands in the same relations to all families of men on earth, also inflncnces the growth uiid pat- tern of civilizations, bnt very differently 2r,() It tends strongly to draw societies together 2;"0 Carries their civilization farther, and makes it stronger .... 2.50 Will this faith ever become universal? 250 Will it lead to coalescences of great empires ? 250 May a higher pattern of civilization than any which has yet ap- peared f(jllow 250 THE EXD. 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By George Raw- LiNSOx, M.A., Camden Professor of Ancient History in the Univer- sity of Oxford. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. ii IM mi - '^^Aaviiaiii^ <^il]0NYSOV^ ^......^,^ ^luvANUifx^ ,^^^HIBf^ARYQ. ^v^ui imi i^i lilrf \oi\mi^'^ ^oiimi^"^ llllllIM I II IIIMIlll 3 1158 01027 8090 y;;OFCAIIFO% lavaaii-^'*^'^ ,^\^EUNIVERS/A ^vWSANCElfj;^ ■^AaJAINa 3\Vv^ > o E ^ ^TilJONVSOl^'" "^//^aJAINfl 3\\V ^hMLIBRARYO^ ^^sSMIBRARYQt^ ^