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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 67214 ***
+
+[Illustration: IN THE SAURIAN AGE, WHEN THE WORLD’S INHABITANTS WERE
+GIGANTIC REPTILES]
+
+
+
+
+ The Book of History
+
+ A History of all Nations
+
+ FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT
+
+ WITH OVER 8000 ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+ WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
+ VISCOUNT BRYCE, P.C., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.
+
+
+ CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
+
+ W. M. Flinders Petrie, LL.D., F.R.S
+ UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON
+
+ Hans F. Helmolt, Ph.D.
+ EDITOR, GERMAN “HISTORY OF THE WORLD”
+
+ Stanley Lane-Poole, M.A., Litt.D.
+ TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN
+
+ Robert Nisbet Bain
+ ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN, BRITISH MUSEUM
+
+ Hugo Winckler, Ph.D.
+ UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN
+
+ Archibald H. Sayce, D.Litt., LL.D.
+ OXFORD UNIVERSITY
+
+ Alfred Russel Wallace, LL.D., F.R.S.
+ AUTHOR, “MAN’S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE”
+
+ Sir William Lee-Warner, K.C.S.I.
+ MEMBER OF COUNCIL OF INDIA
+
+ Holland Thompson, Ph.D.
+ THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
+
+ W. Stewart Wallace, M.A.
+ UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
+
+ Maurice Maeterlinck
+ ESSAYIST, POET, PHILOSOPHER
+
+ Dr. Emile J. Dillon
+ UNIVERSITY OF ST. PETERSBURG
+
+ Arthur Mee
+ EDITOR, “THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE”
+
+ Sir Harry H. Johnston, K.C.B., D.Sc.
+ LATE COMMISSIONER FOR UGANDA
+
+ Johannes Ranke
+ UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH
+
+ K. G. Brandis, Ph.D.
+ UNIVERSITY OF JENA
+
+ And many other Specialists
+
+
+ Volume I
+
+ MAN AND THE UNIVERSE
+
+ The World before History
+ The Great Steps in Man’s Development
+ Birth of Civilisation and the Growth of Races
+ Making of Nations and the Influence of Nature
+
+
+ JAPAN
+
+ The Country and the People
+
+
+ NEW YORK THE GROLIER SOCIETY
+ LONDON THE EDUCATIONAL BOOK CO.
+
+
+
+
+EDITORIAL AND CONTRIBUTING STAFF
+
+OF
+
+THE BOOK OF HISTORY
+
+
+Rt. Hon. Viscount Bryce, F.R.S.
+
+Formerly British Ambassador to the United States, Author of “The
+American Commonwealth”
+
+
+Professor E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S.
+
+President British Association, 1906-7; Past Director of South
+Kensington Museum of Natural History
+
+
+Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, F.R.S.
+
+Co-discoverer with Darwin of the Theory of Natural Selection; Author of
+“Man’s Place in the Universe”
+
+
+Dr. William Johnson Sollas, F.R.S.
+
+Professor of Geology at Oxford University
+
+
+Dr. W. M. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S.
+
+Professor of Egyptology, University College, London; Founder of British
+School of Archæology in Egypt
+
+
+Professor Wm. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S.
+
+Professor of Geology at Victoria University, Manchester; Author of
+“Early Man in Britain”
+
+
+Frederic Harrison, M.A.
+
+Hon. Fellow and formerly Tutor of Wadham College, Oxford;
+Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society
+
+
+Dr. Archibald H. Sayce
+
+Professor of Assyriology at Oxford University
+
+
+Sir Harry H. Johnston, K.C.B.
+
+Doctor of Science of Cambridge University; late Commissioner and
+Consul-General for Uganda
+
+
+Dr. J. Holland Rose
+
+Cambridge University Lecturer on Modern History; Author of “Development
+of the European Nations”
+
+
+Dr. Stanley Lane-Poole
+
+Professor of Arabic at Trinity College, Dublin
+
+
+Sir John Knox Laughton
+
+Professor of Modern History at King’s College, London University;
+Editor of Lord Nelson’s Despatches
+
+
+Oscar Browning, M.A.
+
+Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge; University Lecturer in History
+
+
+Professor Ronald M. Burrows
+
+Professor of Greek at University College of South Wales; Author of
+“Discoveries in Crete”
+
+
+David George Hogarth, M.A.
+
+Director of Cretan Exploration Fund and Past Director of the British
+School at Athens
+
+
+Herbert Paul, M.P.
+
+Author of “A History of Modern England”
+
+
+Sir Robert K. Douglas
+
+Professor of Chinese at King’s College, University of London; late
+Keeper of Oriental Books, British Museum
+
+
+Dr. Hugo Winckler
+
+Professor of History and Oriental Languages at the University of Berlin
+
+
+Sir William Lee-Warner, K.C.S.I.
+
+Member of the Council of India; Formerly Scholar of St. John’s College,
+Cambridge
+
+
+Dr. E. J. Dillon
+
+Author and Journalist; Master of Oriental Languages at the University
+of St. Petersburg
+
+
+William Romaine Paterson, M.A.
+
+Author of “The Nemesis of Nations”
+
+
+W. Warde Fowler, M.A.
+
+Scholar and Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford; Author of “The
+City-State of the Greeks and Romans”
+
+
+Dr. H. F. Helmolt
+
+Author of “German History” and Editor of the German “History of the
+World”
+
+
+Professor Konrad Haebler
+
+Of the Imperial Library of Berlin
+
+
+Professor Richard Mayr
+
+Of the Vienna Academy of Commerce
+
+
+Arthur Mee
+
+Editor of The Book of Knowledge.
+
+
+Professor Rudolf Scala
+
+Of the Imperial University of Vienna
+
+
+Professor Karl Weule
+
+Director of the Leipzig Museum of Anthropology
+
+
+Professor Wilhelm Walther
+
+Of the University of Rostock
+
+
+Arthur Christopher Benson, M.A.
+
+Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge; Editor of The Correspondence of
+Queen Victoria
+
+
+Major Martin Hume
+
+Lecturer in Spanish History and Literature at Pembroke College,
+Cambridge
+
+
+Robert Nisbet Bain
+
+Traveller and Historian; Assistant Librarian at the British Museum
+
+
+Richard Whiteing
+
+Author of “The Life of Paris”
+
+
+His Excellency Max von Brandt
+
+Ex-German Ambassador to China and Minister in Japan
+
+
+Francis H. Skrine
+
+Traveller and Explorer; late of the Indian Civil Service
+
+
+Holland Thompson, Ph. D.
+
+The College of the City of New York.
+
+
+Dr. Archdall Reid, F.R.S.E.
+
+Author of “The Principles of Heredity”
+
+
+Arthur Diósy
+
+Founder of the Japan Society; Author of “The New Far East”
+
+
+Dr. K. G. Brandis
+
+Director of the University Libraries at Jena
+
+
+Thomas Hodgkin, D.C.L.
+
+Author of “A Political History of England”
+
+
+Professor Joseph Kohler
+
+Professor of Jurisprudence at Berlin University
+
+
+Angus Hamilton
+
+Traveller and Correspondent in the Far East; Author of “Afghanistan”
+
+
+J. G. D. Campbell, M.A.
+
+Late Educational Adviser to the Government of Siam
+
+
+W. R. Carles, C.M.G.
+
+Geographer; late British Consul at Tientsin, China
+
+
+Professor Johannes Ranke
+
+Professor of Anthropology, Physiology, and Natural History at Munich
+
+
+W. S. Wallace, M. A.
+
+University of Toronto.
+
+
+Hon. Bernhard R. Wise
+
+Scholar of Queen’s College, Oxford; Ex-Attorney-General of New South
+Wales
+
+
+K. W. C. Davis, M.A.
+
+Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME I
+
+
+ THE SAURIAN AGE FRONTISPIECE
+
+
+ FIRST GRAND DIVISION
+
+ MAN AND THE UNIVERSE
+
+ PAGE
+
+ Editorial Introduction 1
+
+ Plan of the HISTORY 3
+
+ Plan of First Grand Division 6
+
+ A View across the Ages 7
+
+ Summary of World History 60
+
+ Chronology of 10,000 Years 61
+
+ Time-table of the Nations 74
+
+ Contemporary Figures in History 78
+
+ The Beginning of the Earth 79
+
+ Four Periods of the Earth’s Development 89
+
+ Geological Clock of the World’s Life 90
+
+ How Life became possible on Earth 91
+
+ Scene from the Prehistoric World Plate facing 96
+
+ Beginning of Life on the Earth 99
+
+ How Man obtained Mastery of the Earth 108
+
+
+ THE WORLD BEFORE HISTORY
+
+ Prehistoric Man attacking Cave Bears Plate facing 114
+
+ The Wonderful Story of Drift Man 115
+
+ The Appearance of Man on the Earth 127
+
+ Life of Man in the Stone Age 132
+
+ Primitive Man in the Past and Present 145
+
+ The Home Life of Primitive Folk 164
+
+ When History was dawning 175
+
+
+ THE GREAT STEPS IN MAN’S DEVELOPMENT
+
+ The Material Progress of Mankind 185
+
+ Beginnings of Commerce Plate facing 192
+
+ The Higher Progress of Mankind 203
+
+
+ BIRTH OF CIVILISATION AND GROWTH OF RACES
+
+ Seven Wonders of Ancient Civilisation 225
+
+ Rise of Civilisation in Egypt 233
+
+ Rise of Civilisation in Mesopotamia 259
+
+ Rise of Civilisation in Europe 281
+
+ The Triumph of Race 299
+
+ Alphabet of the World’s Races 311
+
+ Little Gallery of Races 313
+
+ Types of the Chief Races of Mankind 349
+
+ Ethnological Chart of the Human Race 352
+
+
+ MAKING OF NATIONS AND THE INFLUENCE OF NATURE
+
+ Birth and Growth of Nations 353
+
+ Land and Water and Greatness of Peoples 377
+
+ Environment and the Life of Nations 387
+
+ The Size and Power of Nations 399
+
+ The Future History of Man 404
+
+
+ SECOND GRAND DIVISION
+
+ THE FAR EAST
+
+ Map of the Far East 406
+
+ Plan of the Second Grand Division 408
+
+ Interest and Importance of the Far East 409
+
+
+ JAPAN
+
+ COUNTRY AND PEOPLE
+
+ Great Dates in Japan 416
+
+ The Empire of the Eastern Seas 417
+
+ Map of Japan 432
+
+ Qualities of the Japanese People 433
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF SPECIAL PLATES IN THE BOOK OF HISTORY
+
+
+ PAGE
+
+ The Saurian Age Frontispiece, Vol. 1
+
+ Scene from the Prehistoric World: Early Ice Age Facing 96
+
+ Prehistoric Men Attacking the Great Cave Bears “ 114
+
+ The Beginnings of Commerce “ 192
+
+ Carrying Off an Emperor Frontispiece, Vol. 2
+
+ Buddha, “The Light of Asia” Facing 562
+
+ Four Famous Figures in Chinese History “ 754
+
+ The Colour of India Frontispiece, Vol. 3
+
+ Gems of Indian Architecture Facing 1154
+
+ Indian Temples “ 1196
+
+ Nineveh in the Days of Assyria’s Ascendancy Frontispiece, Vol. 4
+
+ Two Indian Scenes Facing 1364
+
+ Spring Carnival at a Tibetan Monastery “ 1436
+
+ The Pyramids of Abusir Frontispiece, Vol. 5
+
+ Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Facing 1860
+
+ Palace of an Assyrian King “ 1956
+
+ The Sphinx “ 1996
+
+ Alexander, the World Conqueror Frontispiece, Vol. 6
+
+ The Acropolis of Athens Facing 2504
+
+ An Arab Storyteller Frontispiece, Vol. 7
+
+ Theodora, the Byzantine Empress Facing 2906
+
+ Glimpse of the Life in a Turkish Harem “ 2994
+
+ Primitive Justice Frontispiece, Vol. 8
+
+ Thaddeus Reyten at the Diet of Warsaw Facing 3282
+
+ Roland “ 3484
+
+ Prince Arthur and Hubert Frontispiece, Vol. 9
+
+ Venerable Bede Dictating His Translation of
+ the Gospel of St. John Facing 3716
+
+ “The Vigil”: A Knight of the Middle Ages “ 3788
+
+ Alfred, the Hero King of England “ 3834
+
+ King John Granting Magna Charta “ 3865
+
+ Crusaders Sighting Jerusalem Frontispiece, Vol. 10
+
+ Wolsey’s Last Interview with Henry VIII Facing 4168
+
+ Charles I on His Way to Execution “ 4340
+
+ Charles II Visiting Wren Frontispiece, Vol. 11
+
+ Napoleon the Great Facing 4636
+
+ “Peace with Honour” Frontispiece, Vol. 12
+
+ The French Soldiers’ Unrealised Dream of Victory Facing 5104
+
+ Recessional Frontispiece, Vol. 13
+
+ The Conqueror’s Gift to London Facing 5464
+
+ King Edward VII “ 5614
+
+ Clio, “The Muse of History” Frontispiece, Vol. 14
+
+ Flags that Fly in the Four Winds of Heaven Facing 5874
+
+ Statue of Liberty Frontispiece, Vol. 15
+
+ Hope Facing Index
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF MAPS APPEARING IN THE BOOK OF HISTORY
+
+
+ PAGE
+
+ The World as Known to its First Historian 8
+
+ Shifting of the Centre of the World’s Commerce 28
+
+ How the Mediterranean has Given Place to the Atlantic 29
+
+ The First Maps 51
+
+ Modern Representation of the World 52
+
+ The Europeanisation of the World 55
+
+ The Shaping of the Face of the Earth 85
+
+ How Mountain Ranges were formed 87
+
+ Europe Before the British Isles were Formed 118
+
+ The Submerged Lands of Europe 119
+
+ Europe in the Ice Age 155
+
+ Egypt in Three Periods 243
+
+ Babylonia 260
+
+ Sea Routes of Ancient Civilisation 283
+
+ Land Routes of Ancient Civilisation 284
+
+ How Civilisation Spread through Europe 359
+
+ The Expansion of White Races 361
+
+ The Island that Rules the Sea 378
+
+ Oceans of the World 383
+
+ Effect of Climate on the Course of History 391
+
+ Political Expansion 396
+
+ Relation of Rivers and Sea to the Civilisation of Countries 397
+
+ South America
+ Africa
+ Europe
+
+ The Far East, and Australia, Oceania and Malaysia 406
+
+ The Island Empire of Japan 432
+
+ Japan in the Fifth Century 457
+
+ Siberia 634
+
+ Movement of the Peoples of Siberia 656
+
+ Russia’s Advance in Western Asia 676
+
+ Growth of Russia in the Far East 677
+
+ The Trans-Siberian Line 692
+
+ The Chinese Empire 708
+
+ Korea and its Surroundings 858
+
+ The Malay Archipelago 886
+
+ Islands of Oceania 947
+
+ New Zealand 986
+
+ Australia and Tasmania 1010
+
+ Britain Contrasted with Australia 1012
+
+ South-east Australia, Indicating Products 1013
+
+ Bed of the Pacific Ocean 1102
+
+ The Middle East 1120
+
+ Modern India 1161
+
+ India in 1801 1266
+
+ Bed of the Indian Ocean and China Sea 1419
+
+ Suez Canal 1434
+
+ Mountain Systems In and Around Tibet 1457
+
+ The Approach of Lhasa 1505
+
+ Early Empires of the Ancient Near East 1562
+
+ Later Empires of the Ancient Near East 1563
+
+ Ancient Empires of Western Asia 1582
+
+ Modern Africa 2001
+
+ Races and Religions of Africa 2005
+
+ Natural Products of Africa 2009
+
+ Basin of the River Nile 2022
+
+ Delta of the River Nile 2024
+
+ Utica as it Was 2188
+
+ The Remains of Utica 2189
+
+ Ancient States of Mediterranean North Africa 2191
+
+ Niger River and Guinea Coast 2229
+
+ Great Britain in South Africa 2322
+
+ Basin of the Zambesi 2332
+
+ Basin of the Congo 2347
+
+ General Map of Europe 2356
+
+ Geographical Connection of the Mediterranean Coasts 2373
+
+ Ancient Greece 2482
+
+ World Empire of Alexander the Great 2561
+
+ Italy in the First Century B.C. 2621
+
+ The Roman Empire 2738
+
+ Origin of the Barbaric Nations 2797
+
+ Principal Countries of Eastern Europe 2894
+
+ World’s Great Empires Between 777 and 814 A.D. 2934
+
+ Turkey and Surrounding Countries in the 14th and
+ 17th Centuries 3082
+
+ Historical Maps of Poland and Western Russia 3220
+
+ Western Europe in the Middle Ages 4138
+
+ Europe During the Revolutionary Era 4636
+
+ Modern Europe 4788
+
+ Britain’s Maritime Enterprise 5440
+
+ The British Empire in 1702 5462
+
+ The British Empire in 1909 5463
+
+ The Atlantic Ocean 5656
+
+ South America in the Sixteenth Century 5915
+
+ South America as it is To-day 5983
+
+ North Pole, with routes of Explorers 6014
+
+ South Pole 6045
+
+ North America 6431
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE BOOK OF HISTORY]
+
+ This is the story of the earth from the first thing we know of it
+ to the time in which we live. It is the story of man from the first
+ thing we know of him to the last thought that the vision of modern
+ science can suggest.
+
+
+There is no need here to discuss the question how far it is possible
+to write a universal history, or on what lines such a history should
+proceed. These points may well be left where Lord Bryce leaves them in
+his introduction to this book. Nor need we consider what history is;
+the plain man may be left to make up his own mind as to that while the
+philosophers are making up theirs. A word may be said, however, of the
+plan and purpose of this work, especially of that distinction of it
+which is at once the ground of its appeal and its justification.
+
+
+A UNIVERSAL HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE
+
+It is a commonplace to say of a great work that it is unique, and there
+would at first sight seem to be peculiar presumption in making such a
+claim for a History of the World. It may be claimed, however, without
+any fear of contradiction, that this work has no rival in the English
+language.
+
+There have been histories of the world before; there are available in
+large numbers histories of all countries well worthy of attention; but
+there is not, and it may be doubted if there has ever been attempted
+before, a scientific World-History. This work is, as far as it can
+possibly be in the present state of knowledge, a universal history of
+the universe.
+
+
+SCIENCE AND HISTORY
+
+That is a far reaching claim to make, but a mere glance through the
+names of those whose services have been enlisted for the work will
+make its basis clear. The contributors include some of the foremost
+students of science. Many men of eminence whose names do not usually
+come into historical works will be found here. Their function may be
+described as holding the Lamp of Science up to History. It is for
+these authorities to read the story of the earth and to tell the plain
+man what they read there, as Turner read the sunset and painted what
+he saw. The simile is not so unfortunate as it may appear, because,
+although our canvas has not the same room for the artist’s imagination
+as Turner’s had, it will probably be admitted that the imagination
+of the scientist is often nearer to the truth of things than the
+conventional belief.
+
+
+THE LIFE-STORY OF ALL NATIONS
+
+And the scientist will come into our History whenever and wherever
+science has any light to throw upon its problems. To the creators of
+this work the world is not merely an aggregation of countries under
+more or less settled governments, nor is a country merely the seat of
+a political system. They conceive the earth as a part of the universe,
+as one world among many; and this is the story of a huge ball flying in
+space, on which men and women live and move, on which mighty nations
+rise and rule and pass away, on which great empires crumble into dust.
+It is the entrancing book of man and the universe, the life-story of
+all nations. It begins with the beginning; it regards the universe, as
+modern science has taught us to regard it, as a vast unit, in which the
+life of man is the ultimate consummation.
+
+A history of the world cannot be written in a day. It is like an
+institution--it must be allowed to grow. It would be a purposeless
+sacrifice in an undertaking of such magnitude to reject any work of
+building-up that is available, and this History has a rare privilege
+in being able to utilise the result of the matchless research, the
+tireless industry, the unequalled knowledge of Dr. Hans Helmolt and
+the distinguished staff of scholars and investigators who have been
+engaged with him for many years in preparing a history of the world on
+precisely the lines laid down in this work.
+
+
+THE MATERIAL FOR A WORLD HISTORY
+
+It would be impossible to exaggerate the value of the elaborate
+research made for Dr. Helmolt by such of his eminent collaborators as
+Professor Johannes Ranke, Professor Ratzel, Professor Joseph Kohler,
+and others whose names stand for foremost authority wherever the value
+of learning is understood, and it is one of the chief claims of this
+work to recognition that it has behind it all the material collected
+by Dr. Helmolt’s staff, with all the judgment and skill of Dr. Helmolt
+himself in co-ordinating the labour of his assistants.
+
+A work so universal in time and place must engage many minds. Behind
+it there must be the labour and thought of many lives. The materials
+for a world-history cannot be amassed by one man, cannot be gathered
+together in the time that it is possible for one man to devote to
+them. A moment’s reflection reveals the vastness and complexity of the
+arrangements for such a work, the reaching-out into far corners of the
+earth, the ransacking of historical libraries and official archives;
+the placing of the result of all this research into the hands of a
+hundred trained historians, the analysing, sifting, and editing of each
+part as if it were in itself a perfect whole.
+
+
+A BOOK OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE
+
+All this labour can hardly be measured. And if we add to our reckoning
+the work of illustrating the world’s history in pictures, the task
+of finding illustrations where they are rare as precious stones, or
+of choosing them where their number is bewildering, the labour that
+a world-history involves is, indeed, incalculable. It can only be
+accomplished by the co-operation of many minds, working over a long
+period, drawing upon actual experience in every part of the world.
+
+Especially is this so in the present work. There are histories that
+can be made up from books, but this is not one of them. The BOOK
+OF HISTORY is not only a great book of human experience, as every
+history is; it is the _product_ of experience. It could never have been
+written if the men who write it had not helped to make the history that
+they write.
+
+
+THE MAKERS OF THE BOOK
+
+It is a book of history by writers and makers of history; it is a book
+of action by men of action; it is a book, that is, by men who know
+intimately the real life of the world. When Professor Ratzel writes of
+the making of nations, he writes with perhaps an unequalled knowledge
+of the conditions that have made for human progress; when Dr. Flinders
+Petrie writes of Egypt, when Dr. Sayce writes of Assyria, they write
+with the same authority that Sir Harry Johnston has in writing of those
+parts of the British Empire that he has helped to govern.
+
+The real rulers of the world are not the princes, and among the makers
+of this book are men who, though the fierce light that beats upon a
+throne has not beat upon them, have borne the burden of empire and
+of ruling men. It is the ideal collaboration, that of the brilliant
+investigator, the scientific interpreter, and the man of affairs, and
+it makes possible the achievement of a History which we have claimed to
+be unique.
+
+
+THE WORLD YESTERDAY, TO-DAY & TO-MORROW
+
+We have the facts from the pens of the men who have dug them up fresh
+from the earth itself or who know them from experience; we have them
+treated by the men who can turn upon them the full light of modern
+science; we have the world as it moves in our own time described by the
+men who know it from the centre, and know it therefore best.
+
+This is the story of the world, then, yesterday and to-day. And, as
+history goes on, as to-day becomes yesterday and to-morrow becomes
+to-day, we shall find in this book a vision of the things that lie
+before. Out of the deeps of Time came man. Through the mists of Time he
+grew. Down the ages of Time he goes. Whence he came we guess; how he
+lives we know; where he goes the wisdom of History does not tell. But
+the history of the world is young, and young men shall see visions.
+
+ THE EDITORS
+
+
+
+
+THE BOOK OF HISTORY
+
+The Life-Story of the Earth and of All Nations
+
+TOLD IN SEVEN GRAND DIVISIONS
+
+
+This plan provides a general scheme for the HISTORY, but is not
+intended for reference. It does not follow that the exact order of
+countries here given is maintained throughout the volumes. A full index
+appears at the end of the work
+
+
+I--MAN AND THE UNIVERSE
+
+THE WORLD AND ITS STORY
+
+A View Across the Ages: Introduction
+
+Summary of the History of the World
+
+Chronology of 10,000 Years and Chart of Nations
+
+MAKING OF THE EARTH AND THE COMING OF MAN
+
+The Beginning of the Earth
+
+How Life is Possible on the Earth
+
+The Beginning of Life on the Earth
+
+How Man Obtained the Mastery of the Earth
+
+THE RISE OF MAN AND THE EVE OF HISTORY
+
+The World Before History
+
+The Great Steps in Man’s Development
+
+BIRTH OF CIVILISATION & THE GROWTH OF RACES
+
+The Beginnings of Civilisation
+
+How Civilisation Came to Europe
+
+The Triumph of Race
+
+An Alphabet of the World’s Races
+
+MAKING OF NATIONS & THE INFLUENCE OF NATURE
+
+The Birth and Growth of Nations
+
+Influence of Land and Water on National History
+
+How Nations are Affected by Their Environment
+
+The Size and Power of Nations
+
+The Future History of Man
+
+
+II--THE FAR EAST
+
+The Interest and Importance of the Far East
+
+Japan. Siberia. China. Korea
+
+Malaysia
+
+ Philippines. Malay States. Straits Settlements. Borneo. Sarawak.
+ Sumatra. Java. New Guinea, and other Islands of Malay Archipelago
+
+Australia
+
+ New South Wales. Victoria. Queensland. South Australia. West
+ Australia. Tasmania
+
+Oceania
+
+ New Zealand. Fiji. Pitcairn. Hawaii. Samoa. Tonga and other Islands
+
+The Influence of the Pacific Ocean in History
+
+
+III--THE MIDDLE EAST
+
+The Importance of the Middle East
+
+India.
+
+Including Ceylon and the Native States
+
+Further India.
+
+ Siam. Annam. Burma. Tonking. Cochin China. Cambodia. Champa
+
+The Influence of the Indian Ocean in History
+
+Central Asia.
+
+Afghanistan. Baluchistan. Turkestan. Thibet
+
+
+IV--THE NEAR EAST
+
+The Ancient Empires of Western Asia
+
+ Babylonia. Assyria. Elam
+
+Early Nations of Western Asia
+
+ Scythia. Sarmatia. Armenia. Syria. Phœnicia. Israel
+
+Western Asia from the Rise of Persia to Mohammed
+
+ Persia. Asia Minor. Syria. Palestine. Arabia. Mediterranean Islands
+
+Western Asia from the Time of Mohammed
+
+ The Saracen Dominion. The Turkish Empire in Asia. Persia. Arabia
+
+
+V--AFRICA
+
+Legacy of Ancient Empires to the Modern World
+
+Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan
+
+North Africa
+
+ Tripoli. Tunis. Morocco. Algeria and the French Territories. Sierra
+ Leone. Liberia. Gold Coast. Nigeria. German West Africa. Abyssinia.
+ Somaliland. Erythrea. British East Africa. Zanzibar
+
+South Africa
+
+ Native Races. The Portuguese and Dutch in South Africa. British
+ South Africa: Cape Colony. Natal. Transvaal. Orange River Colony.
+ Rhodesia. Congo Free State. Portuguese East Africa. Angola. German
+ East Africa. German South-West Africa. Madagascar
+
+
+VI--EUROPE
+
+1. EUROPE TO THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
+
+Mediterranean Influence in the Making of Europe
+
+The Ancient Spirit of Greece and Rome
+
+Early Peoples of Europe. Ascendancy of the Greeks
+
+The Rise of Rome and the World Empire
+
+Social Fabric of the Ancient World: Slave States
+
+2. EASTERN EUROPE TO FRENCH REVOLUTION
+
+The Byzantine Empire and the Turk in Europe
+
+The Middle Peoples
+
+Russia, Poland, and the Baltic Provinces
+
+The Social Fabric of the Mediæval World: The Twilight of Nations
+
+3. WESTERN EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
+
+A Survey of Western Mediæval Europe
+
+The Peoples of Western Europe
+
+The Importance of the Baltic Sea
+
+The Emerging of the Nations
+
+ Frankish Dominion and the Empire of Charlemagne. England. Spanish
+ Peninsula. Italy. The Papacy. Scandinavia
+
+The Development of the Nations
+
+ The German or Holy Roman Empire. France. England. Spain and
+ Portugal. Italy. The Papacy. Scandinavia
+
+The Crusades. Industry and Commerce
+
+4. WESTERN EUROPE FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE REVOLUTION
+
+A Survey of Western Europe
+
+The Reformation and Wars of Religion
+
+The Age of Louis XIV.
+
+ From the Peace of Westphalia to the Treaty of Utrecht
+
+The Ending of the Old Order
+
+ From the Treaty of Utrecht to the Revolution
+
+The Importance of the Atlantic to the World Powers
+
+Religion After the Reformation. Industry and Commerce
+
+5. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
+
+The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
+
+ The Revolution. The Republic at War and the Rise of Napoleon. The
+ Zenith of Napoleon and his Fall
+
+Great Britain in the Napoleonic Era
+
+6. THE RE-MAKING OF EUROPE
+
+Europe After Waterloo
+
+ The Triumph of Despotism. The Revolt Against Despotism
+
+Europe in Revolution
+
+ The Second French Republic and the Coup d’Etat. The Uprising of the
+ Little Nations. National Movements in Germany
+
+The Consolidation of the Powers
+
+ Europe and the Second Empire. The Unification of Italy. The
+ Unification of Germany. The Franco-German War
+
+Great Britain to 1871. Russia and Turkey to 1871. Europe since 1871
+
+ Great Britain. Germany. France. Austria-Hungary. Spain and
+ Portugal. Italy. Russia. Turkey. Switzerland. Greece. Belgium.
+ Holland. Denmark. Norway. Sweden. Bulgaria. Servia. Roumania.
+ Montenegro. Luxemburg. Monaco. San Marino
+
+7. THE EUROPEAN POWERS TO-DAY
+
+Europe in Our Own Time
+
+Great Britain. Germany. Austria-Hungary. France.
+
+Italy. Russia. Turkey. Spain and Portugal
+
+Minor States of Europe:
+
+ Switzerland. Greece. Belgium. Holland. Denmark. Norway. Sweden.
+ Bulgaria. Servia. Roumania. Montenegro. Luxemburg. Monaco. San
+ Marino
+
+
+VII--AMERICA
+
+America Before Columbus
+
+ The Primitive Races of America. The Ancient Civilisation of Central
+ America. The Ancient Civilisation of South America
+
+The European Colonisation
+
+ The Discovery. The Spanish Conquest. The Spanish and Portuguese
+ Empire in America. The Independence of South and Central America.
+ The Pilgrim Fathers and the English Settlement. The Development and
+ Expansion of the British Colonies
+
+The American Nation
+
+ The Revolt of the Thirteen Colonies. The Struggle for Independence
+ and the War. The Creation of the United States. The Development of
+ the American Nation. The United States in Our Own Time
+
+British America
+
+ Canada. Newfoundland. British West Indies. British Honduras.
+ Bermudas.
+
+Central America in the 19th and 20th Centuries
+
+ Cuba. Haiti. Dominica. Porto Rico. Mexico. Guatemala. Honduras. San
+ Salvador. Nicaragua. Costa Rica. Panama
+
+South America in the 19th and 20th Centuries
+
+ Colombia. Venezuela. British, French and Dutch Guiana. Brazil.
+ Ecuador. Peru. Chili. Bolivia. Paraguay. Argentina. Uruguay
+
+The World Around the Poles
+
+ Greenland. Iceland. Arctic and Antarctic Oceans
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE BOOK OF HISTORY]
+
+FIRST GRAND DIVISION
+
+MAN AND THE UNIVERSE]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+FIRST GRAND DIVISION
+
+MAN AND THE UNIVERSE
+
+
+There can, of course, be neither absolute finality nor entire unanimity
+in the subjects of these chapters, which are designed to enable the
+reader to follow the course of history with greater interest and
+understanding than would be possible without some scientific knowledge
+of life. They are presented as a symposium of modern thought on the
+problems concerning the origin and development of the earth and mankind
+
+
+PLAN
+
+
+THE WORLD AND ITS STORY
+
+A VIEW ACROSS THE AGES
+
+ Rt. Hon. James Bryce
+
+A SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD
+
+ Arthur D. Innes, M.A.
+
+CHRONOLOGY OF 10,000 YEARS AND CHART OF NATIONS
+
+
+MAKING OF THE EARTH & THE COMING OF MAN
+
+THE BEGINNING OF THE EARTH
+
+ Dr. Wm. Johnson Sollas, F.R.S.
+
+HOW LIFE BECAME POSSIBLE ON THE EARTH
+
+ Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, F.R.S.
+
+HOW MAN OBTAINED THE MASTERY OF THE EARTH
+
+ Dr. Archdall Reid, F.R.S.E.
+
+
+THE RISE OF MAN AND THE EVE OF HISTORY
+
+THE WORLD BEFORE HISTORY
+
+ Professor Johannes Ranke
+
+THE GREAT STEPS IN MAN’S DEVELOPMENT
+
+ Professor Joseph Kohler
+
+
+BIRTH OF CIVILISATION & THE GROWTH OF RACES
+
+THE BIRTH OF CIVILISATION
+
+ Dr. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S.
+
+HOW CIVILISATION CAME TO EUROPE
+
+ David George Hogarth, M.A.
+
+THE TRIUMPH OF RACE
+
+ Dr. Archdall Reid, F.R.S.E.
+
+ALPHABET OF THE WORLD’S RACES
+
+ W. E. Garrett Fisher, M.A.
+
+
+MAKING OF NATIONS & THE INFLUENCE OF NATURE
+
+Professor Friedrich Ratzel
+
+THE BIRTH AND GROWTH OF NATIONS
+
+INFLUENCE OF LAND & WATER ON NATIONAL HISTORY
+
+EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT ON NATIONS
+
+THE SIZE AND POWER OF NATIONS
+
+THE FUTURE HISTORY OF MAN
+
+ * * * * *
+
+For full contents and page numbers see Index
+
+ Mr. Kipling’s “Recessional” is quoted in a Frontispiece from “The
+ Five Nations,” by permission of the Author and the Publishers,
+ Messrs. Methuen
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE WORLD AND ITS STORY]
+
+
+
+
+A VIEW ACROSS THE AGES
+
+AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF HISTORY
+
+BY THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT BRYCE
+
+
+When History, properly so called, has emerged from those tales of the
+feats of kings and heroes and those brief entries in the roll of a
+temple or a monastery in which we find the earliest records of the
+past, the idea of composing a narrative which shall not be confined to
+the fortunes of one nation soon presents itself.
+
+[Sidenote: The First True Historian]
+
+Herodotus--the first true historian, and a historian in his own line
+never yet surpassed--took for his subject the strife between Greeks and
+Barbarians which culminated in the Great Persian War of B.C.
+480, and worked into his book all he could ascertain regarding most of
+the great peoples of the world--Babylonians and Egyptians, Persians
+and Scythians, as well as Greeks. Since his time many have essayed to
+write a Universal History; and as knowledge grew, so the compass of
+these treatises increased, till the outlying nations of the East were
+added to those of the Mediterranean and West European world which had
+formerly filled the whole canvas.
+
+[Sidenote: Scientific History only now Possible]
+
+None of these books, however, covered the field or presented an
+adequate view of the annals of mankind as a whole. It was indeed
+impossible to do this, because the data were insufficient. Till some
+time way down in the nineteenth century that part of ancient history
+which was preserved in written documents could be based upon the
+literature of Israel, upon such notices regarding Egypt, Assyria,
+Babylon, and Iran as had been preserved by Greek or Roman writers,
+and upon those writers themselves. It was only for some of the Greek
+cities, for the kingdoms of Alexander and his successors, and for
+the city and Empire of Rome that fairly abundant materials were then
+available. Of the world outside Europe and Western Asia, whether
+ancient or modern, scarcely anything was known, scarcely anything even
+of the earlier annals of comparatively civilised peoples, such as
+those of India, China, and Japan, and still less of the rudimentary
+civilisations of Mexico and Peru. Nor, indeed, had most of the students
+who occupied themselves with the subject perceived how important a
+part in the general progress of mankind the more backward races have
+played, or how essential to a true History of the World is an account
+of the semi-civilised and even of the barbarous peoples. Thus it was
+not possible, until quite recent times, that the great enterprise
+of preparing such a history should be attempted on a plan or with
+materials suitable to its magnitude.
+
+The last seventy or eighty years have seen a vast increase in our
+materials, with a corresponding widening of the conception of what a
+History of the World should be. Accordingly, the time for trying to
+produce one upon a new plan and enlarged scale seems to have arrived;
+not, indeed, that the years to come will not continue to add to the
+historian’s resources, but that those resources have recently become
+so much ampler than they have ever been before that the moment may be
+deemed auspicious for a new departure.
+
+The nineteenth century was marked by three changes of the utmost
+consequence for the writing of history.
+
+[Illustration: THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO ITS FIRST HISTORIAN
+
+ The world as known to Herodotus is shown by the white part of
+ this map, indicating the limited range of ancient geographical
+ knowledge.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: New Material and New Methods]
+
+That century, in the first place, has enormously widened our knowledge
+of the times hitherto called prehistoric. The discovery of methods
+for deciphering the inscriptions found in Egypt and Western Asia,
+the excavations in Assyria and Egypt, in Continental Greece and in
+Crete, and to a lesser extent in North Africa also, in the course of
+which many inscriptions have been collected and fragments of ancient
+art examined, have given us a mass of knowledge regarding the nations
+who dwelt in these countries larger and more exact than was possessed
+by the writers of classical antiquity who lived comparatively near
+to those remote times. We possess materials for the study not only
+of the political history but of the ethnology, the languages, and
+the culture of the nations which were first civilised incomparably
+better than were those at the disposal of the contemporaries of Vico
+or Gibbon or Herder. Similar results have followed as regards the Far
+East, from the opening up of Sanskrit literature and of the records
+of China and Japan. To a lesser degree, the same thing has happened
+as regards the semi-civilised peoples of tropical America both north
+and south of the Isthmus of Panama. And while long periods of time
+have thus been brought within the range of history, we have also
+learnt much more about the times that may still be called prehistoric.
+The investigations carried on in mounds and caves and tombs and
+lake-dwellings, the collection of early stone and bronze implements,
+and of human skulls and bones found along with those of other animals,
+have thrown a great deal of new light upon primitive man, his way
+of life, and his migrations from one region to another. As history
+proper has been carried back many centuries beyond its former limit,
+so has our knowledge of prehistoric times been extended centuries
+above the furthest point to which history can now reach back. And this
+applies not only to the countries previously little explored, but to
+such well-known districts as Western Europe and the Atlantic coast of
+America.
+
+Secondly, there has been during the nineteenth century a notable
+improvement in the critical method of handling historical materials.
+Much more pains have been taken to examine all available documents
+and records, to obtain a perfect text of each by a comparison of
+manuscripts or of early printed copies, and to study each by the aid
+of other contemporary matter. It is true that, with the exception of
+Egyptian papyri and some manuscripts unearthed in Oriental monasteries
+(besides those Indian, Chinese, and other early Eastern sacred books
+to which I have already referred), not very much that is absolutely
+new has been brought to light. It is also true that a few of the most
+capable students in earlier days, in the ancient world as well as since
+the Renaissance, have fully seen the value of original authorities
+and have applied to them thoroughly critical methods. This is not a
+discovery of our own times. Still, it may be claimed that there was
+never before so great a zeal for collecting and investigating all
+possible kinds of original texts, nor so widely diffused a knowledge of
+the methods to be applied in turning them to account for the purposes
+of history. Both in Europe and in America an unprecedentedly large
+number of competent men have been employed upon researches of this
+kind, and the result of their labours on special topics has been to
+provide the writer who seeks to present a general view of history
+with materials not only larger but far fitter for his use than his
+predecessors ever enjoyed. Then with the improvement in critical
+apparatus, there has come a more cautious and exact habit of mind in
+the interpretation of facts.
+
+[Illustration: “THE FATHER OF HISTORY”
+
+ Herodotus, the first historian, was born between B.C. 470-480 at
+ Halicarnassus, a Greek colony in Asia Minor
+]
+
+Thirdly, the progress of the sciences of Nature has powerfully
+influenced history, both by providing new data and by affecting the
+mental attitude of all reflective men. This has happened in several
+ways. Geographical exploration has made known nearly every part of the
+surface of the habitable globe. The great natural features of every
+country, its mountain ranges and rivers, its forest or deserts, have
+been ascertained. Its flora and fauna have been described, and thereby
+its capacity for supporting human life approximately calculated. The
+other physical conditions which govern the development of man, such as
+temperature, rainfall, and the direction of prevalent winds have been
+examined. Thus we have acquired a treasury of facts relating to the
+causes and conditions which help the growth of civilisation and mould
+it into diverse forms, conditions whose importance I shall presently
+discuss in considering the relation of man to his natural environment.
+Although a few penetrating minds had long ago seen how much the
+career of each nation must have been affected by physical phenomena,
+it is only in the last two generations that men have begun to study
+these phenomena in their relation to history, and to appreciate their
+influence in the formation of national types and in determining the
+movement of races over the earth’s surface.
+
+Not less remarkable has been the increase in our knowledge of the
+more remote and backward peoples. Nearly every one of these has now
+been visited by scientific travellers or missionaries, its language
+written down, its customs and religious rites, sometimes its folk lore
+also, recorded. Thus materials of the highest value have been secured,
+not only for completing our knowledge of mankind as a whole, but for
+comprehending in the early history of the now highly civilised peoples
+various facts which had previously remained obscure, but which became
+intelligible when compared with similar facts that can be studied in
+their actuality among tribes whom we find in the same stage to-day as
+were the ancestors of the civilised nations many centuries ago.
+
+[Sidenote: Progress of the Sciences]
+
+The progress thus achieved in the science of man regarded as a part
+of Nature has powerfully contributed to influence the study of human
+communities as they appear in history. The comparative method has
+become the basis for a truly scientific inquiry into the development of
+institutions, and the connection of religious beliefs and ceremonies
+with the first beginnings of institutions both social and political has
+been made clear by an accumulation of instances. Whether or no there
+be such a thing as a Science of History--a question which, since it
+is mainly verbal, one need not stop to discuss--there is such a thing
+as a scientific method applied to history; and the more familiar men
+have become with the methods of inquiry and canons of evidence used in
+physical investigations, so much the more have they tended to become
+exact and critical in historical investigations, and to examine the
+causes and the stages by and through which historical development is
+effected.
+
+[Sidenote: Historical Knowledge in Our Time]
+
+In noting this I do not suggest that what is popularly called the
+“Doctrine of Evolution” should be deemed a thing borrowed by history
+from the sciences of nature. Most of what is true or helpful in that
+doctrine was known long ago, and applied long ago by historical and
+political thinkers. You can find it in Aristotle, perhaps before
+Aristotle. Even as regards the biological sciences, the notion of
+what we call evolution is ancient; and the merit of Darwin and other
+great modern naturalists has lain, not in enouncing the idea as a
+general theory, but in elucidating, illustrating, and demonstrating the
+processes by which evolution takes place. The influence of the natural
+sciences on history is rather to be traced in the efforts we now see to
+accumulate a vast mass of facts relating to the social, economic, and
+political life of man, for the sake of discovering general laws running
+through them, and imparting to them order and unity.
+
+Although the most philosophic and diligent historians have always aimed
+at and striven for this, still the general diffusion of the method in
+our own time, and the greatly increased scale on which it is applied,
+together with the higher standard of accuracy which is exacted by the
+opinion of competent judges, may be, in some measure, ascribed to the
+examples which those who work in the spheres of physics and biology and
+natural history have so effectively set.
+
+Finally, the progress of natural science has in our time, by
+stimulating the production and exchange of commodities, drawn the
+different parts of the earth much nearer to one another, and thus
+brought nearly all its tribes and nations into relations with one
+another far closer and far more frequent than existed before.
+
+[Sidenote: Oneness of the Human Race]
+
+This has been done by the inventions that have given us steam and
+electricity as motive forces, making transport quicker and cheaper,
+and by the application of electricity to the transmission of words. No
+changes that have occurred in the past (except perhaps changes in the
+sphere of religion) are comparable in their importance as factors in
+history to those which have shortened the voyage from Western Europe to
+America to five and a half days, and made communication with Australia
+instantaneous. For the first time the human race, always essentially
+one, has begun to feel itself one, and civilised man has in every part
+of it become a contemporaneous observer of what passes in every other
+part.
+
+The general result of these various changes has been that while the
+materials for writing a history of the world have been increased, the
+conception of what such a history should be has been at the same time
+both enlarged and defined. Its scope is wider; its lines are more
+clearly drawn. But what do we mean by a Universal History? Briefly, a
+History which shall, first, include all the races and tribes of man
+within its scope; and, secondly, shall bring all these races and tribes
+into a connection with one another such as to display their annals as
+an organic whole.
+
+[Sidenote: Importance of the Small Races]
+
+Universal history has to deal not only with the great nations, but also
+with the small nations; not only with the civilised, but also with the
+barbarous or savage peoples; not only with the times of movement and
+progress, but also with the times of silence and apparent stagnation.
+Every fraction of humanity has contributed something to the common
+stock, and has lived and laboured not for itself only, but for others
+also, through the influence which it has perforce exercised on its
+neighbours. The only exceptions we can imagine are the inhabitants of
+some remote isle, “far placed amid the melancholy main.” Yet they, too,
+must have once formed part of a race dwelling in the region whence they
+came, even if that race had died out in its old home before civilised
+man set foot on such an oceanic isle in a later age. The world would
+have been different, in however small a measure, had they never
+existed. As in the realm of physical science, so in that of history no
+fact is devoid of significance, though the true significance may remain
+long unnoticed. The history of the backward races presents exceptional
+difficulties, because they have no written records, and often scarcely
+any oral traditions. Sometimes it reduces itself to a description of
+their usages and state of life, their arts and their superstitions, at
+the time when civilised observers first visited them. Yet that history
+is instructive, not only because the phenomena observable among such
+races enlarge our knowledge, but also because through the study of
+those which survive we are able to interpret the scanty records we
+possess of the early condition of peoples now civilised, and to go
+some way towards writing the history of what we have hitherto called
+prehistoric man.
+
+[Illustration: ANCIENT EGYPT’S STRANGE BOOKS AND PICTORIAL RECORDS,
+MADE OF PAPYRUS
+
+ Papyrus, a tall, graceful, sedgy plant, supplied the favourite
+ writing material of the ancient world, and many priceless records
+ of antiquity are preserved to us in papyri. The pith of the plant
+ was pressed flat and thin and joined with others to form strips, on
+ which records were written or painted. The above is a photograph
+ of a piece of Egyptian papyrus, showing both hieroglyphics and
+ picture-writing. The oldest piece of papyrus dates back to B.C.
+ 3500.
+]
+
+Thus such tribes as the aborigines of Australia, the Fuegians of
+Magellan’s Straits, the Bushmen of South Africa, the Sakalavas of
+Madagascar, the Lapps of Northern Europe, the Ainos of Japan, the
+numerous “hill-tribes” of India, will all come within the historian’s
+ken. From each of them something may be learnt; and each of them
+has through contact with its more advanced neighbours affected
+those neighbours themselves, sometimes in blood, sometimes through
+superstitious beliefs or rites, frequently borrowed by the higher races
+from the lower (as the Norsemen learnt magic from the Lapps, and the
+Semites of Assyria from the Accadians), sometimes through the strife
+which has arisen between the savage and the more civilised man, whereby
+the institutions of the latter have been modified.
+
+Obviously the historian cannot record everything. These lower races
+are comparatively unimportant. Their contributions to progress, their
+effect on the general march of events, have been but small. But they
+must not be wholly omitted from the picture, for without them it would
+have been different. One must never forget, in following the history of
+the great nations of antiquity, that they fought and thought and built
+up the fabric of their industry and art in the midst of a barbarous or
+savage population surrounding them on all sides, whence they drew the
+bulk of their slaves and some of their mercenary soldiers, and which
+sometimes avenged itself by sudden inroads, the fear of which kept the
+Greek cities, and at certain epochs even the power of Rome, watchful
+and anxious. So in modern times the savages among whom European
+colonies have been planted, or who have been transported as slaves to
+other colonies--sometimes, as in the case of Portugal in the fifteenth
+century, to
+
+Europe itself--or those with whom Europeans have carried on trade, must
+not be omitted from a view of the causes which have determined the
+course of events in the civilised peoples.
+
+[Sidenote: Great Works of Little Peoples]
+
+To dwell on the part played by the small nations is less necessary
+here, for even a superficial student must be struck by the fact that
+some of them have counted for more than the larger nations to whose
+annals a larger space is commonly allotted. The instance of Israel is
+enough, so far as the ancient world is concerned, to show how little
+the numbers of a people have to do with the influence it may exert. For
+the modern world, I will take the case of Iceland.
+
+[Sidenote: The Culture of the Icelanders]
+
+The Icelanders are a people much smaller than even was Israel. They
+have never numbered more than about seventy thousand. They live in an
+isle so far remote, and so sundered from the rest of the world by an
+inhospitable ocean, that their relations both with Europe, to which
+ethnologically they belong, and with America, to which geographically
+they belong, have been comparatively scanty. But their history, from
+the first settlement of the island by Norwegian exiles in A.D. 874
+to the extinction of the National Republic in A.D. 1264, is full of
+interest and instruction, in some respects a perfectly unique history.
+And the literature which this handful of people produced is certainly
+the most striking primitive literature which any modern people has
+produced, superior in literary quality to that of the Continental
+Teutons, or to that of the Romance nations, or to that of the Finns or
+Slavs, or even to that of the Celts. Yet most histories of Europe pass
+by Iceland altogether, and few persons in Continental Europe (outside
+Scandinavia) know anything about the inhabitants of this isle, who,
+amid glaciers and volcanoes, have maintained themselves at a high level
+of intelligence and culture for more than a thousand years.
+
+The small peoples have no doubt been more potent in the spheres
+of intellect and emotion than in those of war, politics, or
+commerce. But the influences which belong to the sphere of creative
+intelligence--that is to say, of literature, philosophy, religion and
+art--are just those which it is peculiarly the function of a History
+of the World to disengage and follow out in their far-reaching
+consequence. They pass beyond the limits of the country where they
+arose. They survive, it may be, the race that gave birth to them. They
+pass into new forms, and through these they work in new ways upon
+subsequent ages.
+
+[Sidenote: The Wide Scope of History]
+
+It is also the task of universal history so to trace the march of
+humanity as to display the relation which each part of it bears to the
+others; to fit each race and tribe and nation into the main narrative.
+To do this, three things are needed--a comprehensive knowledge, a
+power of selecting the salient and significant points, and a talent
+for arrangement. Of these three qualifications, the first is the least
+rare. Ours is an age of specialists; but the more a man buries himself
+in special studies, the more risk does he incur of losing his sense of
+the place which the object of his own study fills in the general scheme
+of things. The highly trained historian is generally able to draw from
+those who have worked in particular departments the data he needs;
+while the master of one single department may be unable to carry his
+vision over the whole horizon, and see each part of the landscape in
+its relations to the rest.
+
+In other words, a History of the World ought to be an account of the
+human family as an organic whole, showing how each race and state
+has affected other races or states, what each has brought into the
+common stock, and how the interaction among them has stimulated
+some, depressed or extinguished others, turned the main current this
+way or that. Even when the annals of one particular country are
+concerned, it needs no small measure of skill in expression as well
+as of constructive art to trace their connection with those of other
+countries. To take a familiar example, he who writes the history of
+England must have his eye always alive to what is passing in France on
+one side, and in Scotland on the other, not to speak of countries less
+closely connected with England, such as Germany and Spain. He must let
+the reader feel in what way the events that were happening in France
+and Scotland affected men’s minds, and through men’s minds affected the
+progress of events in England. Yet he cannot allow himself constantly
+to interrupt his English narrative in order to tell what was passing
+beyond the Channel or across the Tweed.
+
+[Illustration: VIVID SCENES OF ANCIENT LIFE DEPICTED BY CONTEMPORARY
+ARTISTS
+
+ The walls of the tombs in Egypt form a great picture gallery of the
+ vanished life of that country and are invaluable to the historian.
+ This fragment from the British Museum shows how vividly the
+ domestic figures were realised.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Unity of Universal History]
+
+Obviously, this difficulty is much increased when the canvas is widened
+to include all Europe, and when the aim is to give the reader a just
+impression of the general tendencies of a whole age, such an age as,
+for instance, the sixteenth century, over that vast area. If for a
+History of the World the old plan be adopted--that of telling the
+story of each nation separately, yet on lines generally similar, cross
+references and a copious use of chronological tables become helpful,
+for they enable the contemporaneity of events to be seen at a glance,
+and as the history of each nation is being written with a view to that
+of other nations, the tendencies at work in each can be explained and
+illustrated in a way which shows their parallelism, and gives to the
+whole that unity of meaning and tendency which a universal history must
+constantly endeavour to display. The connection between the progress
+or decline of different peoples is best understood by setting forth
+the various forms which similar tendencies take in each. To do this
+is a hard task when the historian is dealing with the ancient world,
+or with the world outside Europe even in mediæval and post-mediæval
+times. For the modern European nations it is easier, because, ever
+since the spread of Christianity made these nations parts of one great
+ecclesiastical community, similar forces have been at work upon each of
+them, and every intellectual movement which has told upon one has more
+or less told upon the others also.
+
+[Illustration: THE MASTER-KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS
+
+ The inscribed stone found at Rosetta, in the Nile delta, in
+ 1799, now preserved in the British Museum. It gave the key to
+ the hieroglyphic writings of Egypt. It is a decree of Ptolemy
+ Epiphanes, promulgated at Memphis in B.C. 196, and as it is
+ inscribed in hieroglyphic and in the script of the country as
+ well as in Greek, it thus solved the long standing mystery of the
+ hieroglyphics of the monuments, which before its discovery had been
+ quite unintelligible.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Central Line of Human Development]
+
+[Sidenote: The Study of Human Society]
+
+[Sidenote: Each Race a Distinct Entity]
+
+Such a History of the World may be written on more than one plan,
+and in the light of more than one general theory of human progress.
+It might find the central line of human development in the increase
+of man’s knowledge, and in particular of his knowledge of Nature and
+his power of dealing with her. Or that which we call culture, the
+comprehensive unfolding and polishing of human faculty and of the
+power of intellectual creation and appreciation, might be taken as
+marking the most real and solid kind of progress, so that its growth
+would best represent the advance of man from a savage to a highly
+civilised condition. Or if the moral and political sphere were selected
+as that in which the onward march of man as a social being, made to
+live in a community, could best be studied, the idea of liberty might
+be made a pivot of the scheme; for in showing how the individual
+emerges from the family or the tribe, how first domestic and then
+also prædial slavery slowly disappears, how institutions are framed
+under which the will of one ruler or of a small group begins to be
+controlled, or replaced as a governing force, by the collective will
+of the members of the community, how the primordial rights of each
+human creature win their way to recognition--in tracing out all these
+things the history of human society is practically written, and the
+significance of all political changes is made clear. Another way,
+again, would be to take some concrete department of human activity,
+follow it down from its earliest to its latest stages, and group
+other departments round it. Thus one author might take religion, and
+in making the history of religion the main thread of his narrative
+might deal incidentally with the other phenomena which have influenced
+it or which it has influenced. Or, similarly, another author might
+take political institutions, or perhaps economic conditions--_i.e._,
+wealth, labour, capital, commerce, or, again, the fundamental social
+institutions, such as the family, and the relations of the ranks and
+classes in a community, and build up round one or other of these
+manifestations and embodiments of the creative energy of mankind the
+general story of man’s movement from barbarism to civilisation. Even
+art, even mechanical inventions, might be similarly handled, for both
+of these stand in a significant relation to all the rest of the life of
+each nation and of the world at large. Nevertheless, no one of these
+suggested lines on which a universal history might be constructed
+would quite meet the expectations which the name Universal History
+raises, because we have become accustomed to think of history as being
+primarily and pre-eminently a narrative of the growth and development
+of communities, nations, and states as organised political bodies,
+seeing that it is in their character as bodies so organised that they
+come into relation with other nations and states. It is therefore
+better to follow the familiar plan of dealing with the annals of each
+race and nation as a distinct entity, while endeavouring to show
+throughout the whole narrative the part which each fills in the general
+drama of human effort, conflict, and progress.
+
+A universal history may, however, while conforming to this established
+method, follow it out along a special line, which shall give prominence
+to some one leading idea or principle. Such a line or point of view has
+been found for the present work in the relation of man to his physical
+environment--that is to say, to the geographical conditions which have
+always surrounded him, and always must surround him, conditions whose
+power and influence he has felt ever since he appeared upon the globe.
+This point of view is more comprehensive than any one of those above
+enumerated. Physical environment has told upon each and every one of
+the lines of human activity already enumerated that could be taken to
+form a central line for the writing of a history of mankind. It has
+influenced not only political institutions and economic phenomena, but
+also religion, and social institutions, and art, and inventions. No
+department of man’s life has been independent of it, for it works upon
+man not only materially but also intellectually and morally.
+
+[Illustration: UNEARTHING THE RUINS OF ANCIENT BABYLON IN THE TWENTIETH
+CENTURY
+
+ This photograph illustrates how present-day exploration brings
+ the remains of the ancient wonder cities of Babylonia to light
+ after the sleep of ages. Much valuable knowledge of Babylon has
+ been acquired quite recently as a result of excavations now being
+ carried on under the supervision of English, American, French, and
+ German explorers.
+]
+
+As this is the idea which has governed the preparation of the present
+book, as it is constructed upon a geographical rather than a purely
+chronological plan (though, of course, each particular country and
+nation needs to be treated chronologically), some few pages may
+properly be devoted here to a consideration of the way in which
+geography determines history, or, in other words, to an examination of
+the relations of Nature, inorganic and organic, to the life of man.
+
+
+MAN’S PLACE IN NATURE’S KINGDOM
+
+Though we are accustomed to contrast man with Nature, and to look upon
+the world outside ourselves as an object to be studied by man, the
+conscious and intelligent subject, it is evident, and has been always
+recognised even by those thinkers who have most exalted the place man
+holds in the Cosmos, that man is also to be studied as a part of the
+physical universe. He belongs to the realm of Nature in respect of his
+bodily constitution, which links him with other animals, and in certain
+respects with all the phenomena that lie within the sphere of biology.
+
+All creatures on our earth, since they have bodies formed from material
+constituents, are subject to the physical laws which govern matter; and
+the life of all is determined, so far as their bodies are concerned,
+by the physical conditions which foster, or depress, or destroy life.
+Plants need soil, moisture, sunshine, and certain constituents of the
+atmosphere. Their distribution over the earth’s surface depends not
+only upon the greater or less extent to which these things, essential
+to their existence, are present, but also upon the configuration of
+the earth’s surface (continents and oceans), upon the greater or
+less elevation above sea level of parts of it, upon such forces as
+winds and ocean currents (occasionally also upon volcanoes), upon the
+interposition of arid deserts between moister regions, or upon the flow
+of great rivers. The flora of each country is the resultant (until man
+appears upon the scene) of these natural conditions.
+
+[Sidenote: Natural Conditions of Life]
+
+We know that some plants are also affected by the presence of certain
+animals, particularly insects and birds. Similarly, animals depend
+upon these same conditions which regulate their distribution, partly
+directly, partly indirectly, or mediately through the dependence of
+the animal for food upon the plants whose presence or absence these
+conditions have determined. It would seem that animals, being capable
+of moving from place to place, and thus of finding conditions suitable
+for their life, and to some extent of modifying their life to suit the
+nature around them, are somewhat more independent than plants are,
+though plants, too, possess powers of adapting themselves to climatic
+surroundings; and there are some--such, for instance, as our common
+brake-fern and the grass of Parnassus--which seem able to thrive
+unmodified in very different parts of the globe.
+
+[Sidenote: Man the Servant of Nature]
+
+The primary needs of man which he shares with the other animals are an
+atmosphere which he can breathe, a temperature which he can support,
+water which he can drink, and food. In respect of these he is as
+much the product of geographical conditions as are the other living
+creatures. Presently he superadds another need, that of clothing. It
+is a sign that he is becoming less dependent on external conditions,
+for by means of clothing he can make his own temperature and succeed
+in enduring a degree of cold, or changes from heat to cold, which
+might otherwise shorten his life. The discovery of fire carries him a
+long step further, for it not only puts him less at the mercy of low
+temperatures, but extends the range of his food supplies, and enables
+him, by procuring better tools and weapons, to obtain his food more
+easily. We need not pursue his upward course, at every stage of which
+he finds himself better and still better able to escape from the
+thraldom of Nature, and to turn to account the forces which she puts
+at his disposal. But although he becomes more and more independent,
+more and more master not only of himself, but of her, he is none the
+less always for many purposes the creature of the conditions with which
+she surrounds him. He always needs what she gives him. He must always
+have regard to the laws which he finds operating through her realm. He
+always finds it the easiest course to obey, and to use rather than to
+attempt to resist her.
+
+Here let me pause to notice a remarkable contrast between the earlier
+and the later stages of man’s relations to Nature. In the earlier
+stages he lies helpless before her, and must take what she chooses to
+bestow--food, shelter, materials for clothing, means of defence against
+the wild beasts, who are in strength far more than a match for him. He
+depends upon her from necessity, and is better or worse off according
+as she is more or less generous.
+
+[Sidenote: Man’s Advance in Knowledge]
+
+But in the later stages of his progress he has, by accumulating a store
+of knowledge, and by the development of his intelligence, energy, and
+self-confidence, raised himself out of his old difficulties. He no
+longer dreads the wild beasts. They, or such of them as remain, begin
+to dread him, for he is crafty, and can kill them at a distance. He
+erects dwellings which can withstand rain and tempest. He irrigates
+hitherto barren lands and raises abundant crops from them. When he has
+invented machinery, he produces in an hour clothing better than his
+hands could formerly have produced in a week. If at any given time
+he has not plenty of food, this happens only because he has allowed
+his species to multiply too fast. He is able to cross the sea against
+adverse winds and place himself in a more fertile soil or under more
+genial skies than those of his former home. As respects all the primary
+needs of his life, he has so subjected Nature to himself, that he can
+make his life what he will.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Neurdein
+
+THE FIRST WANDERERS OF THE EARTH: TRIBAL MIGRATION IN PREHISTORIC TIMES
+
+ From the painting of “Cain” by Ferdinand Cormon
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Man the Master of Nature]
+
+All this renders him independent. But he now also finds himself drawn
+into a new kind of dependence, for he has now come to take a new view
+of Nature. He perceives in her an enormous storehouse of wealth, by
+using which he can multiply his resources and gratify his always
+increasing desires to an extent practically unlimited. She provides
+forces, such as steam and electricity, which his knowledge enables him
+to employ for production and transport, so as to spare his own physical
+strength, needed now not so much for effort as for the direction of
+the efforts of Nature. She has in the forest, and still more beneath
+her own surface in the form of minerals, the materials by which these
+forces can be set in motion; and by using these forces man can, with
+comparatively little trouble, procure abundance of those materials.
+
+Thus his relation to Nature is changed. It was that of a servant, or,
+indeed, rather of a beggar, needing the bounty of a sovereign. It
+is now that of a master needing the labour of a servant, a servant
+infinitely stronger than the master, but absolutely obedient to the
+master so long as the master uses the proper spell. Thus the connection
+of man with Nature, changed though his attitude be, is really as close
+as ever, and far more complex. If his needs had remained what they
+were in his primitive days--let us say, in those palæolithic days
+which we can faintly adumbrate to ourselves by an observation of the
+Australian or Fuegian aborigines now--he would have sat comparatively
+lightly to Nature, getting easily what he wanted, and not caring to
+trouble her for more. But his needs--that is to say, his desires, both
+his physical appetites and his intellectual tastes, his ambitions and
+his fondness for comfort, things that were once luxuries having become
+necessaries--have so immeasurably expanded that, since he asks much
+more from Nature, he is obliged to study her more closely than ever.
+
+[Sidenote: Man’s New Relations to Nature]
+
+Thus he enters into a new sort of dependence upon her, because it is
+only by understanding her capacities and the means of using them that
+he can get from her what he wants. Primitive man was satisfied if he
+could find spots where the trees gave edible fruit, where the sun was
+not too hot, nor the winds too cold, where the beasts easy of capture
+were abundant, and no tigers or pythons made the forest terrible.
+Civilised man has more complex problems to deal with, and wider fields
+to search. The study of Nature is not only still essential to him, but
+really more essential than ever. His life and action are conditioned
+by her. His industry and his commerce are directed by her to certain
+spots. That which she has to give is still, directly or indirectly,
+the source of strife, and a frequent cause of war. As men fought long
+ago with flint-headed arrows for a spring of water or a coconut grove,
+so they fight to-day for mineral treasures imbedded in the soil. It
+is mainly by Nature that the movements of emigration and the rise of
+populous centres of industry are determined.
+
+Though Nature still rules for many purposes and in many ways the
+course of human affairs, the respective value of her various gifts
+changes from age to age, as man’s knowledge and power of turning them
+to account have changed. The things most prized by primitive man are
+not those which semi-civilised man chiefly prized, still less are they
+those most sought for now.
+
+[Sidenote: Using Natural Wealth]
+
+In primitive times the spots most attractive, because most favourable
+to human life, were those in which food could be most easily and
+safely obtained from fruit-bearing trees or by the chase, and where
+the climate was genial enough to make clothing and shelter needless,
+at least during the greater part of the year. Later, when the keeping
+of cattle and tillage had come into use, good pastures and a fertile
+soil in the valley of a river were the chief sources of material
+well-being. Wild beasts were less terrible, because man was better
+armed; but as human enemies were formidable, regions where hills and
+rocks facilitated defence by furnishing natural strongholds had their
+advantages.
+
+Still later, forests came to be recognised as useful for fuel, and
+for carpentry and shipbuilding. Mineral deposits, usually found in
+hilly or mountainous districts, became pre-eminently important sources
+of wealth; and rivers were valued as highways of commerce and as
+sources of motive power by the force of their currents. To the Red
+Indians of the Ohio valley the places which were the most attractive
+camping-grounds were those whither the buffaloes came in vast herds to
+lick the rock salt exposed in the sides of the hills. It is now not the
+salt-licks, but the existence of immense deposits of coal and iron,
+that have determined the growth of huge communities in those regions
+whence the red man and the buffalo have both vanished. England was
+once, as New Zealand is now, a great wool-growing and wool-exporting
+country, whereas she is to-day a country which spins and weaves far
+more wool than she produces.
+
+[Sidenote: Ancient Harbours and Modern]
+
+So, too, the influence of the sea on man has changed. There was a
+time when towns were built upon heights some way off from the coast,
+because the sea was the broad high road of pirates who swooped down
+upon and pillaged the dwellings of those who lived near it. Now that
+the sea is safe, trading cities spring up upon its margin, and sandy
+tracts worthless for agriculture have gained an unexpected value as
+health resorts, or as places for playing games, places to which the
+inhabitants of inland districts flock in summer, as they do in England
+and Germany, or in winter, as they do on the Mediterranean coasts of
+France. The Greeks, when they began to compete with the Phœnicians in
+maritime commerce, sought for small and sheltered inlets in which their
+tiny vessels could lie safely--such inlets as Homer describes in the
+Odyssey, or as the Old Port of Marseilles, a city originally a colony
+from the Ionian Phocæa. Nowadays these pretty little rock harbours
+are useless for the large ships which carry our trade. The Old Port
+of Marseilles is abandoned to small coasters and fishing-boats, and
+the ocean steamers lie in a new harbour which is protected, partly by
+outlying islands, partly by artificial works.
+
+[Sidenote: The World-Importance of Medicine]
+
+So, too, river valleys, though still important as highways of traffic,
+are important not so much in respect of water carriage as because they
+furnish the easiest lines along which railways can be constructed. The
+two banks of the Rhine, each traversed by a railroad, carry far more
+traffic than the great stream itself carried a century ago; and the
+same remark applies to the Hudson. All these changes are due to the
+progress of invention, which may give us fresh changes in the future
+not less far-reaching than those the past has seen. Mountainous regions
+with a heavy rainfall, such as Western Norway or the coast of the
+Pacific in Washington and British Columbia, may, by the abundance of
+water power which they supply, which can be transmuted into electrical
+energy, become sources of previously unlooked-for wealth, especially
+if some cheap means can be devised of conveying electricity with less
+wastage in transmission than is at present incurred. Within the last
+few years considerable progress in this direction has been made. Should
+effective and easily applicable preventives against malarial fever
+be discovered, many districts now shunned, because dangerous to the
+life of white men, may become the homes of flourishing communities.
+The discovery of cinchona bark in the seventeenth century affected
+the course of events, because it provided a remedy against a disease
+that had previously baffled medical skill. If quinine had been at the
+disposal of the men of the Middle Ages, not only might the lives of
+many great men, as for instance of Dante, have been prolonged, but
+the Teutonic emperors would have been partially relieved of one of
+the chief obstacles which prevented them from establishing permanent
+control over their Italian dominions. Rome and the Papal power defended
+themselves against the hosts of the Franconian and Hohenstaufen
+sovereigns by the fevers of the Campagna more effectively than did the
+Roman people by their arms, and almost as effectively as did the Popes
+by their spiritual agencies.
+
+Bearing in mind this principle, that the gifts of Nature to man
+not only increase, but also vary in their form, in proportion and
+correspondence to man’s capacity to use them, and remembering also
+that man is almost as much influenced by Nature when he has become her
+adroit master as when she was his stern mistress, we may now go on to
+examine more in detail the modes in which her influence has told and
+still tells upon him.
+
+[Sidenote: The Problem of Racial Distinctions]
+
+It has long been recognised that Nature must have been the principal
+factor in producing, that is to say, in differentiating, the various
+races of mankind as we find them differentiated when our records begin.
+How this happened is one of the darkest problems that history presents.
+By what steps and through what causes did the races of man acquire
+these diversities of physical and intellectual character which are now
+so marked and seem so persistent? It has been suggested that some of
+these diversities may date back to a time when man, as what is called a
+distinct species, had scarcely begun to exist. Assuming the Darwinian
+hypothesis of the development of man out of some pithecoid form to
+be correct--and those who are not themselves scientific naturalists
+can of course do no more than provisionally accept the conclusions at
+which the vast majority of scientific naturalists have arrived--it
+is conceivable that there may have been unconnected developments of
+creatures from intermediate forms into definitely human forms in
+different regions, and that some of the most marked types of humanity
+may therefore have had their first rudimentary and germinal beginning
+before any specifically human type had made its appearance. This,
+however, is not the view of the great majority of naturalists. They
+appear to hold that the passage either from some anthropoid apes, or
+from some long since extinct common ancestor of man and the existing
+anthropoid apes--this latter alternative representing what is now the
+dominant view--did not take place through several channels (so to
+speak), but through one only, and that there was a single specifically
+human type which subsequently diverged into the varieties we now see.
+
+[Illustration: TREE DWELLERS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
+
+ We must remember that such terms as “The Stone Age,” “The Bronze
+ Age,” and so forth, are only loosely applied. The ages so called
+ did not close at certain periods. There are races now living in all
+ the conditions of these past ages. This photograph, for example,
+ shows the actual tree dwellings of the Papuans in New Guinea
+ to-day--one of the most primitive forms of human habitation.
+]
+
+If this be so, it is plain that climate, and the conditions of life
+which depend upon climate, soil, and the presence of vegetables and
+of other animals besides man, must have been the forces which moulded
+and developed those varieties. From a remote antiquity, everybody has
+connected the dark colour of all, or nearly all, the races inhabiting
+the torrid zone with the power of the sun; and the fairer skin of
+the races of the temperate and arctic zones with the comparative
+feebleness of his rays in those regions. This may be explained on
+Darwinian principles by supposing that the darker varieties were
+found more capable of supporting the fierce heat of the tropics. What
+explanation is to be given of the other characteristics of the negro
+and negroid races, of the usually frizzled hair, of the peculiar nose
+and jaw, and so forth, is a question for the naturalist rather than
+for the historian. Although climate and food may be the chief factors
+in differentiation, the nature of the process is, as indeed is the
+case with the species of animals generally, sometimes very obscure.
+Take an instance from three African races which, so far as we can
+tell, were formed under similar climatic conditions--the Bushmen,
+the Hottentots, and the Bantu, the race including those whom we call
+Kaffirs. Their physical aspect and colour are different. Their size and
+the structure of their bodies are different. Their mental aptitudes
+are different; and one of the oddest points of difference is this, that
+whereas the Bushmen are the least advanced, intellectually, morally,
+and politically, of the three races, as well as the physically weakest,
+they show a talent for drawing which is not possessed by the other two.
+
+[Illustration: THE HABITATIONS OF MAN IN ALL AGES OF THE WORLD’S HISTORY
+
+ At first man built twig huts in trees, but becoming better matched
+ with his animal foes he took to caves and underground habitations.
+ Our illustration of the latter shows a section through the soil.
+ Lake dwellings marked a distinct advance. Other varieties of
+ primitive habitations are the leaf hut, the tents of skin, the mud
+ hut, and the beehive hut of stone. Roman villas are still models
+ of beauty. American “skyscrapers” are peculiar to our time; but
+ all early forms of dwellings, while marking progress, have existed
+ contemporaneously throughout history.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Is the Race Mystery Insoluble?]
+
+In this case there is, of course, a vast unknown fore-time during
+which we may imagine the Bantu race, probably originally formed in a
+region other than that which it now occupies (and under more favourable
+conditions for progress), to have become widely differentiated
+from those which are now the lower African races. We still know
+comparatively little about African ethnography. Let us, therefore,
+take another instance in which affinities of language give ground for
+believing that three races, whose differences are now marked, have
+diverged from a common stock. So far as language goes, the Celts,
+the Teutons, and the Slavs, all speaking Indo-European tongues, may
+be deemed to be all nearly connected in origin. They are marked by
+certain slight physical dissimilarities, and by perhaps rather more
+palpable dissimilarities in their respective intellectual and emotional
+characters. But so far as our knowledge goes, all three have lived for
+an immensely long period in the colder parts of the temperate zone,
+under similar external conditions, and following very much the same
+kind of pastoral and agricultural life. There is nothing in their
+environment which explains the divergences we perceive; so the origin
+of these divergences must apparently be sought either in admixture with
+other races or in some other historical causes which are, and will for
+ever remain, in the darkness of a recordless past.
+
+[Sidenote: Mixing of the World’s Peoples]
+
+How race admixture works, and how it forms a new definite character
+out of diverse elements, is a subject which anyone may find abundant
+materials for studying in the history of the last two thousand years.
+Nearly every modern European people has been so formed. The French,
+the Spaniards, and the English are all the products of a mixture, in
+different proportions, of at least three elements--Iberian (to use
+a current name), Celts, and Teutons, though the Celtic element is
+probably comparatively small in Spain, and the Teutonic comparatively
+small both in Spain and in Central and Southern France. No small part
+of those who to-day speak German and deem themselves Germans must be
+of Slavonic stock. Those who to-day speak Russian are very largely
+of Finnish, to some small extent of Tartar, blood. The Italians
+probably spring from an even larger number of race-sources, without
+mentioning the vast number of slaves brought from the East and the
+North into Italy between B.C. 100 and A.D. 300. In the cases of
+Switzerland and Scotland the process of fusion is not yet complete.
+The Celto-Burgundian Swiss of Neuchatel is still different from the
+Allemanian Swiss of Appenzell; as the Anglo-Celt of Fife is different
+from the Ibero-Celt of the Outer Hebrides. But in both these cases
+there is already a strong sense of national unity, and in another three
+hundred years there may have arisen a single type of character.
+
+[Sidenote: The Unique Case of Iceland]
+
+An interesting and almost unique case is furnished by Iceland, where
+isolation under peculiar conditions of climate, food, and social life
+has created a somewhat different type both of body and of mental
+character from that of the Norwegians, although so far as blood goes
+the two peoples are identical, Iceland having been colonised from
+Western Norway a thousand years ago, and both Icelanders and Norwegians
+having remained practically unmixed with any other race--save that
+some slight Celtic infusion came to Iceland with those who migrated
+thither from the Norse settlements in Ireland, Northern Scotland, and
+the Hebrides--since the separation took place. But by far the most
+remarkable instance of race admixture is that furnished in our own time
+by the United States of North America, where a people of predominantly
+English stock (although there were in the end of the eighteenth century
+a few descendants of Dutchmen, with Germans, Swedes, and Ulster
+Irishmen, in the country) has within the last sixty years received
+additions of many millions of Celts, of Germans and Scandinavians, and
+of various Slavonic races. At least a century must elapse before it
+can be seen how far this infusion of new blood will change the type of
+American character as it stood in 1840.
+
+There are, however, two noteworthy differences between modern race
+fusions and those which belong to primitive times. One is that under
+modern conditions the influence of what may be called the social and
+political environment is probably very much greater than it was in
+early times. The American-born son of Irish parents is at forty years
+of age a very different creature from his cousin on the coast of Mayo.
+The other is that in modern times differences of colour retard or
+forbid the fusion of two races. So far as the Teutonic peoples are
+concerned, no one will intermarry with a negro; a very few with a
+Hindu, a Chinese, or a Malay. In the ancient world there was but little
+contact between white men and black or yellow ones, but the feeling of
+race aversion was apparently less strong than it is now, just as it was
+much less strong among the Spaniards and Portuguese in the sixteenth
+and seventeenth centuries than it is among Americans or Englishmen
+to-day. It is less strong even now among the so-called “Latin races;”
+and as regards the Anglo-Americans, it is much less strong towards the
+Red Indians than towards negroes.
+
+[Illustration: THE REMARKABLE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON PHYSICAL
+APPEARANCE
+
+ Mr. Bryce points out that the physical features of a people are
+ determined chiefly by their environment. These illustrations show
+ (at top) a typical English settler in the old Colonial days of
+ America, a native Red Indian (left) and a typical American of
+ to-day (right). Without any intermingling of red men and white,
+ the modern American, thanks to climatic conditions, resembles the
+ Red Indian far more closely than he does his own ancestors of the
+ Colonial days.
+]
+
+As Nature must have been the main agent in the formation of the various
+races of mankind from a common stock, so also Nature has been the chief
+cause of their movements from one part of the earth to another, these
+movements having been in their turn a potent influence in the admixture
+of the races. Some geographers have alleged climate--that is to say,
+the desire of those who inhabit an inclement region to enjoy a softer
+and warmer air--as a principal motive which has induced tribes of
+nations to transfer themselves from one region to another.
+
+It is no doubt true that the direction of migrations has almost always
+been either from the north towards the south, or else along parallels
+of latitude, men rarely seeking for themselves conditions more severe
+than those under which they were born. But it is usually not so much
+the wish to escape cold that has been an effective motive as the wish
+to find more and better food, since this means an altogether easier
+life. Scarcity of the means of subsistence, which is, of course, most
+felt when population is increasing, has operated more frequently
+and powerfully than any other cause in bringing on displacements
+of the races of man over the globe. The movement of the primitive
+Aryans into India from the plateaux of West Central Asia, probably
+also the movement of the races which speak Dravidian languages from
+South Central Asia into Southern India, and probably also the mighty
+descent, in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., of the Teutonic races
+from the lands between the Baltic and the Alps into the Roman Empire,
+had this origin.
+
+[Sidenote: The Colonising Impulse]
+
+In more advanced states of society a like cause leads the surplus
+population of a civilised state to overflow into new lands, where there
+is more space, or the soil is more fertile. Thus the inhabitants of
+Southwestern Scotland, partly, no doubt, at the suggestion of their
+rulers, crossed over into Ulster, where they occupied the best lands,
+driving the aboriginal Celts into the rougher and higher districts,
+where their descendants remain in the glens of Antrim, and in the hilly
+parts of Down, Derry, and Tyrone. Thus the men of New England moved
+out to the West and settled in the Mississippi Valley, while the men
+of Virginia crossed the Alleghanies into Kentucky. Thus the English
+have colonised Canada and Australia and New Zealand and Natal. Thus the
+Russians have spread out from their ancient homes on the upper courses
+of the Dnieper and the Volga all over the vast steppes that stretch
+to the Black Sea and the Caucasus, as well as into the rich lands of
+Southwestern Siberia. Thus the surplus peasantry of Germany has gone
+not only to North America, but also to Southern Brazil and the shores
+of the Rio de la Plata.
+
+[Sidenote: The Need of Native Labour]
+
+In another form it is the excess of population over means of
+subsistence at home that has produced the remarkable outflow of the
+Chinese through the Eastern Archipelago and across the Pacific into
+North America, and that has carried the Japanese to the Hawaiian
+Islands. And here we touch another cause of migration which is
+indirectly traceable to Nature--namely, the demand in some countries
+for more labour or cheaper labour than the inhabitants of the country
+are able or willing to supply. Sometimes this demand is attributable to
+climatic causes. The Spaniards and Portuguese and English in the New
+World were unfitted by their physical constitutions for out-of-door
+labour under a tropical sun. Hence they imported negroes during the
+sixteenth and two following centuries in such numbers that there are
+now about eight millions of coloured people in the United States alone,
+and possibly (though no accurate figures exist) as many more in the
+West Indies and South America. To a much smaller extent the same need
+for foreign labour has recently brought Indian coolies to the shores
+of the Caribbean Sea, and to the hottest parts of Natal, as it brings
+Polynesians to the sugar plantations of Northern Queensland.
+
+[Sidenote: What Determines Race Movements]
+
+Two other causes which have been potent in bringing about displacements
+and mixtures of population are the desire for conquest and plunder
+and the sentiment of religion. But these belong less to the sphere of
+Nature than to that of human passion and emotion, so that they scarcely
+fall within this part of our inquiry, the aim of which has been to
+show how Nature has determined history by inducing a shifting of races
+from place to place. From this shifting there has come the contact
+of diverse elements, with changes in each race due to the influence
+of the other, or perhaps the absorption of one in the other, or the
+development of something new out of both. In considering these race
+movements we have been led from the remote periods in which they began,
+and of which we know scarcely anything except from archæological and
+linguistic data, to periods within the range of authentic history.
+So we may go on to see how Nature has determined the spots in which
+the industry of the more advanced races should build up the earliest
+civilisations, and the lines along which commerce, a principal agent
+in the extension of civilisation, should proceed to link one race with
+another.
+
+[Illustration: THE MERCHANT MARINERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
+
+ The earliest agents in the diffusion of trades and the arts were
+ the Phœnicians, who from their great cities of Tyre, Sidon, and
+ Carthage conducted a sea-borne traffic with lands as remote as
+ England, and whose adventurous sailors, despite the smallness of
+ their vessels, are believed even to have succeeded in rounding the
+ Cape of Good Hope.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Isolation of Eastern Peoples]
+
+It was long since observed that the first homes of a dense population
+and a highly developed civilisation lay in fertile river valleys,
+such as those of the Lower Nile, the Euphrates, the Tigris, the
+Ganges, the Yang-tse-kiang. All these are situate in the hotter parts
+of the temperate zone; all are regions of exceptional fertility.
+The soil, especially when tillage has become general, is the first
+source of wealth; and it is in the midst of a prosperous agricultural
+population that cities spring up where handicrafts and the arts arise
+and flourish. The basins of the Lower Nile and of the Lower Euphrates
+and Tigris are (as respects the West Asiatic and Mediterranean world)
+the fountain-heads of material, military, and artistic civilisation.
+From them it spreads over the adjacent countries and along the
+coasts of Europe and Africa. On the east, Egypt and Mesopotamia are
+cut off by the deserts of Arabia and Eastern Persia from the perhaps
+equally ancient civilisation of India, which again is cut off by lofty
+and savage mountains from the very ancient civilisation of China.
+Nature forbade intercourse between these far eastern regions and the
+West Asian peoples, while on the other hand Nature permitted Egypt,
+Phœnicia, and Babylon to influence and become teachers of the peoples
+of Asia Minor and of the Greeks on both sides of the Ægean Sea. The
+isolation and consequent independent development of India and of
+China is one of the most salient and significant facts of history. It
+was not till the end of the fifteenth century, when the Portuguese
+reached the Malabar coast, that the Indian peoples began to come into
+the general movement of the world; for the expedition of Alexander
+the Great left hardly any permanent result, except upon Buddhist art,
+and the conquests of Mahmud of Ghazni opened no road to the East from
+the Mediterranean West. Nor did China, though visited by Italian
+travellers in the thirteenth century, by Portuguese traders and Jesuit
+missionaries in the sixteenth and seventeenth, come into effective
+contact with Europe till near our own time.
+
+As the wastes of barren land formed an almost impassable eastern
+boundary to the West Asian civilisations, so on the west the expanse
+of sea brought Egypt and to a less extent Assyria (through Phœnicia)
+into touch with all the peoples who dwelt on the shores of the
+Mediterranean. The first agents in the diffusion of trade and the arts
+were the Phœnicians, established at Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage. The next
+were the Greeks. For more than two thousand years, from B.C.
+700 onwards, the Mediterranean is practically the centre of the
+history of the world, because it is the highway both of commerce and
+of war. For seven hundred years after the end of the second century
+B.C., that is to say, while the Roman Empire remained strong,
+it was also the highway of civil administration. The Saracen conquests
+of the seventh century cut off North Africa and Syria from Europe,
+checked transmarine commerce, and created afresh the old opposition
+of East and West in which a thousand years earlier Herodotus had
+found the main thread of world history. But it was not till after the
+discovery of America that the Mediterranean began to yield to the
+Atlantic its primacy as the area of sea power and sea-borne trade.
+
+[Sidenote: Influence of the Seas in History]
+
+Bordered by far less fertile and climate-favoured countries, and closed
+to navigation during some months of winter, the Baltic has always held
+a place in history far below that of the Mediterranean. Yet it has
+determined the relations of the North European states and peoples. So,
+too, the North Sea has at one time exposed Britain to attack from the
+Danish and Norwegian lords of the sea, and at other times protected
+her from powerful continental enemies. It may indeed be said that in
+surrounding Europe by the sea on three sides, Nature has drawn the main
+lines which the course of events on this smallest but most important of
+the continents has had to follow.
+
+[Sidenote: Magellan and American Politics]
+
+Of the part which the great bodies of water have played, of the
+significance in the oceans of mighty currents like the Gulf Stream, the
+Polar Current, the Japan Current, the Mozambique Current, it would be
+impossible to speak within reasonable compass. But two remarks may be
+made before leaving this part of the subject. One is that man’s action
+in cutting through an isthmus may completely alter the conditions as
+given by Nature. The Suez Canal has of late years immensely enhanced
+the importance of the Mediterranean, already in some degree restored by
+the decay of Turkish power, by the industrial revival of Italy, and by
+the French conquests in North Africa. The cutting of a canal at Panama
+will change the relations of the seafaring and fleet-owning nations
+that are interested in the Atlantic and the Pacific. And the other
+remark is that the significance of a maritime discovery, however great
+at first, may become still greater with the lapse of time. Magellan,
+in his ever memorable voyage, not only penetrated to and crossed the
+Pacific, but discovered the Philippine Islands, and claimed them for
+the monarch who had sent him forth. His appropriation of them for
+the Crown of Spain, to which during these three centuries and a half
+they have brought no benefit, has been the cause which has led the
+republic of the United States to depart from its traditional policy of
+holding to its own continent by taking them as a prize--a distant and
+unexpected prize--of conquest.
+
+[Illustration: HOW NATURE DETERMINES THE SITES OF CITIES
+
+ Most towns and communities founded more than 300 years ago were on
+ easily defensible hills, by the side of navigable rivers, or inlets
+ of the sea. Our illustrations show (1) Naples, (2) Bonsuna, (3) Old
+ Port and hill of Marseilles, (4) Monaco, (5) St. Cézaire, and (6)
+ the Greek Monastery of St. Balaam.
+
+ Photos. by Frith and Underwood & Underwood
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE SHIFTING OF THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD’S COMMERCE
+
+ These two maps, which have been very carefully prepared from the
+ most reliable authorities, indicate at a glance the relative
+ importance of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic as highways of
+ commerce in the time of Julius Cæsar, B.C. 102-44.
+]
+
+[Illustration: HOW THE MEDITERRANEAN HAS GIVEN PLACE TO THE ATLANTIC
+
+ Here is the contrast to the opposite page. In our time the
+ Atlantic has become the centre of the world’s commerce, and the
+ Mediterranean has sunk in importance. It would be almost deserted
+ but for the routes to India via the Suez Canal.
+]
+
+A few words may suffice as to what Nature has done towards the
+formation of nations and States by the configuration of the surface
+of the dry land--that is to say, by mountain chains and by river
+valleys. The only natural boundaries, besides seas, are mountains and
+deserts. Rivers, though convenient frontier lines for the politician
+or the geographer, are not natural boundaries, but rather unite than
+dissever those who dwell on their opposite banks. Thus the great
+natural boundaries in Asia have been the deserts of Eastern Persia,
+of Turkestan, and of Northern Arabia, with the long Himalayan chain
+and the savage ranges apparently parallel to the Irawadi River, which
+separate the easternmost corner of India and Burmah from South-Western
+China. To a less extent the Altai and Thian Shan, and, to a still
+smaller extent, the Taurus in Eastern Asia Minor, have tended to divide
+peoples and States. The Caucasus, which fills the space between two
+great seas, has been at all times an extremely important factor in
+history, severing the nomad races of Scythia from the more civilised
+and settled inhabitants of the valleys of the Phasis and the Kura.
+Even to-day, when the Tsar holds sway on both sides of this chain, it
+constitutes a weakness in the position of Russia, and it helps to keep
+the Georgian races to the south from losing their identity in the mass
+of Russian subjects.
+
+[Sidenote: The Place of Mountains in History]
+
+Without the Alps and the Pyrenees, the annals of Europe must have been
+entirely different. The Alps, even more than the Italian climate,
+proved too much for the Romano-Germanic Emperors of the Middle Ages,
+who tried to rule both to the north and to the south of this wide
+mountain region. The Pyrenees have not only kept in existence the
+Basque people, but have repeatedly frustrated the attempts of monarchs
+to dominate both France and Spain. The mass of high moorland country
+which covers most of the space between the Solway Firth and the lower
+course of the Tweed has had something to do with the formation of
+a Scottish nation out of singularly diverse elements. The rugged
+mountains of Northern and Western Scotland, and the similar though less
+extensive hill country of Wales, have enabled Celtic races to retain
+their language and character in both these regions.
+
+[Sidenote: What Steam-power has Done]
+
+On the other hand, the vast open plains of Russia have allowed the
+Slavs of the districts which lie round Novgorod, Moscow, and Kiev to
+spread out among and Russify the Lithuanian and Finnish, to some extent
+also the Tartar, races, who originally held by far the larger part of
+that area. So, too, the Ural range, which, though long, is neither
+high nor difficult to pass, has opposed no serious obstacle to the
+overflow of population from Russia into Siberia. That in North America
+the Alleghanies have had a comparatively slight effect upon political
+history, although they did for a time arrest the march of colonisation,
+is due partly to the fact that they are a mass of comparatively low
+parallel ranges, with fertile valleys between, partly to the already
+advanced civilisation of the Anglo-Americans of the Atlantic seaboard,
+who found no great difficulty in making their way across, against the
+uncertain resistance of small and non-cohesive Indian tribes. A far
+more formidable natural barrier is formed between the Mississippi
+Valley and the Pacific slope by the Rocky Mountains, with the deserts
+of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Idaho. But the discovery of steam power
+has so much reduced the importance of this barrier that it does not
+seriously threaten the maintenance of a united American republic.
+
+In one respect the New World presents a remarkable contrast to the
+Old. The earliest civilisations of the latter seem to have sprung up
+in fertile river valleys. Those of the former are found not on the
+banks of streams like the Nile or Euphrates, but on elevated plateaux,
+where the heat of a tropical sun is mitigated by height above sea
+level. It was in the lofty lake basin of Tezcuco and Mexico, and on the
+comparatively level ground which lies between the parallel ranges of
+the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes, that American races had reached their
+finest intellectual development, not in the far richer, but also hotter
+and less healthy river valleys of Brazil, or (unless we are to except
+Yucatan) on the scorching shores of the Caribbean Sea. Nature was in
+those regions too strong for man, and held him down in savagery.
+
+[Sidenote: How Nature fixes Sites of Cities]
+
+In determining the courses of great rivers, Nature has determined the
+first highways of trade and fixed the sites of many cities. Nearly all
+the considerable towns founded more than three centuries ago owe their
+origin either to their possessing good havens on the sea-coast, or to
+the natural strength of their position on a defensible hill, or to
+their standing close to a navigable river. Marseilles, Alexandria, New
+York, Rio de Janeiro, are instances of the first; Athens, Edinburgh,
+Prague, Moscow, of the second; Bordeaux, Cologne, New Orleans,
+Calcutta, of the third. Rome and London, Budapest, and Lyons combine
+the advantages of the second with those of the third. This function of
+rivers in directing the lines of commerce and the growth of centres
+of population has become much less important since the construction
+of railroads, yet population tends to stay where it has been first
+gathered, so that the fluviatile cities are likely to retain their
+preponderance. Thus the river is as important to the historian as is
+the mountain range or the sea.
+
+[Sidenote: Climate and Commerce]
+
+From the physical features of a country it is an easy transition to
+the capacities of the soil. The character of the products of a region
+determines the numbers of its inhabitants and the kind of life they
+lead. A land of forests breeds hunters or lumbermen; a land of pasture,
+which is too rough or too arid or too sterile for tillage, supports
+shepherds or herdsmen probably more or less nomadic. Either kind of
+land supports inhabitants few in proportion to its area. Fertile and
+well-watered regions rear a denser, a more settled, and presumably a
+more civilised population. Norway and Tyrol, Tibet and Wyoming, and the
+Orange River Colony, can never become so densely peopled as Bengal or
+Illinois or Lombardy, yet the fisheries of its coast and the seafaring
+energy of its people have sensibly increased the population of Norway.
+Thus he who knows the climate and the productive capacity of the
+soil of any given country can calculate its prospects of prosperity.
+Political causes may, of course, intervene. Asia Minor and the Valley
+of the Euphrates, regions once populous and flourishing, are now thinly
+inhabited and poverty-stricken because they are ruled by the Turks.
+
+But these cases are exceptional. Bengal and Lombardy and Egypt have
+supported large populations under all kinds of government. The products
+of each country tend, moreover, to establish definite relations between
+it and other countries, and do this all the more as population,
+commerce, and the arts advance. When England was a great wool-growing
+and wool-exporting country, her wool export brought her into close
+political connection with the wool-manufacturing Flemish towns. She is
+now a cotton-manufacturing country, needing cotton which she cannot
+grow at all, and consuming wheat which she does not grow in sufficient
+quantities. Hence she is in close commercial relations with the United
+States on one side, which give her most of her cotton and much of her
+wheat, and with India, from which she gets both these articles, and to
+which she exports a large part of her manufactured cotton goods.
+
+[Sidenote: Common Needs make for Peace]
+
+So Rome, because she needed the corn of Egypt, kept Egypt under a
+specially careful administration. The rest of her corn came from
+Sicily and North Africa, and the Vandal conquest of North Africa dealt
+a frightful blow to the declining Empire. In these cases the common
+interest of sellers and buyers makes for peace, but in other cases
+the competition of countries desiring to keep commerce to themselves
+occasions war. The Spanish and Dutch fought over the trade to India in
+the earlier part of the seventeenth century, when the Portuguese Indies
+belonged to Spain, as the English and French fought in the eighteenth.
+And a nation, especially an insular nation, whose arable soil is not
+large enough or fertile enough to provide all the food it needs, has
+a powerful inducement either to seek peace or else to be prepared for
+maritime war. If such a country does not grow enough corn or meat at
+home, she must have a navy strong enough to make sure that she will
+always be able to get these necessaries from abroad. Attica did not
+produce all the grain needed to feed the Athenians, so they depended on
+the corn ships which came down from the Euxine, and were practically at
+the mercy of an enemy who could stop those ships.
+
+Of another natural source of wealth, the fisheries on the coast of
+a country, no more need be said than that they have been a frequent
+source of quarrels and even of war. The recognition of the right of
+each state to the exclusive control and enjoyment of the sea for three
+miles off its shores has reduced, but not entirely removed, the causes
+of friction between the fishermen of different countries.
+
+[Sidenote: Minerals and Civilisation]
+
+Until recently, the surface of the soil was a far more important source
+of wealth than was that which lies beneath the surface. There were
+iron mines among the Chalybes on the Asiatic coast of the Euxine in
+ancient times; there were silver mines here and there, the most famous
+being those at Laurium, from which the Athenians drew large revenues,
+gold mines in Spain and Dacia, copper mines in Elba, tin mines in the
+south-west corner of Britain. But the number of persons employed in
+mining and the industries connected therewith was relatively small both
+in the ancient world and, indeed, down till the close of the eighteenth
+century. The immense development of coal-mining and of iron-working
+in connection therewith has now doubled, trebled, or quadrupled the
+population of large areas in Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, and
+the United States, adding vastly to the wealth of these countries
+and stimulating in them the growth of many mechanical arts. This new
+population is quite different in character from the agricultural
+peasantry who in earlier days formed the principal substratum of
+society. Its appearance has changed the internal politics of these
+countries, disturbing the old balance of forces and accelerating the
+progress of democratic principles.
+
+[Illustration: THE PLACE OF MOUNTAINS IN HISTORY: NATURE’S BARRIERS TO
+MAN’S EXPANSION
+
+ Without the Alps the annals of Europe must have been entirely
+ different. The mountains were too much for the emperors of the
+ Middle Ages, although Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general,
+ succeeded in crossing them two centuries before Christ, a
+ feat which Napoleon repeated 2,000 years later. Our engraving
+ illustrates Napoleon crossing the Alps.
+]
+
+Nor have minerals failed to affect the international relations of
+peoples and States. It was chiefly for the precious metals that the
+Spaniards explored the American Continent and conquered Mexico and
+Peru. It was for the sake of capturing the ships bringing those metals
+back to Europe that the English sea-rovers made their way to the
+American coasts and involved England in wars with Spain. It was the
+discovery in 1885 of extensive auriferous strata unexampled in the
+certainty of their yield that drew a swarm of foreign immigrants into
+the Transvaal, whence arose those difficulties between them and the
+Dutch inhabitants previously established there which, coupled with the
+action of the wealthy owners of the mines, led at last to the war of
+1899 between Britain and the two South African Republics.
+
+[Sidenote: Man’s Fight with Nature]
+
+The productive capacity of a country is, however, in one respect very
+different from those great physical features--such as temperature,
+rainfall, coast configuration, surface character, geological structure,
+and river system--which have been previously noted. Those features are
+permanent qualities which man can affect only to a limited extent,
+as when he reduces the rainfall a little by cutting down forests, or
+increases it by planting them, or as when he unites an isle, like
+that of Cadiz, to the mainland, cuts through an isthmus, like that
+of Corinth, or clears away the bar at a river mouth, as that of the
+Mississippi has been cleared.
+
+[Sidenote: Exhausting the Mineral Wealth]
+
+But the natural products of a country may be exhausted and even
+the productive capacity of its soil diminished. Constant tillage,
+especially if the same crop be raised and no manure added, will wear
+out the richest soils. This has already happened in parts of Western
+America. Still the earth is there; and with rest and artificial help
+it will recover its strength. But timber destroyed cannot always be
+induced to grow again, or at least not so as to equal the vigour
+of primeval forests. Wild animals, once extirpated, are gone for
+ever. The buffalo and beaver of North America, the beautiful lynxes
+of South Africa and some of its large ruminants, are irrecoverably
+lost for the purposes of human use, just as much as the dinornis,
+though a few individuals may be kept alive as specimens. So, too, the
+mineral resources of a country are not only consumable, but obviously
+irreplaceable. Already some of the smaller coalfields of Europe have
+been worked out, while in others it has become necessary to sink much
+deeper shafts, at an increasing cost. There is not much tin left in
+Cornwall, not much gold in the gravel deposits of Northern California.
+The richest known goldfield of the world, that of the Transvaal
+Witwatersrand, can hardly last more than thirty or forty years. Thus in
+a few centuries the productive capacity of many regions may have become
+quite different from what it is now, with grave consequences to their
+inhabitants.
+
+These are some of the ways in which Nature affects those economic,
+social, and political conditions of the life of man the changes in
+which make up history. As we have seen, that which Nature gives to
+man is always the same, in so far as Nature herself is always the
+same--an expression which is more popular than accurate, for Nature
+herself--that is to say, not the laws of Nature, but the physical
+environment of man on this planet--is in reality always changing. It is
+true that this environment changes so slowly that a thousand years may
+be too short a period in which man can note and record some forms of
+change--such, for instance, as that by which the temperature of Europe
+became colder during the approach of the glacial period and warmer
+during its recession--while ten thousand years may be too short to note
+any diminution in the heat which the sun pours upon the earth, or in
+the store of oxygen which the earth’s atmosphere holds.
+
+[Sidenote: Progress of Modern Invention]
+
+[Sidenote: Man Cannot Disregard Nature]
+
+But as we have also seen, the relation to man of Nature’s gifts
+differs from age to age as man himself becomes different, and as his
+power of using these gifts increases, or his need of them becomes
+either less or greater. Every invention alters those relations. Water
+power became less relatively valuable when steam was applied to the
+generation of motive force. It has become more valuable with the new
+applications of electricity. With the discovery of mineral dyes, indigo
+and cochineal are now less wanted than they were. With the invention
+of the pneumatic tyre for bicycles and carriages, caoutchouc is more
+wanted. Mountains have become, since the making of railways, less of
+an obstacle to trade than they were, and they have also become more
+available as health resorts. Political circumstances may interfere
+with the ordinary and normal action of natural phenomena. A race may
+be attracted to or driven into a region for which it is not physically
+suited, as Europeans have gone to the West Indies, and negroes were
+once carried into New York and Pennsylvania. The course of trade which
+Nature prescribes between different countries may be hampered or
+stopped by protective tariffs; but in these cases Nature usually takes
+her eventual revenges. They are instances which show, not that man can
+disregard her, but that when he does so, he does so to his own loss.
+
+It would be easy to add further illustrations, but those already given
+are sufficient to indicate how multiform and pervading is the action
+upon man of the physical environment, or in other words, how in all
+countries, and at all times, geography is the necessary foundation
+of history, so that neither the course of a nation’s growth, nor its
+relations with other nations, can be grasped by one who has not come to
+understand the climate, surface, and products of the country wherein
+that nation dwells.
+
+[Sidenote: There is no Unmixed Race left]
+
+This conception of the relation of geography to history is, as has been
+said, the leading idea of the present work, and has furnished the main
+lines which it follows. It deals with history in the light of physical
+environment. Its ground plan, so to speak, is primarily geographical,
+and secondarily chronological. But there is one difficulty in the way
+of such a scheme, and of the use of such a ground plan, which cannot
+be passed over. That difficulty is suggested by the fact already
+noted--that hardly any considerable race, and possibly no great nation,
+now inhabits the particular part of the earth’s surface on which it was
+dwelling when a history begins. Nearly every people has either migrated
+bodily from one region to another, or has received such large infusions
+of immigrants from other regions as to have become practically a new
+people. Hence it is rare to find any nation now living under the
+physical conditions which originally moulded its character, or the
+character of some at least of its component elements. And hence it
+follows that when we study the qualities, aptitudes, and institutions
+of a nation in connection with the land it inhabits, we must always
+have regard not merely to the features of that land, but also to those
+of the land which was its earlier dwelling-place. Obviously, this
+brings a disturbing element into the study of the relations between
+land and people, and makes the whole problem a far more complicated one
+than it appeared at first sight.
+
+[Sidenote: Nature’s Race Factory]
+
+Where a people has migrated from a country whose physical conditions
+were similar to those under which its later life is spent, or where it
+had reached only a comparatively low stage of economic and political
+development before the migration, the difficulties arising from this
+source are not serious. The fact that the English came into Britain
+from the lands round the mouth of the Elbe is not very material to
+an inquiry into their relations to their new home, because climate
+and soil were similar, and the emigrants were a rude, warlike race.
+But when we come to the second migration of the English, from Britain
+to North America, the case is altogether different. Groups of men
+from a people which had already become highly civilised, had formed
+a well-marked national character, and had created a body of peculiar
+institutions, planted themselves in a country whose climate and
+physical features are widely diverse from those of Britain.
+
+If, for the sake of argument, we assume the Algonquin aborigines of
+Atlantic North America as they were in A.D. 1600 to have been the
+legitimate product of their physical environment--I say “for the
+sake of argument,” because it may be alleged that other forces than
+those of physical environment contributed to form them--what greater
+contrast can be imagined than the contrast between the inhabitants
+of New England in this present year and the inhabitants of the same
+district three centuries earlier, as Nature, and Nature alone, had
+turned them out of her factory? Plainly, therefore, the history of the
+United States cannot, so far as Nature and geography are concerned,
+be written with regard solely, or even chiefly, to the conditions of
+North American nature. The physical environment in which the English
+immigrants found themselves on that continent has no doubt affected
+their material progress and the course of their politics during the
+three centuries that have elapsed since settlements were founded in
+Virginia and on Massachusetts Bay.
+
+[Sidenote: Beginnings of Race History]
+
+But it is not to that environment, but to earlier days, and especially
+to the twelve centuries during which their ancestors lived in England,
+that their character and institutions are to be traced. Thus the
+history of the American people begins in the forests of Germany,
+where the foundations of their polity were laid, and is continued in
+England, where they set up kingdoms, embraced Christianity, became one
+nation, received an influx of Celtic, Danish, and Norman-French blood,
+formed for themselves that body of customs, laws, and institutions
+which they transplanted to the new soil of America, and most of which,
+though changed and always changing, they still retain. The same thing
+is true of the Spaniards (as also of the Portuguese) in Central
+and South America. The difference between the development of the
+Hispano-Americans and that of their English neighbours to the north is
+not wholly, or even mainly, due to the different physical conditions
+under which the two sets of colonists have lived.
+
+It is due to the different antecedent history of the two races. So a
+history of America must be a history not only of America, but of the
+Spaniards, Portuguese, French, and English--one ought in strictness
+to add of the negroes also--before they crossed the Atlantic. The only
+true Americans, the only Americans for whom American nature can be
+deemed answerable, are the aboriginal red men whom we, perpetuating the
+mistake of Columbus, still call Indians.
+
+[Sidenote: Geography as a Basis of History]
+
+This objection to the geographical scheme of history writing is no
+doubt serious when a historical treatise is confined to one particular
+country or continent, as in the instance I have taken of the Continent
+of North America. It is, however, less formidable in a universal
+history, such as the present work, because, by referring to another
+volume of the series, the reader will find what he needs to know
+regarding the history of the Spaniards, English, and French in those
+respective European homes where they have grown to be that which they
+were when, with religion, slaughter, and slavery in their train, they
+descended upon the shores of America.
+
+Accordingly the difficulty I have pointed out does not disparage the
+idea and plan of writing universal history on a geographical basis.
+It merely indicates a caution needed in applying that plan, and a
+condition indispensable to its utility--viz., the regard that must be
+had to the stage of progress at which a people has arrived when it is
+subjected to an environment different from that which had in the first
+instance helped to form its type.
+
+
+THE GROWTH OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE
+
+We have now considered some of the ways in which a universal history,
+written with special reference to the physical phenomena of the earth
+as geographical science presents them, may bring into strong relief
+one large and permanent set of influences which determine the progress
+or retrogression of each several branch of mankind. Upon the other
+principles which preside over and direct the composition of such a
+work, not much need be said. They are, of course, in the main, those
+which all competent historians will follow in writing the history of
+any particular people.
+
+But a universal history which endeavours to present in a short compass
+a record of the course of events in all regions and among all peoples,
+since none can safely be omitted, is specially exposed to two dangers.
+One is that of becoming sketchy and viewy. When a large object has to
+be dealt with on a small scale, it is natural to sum up in a few broad
+generalisations masses of facts which cannot be described or examined
+in detail. Broad generalisations are valuable when they proceed from a
+thoroughly trained mind--valuable, even if not completely verifiable,
+because they excite reflection. But it is seldom possible to make them
+exact. They necessarily omit most of the exceptions, and thus suggest a
+greater uniformity than exists.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Neurdein
+
+THE STONE AGE: HUNTERS RETURNING FROM THE CHASE
+
+ From the painting by Ferdinand Cormon
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Need of Care in History]
+
+The other danger is that of sacrificing brightness and charm of
+presentation. When an effort is made to avoid generalisations, and
+to squeeze into the narrative as many facts as the space will admit,
+the narrative is apt to become dry, because compression involves
+the curtailment of the personal and dramatic element. These are the
+rocks between which every historian has to steer. If he has ample
+space, he does well to prefer the course of giving all the salient
+facts and leaving the reader to generalise for himself. If, however,
+his space is limited, as must needs be the lot of those who write a
+universal history, the impossibility of going into minute detail makes
+generalisations inevitable, for it is through them that the result
+and significance of a multitude of minor facts must be conveyed in a
+condensed form.
+
+[Sidenote: New Minds and New Facts]
+
+All the greater, therefore, becomes the need for care and sobriety in
+the forming and setting forth every summarising statement and general
+conclusion or judgment. Probably the soundest guiding principle
+and best safeguard against error is to be found in shunning all
+preconceived hypotheses which seek to explain history by one set of
+causes, or to read it in the light of one idea. The habit of magnifying
+a single factor, such as the social factor, or the economic, or
+the religious, has been a fertile source of weakness in historical
+writing, because it has made the presentation of events one-sided,
+destroying that balance and proportion which it is the highest merit
+of any historian to have attained. Theory and generalisation are the
+life-blood of history. They make it intelligible. They give it unity.
+They convey to us the instruction which it always contains, together
+with so much of practical guidance in the management of communities
+as history is capable of rendering. But they need to be applied with
+reserve, and not only with an impartial mind, but after a painstaking
+examination of all the facts--whether or no they seem to make for the
+particular theory stated--and of all the theories which any competent
+predecessor has propounded.
+
+For the historian, though he must keep himself from falling under the
+dominion of any one doctrine by which it is sought to connect and
+explain phenomena, must welcome all the light which any such doctrine
+can throw upon facts. Even if such a doctrine be imperfect, even if it
+be tainted by error, it may serve to indicate relations between facts,
+or to indicate the true importance of facts, which previous writers
+had failed to observe, or had passed too lightly over. It is thus
+that history always needs to be re-written. History is a progressive
+science, not merely because new facts are constantly being discovered,
+not merely because the changes in the world give to old facts a new
+significance, but also because every truly penetrating and original
+mind sees in the old facts something which had not been seen before.
+
+A universal history is fitted to correct such defects as may be
+incident to that extreme specialism in historical writing which is now
+in fashion. The broad and concise treatment which a history of all
+times and peoples must adopt naturally leads to efforts to characterise
+the dominant features and tendency of an epoch or a movement, whether
+social, economic, or political.
+
+[Sidenote: The Side Streams of History]
+
+Yet even here there is a danger to be guarded against. No epoch, no
+movement, is so simple as it looks at first sight, or as one would
+gather from even the most honest contemporary writer. There is always
+an eddy at the side of the stream; and the stream itself is the
+resultant of a number of rivulets with different sources, whose waters,
+if the metaphor may be extended, are of different tints. Let any man
+study minutely a given epoch, such as that of the Reformation in
+Germany, or that of the Revolutionary War in America, and he will be
+surprised to find how much more complex were the forces at work than
+he had at first supposed, and on how much smaller a number of persons
+than he had fancied the principal forces did in fact directly operate.
+Or let any one--for this is perhaps the best, if the most difficult,
+method of getting at the roots of this complexity--study thoroughly
+and dispassionately the phenomena of his own time. Let him observe how
+many movements go on simultaneously, sometimes accelerating, sometimes
+retarding, one another, and mark how, the more fully he understands
+this complex interlacing, so much the less confident do his predictions
+of the future become. He will then realise how hard it is to find
+simple explanations and to deliver exact statements regarding critical
+epochs in the past.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mercier
+
+THE FIRST INDUSTRIES: POTTERY
+
+ From the painting by Ferdinand Cormon
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mercier
+
+THE FIRST INDUSTRIES: THE FORGE
+
+ From the painting by Ferdinand Cormon
+]
+
+[Sidenote: The Main Stream of History]
+
+Nevertheless, the task of summarising and explaining is one to which
+the writer of a History of the World must address himself. If he has
+the disadvantage of limited space, he has the advantage of being able
+to assume the reader’s knowledge of what has gone before, and to invite
+the reader’s attention to what will come after. Thus he stands in a
+better position than does the writer who deals with one country or one
+epoch only for making each part of history illustrate other parts,
+for showing how similar social tendencies, similar proclivities of
+human nature, work similarly under varying conditions and are followed
+by similar, though never identical, results. He is able to bring out
+the essential unity of history, expunging from the reader’s mind the
+conventional and often misleading distinctions that are commonly drawn
+between the ancient, the mediæval, and the modern time. He can bring
+the contemporaneous course of events in different countries into a
+fruitful relation. And in the case of the present work, which dwells
+more especially on the geographical side of history, he can illustrate
+from each country in succession the influence of physical environment
+on the formation of races and the progress of nations, the principles
+which determine the action of such environment being everywhere
+similar, though the forms which that action takes are infinitely
+various.
+
+Is there, it may be asked, any central thread in following which the
+unity of history most plainly appears? Is there any process in tracing
+which we can feel that we are floating down the main stream of the
+world’s onward movement? If there be such a process, its study ought to
+help us to realise the unity of history by connecting the development
+of the numerous branches of the human family.
+
+One such process has already been adverted to and illustrated. It is
+the gradual and constant increase in man’s power over Nature, whereby
+he is emancipated more and more from the conditions she imposes on
+his life, yet is brought into an always closer touch with her by the
+discovery of new methods of using her gifts. Two other such processes
+may be briefly examined. One goes on in the sphere of time, and
+consists in the accumulation from age to age of the strength, the
+knowledge, and the culture of mankind as a whole. The other goes on in
+space as well as in time, and may be described as the contraction of
+the world, relatively to man.
+
+[Sidenote: The Great Increase of Population]
+
+The accumulation of physical strength is most apparent in the increase
+of the human race. We have no trustworthy data for determining the
+population, even of any one civilised country, more than a century
+and a half ago; much less can we conjecture that of any country
+in primitive or prehistoric times. It is clear, however, that in
+prehistoric times--say, six or seven thousand years ago, there were
+very few men on the earth’s surface. The scarcity of food alone would
+be sufficient to prove that; and, indeed, all our data go to show it.
+Fifty years ago the world’s population used to be roughly conjectured
+at from seven to nine hundred millions, two-thirds of them in China and
+India. It is now estimated at over fifteen hundred millions. That of
+Europe alone must have tripled within a century, and can hardly be less
+than four hundred millions. That of North America may have scarcely
+exceeded four or five millions in the time of Christopher Columbus, or
+at the date of the first English settlements, though we have only the
+scantiest data for a guess. It may now be 130,000,000, for there are
+over a hundred millions in the United States alone, about fifteen in
+Mexico, and eight in Canada, besides the inhabitants of Central America.
+
+[Sidenote: The Prolific Power of White People]
+
+[Sidenote: Physical & Intellectual Power]
+
+The increase has been most swift in the civilised countries, such
+as Britain, Germany, Russia, and the United States; but it has
+gone on in India also since India came under British rule (famines
+notwithstanding), and in the regions recently colonised by Europeans,
+such as Australia, Siberia, and Argentina, the disappearance of
+aborigines being far more than compensated for by the prolific power
+of the white immigrants. Some regions, such as Asia Minor and parts
+of North Africa, are more thinly peopled now than they were under the
+Roman Empire, and both China and Peru may have no larger population
+than they had five, or ten, or fifteen centuries ago. But taking
+the world at large, the increase is enormous, and will apparently
+continue. Even after the vacant cultivable spaces which remain in
+the two Americas, Northern Asia, and Australasia have been filled,
+the discovery of new modes of enlarging the annually available stock
+of food may maintain the increase. It is most conspicuous among the
+European races, and is, of course, due to the greater production in
+some regions of food, and in others of commodities wherewith food can
+be purchased. It means an immense addition to the physical force of
+mankind in the aggregate, and to the possibilities of intellectual
+force also--a point to be considered later. And, of course, it
+also means an immense and growing preponderance of the civilised
+white nations, which are now probably one half of mankind, and may,
+in another century, when they have risen from about five hundred
+to, possibly, one thousand or fifteen hundred millions, be nearly
+two-thirds.
+
+[Sidenote: Modern Man Stronger than his Ancestors]
+
+As respects the strength of the average individual man, the inquiry
+is less simple. Palæolithic man and neolithic man were apparently
+(though here and there may have been exceptions) comparatively feeble
+creatures, as are the relics of the most backward tribes known to us,
+such as the Veddas of Ceylon, the Bushmen, the Fuegians. Some savages,
+as, for instance, the Patagonians, are men of great stature, and some
+of the North American Indians possess amazing powers of endurance.
+The Greeks of the fifth century B.C., and the Teutons of the time of
+Julius Cæsar, had reached a high physical development. Pheidippides
+is said to have traversed one hundred and fifty miles on foot in
+forty-eight hours. But if we think of single feats of strength, feats
+have been performed in our own day--such as Captain Webb’s swimming
+across the Straits of Dover--equal to anything recorded from ancient
+or mediæval times. To swim across the much narrower Hellespont was
+then deemed a surprising exploit. Nor do we know of any race more to
+be commended for physical power and vigour of constitution than the
+American backwoodsmen of Kentucky or Oregon to-day. The swords used by
+the knights of the fifteenth century have usually handles too small for
+many a modern English or German hand to grasp.
+
+[Sidenote: America’s Mingled Races]
+
+Isolated feats do not prove very much, but there is good reason to
+believe that the average European is as strong as ever he was, and
+probably more healthy, at least if longevity is a test of health.
+One may fairly conclude that with better and more abundant food,
+the average of stature and strength has improved over the world at
+large, so that in this respect also the force of mankind as a whole
+has advanced. Whether this advance will continue is more doubtful. In
+modern industrial communities the law of the survival of the fittest
+may turn out to be reversed, for it is the poorer and lower sections
+of the population that marry at an early age, and have the largest
+families, while prudential considerations keep down the birth-rate
+among the upper middle-class. In Transylvania, for instance, the
+Saxons are dying out, because very few children are born to each pair,
+while the less educated and cultured Rumans increase fast. In North
+America, the Old New England stock of comparatively pure British blood
+has begun to be swamped by the offspring of the recent immigrants,
+mostly Irish or French Canadians; and although the sons of New England,
+who have gone West, continue to be prolific, it is probable that the
+phenomena of New England will recur in the Mississippi Valley, and
+that the newcomers from Europe who form the less cultivated strata
+of the population--Irish, Germans, Italians, Czechs, Poles, Slovaks,
+Rumans--will contribute an increasing proportion of the inhabitants.
+Some of these, and especially the Irish and the Germans and the
+Scandinavians, are among the best elements in the American population,
+and have produced men of the highest distinction. But the average
+level among them of versatile aptitude and of intellectual culture is
+slightly below that of the native Americans.
+
+Now, the poorer sections are in most countries, though of course not
+always to the same extent, somewhat inferior in physical as well as in
+mental quality, and more prone to suffer from that greatest hindrance
+to physical improvement, the abuse of alcoholic drinks.
+
+We come next to another form of the increase of human resources, the
+accumulation of knowledge, and of what may be called intellectual
+culture and capacity, for it is convenient to distinguish these two
+latter from knowledge.
+
+[Illustration: PIONEERS OF MODERN CIVILISATION
+
+ The discovery of precious metals is a great factor in progress.
+ Seekers after gold are chief among the pioneers who help to carry
+ civilisation into new lands.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Inventions Mean Progress]
+
+In knowledge there has been an advance, not merely a tolerably
+steady and constant advance, but one which has gone on with a sort
+of geometrical progression, moving the faster the nearer we come to
+our own time. Whatever may have befallen in the prehistoric darkness,
+history knows of only one notable arrest or setback in the onward
+march--that which marks the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries of
+the Christian era. Even this set-back was practically confined to
+Southern and Western Europe, and affected only certain departments
+of knowledge. It did not, save, perhaps, as regards a few artistic
+processes, extinguish that extremely important part of the previously
+accumulated resources of mankind which consisted in the knowledge of
+inventions. It is in respect of inventions, especially mechanical and
+physical or chemical inventions, that the accumulation of knowledge has
+been most noteworthy and most easy to appreciate.
+
+A history of inventions is a history of the progress of mankind, of a
+progress to which every race may have contributed in primitive times,
+though all the later contributions have come from a few of the most
+civilised. Every great invention marks one onward step, as one may see
+by enumerating a few, such as the use of fire, cooking, metal working,
+the domestication of wild animals, the tillage of the ground, the use
+of plough and mattock and harrow and fan, the discovery of plants
+or trees useful for food or for medicine, the cart, the wheel, the
+water-mill (overshot, undershot, and turbine), the windmill, the
+distaff (followed long, long after by the spinning-wheel), the loom,
+dyestuffs, the needle, the potter’s wheel, the hydraulic press, the
+axe-handle, the spear, the bow, the shield, the war-chariot, the
+sling, the cross-bow, the boat, the paddle, the oar, the helm, the
+sail, the mariner’s compass, the clock, picture-writing, the alphabet,
+parchment, paper, printing, photography, the sliding keel, the
+sounding-lead, the log, the brick, mortar, the column, the arch, the
+dome, till we come down to explosives, the microscope, the cantilever,
+and the Röntgen rays.
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF A NEW CITY
+
+ Many flourishing cities in South Africa, Australia, and America
+ have grown up around the sites where the first gold-seekers pegged
+ out their claims in unexploited territories and began digging for
+ the precious metal.
+]
+
+The history of the successive discovery, commixture, and applications
+of the metals, from copper and bronze down to manganese, platinum, and
+aluminium, or of the successive discovery and utilisation of sources of
+power--the natural sources, such as water and wind, the artificially
+procured, such as steam, gas, and electricity--or of the production and
+manufacture of materials available for clothing, wool, hair, linen,
+silk, cotton, would show how every step becomes the basis for another
+step, and how inventions in one department suggest or facilitate
+inventions in another. Recent discoveries in surgery and medicine, such
+as the use of antiseptics, tend to improve health and to prolong life;
+and in doing so, they increase the chances of further discoveries being
+made.
+
+[Sidenote: The Prolonging of Life]
+
+Who can tell what the world may have lost by the early death of many a
+man of genius? One peculiar line of discovery which at first seemed to
+have nothing to do with practice has proved to be of signal service;
+the working out of mathematical methods of calculation by means of
+which the mechanical and physical sciences have in recent times made a
+progress in their practical application undreamt of by those who laid
+the foundations of geometry and algebra many centuries ago. It may,
+indeed, be said that all the sciences need one another, and that none
+has been without its utilities for practice, since even that which
+deals with the heavenly bodies has been used for the computation of
+time, was used by the agriculturist before he had any calendars to
+guide him, and has been of supreme value to the navigator. It has also
+been suggested that an observation of sun spots may enable the advent
+of specially hot seasons, involving droughts, to be predicted.
+
+Another kind of knowledge also grows by the joint efforts of many
+peoples, that which records the condition of men in the past and the
+present, including history, economics, statistics, and the other
+so-called social sciences. This kind also is useful for practice, and
+has led to improvements by which nearly all nations have profited,
+such as an undebased currency, banking and insurance, better systems
+of taxation, corporations, and joint stock companies. With this we may
+couple the invention of improved political institutions.
+
+The accumulation of knowledge, especially of scientific knowledge
+applied to the exploitation of the resources of Nature, means the
+accumulation of wealth--that is to say, of all the things which
+men need or use. The total wealth of the world must have at least
+quadrupled or quintupled within the last hundred years. Nearly all of
+it is in the hands or under the control of the civilised nations of
+European stock, among whom the United States stands foremost, both
+in rate of economic growth and in the absolute quantity of values
+possessed.
+
+[Sidenote: Knowledge Means Wealth]
+
+Two further observations belong to this part of the subject. One is
+that this stock of useful knowledge, the accumulation of which is the
+central fact of the material progress as well as of the intellectual
+history of mankind, now belongs to (practically) all races and states
+alike. Some, as we shall note presently, are more able to use it than
+others, but all have access to it. This is a new fact. It is true
+that most races have contributed something to the common stock; and
+that even among the civilised peoples, no one or two or three (except
+possibly the Greeks as respects ancient times) can claim to have
+contributed much more than the others. But in earlier ages there were
+peoples or groups of peoples who were for a time the sole possessors
+of inventions which gave them great advantages, especially for war.
+Superior weapons as well as superior drill enabled Alexander the Great,
+and afterward the Romans, to conquer most of the civilised world.
+Horses and firearms, with courage and discipline, enabled two Spanish
+adventurers to seize two ancient American empires with very scanty
+forces, as they enabled a handful of Dutch Boers to overcome the hosts
+of Mosilikatze and Dingaan. So there were formerly industrial arts
+known to or practised by a few peoples only. But now all inventions,
+even those relating to war, are available even to the more backward
+races, if they can learn how to use them or can hire white men to do
+so for them. The facilities of communication are so great, the means
+of publicity so abundant, that everything becomes speedily known
+everywhere.
+
+[Sidenote: Inventions are now Universal]
+
+The other observation is that there is now no risk that any valuable
+piece of knowledge will be lost. Every public event that happens, as
+well as every fact of scientific consequence, is put on record, and
+that not on a single stone or in a few manuscripts, but in books, of
+which so many copies exist that even the perishable nature of the
+material will not involve the loss of the contents, since, if these
+contents are valuable, they will be transferred to and issued in other
+books, and so _ad infinitum_. Thus every process of manufacture is
+known to so many persons that while it continues to be serviceable it
+is sure to be familiar and transmitted from generation to generation
+by practice as well as by description. We must imagine a world totally
+different from the world we know in order to imagine the possibility of
+any diminution, indeed of any discontinuance of the increase, of this
+stock of knowledge which the world has been acquiring, and which is not
+only knowledge but potential wealth.
+
+When one passes from knowledge considered as a body of facts
+ascertained and available for use to the thing we call intellectual
+aptitude or culture--namely, the power of turning knowledge to
+account and of producing results in spheres other than material--and
+when we inquire whether mankind has made a parallel advance in this
+direction, it becomes necessary to distinguish three different kinds of
+intellectual capacity.
+
+The first may be called the power of using scientific methods for
+investigating phenomena, whether physical or social.
+
+[Sidenote: No Decrease of Knowledge is now Likely]
+
+The second is the power of speculation, applied to matters which
+have not hitherto been found capable of examination by the methods
+of science, whether observational, experimental, or mathematical.
+The third is the power of intellectual creation, whether literary or
+artistic.
+
+The methods of scientific inquiry may almost be classed with the
+ascertained facts of science or with inventions, as being parts of
+the stock of accumulated knowledge built up by the labour of many
+generations. They are known to everybody who cares to study them, and
+can be learnt and applied by everybody who will give due diligence.
+Just as every man can be taught to fire a gun, or steer a ship, or
+write a letter, though guns, helms, and letters are the result of
+discoveries made by exceptionally gifted men, so every graduate in
+science of a university can use the methods of induction, can observe
+and experiment with a correctness which a few centuries ago even the
+most vigorous minds could scarcely have reached.
+
+[Sidenote: Original Thinkers are still Rare]
+
+Because the methods have been so fully explained and illustrated as to
+have grown familiar, a vast host of investigators, very few of whom
+possess scientific genius, are at work to-day extending our scientific
+knowledge. So the methods of historical criticism--so the methods
+of using statistics--are to-day profitably applied by many men with
+no such original gift as would have made them competent critics or
+statisticians had not the paths been cut by a few great men and trodden
+since by hundreds of feet. All that is needed is imitation--intelligent
+and careful imitation. Nevertheless, there remains this sharp contrast
+between knowledge of the facts of applied science and knowledge of
+the methods, that whereas there is no radical difference between the
+ability of one man and that of another to use a mechanical invention,
+such as a steam plough or an electric motor-car, there is all the
+difference in the world between the power of one intellect and another
+to use a method for the purposes of fresh discovery. Knowledge
+fossilised in a concrete invention or even in a mathematical formula is
+a sort of tool ready to every hand. But a method, though serviceable
+to everybody, becomes eminently fruitful only when wielded by the same
+kind of original genius as that which made discoveries by the less
+perfect methods of older days. This is apparent even in inquiries which
+seem to reside chiefly in collection and computation. Everybody tries
+nowadays to use statistics. Many people do use them profitably. But the
+people who by means of statistics can throw really fresh and brilliant
+light on a problem are as few as ever they were.
+
+[Sidenote: Advantage of Modern over Old Thinkers]
+
+When we turn to the exercise of speculative thought on subjects not
+amenable to strictly scientific--that is to say, to exact--methods,
+the gain which has come to mankind by the labour of past ages is of
+a different order. Metaphysics, ethics, and theology, to take the
+most obvious examples, are all of them the richer for the thoughts of
+philosophers in the past. A number of distinctions have been drawn,
+and a number of classifications made, a number of confusions, often
+verbal, have been cleared up, a number of fallacies detected, a number
+of technical terms invented, whereby the modern speculator enjoys a
+great advantage over his predecessor. His mind has been clarified, and
+many new aspects of the old problems have been presented, so that he is
+better able to see all round the old problems.
+
+[Sidenote: The Living Thought of Past Ages]
+
+None of the great thinkers, from Pythagoras down to Hegel, has
+left metaphysics where he found it. Yet none can be said to have
+built on the foundations of his predecessors in the same way as the
+mathematicians and physicists and chemists have added to the edifice
+they found. What the philosophers have done is to accumulate materials
+for the study of man’s faculties and modes of thinking, and of his
+ideas regarding his relations to the universe, while also indicating
+various methods by which the study may be pursued. Each great product
+of speculative thought is itself a part of these materials, and for
+that reason never becomes obsolete, as the treatises of the old
+physicists and chemists have mostly become. Aristotle, for instance,
+has left us books on natural history, on metaphysics and ethics, and
+on politics. Those on natural history are mere curiosities, and no
+modern biologist or zoologist needs them. Those on metaphysics and
+ethics still deserve the attention of the student of philosophy,
+though he may in a certain sense be said to have got beyond them. The
+treatise on politics still keeps its place beside Montesquieu, Burke,
+and Tocqueville. Or, to take a thinker who like Aristotle seems very
+far removed from us, though fifteen hundred years later in date, St.
+Thomas of Aquinum discusses questions from many of which the modern
+world has moved away, and discusses them by methods which many do not
+now use, starting from premises which many do not accept. But he marks
+a remarkable stage in the history of human thought, and as a part of
+that history, and as an example of extraordinary dialectical ingenuity
+and subtlety, he remains an object of interest to those least in
+agreement with his conclusions.
+
+[Sidenote: Every Great Thinker Affects Others]
+
+Every great thinker affects other thinkers, and propagates the impulse
+he has received, though perhaps in a quite different direction.
+The teaching of Socrates was the starting point for nearly all
+the subsequent schools of Greek philosophy. Hume became the point
+of departure for Kant, who desired to lay a deeper foundation for
+philosophy than that which Hume seemed to have overturned. All these
+great ones have not only enriched us, but are still capable of
+stimulating us. But they have not improved our capacity for original
+thinking. The accumulation of scientific knowledge has, as already
+observed, put all mankind in a better position for solving further
+physical problems and establishing a more complete dominion over
+Nature. The accumulation of philosophic thought has had no similar
+effect. In the former case each man stands, so to speak, on the
+shoulders of his predecessors. In the latter he stands on his own feet.
+The value of future contributions to philosophy will depend on the
+original power of the minds that make them, and only to a small extent
+(except by way of stimulus) on what such minds may have drawn from
+those into whose labours they have entered.
+
+[Sidenote: Ebb-Tides of Intellectual Culture]
+
+When we come to the products of literary and artistic capacity, we
+find an even vaster accumulation of intellectual treasure available
+for enjoyment, but a still more marked absence of connection between
+the amount of treasures possessed and the power of adding fresh
+treasures to them. Since writing came into use, and, indeed, even in
+the days when memory alone preserved lays and tales, every age and
+many races have contributed to the stock. There have been ebbs and
+flows both in quantity and quality. The centuries between A.D.
+600 and A.D. 1100 have left us very little of high merit in
+literature, though something in architecture; and the best of that
+little in literature did not come from the seats of Roman civilisation
+in Italy, France, Spain, and the East Roman Empire.
+
+Some periods have seen an eclipse of poetry, others an eclipse of art
+or a sterility in music. Literature and the arts have not always
+flourished together, and musical genius in particular seems to have
+little to do with the contemporaneous development of other forms of
+intellectual power. The quantity of production bears no relation to
+the quality, not even an inverse relation; for the pessimistic notion
+that the larger the output the smaller is the part which possesses
+brilliant excellence, has not been proved. Still less does the amount
+of good work produced in any given area depend upon the number of
+persons living in that area. Florence, between A.D. 1250 and A.D. 1500
+gave birth to more men of first-rate poetical and artistic genius than
+London has produced since 1250; yet Florence had in those two and
+a half centuries a population of probably only from forty to sixty
+thousand. And Florence herself has since A.D. 1500 given birth to
+scarcely any distinguished poets or artists, though her population has
+been larger than it was in the fifteenth century.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mansell
+
+THE MIND OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
+
+ Aristotle (B.C. 384-322) whose influence is greater in some lines
+ than that of St. Thomas of Aquinum, who represents mediæval
+ thought, 1500 years later.
+]
+
+The increase in the world’s stock of intellectual wealth is one of the
+most remarkable facts in history, for it represents a constant increase
+in the means of enjoyment. Such losses as there have been nearly all
+occurred during the Dark Ages; but there is now little risk that
+anything of high literary or musical value will perish, though, of
+course, works of art, and especially buildings and carvings, suffer or
+vanish.
+
+The increase does not, however, tend to any strengthening of the
+creative faculty. There is a greater abundance of models of excellence,
+models of which form the taste, afford a stimulus to sensitive minds,
+and establish a sort of technique with well-known rules. The principles
+of criticism are more fully investigated. The power of analysis grows,
+and the appreciation both of literature and of art is more widely
+diffused. Their influence on the whole community becomes greater, but
+the creative imagination which is needed for the production of original
+work becomes no more abundant and no more powerful. It may, indeed, be
+urged, though our data are probably insufficient for a final judgment,
+that the finer qualities of poetry and of pictorial and plastic art
+tend rather to decline under the more analytic habit of mind which
+belongs to the modern world. Simplicity, freshness, spontaneity come
+less naturally to those who have fallen under the pervasive influence
+of this habit.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mansell
+
+THE MIND OF THE MEDIÆVAL WORLD
+
+ St. Thomas of Aquinum, 1500 years later than Aristotle, represents
+ mediæval thought. St. Thomas, however, influences the life and
+ thought of many thousands to-day.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Effect of Thought on Mankind]
+
+There remains one other way in which the incessant play of thought
+may be said to have increased or improved the resources of mankind.
+Certain principles or ideas belonging to the moral and social
+sphere--to the moral sphere by their origin, to the social sphere by
+their results--make their way to a more or less general acceptance, and
+exert a potent influence upon human life and action. They are absent
+in the earliest communities of which we know, or are present only in
+germ. They emerge, sometimes in the form of customs gradually built
+up in one or more peoples, sometimes in the utterances of one gifted
+mind. Sometimes they spread impalpably; sometimes they become matter
+for controversy, and are made the battle-cries of parties. Sometimes
+they end by being universally received, though not necessarily put into
+practice. Sometimes, on the other hand, they continue to be rejected
+in one country, or by one set of persons in a country, as vehemently
+as they are asserted by another. As instances of these principles or
+ideas or doctrines, whatever one is to call them, the following may be
+taken: The condemnation of piracy, of slavery, and of treaty-breaking,
+of outrages on the bodies of dead enemies, of cruelty to the lower
+animals, of the slaughter of prisoners in cold blood, of polygamy,
+of torture to witnesses or criminals; the recognition of the duty of
+citizens to obey the laws, and of the moral responsibility of rulers
+for the exercise of their power, of the right of each man to hold
+his own religious opinion and to worship accordingly, of the civil
+(though not necessarily of the political) equality of all citizens;
+the disapproval of intoxication, the value set upon female chastity,
+the acceptance of the social and civil (to which some would add the
+political) equality of women.
+
+[Sidenote: Men who Contributed to Progress]
+
+[Sidenote: Slavery was Destroyed by Sentiment]
+
+All these dogmas or ideas or opinions--some have become dogmas in
+all civilised peoples, others are rather to be described as opinions
+whose truth or worth is denied or only partially admitted--are the
+slow product of many generations. Most of them are due to what we may
+call the intelligence and sentiment of mankind at large, rather than
+to their advocacy by any prominent individual thinkers. The teachings
+of such thinkers have, of course, done much to advance them. Everybody
+would name Socrates and Confucius as among the men who have contributed
+to their progress; some would add such names as those of Mohammed and
+St. Francis of Assisi. Christianity has, of course, made the largest
+contributions. How much is due to moral feeling, how much to a sense
+of common utility, cannot be exactly estimated. Economic reasonings
+and practical experience would have probably in the long run destroyed
+slavery, but it was sentiment that did in fact destroy it in the
+civilised States where it had longest survived.
+
+How much these doctrines, even in the partial and imperfect application
+which most of them have secured, have done for humanity may be
+perceived by anyone who will imagine what the world would be if they
+were unknown. They form one of the most substantial additions made to
+what may be called the intellectual and moral capital with which man
+has to work this planet and improve his own life upon it. And the most
+interesting and significant crises in history are those which have
+turned upon the recognition or application of principles of this kind.
+The Reformation of the sixteenth century, the French Revolution, the
+War of Secession in the United States, are familiar modern examples.
+
+[Sidenote: Intellect Mightier than Population]
+
+Putting all these forms of human achievement together--the extension
+of the scientific knowledge of Nature with consequent mastery over
+her, the scientific knowledge of social phenomena in the past and
+the present, the records of philosophic speculation, the mass of
+literary and artistic products, the establishment, however partial and
+imperfect, of regulative moral and political principles--it will be
+seen that the accumulation of this vast stock of intellectual wealth
+has been an even more important factor than the increase of population
+in giving man strength and dignity over against Nature, and in opening
+up to him an endless variety of modes of enjoying life--that is to say,
+of making it yield to him the most which its shortness and his own
+physical infirmities permit. The process by which this accumulation has
+been carried along is the central thread of history. The main aim of a
+history of the world must be to show what and how each race or people
+has contributed to the general stock. To this aim political history,
+ecclesiastical history, economic history, the history of philosophy,
+and the history of science, are each of them subordinate, though it is
+only through them that the process can be explained.
+
+In these last few pages intellectual progress has been considered apart
+from the area in which it has gone on, and apart from the conditions
+imposed on it by the natural features of that area. A few words are,
+however, needed regarding its relation to the surface of the earth. The
+movement of civilisation must be considered from the side of space as
+well as from that of time.
+
+[Sidenote: Contraction of the World]
+
+Space is a material element in the inquiry because it has divided
+the families of mankind from one another. Some families, such as the
+Chinese and the Peruvians, have developed independently, some, such as
+the South and West European peoples, in connection with, or perhaps
+in dependence on, the development of other races or peoples. Hence
+that which each achieved was in some cases achieved for itself only,
+in other cases for its neighbours as well. The contributions made by
+different races have--at any rate during the last four thousand years,
+and probably in earlier days also--been very unequal; yet none can
+have failed to contribute something if only by way of influencing the
+others. Inequality in progress would seem to have become more marked
+in the later than in the earlier periods. Indeed, some races, such as
+those of Australia, appear during many centuries, possibly owing to
+their isolation, to have made no progress at all. They may even have
+receded.
+
+When we regard the evolution and development of man from the side of
+his relations to space, three facts stand out--the contraction of the
+world, the overflow of the more advanced races, and the consequent
+diffusion all over the world of what is called civilisation.
+
+By the contraction of the world, I mean the greater swiftness, ease,
+and safety with which men can pass from one part of it to another, or
+communicate with one another across great intervening spaces. This has
+the effect of making the world smaller for most practical purposes,
+while the absolute distance in latitude and longitude remains the same.
+The progress of discovery is worth tracing, for it shows how much
+larger the small earth, which was known to the early nations, must have
+seemed to them than the whole earth, which we know, seems to us.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+THE ARTISTIC GENIUS OF TWO CITIES
+
+A COMPARISON OF THE NATIVE POETS & ARTISTS OF FLORENCE & LONDON
+
+ “The quantity of production,” says Mr. Bryce, “bears no relation
+ to the quality. Still less does the amount of good work produced
+ in any given area depend upon the number of persons living in
+ that area. Florence between A.D. 1250 and A.D. 1500 gave birth to
+ more men of first-rate poetical and artistic genius than London
+ has produced since 1250; yet Florence had in those two and a
+ half centuries a population of probably only from forty to sixty
+ thousand. And Florence herself has since A.D. 1500 given birth to
+ scarcely any distinguished poets or artists, though her population
+ has been larger than it was in the fifteenth century.”
+
+THE GENIUS OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF FLORENCE, 1250 TO 1500, FAR EXCEEDED
+THAT OF LONDON FROM 1250 TO THE PRESENT DAY
+
+Poets and Artists Born in Florence from 1250-1500
+
+ Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472, architect, painter
+ Albertinelli, Mariotto, 1474-1515, painter
+ Andrea del Sarto, 1487-1531, painter
+ Angelico da Fiesole, Fra Giovanni, 1387-1455, painter
+ Botticelli, Alessandro, 1447-1510, painter
+ Cavalcanti, Guido, 1255-1300, poet, philosopher
+ Cimabue, Giovanni, 1240-1302, painter
+ Credi, Lorenzo di, 1459-1537, painter
+ Dante, Alighieri, 1265-1321, poet
+ Donatello, 1386-1466, sculptor and painter
+ Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 1378-1455, sculptor
+ Ghirlandajo, Domenico, 1449-1494, painter
+ Gozzoli, Benozzo, 1420-1498, painter
+ Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519, painter, sculptor
+ Lippi, Fra Filippo, 1412-1469, painter
+ Lippi, Filippino, 1459-1504, painter
+ Lorenzo, Don, 1370-1425, painter
+ Medici, Lorenzo de, 1448-1492, poet
+ Orcagnia, Andrea di Cione, 1329-1368? sculptor, painter
+ Perugino, Vannucci Pietro, 1446-1524, painter
+ Pesellino, Francesco di, 1422-1457, painter
+ Pesello, Giuliano, 1367-1446, painter, sculptor
+ Pollajuolo, Antonio, 1429-1498, sculptor, painter
+ Pollajuolo, Piero, 1443-1496, sculptor, painter
+ Robbia, Andrea della, 1437-1528, sculptor
+ Robbia, Luca della, 1399-1482, sculptor
+ Rossi, Giovanni Battista de, 1494-1541, sculptor, painter
+ Ruccellai, Giovanni, 1475-1525, poet
+ Spinello, Aretino, 1334-1410, painter
+ Ucello, Paolo, 1397-1475, painter
+ Verocchio, Andrea, 1435-1488, sculptor, painter
+
+THE LAST FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OF FLORENTINE CULTURE HAVE BEEN LESS
+PRODUCTIVE THAN THE PRECEDING TWO AND A HALF CENTURIES
+
+Poets and Artists Born in Florence since 1500
+
+ Allori, Christofano, 1577-1621, painter
+ Bronzino, Angelo, 1502-1572, painter
+ Cellini, Benvenuto, 1500-1571, sculptor
+ Cigoli, Luigi Cardi da, 1559-1613, painter
+ Cortona, Pietro da, 1596-1669, architect, painter
+ Dolci, Carlo, 1616-1686, painter
+ Doni, Antonio Francesco, 1513-1574, author
+ Furini, Francesco, 1604-1646, painter
+ Ligozzi, Jacobino, 1543-1627, painter
+ Poccetti, Bernardino, 1542-1612, painter
+ Salviati, Francesco, 1510-1563, painter
+ San Giovanni, Giovanni da, 1599-1636, painter
+ Santi di Tito, 1538-1603, painter
+ Tacco, Pietro, 1580-1640, sculptor
+ Venusti, Marcello, 1515-1579, painter
+
+The Only Great Poet Born in London from 1250-1500
+
+Chaucer, Geoffrey, 1328-1400
+
+Poets and Artists Born in London since 1500
+
+ Blake, William, 1757-1827, poet and painter
+ Browning, Robert, 1812-1889, poet
+ Byron, Geo. Gordon Noel, Lord, 1788-1824, poet
+ Defoe, Daniel, 1659-1731, author
+ Ford, Edward Onslow, 1852-1901, sculptor
+ Gilbert, Alfred, R.A., 1854- --, sculptor
+ Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771, poet
+ Hogarth, William, 1697-1764, painter
+ Hood, Thomas, 1799-1845, poet
+ Hunt, William Holman, 1827-1910, painter
+ Jonson, Ben, 1573-1637, poet and dramatist
+ Keats, John, 1795-1821, poet
+ Lamb, Charles, 1775-1834, essayist
+ Linnell, John, 1792-1882, painter
+ Lucas, John Seymour, 1849- --, painter
+ Milton, John, 1608-1674, poet
+ Morland, George, 1763-1804, painter
+ Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744, poet
+ Richmond, Sir William Blake, 1843- --, painter
+ Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 1828-1882, poet, painter
+ Ruskin, John, 1819-1900, author and art critic
+ Spenser, Edmund, 1552-1599, poet
+ Stothard, Thomas, 1755-1834, painter, illustrator
+ Swinburne, Algernon, 1837-1909, poet
+ Walker, Frederick, 1840-1875, painter
+ Watts, George F., 1817-1904, painter, sculptor
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Sidenote: The Small World of the Ancients]
+
+The most ancient records we possess from Assyria, Egypt, Palestine,
+and from the Homeric poems, show how very limited was the range of
+geographical knowledge possessed by that small civilised world from
+which our own civilisation has descended. Speaking roughly, that
+knowledge seems in the tenth century B.C. to have extended about one
+thousand miles in each direction from the Isthmus of Suez. However,
+the best point of departure for the peoples of antiquity is the era
+of Herodotus, who travelled and wrote B.C. 460-440. The limits of
+the world as he knew it were Cadiz and the Straits of Gibraltar on
+the west, the Danube and the Caspian on the north, the deserts of
+Eastern Persia on the east, and the Sahara on the south, with vague
+tales regarding peoples who lived beyond, such as Indians far beyond
+Persia, and pygmies beyond the Sahara. He reports, however, not without
+hesitation, a circumnavigation of Africa by Phœnicians in the service
+of Pharaoh Necho.
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST KNOWN MAP OF THE WORLD
+
+ This Babylonian map is probably of the eighth century B.C. The
+ two circles are supposed to represent the ocean, while the River
+ Euphrates and Babylon are shown inside them. The upper part of the
+ tablet is a cuneiform inscription.
+]
+
+Discovery advanced very slowly for many centuries, though the march
+of Alexander opened up part of the East, while the Roman conquests
+brought the Far North-West, including Britain, within the range of
+civilisation; and occasional voyages, such as that of Hanno along the
+coast of West Africa, that of Nearchus through the Arabian Sea, and
+that of Pythias to the Baltic, added something to knowledge. Procopius
+in A.D. 540 can tell us little more regarding the regions beyond Roman
+influence than Strabo does five and a half centuries earlier. The
+journeys of Marco Polo and Rubruquis throw only a passing light on
+the Far East. It is with the Spanish occupation of the Canary Isles,
+beginning in 1602, and with the Portuguese voyages of the fifteenth
+century, that the era of modern discovery opens. The re-discovery of
+America in 1492, for it had been already visited by the Northmen of
+Greenland and Iceland in the eleventh century, and the opening of the
+Cape route to India in 1497-1498, were hardly equal to the exploit
+of Magellan, whose circumnavigation of the globe in 1519-1520 marks
+the close of this striking period. Thereafter discovery proceeds
+more slowly. Some of the isles of the central and southern Pacific
+were not visited till the middle of the eighteenth century, and the
+north-west coast of America as well as the north-east Coast of Asia,
+remained little known till an even later date. Those explorations
+of the interior of North America, of the interior of Africa, of the
+interior of Australia, and of East Central Asia, which have completed
+our knowledge of the earth, belong to the nineteenth century. The first
+crossing of the North American Continent north of latitude 40° was not
+effected till A.D. 1806.
+
+[Sidenote: The Thirst for New Territories]
+
+The desire for new territory, for the propagation of religion, and,
+above all, for the precious metals, were the chief motives which
+prompted the voyages of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These
+motives have remained operative; and to them has been added in more
+recent times the spirit of pure adventure and the interest in science,
+together with, increasing measure, the effort to secure trade. But the
+extension of trade followed slowly in the wake of discovery. China and
+Japan remained almost closed. The policy of Spain sought to restrict
+her American waters to her own ships, and the commerce they carried
+was scanty. Communication remained slow and dangerous across the oceans
+till the introduction of steam vessels (1825-1830).
+
+[Illustration: The Hereford Map: about 1307
+
+Note Paradise at the top, and Jerusalem in the centre
+
+
+The Fra Mauro Map: about 1457
+
+Babylon is shown in the centre of the map
+
+
+The World as Known on the Eve of Discovery of America (Drawn by Martin
+Behaim in 1492)
+
+The World as known in 150 A.D. From a map by Ptolemy, who appears to
+have had knowledge of the sources of the Nile
+
+THE FIRST MAPS: SOME EARLY GEOGRAPHERS’ IDEAS OF THE WORLD]
+
+[Illustration: THE MODERN REPRESENTATION OF THE WORLD: SHOWN ON THREE
+DIFFERENT PROJECTIONS
+
+ In each case the British Empire is shaded
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Round the World in 40 Days!]
+
+Land transport, though it had steadily increased in Europe, remained
+costly as well as slow till the era of railway construction began in
+1829. The application of steam as a motive power and of electricity as
+a means of communicating thought has been by far the greatest factor
+in this long process of reducing the dimensions of the world, which
+dates back as far as the domestication of beasts of burden, and the
+invention, first of paddles and oars, and then of sails. The North
+American Continent can now be crossed in five days, the South American
+(from Valparaiso to Buenos Ayres) in under two, the Transandine tunnel
+having now been pierced. The Continent which stretches from the Baltic
+to the North Pacific can now be traversed in twelve days. By means of
+the Trans-Siberian line and its steamship connection with the ports
+of Japan, it is now possible to go round the globe in less than fifty
+days. Indeed, the journey has recently been done in forty days. Nor
+is this acceleration of transit more remarkable than its practical
+immunity, as compared with earlier times, not only from the dangers
+for which Nature is answerable, but from those also which man formerly
+interposed.
+
+The increase of trade which has followed in the track first of
+discovery and latterly (with immensely larger volume) of the
+improvement of means of transport, has been accompanied not only by the
+seizure of transoceanic territories by the greater civilised States,
+but also by an outflow of population from those States into the more
+backward or more thinly-peopled parts of the earth. Sometimes, as
+in the case of North America, Siberia, and Australia, the emigrants
+extinguish or absorb the aboriginal population.
+
+[Sidenote: Europeanisation of the World]
+
+Sometimes, as in the case of India, Africa, and some parts of
+South America, they neither extinguish nor blend with the previous
+inhabitants, but rule them and spread what is called civilisation
+among them--this civilisation consisting chiefly in a knowledge
+of the mechanical arts and of deathful weapons accompanied by the
+destruction, more or less gradual, of their pre-existing beliefs
+and usages. Sometimes, again, as in the case of China, and to some
+extent also of the Mussulman East, though political dominion is not
+established, the process of substituting a new civilisation for the old
+one goes on despite the occasional efforts of the backward people to
+resist the process. The broad result is everywhere similar. The modern
+European type of civilisation is being diffused over the whole earth,
+superseding, or essentially modifying, the older local types. Thus,
+in a still more important sense than even that of communications, the
+world is contracted and becomes far more one than it has ever been
+before. The European who speaks three or four languages can travel over
+nearly all of it, and he can find on most of its habitable coasts, and
+in many parts of the lately-discovered interior, the appliances which
+are to him necessaries of life. The world is, in fact, becoming an
+enlarged Europe, so far as the externals of life and the material side
+of civilisation are concerned. The dissociative forces of Nature have
+been overcome.
+
+[Sidenote: Triumph of Natural Science]
+
+Putting together the two processes, the process in time and the
+process in space, which we have been reviewing, it will be seen that
+the main line of the development of mankind may be described as the
+transmission and the expansion of culture--that is to say, of knowledge
+and intellectual capacity. The stock of knowledge available for use and
+enjoyment has been steadily increased, and what each people accumulated
+has been made available for all. With this there has come assimilation,
+the destruction of weaker types of civilisation, the modification by
+constant interaction of the stronger types, the creation of a common
+type tending to absorb all the rest. Assimilation has been most
+complete in the sphere ruled by natural science--that is to say, in
+the material sphere, less complete in that ruled by the human sciences
+(including the sphere of political and social institutions), still
+less complete in the sphere of religious, moral, and social ideas, and
+as respects the products of literature and art. Or, in other words,
+where certainty of knowledge is attainable and utility in practice
+is incontestable, the process of assimilation has moved fastest and
+furthest.
+
+[Sidenote: Nature & the Unity of Mankind]
+
+The process has been a long one, for its beginnings reach back beyond
+our historical knowledge. So far as it lies within the range of
+history, it falls into two periods, the earlier of which supplies an
+instructive illustration of the later one which we know better. The
+effort which Nature--that is to say, the natural tendencies of man as a
+social being--has been making towards the unification of mankind during
+the last few centuries, is her second great effort. The first was in
+progress from the time when the most ancient records begin down to the
+sixth and seventh centuries of the Christian era.
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST TRAVELLER ROUND THE GLOBE
+
+ The great exploit of Ferdinand Magellan, who circumnavigated the
+ globe in 1519-1520, ranks among the events of world importance, and
+ was the culminating achievement of the greatest period of discovery
+ in the world’s history.
+]
+
+Greek civilisation, which itself had drawn much from Egypt, as well
+as from Assyria, Phœnicia, and the peoples of Asia Minor, permeated
+the minds and institutions (except the legal institutions), of the
+Mediterranean and West European countries, and was propagated by the
+governing energy of the Romans. In its Romanised form it transformed
+or absorbed and superseded the less advanced civilisations of all
+those countries, creating one new type for the whole Roman world. With
+some local diversities, that type prevailed from the Northumbrian
+Wall of Hadrian to the Caucasus and the deserts of Arabia. The still
+independent races on the northern frontier of the Empire received a
+tincture of it, and would doubtless have been more deeply imbued had
+the Roman Empire stood longer.
+
+Christianity, becoming dominant at a time when the Empire was already
+tottering, gave a new sense of unity to all whom the Greco-Roman type
+had formed, extended the influence of that type still further, and
+enabled much that belonged to it (especially its religious, its legal,
+and its literary elements) to survive the political dominion of the
+Emperors and to perpetuate itself among practically independent States
+which were springing up. The authority of Papal Rome helped to carry
+this sense of unity among civilised men through a period of ignorance,
+confusion, and semi-barbarism which might otherwise have extinguished
+it. Nevertheless, we may say, broadly speaking, that the first effort
+towards the establishment of a common type of civilisation was, if not
+closed, yet arrested by the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the
+West. Close thereupon came the rise of Islam, tearing away the Eastern
+provinces, and creating a rival type of civilisation--though a type
+largely influenced by the Greco-Roman--which held its ground for some
+centuries, and has only recently shown that it is destined to vanish.
+
+[Sidenote: Conquest and Civilisation]
+
+The beginnings of the second effort toward the unification of civilised
+mankind may be observed as far back as the eleventh and twelfth
+centuries. Its effective and decisive action may, however, be assigned
+to the fifteenth, when the spread of literary and philosophic culture,
+and the swift extension of maritime discovery, ushered in the modern
+phase wherein we have marked its irresistible advance. This phase
+differs from the earlier one both in its range--for it embraces the
+whole earth and not merely the Mediterranean lands--and in its basis,
+for it rests not so much upon conquest and religion as upon scientific
+knowledge, formative ideas, and commerce. Yet even here a parallelism
+may be noted between the ancient and the modern phase. Knowledge and
+ideas had brought about a marked assimilation of various parts of the
+ancient world to each other before Roman conquest completed the work,
+and what conquest did was done chiefly among the ruder races. So now,
+while it is knowledge and ideas that have worked for the creation of
+a common type among the peoples of European stock, conquest has been a
+potent means of spreading this type in the outlying countries and among
+the more backward races whose territories the European nations have
+seized.
+
+[Illustration: THE EUROPEANISATION OF THE WORLD
+
+ European civilisation is being diffused all over the earth,
+ superseding or essentially modifying the older local types.
+ The solid black portions of this map represent territory under
+ Anglo-Saxon control; the shaded parts are under other European
+ control, and the dotted parts under Asiatic and African control.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Language a Unifying Influence]
+
+The diffusion of a few forms of speech has played a great part in both
+phases. Greek was spoken over the eastern half of the Roman world
+in the second century A.D., though not to the extinction of such
+tongues as Syriac and Egyptian. Latin was similarly spoken over the
+western half, though not to the extinction of the tongues we now call
+Basque and Breton and Welsh; and Latin continued to be the language
+of religion, of law, of philosophy, and of serious prose literature
+in general till the sixteenth century. So now, several of the leading
+European tongues are spoken far beyond the limits of their birthplace,
+and their wide range has become a powerful influence in diffusing
+European culture. German, English, Russian, Spanish, and French are
+available for the purposes of commerce, and for those who read books
+over nineteen-twentieths of the earth’s surface. The languages of the
+smaller non-European peoples are disappearing in those places where
+they have to compete with these greater European tongues, except in
+so far as they are a medium of domestic intercourse. Arabic, Chinese,
+and in less degree Persian are the only non-European languages
+which retain a world importance. English, German, and Spanish are
+pre-eminently the three leading commercial languages. They gain ground
+on the rest, and it is English that gains ground most swiftly. The
+German merchant is no doubt even more ubiquitous (if the expression be
+permitted) than is the English; but the German more frequently speaks
+English than the Englishman or American speaks German.
+
+[Sidenote: Linking the Nations Together]
+
+It has already been observed that assimilation has advanced least
+in the sphere of institutions, ideas, and literature. The question
+might, indeed, be raised whether the types of thought, of national
+character, and of literary activity represented by the five or six
+leading nations are not rather tending to become more accentuated.
+The self-consciousness of each nation, taking the form of pride or
+vanity, leads it to exalt its own type and to dwell with satisfaction
+on whatever differentiates it from other types. Nevertheless there are
+influences at work in the domain of practice as well as of thought,
+which, in creating a common body of opinion and a sense of common
+interest among large classes belonging to these leading nations, tend
+to link the nations themselves together. Religious sympathy, or a
+common attachment to certain doctrines, such as, for instance, those
+of Collectivism, works in this direction among the masses, as the
+love of science or of art does among sections of the more educated
+class. As regards the peoples not of European stock, who are, broadly
+speaking, the more backward, it is not yet possible to say what will be
+the influence of the European type of culture upon their intellectual
+development.
+
+The material side of their civilisation will after a time conform to
+the European type, though, perhaps, to forms that are not the most
+progressive; and even such faiths as Buddhism and Islam may lose their
+hold on those who come most into contact with Europeans. But whether
+these peoples will produce any new types of thought or art under the
+stimulus of Europe, as the Teutons and Slavs did after they had been
+for centuries in contact with the relics of Greco-Roman culture, or
+whether they will be overborne by and merely imitate and reproduce what
+Europeans teach them--this is a question for conjecture only, since the
+data for predictions are wanting.
+
+It is a question of special interest as regards the Japanese, the
+one non-European race which, having an old civilisation of its own,
+highly developed on the artistic side, has shown an amazing aptitude
+for appropriating European institutions and ideas. Already a Japanese
+physiologist has taken high rank among men of science by being one of
+the discoverers of the bacillus of the Oriental plague.
+
+
+DOES HISTORY MAKE FOR PROGRESS?
+
+One of the questions which both the writers and the readers of a
+History of the World must frequently ask themselves is whether the
+course of history establishes a general law of progress. Some thinkers
+have gone so far as to say that this must be the moral of history
+regarded as a whole, and a few have even suggested that without the
+recognition of such a principle and of a sort of general guidance of
+human affairs towards this goal, history would be unintelligible, and
+the doings of mankind would seem little better than the sport of chance.
+
+[Sidenote: What is the Test of Progress?]
+
+[Sidenote: What Mankind has Achieved]
+
+Whatever may be thought of these propositions as matters of theory,
+the doctrine of a general and steady law of progress is one to which
+no historian ought to commit himself. His business is to set forth and
+explain the facts exactly as they are; and if he writes in the light
+of a theory he is pretty certain to be unconsciously seduced into
+giving undue prominence to those facts which make for it. Moreover,
+the question is in itself a far more complex one than the simple word
+“progress” at first sight conveys. What is the test of progress? In
+what form of human advance is it to be deemed to consist? Which of
+these forms is of the highest value? There can be no doubt of the
+advance made by man in certain directions. There may be great doubt
+as to his advance in other directions. There may possibly be no
+advance but even retrogression, or at least signs of an approaching
+retrogression, in some few directions. The view to be taken of the
+relative importance of these lines of movement is a matter not so much
+for the historian as for the philosopher, and its discussion would
+carry us away into fields of thought not fitted for a book like the
+present. Although, therefore, it is true that one chief interest of
+history resides in its capacity for throwing light on this question,
+all that need here be said may be expressed as follows:
+
+ There has been a marvellous advance in man’s knowledge of the laws
+ of Nature and of his consequent mastery over Nature.
+
+ There has been therewith a great increase in population, and, on
+ the whole, in the physical vigour of the average individual man.
+
+ There has been, as a further consequence, an immense increase in
+ the material comfort and well-being of the bulk of mankind, so that
+ to most men necessaries have become easier of attainment, and many
+ things which were once luxuries have become necessaries.
+
+Against this is to be set the fact that some of the natural resources
+of the world are being rapidly exhausted. This would at one time have
+excited alarm; but scientific discoveries have so greatly extended
+man’s capacity to utilise other sources of natural energy, that people
+are disposed to assume that the loss of the resources aforesaid will be
+compensated by further discoveries.
+
+[Sidenote: The Gain and the Loss]
+
+As to progress other than material--that is to say, progress in
+intellectual capacity, in taste, in the power of enjoyment, in virtue,
+and generally in what is called happiness--every man’s view must
+depend on the ideal which he sets before himself of what constitutes
+happiness, and of the relative importance to happiness of the ethical
+and the non-ethical elements which enter into the conception. Until
+there is more agreement than now exists or has ever existed on these
+points, there is no use in trying to form conclusions regarding the
+progress man has made. Moreover, it is admitted that nearly every
+gain man makes is accompanied by some corresponding loss--perhaps a
+slight loss, yet a loss. When we attempt to estimate the comparative
+importance of these gains and losses, questions of great difficulty,
+both ethical and non-ethical, emerge; and in many cases our experience
+is not yet sufficient to determine the quantum of loss. There is room
+both for the optimist and for the pessimist, and in arguing such
+questions nearly everybody becomes an optimist or a pessimist. The
+historian has no business to be either.
+
+There is another temptation besides that of delivering his opinion on
+these high matters, of which the historian does well to be aware--I
+mean the temptation to prophesy. The study of history as a whole,
+more inevitably than that of the history of any particular country
+or people, suggests forecasts of the future, because the broader the
+field which we survey the more do we learn to appreciate the great and
+wide-working forces that are guiding mankind, and the more therefore
+are we led to speculate on the results which these forces, some of them
+likely to be permanent, will tend to bring about.
+
+[Sidenote: Modern Mastery of Nature]
+
+This temptation can seldom have been stronger than it is now, when we
+see all mankind brought into closer relations than ever before, and
+more obviously dominated by forces which are essentially the same,
+though varying in their form. Yet it will appear, when the problem is
+closely examined, that the very novelty of the present situation of
+the world--the fact that our mastery of Nature has been so rapidly
+extended within the last century, and that the phenomena of the
+subjugation of the earth by Europeans and of the ubiquitous contact
+of the advanced and the backward races are so unexampled in respect
+of the area they cover--that all predictions must be uttered with the
+greatest caution, and due allowance made for elements which may disturb
+even the most careful calculations. It may, indeed, be doubted whether
+any predictions of a definitely positive kind--predictions that such
+and such things will happen--can be safely made, save the obvious ones
+which are based on the assumption that existing natural conditions
+remain for some time operative.
+
+[Sidenote: A Glimpse into the Future]
+
+Taking this assumption to be a legitimate one, it maybe predicted that
+population will continue to increase, at least till the now waste but
+habitable parts of the earth have been turned to account; that races,
+except where there is a marked colour line, will continue to become
+intermingled; that the small and weak races, and especially the lower
+set of savages, will be absorbed or die out; that fewer and fewer
+languages will be spoken; that communications will become even swifter,
+easier, and cheaper than they are at present; and that commerce and
+wealth will continue to grow, subject, perhaps, to occasional checks
+from political disturbance.
+
+There are also some negative predictions on which one may venture,
+and with a little more confidence. No new race can appear, except
+possibly from a fusion of two or more existing races, or from the
+differentiation of a branch of an existing race under new conditions,
+as the Americans have been to some slight extent differentiated from
+the English, and the Brazilians from the Portuguese (there having been
+in the latter case a certain admixture of negro blood), and as the
+Siberians of the future may be a different sort of Russians. Neither
+is any new language likely to appear, except, mere trade jargons (like
+Chinook or pigeon English), because the existing languages of the
+great peoples are firmly established, and the process of change within
+each of these languages has, owing to the abundance of printed matter,
+become now extremely slow. Conditions can hardly be imagined under
+which such a phenomenon as the development of the Romance languages out
+of Latin, or of Danish and Swedish out of the common Northern tongue of
+the eleventh century, could recur.
+
+[Illustration: THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD AT PEACE
+
+ From the statuary groups on the Albert Memorial.
+]
+
+It may seem natural to add the further prediction that the great States
+and the great religions will continue to grow and to absorb the small
+ones. But when we touch topics into which human opinion or emotion
+enters, we touch a new kind of matter, where the influences now at work
+may be too much affected by new influences to permit of any forecast.
+Conditions might conceivably come into action which would split up some
+or most of the present great States, and bring the world back to an age
+of small political communities.
+
+So, too, though the lower forms of paganism are fast vanishing, and
+the four or five great religions are extending their sway, it is
+conceivable that new prophets may arise, founding new faiths, or that
+the existing religions may be split up into new sects widely diverse
+from one another. Even the supremacy of the European races, well
+assured as it now appears, may be reduced by a variety of causes,
+physiological or moral, when some centuries have passed.
+
+[Illustration: THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD AT PEACE
+
+ From the statuary groups on the Albert Memorial.
+]
+
+Whoever examines the predictions made by the most observant and
+profound thinkers of the past will see reason to distrust almost all
+the predictions, especially those of a positive order, which shape
+themselves in our minds to-day.
+
+ JAMES BRYCE
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SUMMARY OF WORLD HISTORY
+
+WITH
+
+A CHRONOLOGY OF TEN THOUSAND YEARS
+
+By Arthur D. Innes, M.A.]
+
+
+Within the memory of living men, the most advanced peoples of the world
+believed that the world itself had been created not 6,000 years ago. We
+have all learned now that the globe itself, that life--and long later
+mankind--came into being thousands, hundreds of thousands--it may be
+millions--of years ago.
+
+How long precisely, none can tell. What we do know with certainty is
+that before the continents finally emerged in their present shape there
+was an Ice Age, immediately preceded by what is called the Drift Age,
+and that as early as the Drift Age man, the maker of implements, lived,
+and did battle with the cave bear and other monsters. Where man first
+came into being, how he spread over the globe, how the great races
+acquired their characteristics, we can only conjecture.
+
+[Sidenote: The Birth of the Nations]
+
+Wherever and whenever man appeared, the earliest traces show him
+to have been a sociable animal living in communities. The earliest
+unmistakable traces of civilisation, order, polity, are found in the
+basins of the Nile and the Euphrates, dating probably as far back as
+ten thousand years ago. The people who built the Pyramids had already
+advanced far in the knowledge which gives man the mastery over Nature;
+and the Pyramids were built certainly 3,000, and probably nearer 5,000,
+years before the Christian era. And while those pristine civilisations
+rose and fell in Egypt, civilisations were rising and passing away in
+Mesopotamia also.
+
+In the fourth millennium there appears first a people with new
+characteristics--the Semitic race, gradually dominating the
+Mesopotamian civilisation, spreading westward in successive waves to
+the Mediterranean, surging into Egypt and out again; creating the
+Empires of Babylonia and of Assyria, and the Phœnician and Canaanite
+nations. And while the Semite Empires rose and fell, and Egypt held
+upon her ancient way, still mightier nations were coming to birth.
+The great Aryan or Indo-European migrations began, the Celt, the
+Latin, and the Hellene rolling westward by the Euxine and the Northern
+Mediterranean; while another group passed southward, to the East of
+the Semites, spreading the Aryan conquest over the greater part of the
+Indian peninsula.
+
+[Sidenote: Conflicts of Ancient Peoples]
+
+Of the doings of the great Semitic Powers in the second millennium B.C.
+we have some knowledge from the Hebrew records; and year by year fresh
+light is thrown on those records by inscriptions and tablets newly
+discovered or newly deciphered, Egyptian, Assyrian, or Hittite. Of the
+Hittite or early Syrian dominion we know little enough, except that it
+successfully defied the invading armies of Assyrian kings and Egyptian
+Pharaohs. Before 1500 the Semite conquerors of Egypt, the Hyksos, were
+driven out--an event associated by some authorities with the Hebrew
+Exodus. From this time the ebb and flow of Egyptian and Assyrian
+dynasties are more definitely recorded. In the closing centuries the
+prosperity of Tyre and Sidon reached its height, and the theocratic
+Hebrew nationality formed a kingdom. We become aware of Hellenic or
+kindred Powers in Asia Minor, at Troy, in Crete, at Mycenæ; of Achæans
+and Danaans in Egypt.
+
+[Sidenote: The First Formation of States]
+
+Before another five hundred years had passed, throughout the
+coasts and islands of the Ægean Sea, Æolians, Ionians, Dorians
+established themselves in cities, and every city rapidly grew into a
+highly-organised State. Over the Mediterranean, to Southern Italy, to
+Sicily, to Marseilles, the new Greek civilisation carried its commerce
+and its culture. In Italy the Latin races were in like manner forming
+themselves into city-states, developing conceptions of Government
+undreamed of by Oriental minds. Rome was founded, and acquired a
+leadership. Throughout the Hellenic and the Latin world the idea of
+civic freedom took root; the primitive monarchical systems disappeared,
+and, through revolutions and temporary despotisms, sometimes peaceful
+and sometimes violent, the States took on for the most part a
+Republican form.
+
+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | TIME-TABLE OF THE WORLD: B.C. 8000 to 500 |
+ | |
+ | This Chronology, prepared as a companion to the Summary of the |
+ | World’s History, sets forth in tabular form for ready reference |
+ | the events dealt with in the narrative on opposite pages |
+ +-----+-------------------------------------------------------+------+
+ |B.C. | Early civilisation of the Nile Basin. Egypt before | B.C. |
+ |8000 | the Pyramids. | 8000 |
+ |7000 +-------------------------------------------------------+ 7000 |
+ | | Asiatic invasion of Egypt | |
+ | | Pre-Semitic civilisations of the Euphrates Basin. | |
+ | | Susa founded. | |
+ |6000 +-------------------------------------------------------+ 6000 |
+ | | Invasion of Egypt by dynastic race, 5800. Mena rules | |
+ | | all Egypt. First dynasty, 5500. | |
+ | | Babylonian kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad. Ea founds | |
+ | | Eridu and civilises Babylonia. | |
+ |5000 +-------------------------------------------------------+ 5000 |
+ | | Egypt. The Pyramid builders. Great Pyramid built by | |
+ | | Khufu (Cheops), 4700. | |
+ | | Earliest monuments to kings in Babylonia, 4700. | |
+ |4000 +-------------------------------------------------------+ 4000 |
+ | | Egypt invaded from the north. First, or Babylonian, | |
+ | | Semitic wave in the Euphrates Valley. Rise of | |
+ | | Babylonian kingdoms. Sargon and Naram-Sin, Semitic | |
+ | | rulers of Akkad. Middle kingdom of Egypt. Revival | |
+ | | of art. Twelfth dynasty (3400). | |
+ | | Gudea’s rule in Babylon. Development of commerce, | |
+ | | 3300. | |
+ |3000 +-------------------------------------------------------+ 3000 |
+ | | Egypt invaded by the Hyksos, nomadic Semitic | |
+ | | conquerors, the “Shepherd Kings.” Fifteenth Dynasty | |
+ | | (2500). Second Hyksos movement (2250). | |
+ | | Conquest of Babylon by Elamites. Rule of Hammurabi | |
+ | | (Amraphel of Gen. xiv.), 2129. | |
+ | | Second, or Canaanite, Semitic wave, extending to the | |
+ | | Mediterranean. | |
+ | | First Aryan migration westward over Europe, and | |
+ | | southward; conquest of Hindostan. | |
+ |2000 +-------------------------------------------------------+ 2000 |
+ | | The Hyksos dominate Egypt. New kingdom. Eighteenth | |
+ | | dynasty, 1580. | |
+ | | Expulsion of the Hyksos, about 1560. | |
+ | | Rise of Assyria. | |
+ | | The Kassite dynasty in Babylon, about 1750-1130. | |
+ | | Hittite Empire in Syria. | |
+ | | Latin and Hellenic entry into Europe and Asia Minor. | |
+ | | Third (Aramæan) Semitic wave, dominating W. Asia, but | |
+ | | absorbed in existing states. | |
+ |1500 +-------------------------------------------------------+ 1500 |
+ | | FAR EAST: Beginning of definite Chinese history, with | |
+ | | the Chau dynasty. | |
+ | | EGYPT: Nineteenth dynasty, Sethos and the Ramesides; | |
+ | | struggle with Hittite Empire. | |
+ | | WESTERN ASIA: Burnaburiash, 1380. Pashe dynasty in | |
+ | | Babylon, 1130-1000. | |
+ | | Period of Phœnician prosperity. | |
+ | | Rise of the United Kingdom of the Hebrews. | |
+ | | Crete, Troy, and Mycenæ. The Ionic and Doric | |
+ | | migrations. | |
+ |1000 +-------------------------------------------------------+ 1000 |
+ | | WESTERN ASIA: The Hebrew kingdom divided into Judah | |
+ | | and Israel or Samaria. | |
+ | | Rise of Aramæan kingdom of Syria. Chaldean | |
+ | | domination in Babylon. | |
+ | | Assyrian Middle Empire. | |
+ | | EGYPT: Twenty-second dynasty (“Shishak” king of | |
+ | | Egypt). | |
+ | 900 +-------------------------------------------------------+ 900 |
+ | | EUROPE: Early monarchical governments replaced | |
+ | | usually by aristocracies. | |
+ | | Probable period of the Homeric poems. | |
+ | | WESTERN ASIA: Successful resistance of Syria to | |
+ | | Assyria. | |
+ | | Appearance of the (Aryan) Medes in the East. | |
+ | | AFRICA: Founding of Carthage. | |
+ | 800 +-------------------------------------------------------+ 800 |
+ | | EGYPT: Domination of Ethiopians or Cushites. | |
+ | | WESTERN ASIA: Assyrian New Empire; conquest of Syria, | |
+ | | Samaria, and Babylon. | |
+ | | Lydian and Phrygian kingdoms in Asia Minor. | |
+ | | EUROPE: Development of city states in Greece and | |
+ | | Italy. Lycurgan legislation of Sparta, about 800. | |
+ | | Rome founded as a monarchy, 753. | |
+ | | Spread of Greek colonies along Mediterranean | |
+ | | coasts and islands. | |
+ | 700 +-------------------------------------------------------+ 700 |
+ | | WESTERN ASIA: Extension of Lydian kingdom in Asia | |
+ | | Minor 687-546. | |
+ | | Irruption of Cimmerians from the North. | |
+ | | Repulse of Sennacherib before Jerusalem. Decline of | |
+ | | Assyria. | |
+ | | EGYPT: Invasion by Esarhaddon. Expulsion of Cushites. | |
+ | | The Saitic dynasty. | |
+ | | EUROPE: Between 700 and 500, sporadic displacement of | |
+ | | aristocracies by “tyrannies,” followed either by an | |
+ | | oligarchical restoration or by democracies. | |
+ | | Rome becomes head of the League of Latin cities. | |
+ | | FAR EAST: Japanese history begins. | |
+ | 600 +-------------------------------------------------------+ 600 |
+ | | WESTERN ASIA: Narbonaid, King of Babylon (556-538). | |
+ | | Overthrow of Assyrian by New Babylonian Empire; the | |
+ | | Babylonish captivity. | |
+ | | Rise of Media, of which Cyrus, the Persian, makes | |
+ | | himself master. | |
+ | | Persian Empire: Overthrow of Lydia, New Babylonia, | |
+ | | and Egypt. Aahmes (Amasis), 570-526. | |
+ | | FAR EAST: Confucius and Lao-Tse in China, and Buddha | |
+ | | in India. | |
+ | | EUROPE: Greek states consolidated. Athens: Solon 594. | |
+ | | Pisistratidæ expelled, 510. | |
+ | | ROME: Expulsion of the kings, about 510. The | |
+ | | Commonwealth. Administration aristocratic: Army and | |
+ | 500 | legislative assembly on basis of land-ownership. | 500 |
+ | B.C.| Etruscan--pre-Latin--domination in Italy. | B.C.|
+ +-------------------------------------------------------------+------+
+
+In the East an Aryan Power overthrew the last of the
+Assyrian-Babylonian dynasties; but these Persian conquerors became
+assimilated to the conquered nations. Fundamentally their empire was of
+the same type as its predecessors. The Persian sway, however, extended
+not only into Egypt but over the partly Hellenised Asia Minor; and the
+Ionic revolt, in the first year of the fifth century B.C. brought the
+spirit of the East and the spirit of the West into fierce collision.
+The great king hurled his hosts against defiant Hellas; at Marathon and
+at Salamis, Athens shattered his army and his fleets. Thenceforth, for
+a thousand years, the West was the aggressor.
+
+[Sidenote: Athens and the Greek Immortals]
+
+But the rolling back of the “barbarian” tide was not the only glory
+that fell to Athens; in that same century the little state bore sons
+whose names stand in the front rank of the immortals for all time:
+Æschylus and Sophocles, Phidias, Pericles, Socrates, and Plato; in the
+next half century, Demosthenes; with others almost if not quite, on the
+same plane. The character of Athens, idealised, no doubt, is epitomised
+by Thucydides in the speech of Pericles. She was the sum of all that
+was best and noblest in Hellenism--its love of freedom, of beauty, of
+energy, of harmony, and its public spirit. Politically, the story of
+the period which followed Salamis is mainly one of the rivalry between
+Athens and Sparta; until the rise of Macedon, when King Philip made
+himself master of all Hellas.
+
+[Sidenote: The Coming-up of Alexander]
+
+Then, with the beginning of the last quarter of the fourth century,
+Alexander the Great blazed upon the world, toppled the empires of
+Western Asia before him, conquered Egypt, and swept over the great
+mountain-barriers into India, where Buddhism had already begun to
+displace the ancient Brahmanism of the first Aryans. The Greek
+influences did not long linger in the far East after the great
+conqueror’s death. His empire broke up. Asia west of the Euphrates
+remained, indeed, under the dominion mainly of one Grecian dynasty, the
+Seleucidæ; Egypt under that of another, the Ptolemies. Yet Alexander’s
+attempts to blend East and West failed. Orientalism abode, unconquered,
+ineradicable; Hellenism prevailed almost after the fashion of British
+domination in India to-day, in the land, but not of it.
+
+Meanwhile, the struggle between Aryans and non-Aryans had been running
+a partly separate course in the West. The Phœnicians of Carthage and
+the pre-Aryan Etruscans, the dominant power in Italy, made a joint
+assault on the Greeks of Sicily and the Latins of the mainland at
+the beginning of the fifth century. They were beaten back, but for a
+century the struggle continued between Rome and Veii. The great Celtic
+incursion of the Gauls threatened destruction to Rome, but completed
+the destruction of Etruria. In the fourth century and the first half
+of the third century B.C. Rome was chiefly engaged in the double task
+of achieving supremacy, passing into actual dominion among the Latin
+states, and of establishing the great Senatorial oligarchy, against
+whose stubborn resolution the Epirote Pyrrhus hurled himself in vain.
+
+Just sixty years after Alexander’s death began the sixty years’
+struggle between Rome and Carthage, in the latter years of which the
+genius of Hannibal was pitted against the grim persistence of the Roman
+oligarchy. Carthage fell; Rome triumphed, and with her triumph entered
+on her career of extended conquest.
+
+[Sidenote: The Triumph of Rome]
+
+The organisation which had ruled the city-state itself not ill, and
+raised it to an immense pre-eminence, sufficed also to maintain its
+powers of conquest, but not its political virtue. Rome’s armies subdued
+the divided and disorganised realms which more or less recognised the
+over-lordship of Macedon; they made the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ
+acknowledge their supremacy; they shattered the new barbarian hordes,
+which began to pour across the Alpine passes, and the African tribes of
+Numidia. But the lofty public spirit was gone which had made Rome so
+great when she was battling for life. Reformers arose, only to prove
+that there was no power in the constitution strong enough to enforce
+reform. Victorious generals with their legions behind them began to
+dictate legislation; Marius and Sulla, democrats or reactionaries,
+signalised their political successes by slaughtering hecatombs of their
+opponents.
+
+At last, statesmanship and generalship found their supreme incarnation
+in one person, Julius Cæsar. For many years one of the two foremost
+men in the Republic, he finally crushed his rival Pompeius and
+became acknowledged head of the state. Before he could complete the
+work of reconstruction, Cæsar fell beneath the daggers of Republican
+enthusiasts; but ere many years had passed his adopted son Octavian
+triumphed over all rivals, and established the Principate or Empire,
+the absolute dominion of one ruler over the whole Roman world--although
+that dominion was still maintained under the Republican forms.
+
+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | TIME-TABLE OF THE WORLD: B.C. 500 to 1 |
+ | |
+ | Collision of East and West. The Glory of Greece. Alexander and |
+ His Conquests. The Rise of Rome. Overthrow of Carthage and the |
+ | Establishment of the Roman Empire |
+ +-----+--------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
+ | B.C.| The East and Africa | Europe | B.C.|
+ | 500 | GREECE: Revolt of Ionian | GREECE: Repulse of Persia | 500 |
+ | | Greeks from Persia, | at Marathon (490), | |
+ | | 499. | Salamis (480) and Plataea | |
+ | | Liberation from Persia | (479) and of Carthage by | |
+ | | of Greek States in | Syracuse at Himera (480). | |
+ | | Asia Minor. | | |
+ | | | ROME: Increase of political | |
+ | | Revolt of Egypt from | power of Plebeians. | |
+ | | Persia: re-conquest. | Tribunes. First Roman | |
+ | | | Legal Code (the XII. | |
+ | | | Tables). | |
+ | 450 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 450 |
+ | | | GREECE: Age of Pericles, | |
+ | | | the great Athenian | |
+ | | Egypt again independent | dramatists, and Phidias. | |
+ | | of Persia. | Struggle for supremacy | |
+ | | | between Athens and | |
+ | | | Sparta. | |
+ | | | ROME: Decadence of Etruscan | |
+ | | | power. | |
+ | | | Progress of Plebeians in | |
+ | | | obtaining administrative | |
+ | | | power. | |
+ | 400 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 400 |
+ | | | GREECE: Socrates and Plato. | |
+ | | | Spartan and Theban | |
+ | | | supremacies. | |
+ | | | ROME: Invasion by the Gauls.| |
+ | | | The land question: the | |
+ | | | Licinian Laws. | |
+ | | | Establishment of new | |
+ | | | “Senatorial” oligarchy. | |
+ | | Revival of Persian | Extension of Roman | |
+ | | energy under | military settlements | |
+ | | Artaxerxes Ochus. | or colonies. | |
+ | 350 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 350 |
+ | | Overthrow of Persia by | GREECE: Philip of Macedon. | |
+ | | Alexander; India | Demosthenes at Athens. | |
+ | | invaded. | Aristotle. | |
+ | | Partition of Alexander’s | Conquests of Alexander | |
+ | | Empire. The Ptolemies | the Great, 334-322. | |
+ | | in Egypt, and the | ROME: Second Roman treaty | |
+ | | Seleucidæ in Asia. | with Carthage. | |
+ | | Friendly relations | Dissolution of Latin | |
+ | | between Seleucus and | League. Supremacy of | |
+ | | Chandragupta of | Rome in Italy. Samnite | |
+ | | Hindostan. | wars. | |
+ | 300 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 300 |
+ | | | ROME: Legislative power of | |
+ | | | Plebeian Comitia. Tributa | |
+ | | | established. | |
+ | | | Pyrrhus in Italy and | |
+ | | | Sicily. | |
+ | | Contests between Syria | Treaty between Rome and | |
+ | | (Seleucidæ) and Egypt | Egypt. | |
+ | | (the Ptolemaic dynasty). | Senatorial supremacy at | |
+ | | | Rome. | |
+ | | | First Punic War | |
+ | | | (264-241). | |
+ | | | GREECE: Rise of the Achæan | |
+ | | | League. | |
+ | 250 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 250 |
+ | | Asoka, king of Maghada | Carthaginian power | |
+ | | (Hindostan), Buddhist. | established in Spain. | |
+ | | Extension of the Seleucid| ROME: Second Punic War, | |
+ | | dominion under | 218-201. Hannibal in | |
+ | | Antiochus the Great. | Italy, 218-203. Scipio | |
+ | | Rise of the Parthian | in Spain, 211-206. | |
+ | | dominion of the | Zama, 202. | |
+ | | Arsacidæ. | Extension of Roman dominion | |
+ | | Fall of Carthage, 202. | over Spain and North | |
+ | | | Africa. | |
+ | 200 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 200 |
+ | | Wars between Parthia and | Organisation of provinces | |
+ | | the Seleucidæ. | subject to the Imperial | |
+ | | | Republic. | |
+ | | Maccabean revolt of | History of Europe merges in | |
+ | | Judæa. | that of ROME. | |
+ | | | Collision of Rome with (1) | |
+ | | Antiochus Epiphanes | Macedon; (2) the Syrian | |
+ | | conquers Egypt, but | kingdom of the Seleucidæ. | |
+ | | retires. | | |
+ | | | Macedon becomes a Roman | |
+ | | Egypt and Syria become | province. | |
+ | | Roman protectorates. | Rome assumes protectorate | |
+ | | | of Egypt and Syria. | |
+ | 150 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 150 |
+ | | | Third Punic War, and | |
+ | | Nabatæan State in Arabia.| destruction of Carthage, | |
+ | | | 146. | |
+ | | | Greek States absorbed into | |
+ | | A Tartar kingdom | province of Macedonia. | |
+ | | established in east | Development of political | |
+ | | of Parthia. | power of (1) demagogues; | |
+ | | | (2) soldiers. | |
+ | | | The Gracchi, 133-121. | |
+ | | Jugurthan War in Africa. | Conquest of South Gaul: | |
+ | | | defeat of Teutones and | |
+ | | | Cimbri by Marius. | |
+ | 100 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 100 |
+ | | | Social war. Marius and | |
+ | | Mithradatic wars, 88-63. | Sulla. The Proscriptions. | |
+ | | | The Sullan Constitution, 81.| |
+ | | The East, to the | Pompey. Rise of Julius | |
+ | | Euphrates, brought | Cæsar. | |
+ | | under Roman dominion. | The East brought under | |
+ | | | Roman dominion. | |
+ | | Judæa: fall of the | Cæsar conquers Gaul; | |
+ | | Maccabees. | lands in Britain. | |
+ | 50 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 50 |
+ | | Scythian or Tartar | Overthrow of Pompey: Cæsar | |
+ | | incursion into India, | virtual emperor. | |
+ | | and admixture with | Murder of Cæsar, 44. | |
+ | | Punjab races. | Rivalry of Antony and | |
+ Octavian, 43-30. | |
+ | | | The Principate, or Empire, | |
+ | | Egypt becomes a Roman | established under Augustus| |
+ | | province, 30. | (Octavian) in virtue of | |
+ | | | the Imperium Proconsulare | |
+ | | | (27) and Tribunicia | |
+ | | | Potestas (23). The Empire | |
+ | 1 | | organised. | 1 |
+ | B.C.| | Cicero, Virgil Livy, Horace.| B.C.|
+ +-----+--------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
+
+[Sidenote: The Birth of Christ]
+
+A tremendous event in itself, the reign of Augustus also witnessed
+one which has had a great influence on the history of the world--the
+birth of Christ. His ministry, to which perhaps the term event should
+be applied, was during the reign of the second Emperor, Tiberius. The
+new faith born on the soil of Judæa was to modify profoundly all the
+ideals, social and political as well as theological and personal, of
+the entire Western world; but for many years its adherents remained
+nothing more than a persecuted yet steadily growing sect; suspected and
+hated as anarchists rather than as misbelievers, in a world where the
+rankest and wildest superstitions lived side by side with a general
+intellectual scepticism.
+
+For four centuries the Imperial city ruled over nearly the whole known
+world. Beyond the Euphrates on the east, beyond the Rhine and the
+Danube, she could maintain no permanent footing; within her own borders
+it seemed as though her sway became a part of the natural order--so
+much so that when her power had passed away her very conquerors did her
+homage and took upon themselves titles as her officers.
+
+[Sidenote: Rome in her Decline]
+
+But the overthrow was yet a long way off. The reconstruction organised
+by Augustus and his Ministers was developed by able rulers--Tiberius,
+Trajan, Hadrian, the Antonines--during some two hundred years, in spite
+of intervals when a murderous tyranny or a feeble incompetence occupied
+the throne of the Cæsars. From the Pillars of Hercules to the river
+of Mesopotamia, northward as far as Britain, southward to the deserts
+of Africa, Roman civilisation, Roman law and justice, Roman military
+discipline, and Roman roads maintained the Roman peace.
+
+[Sidenote: Fall of Rome and Rise of Goths]
+
+Then came an era when the Imperial purple became the prize of
+successful generals acclaimed by their legions; and the frontier
+armies, themselves largely formed out of Teutonic or other
+semi-“barbarian” tribes, found themselves face to face with new
+barbarian hordes which for another century and a half they held in
+check. But the tremendous external pressure on frontiers so vast made
+it imperative that the Government should be somewhat decentralised. At
+the end of the third century Diocletian parted the empire into four
+great divisions. The new system could not endure; Constantine the
+Great again became sole emperor. Under him Christianity was at length
+adopted as the state religion; the Church herself became a fundamental
+factor in the political system; and the political centre of gravity was
+transferred from Rome to Byzantium.
+
+[Sidenote: Beginning of Byzantium]
+
+Again the empire was partitioned, and then, for a brief while before
+the end of the fourth century, united again under Theodosius. But the
+end was at hand. For a few years the great general Stilicho held the
+Teutonic Goths at bay in Italy, while Vandals and Sueves poured through
+Gaul into Spain. Then, early in the fifth century, Stilicho died.
+Alaric led his conquering hordes to the gates of Rome, and sacked the
+Eternal City. His successor, Ataulf, took his Goths away, to drive the
+Vandals out of Spain into Africa, and set up a great western kingdom
+on their own account. But after the Goths, fresh barbarians swarmed
+in--Tartar Huns under Attila, who wrought huge devastation and then
+vanished for ever; then fresh Teutonic armies, which took possession
+of Italy, though in the East the Empire still held its own. And in
+Gaul the (German) Franks under their king, Clovis (Chlodwig, Ludwig),
+established the dominion which was to give its name to France when
+the Frankish element had almost passed out of the country. Far-away
+Britain had already been abandoned, and was falling a prey to the
+Saxons and the Angles, the “English” who were driving the earlier
+Celtic inhabitants before them into the mountain fastnesses of the
+west and north. Again, in the East, in the sixth century, the empire
+centred at Byzantium asserted its power. Justinian is memorable for
+that great codification of Roman Law on which the legal systems of
+half the jurists in Europe have been based. His reign is famous also
+for the exploits of his brilliant general, Belisarius, who destroyed
+the Vandal kingdom in Africa, restored the Imperial rule in Italy, and
+recovered provinces in Asia which had been in danger of falling into
+the grip of the now aggressive rulers of Persia. But in the West, the
+success was only temporary. Under pressure of Tartar or Slavonic hosts
+from the East, a fresh Teutonic swarm, the Lombards, entered Italy and
+mastered the North. The significance of Rome now lay in the supremacy
+of her pontificate, unacknowledged in the East.
+
+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | TIME-TABLE OF THE WORLD: A.D. 1 to 500 |
+ | |
+ | Organisation of the Roman Empire. The Rise of Christianity. |
+ | Partition of the Empire. The Barbarian Invasion and Fall of the |
+ | Western Empire. Rise of the Franks |
+ +-----+--------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
+ |A.D. | The East and Africa | Europe |A.D. |
+ | 1 | | Beginning of the Christian | 1 |
+ | | | Era. | |
+ | | | Imperial system completed | |
+ | | | under Tiberius. | |
+ | | | Rhine, Danube, and Euphrates| |
+ | | | form frontiers of the | |
+ | | | Empire. | |
+ | | | Caligula and Claudius | |
+ | | | emperors. | |
+ | | | BRITAIN: Roman occupation. | |
+ | | | Spread of Christianity. | |
+ | 50 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 50 |
+ | | | Nero emperor: Galba, Otho, | |
+ | | | Vitellius. | |
+ | | Destruction of Jerusalem | Vespasian: the “Flavian” | |
+ | | by Titus, 70. | emperors. | |
+ | | | Nerva chosen by Senate in | |
+ | | | succession to Domitian. | |
+ | | | The “Five good Emperors,” | |
+ | | | 96-180. | |
+ | | | Succession of Trajan, 98. | |
+ | 100 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 100 |
+ | | Arabia designated as a | Trajan’s campaigns in Dacia.| |
+ | | Roman province. | Administration organised | |
+ | | Trajan’s expedition to | under Hadrian. | |
+ | | the Persian Gulf | Roman law systematised by | |
+ | | unsuccessful. Eastward | Salvius Julianus. | |
+ | | expansion of Rome | Antoninus Pius. | |
+ | | checked. | | |
+ | 150 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 150 |
+ | | Establishment of Roman | Development of Roman | |
+ supremacy in Armenia. | civilisation in Gaul | |
+ | | | and Spain. | |
+ | | | Campaigns of Marcus Aurelius| |
+ | | | in Pannonia. | |
+ | | | The legions in Illyria, | |
+ | | | largely composed of | |
+ | | | “barbarians,” acquire | |
+ | | | power. | |
+ | | | After Commodus, series of | |
+ | | | emperors by military | |
+ | | | selection. | |
+ | | Successful campaigns of | Severus temporarily assigns | |
+ Severus against | the West to Clodius | |
+ | | Parthians. | Albinus. | |
+ | 200 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 200 |
+ | | Persian kingdom of the | Further systematising of | |
+ | | Sassanides displaces | Roman law by the _juris | |
+ | | the Parthian Empire. | consulti_, Ulpian, etc. | |
+ | | | Increasing pressure of | |
+ | | | Teutonic tribes on the | |
+ | | | frontier. Campaigns of | |
+ | | | Maximinus. | |
+ | | | Decius emperor: official | |
+ | | | persecution of | |
+ | | | Christianity. | |
+ | 250 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 250 |
+ | | Overthrow of Emperor | Advance of the Goths and | |
+ | | Valerian in the East by| Alemanni checked | |
+ | | the Persians. | by Claudius and Aurelian. | |
+ | | Destruction of Palmyra | Diocletian emperor. Division| |
+ | | in the reign of | of the Empire under a | |
+ | | Zenobia. | subordinate “Augustus” and| |
+ | | | two subordinate “Cæsars”. | |
+ | 300 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 300 |
+ | | Extension of Buddhism | Last persecution of | |
+ | | in China. | Christians under | |
+ | | | Diocletian. | |
+ | | | Constantine the Great. | |
+ | | | Constantinople (New Rome, | |
+ | | | Byzantium) is made the | |
+ | | | centre of the Empire. | |
+ | | | Christianity established as | |
+ | | | the State religion | |
+ | | | Council of Nicæa. | |
+ | 350 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 350 |
+ | | Unsuccessful Roman | Temporary revival of Paganism| |
+ | | campaign against | under Julian the | |
+ | | Persia. | Apostate. | |
+ | | | Advance of the Goths checked | |
+ | | | by Theodosius. | |
+ | | | Empire separated into East | |
+ | | | and West, 396. | |
+ | | | Alaric the Visigoth held in | |
+ | | | check in the Western Empire| |
+ | | | by Stilicho. | |
+ | | | Westward movement of Vandals | |
+ | | | through Gaul to Spain. | |
+ | 400 +-------------------------+------------------------------+ 400 |
+ | | | Sack of Rome by Alaric, after| |
+ | | | death of Stilicho. | |
+ | | | End of the Roman occupation | |
+ | | | of Britain. | |
+ | | | The Goths withdraw westwards.| |
+ | | | Establishment of the | |
+ | | | Visigothic kingdom of | |
+ | | | Theoderic in Spain and | |
+ | | Vandals, expelled from | Aquitania. | |
+ | | Spain, established in | Irruption of the Huns under | |
+ | | Africa. | Attila. | |
+ | 450 +-------------------------+------------------------------+ 450 |
+ | | | BRITAIN: The coming of the | |
+ | | | Saxons. | |
+ | | | Barbarian “Patricians” set up| |
+ | | | and depose Western | |
+ | | | Emperors. | |
+ | | | Odoacer, “King” in Italy, | |
+ | | | recognises supremacy of the| |
+ | | | Eastern Emperor Zeno. | |
+ | | | Theoderic the Ostrogoth | |
+ | | | founds a Teutonic State in | |
+ | | | Italy. | |
+ | 500 | | Rise of the Franks in Gaul, | 500 |
+ |A.D. | | under Clovis. |A.D. |
+ +-----+-------------------------+------------------------------+-----+
+
+In Spain, the Gothic supremacy gave promise of an orderly and just
+government. In the wide realms of the Franks anarchy and bloodshed were
+almost ceaseless. In neither did the dominant Teutons drive out the
+older Iberian and Celtic populations, as the English were doing in the
+open lands of the northern island. In both, the German institutions
+were developing into that feudal system which was utterly incompatible
+with the maintenance of a strong central rule, since it enabled a
+powerful vassal to bid defiance to his nominal suzerain. Throughout the
+sixth and seventh centuries progress was stayed in ancient Gaul; in
+Spain it was to be revolutionised by a new invader.
+
+[Sidenote: Islam in Being]
+
+Eastward, at the end of the sixth century, the Slavonic wave was
+surging upon the empire’s northern frontier; in Asia, Persia was
+again forcing her way towards the Mediterranean. Both were checked by
+the Emperor Heraclius early in the seventh century. But, meantime, a
+new Power had come into being. Mohammed had arisen. Inspired by the
+fanatical fervour of Islam, the warriors of Arabia, soon to be known as
+the Saracens, swept all before them. They did not at first make Europe
+their objective; the Caliphs carried their conquering arms over Western
+Asia, into Egypt, and along the southern coasts of the Mediterranean.
+Then they began to beat against the empire itself. The eighth century
+had hardly opened when they poured into Spain; dissensions among the
+Gothic chiefs gave them prompt victory. They swept up to the Pyrenees;
+but their advance was stayed by Charles Martel, the virtual lord of the
+Frankish kingdom. On the East their armies assailed Constantinople, but
+were disastrously repulsed by the Emperor Leo the Isaurian.
+
+Now, for the first time, Papal sanction was demanded and obtained for a
+change of dynasty. The last Merovingian king of the Franks was deposed
+in favour of Pepin, the son of Charles Martel. He was succeeded by his
+son, Karl, a German of the Germans, despite the French form of his
+popular title Charlemagne.
+
+[Sidenote: Charlemagne and His Empire]
+
+During his long reign the Moors in Spain were driven back beyond the
+Ebro; the Saxon tribes across the Rhine were forced to submit and to
+accept Christianity; the Lombard oppressors of Italy were vanquished;
+and on the Pope’s initiative, Charlemagne himself was acclaimed and
+crowned at Rome as emperor and successor of the Cæsars. All of the West
+that remained to Byzantium was Southern Italy. The revived empire came
+into being on Christmas Day, A.D. 800.
+
+The great dominion and the organisation constructed by Charlemagne fell
+into divisions after his death. The lands east of the Rhine remained
+German; on the west, the Teutonic forces yielded to the Latinised
+Celtic spirit. Slowly France and Germany emerged. In England the
+supremacy among the rival peoples passed from the Angles of Northumbria
+or of the Midlands to the Saxon house of Wessex. Hungary was held
+by the Mongolian Avars, presently to be displaced by their Magyar
+kinsmen; otherwise Eastern Europe, Illyria, as well as the Trans-Danube
+districts, was being gradually possessed by the Slavonic races. Their
+westward movement was decisively stayed in the tenth century by Henry
+the Fowler and Otto the Great, who, for the second time, revived the
+“Holy Roman Empire” in the West in a form which effectively translated
+it into the “German Empire.” Meanwhile, the Vikings from the north
+first ravaged the western coasts, then wrung great provinces from the
+kings of England, and of “Francia,” preparing for the day when the
+Norman spirit should set the tone of Western Europe.
+
+[Sidenote: Birth of Feudalism in Europe]
+
+In the Eastern Mohammedan world the Saracen dominion was passing to
+Tartar races--to the Seljuk Turks or the Ghaznavid Turks, and later
+to the Ottomans; the genuine Saracens had seen their greatest days in
+the times of Harun-al-Raschid, when the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne
+was being dismembered. Europe in the eleventh century had passed, or
+was passing, into what is distinctively known as the Feudal Period,
+or later Middle Ages. Everywhere it became the object of the great
+rulers to establish a strong central government, and of the Papacy to
+establish a supremacy over all governments. Feudalism and the Papacy
+were the rivals of the centralising tendency.
+
+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | TIME-TABLE OF THE WORLD: A.D. 500 to 1000 |
+ | |
+ | Teutonic Races Dominate the West. Rise of Mohammed: extension of |
+ | Mohammedan Rule from Cordova to Kabul. Western Empire Revived |
+ | by Charlemagne and again by Otto |
+ +-----+--------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
+ |A.D. | The East and Africa | Europe |A.D. |
+ | 500 | | Franks predominant on Rhine | 500 |
+ | | | and in Gaul. | |
+ | | | Justinian emperor at | |
+ | | | Constantinople. | |
+ | | Overthrow of the African | Roman Law codified in the | |
+ | | Vandal kingdom by | Institutes. | |
+ | | Belisarius, general of | Overthrow of Gothic kingdom | |
+ | | Justinian. | in Italy by Belisarius. | |
+ | | | Advance of Saxons (South) | |
+ | | | and Angles (East) in | |
+ | | | England. | |
+ | 550 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 550 |
+ | | Buddhism introduced in | Lombard conquest of North | |
+ | | Japan. | Italy. | |
+ | | | Spread of Celtic | |
+ | | | Christianity in Britain by| |
+ | | | St. Columba. | |
+ | | Advance of Persia against| Pontificate of Gregory the | |
+ | | the Eastern Empire. | Great. | |
+ | | | Latin Christianity | |
+ | | | introduced into Kent by | |
+ | | | St. Augustine, 597. | |
+ | 600 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 600 |
+ | | Overthrow of Persia by | ENGLAND: Supremacy of | |
+ | | Emperor Heraclius. | Northumbria. | |
+ | | MOHAMMED. The Hegira | | |
+ | | (622). | ITALY: North under Lombard | |
+ | | | dominion; South attached | |
+ | | Conquest of Egypt and | to the Eastern Empire. | |
+ | | Syria by the Caliphs | | |
+ | | Abu-bekr and Omar. | Avar dominion in Hungary. | |
+ | | Conquest of Persia, and | | |
+ | | extension of Caliphate | Slavonic settlement in | |
+ | | over West Asia. | Servia. | |
+ | 650 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 650 |
+ | | Saracens (Caliphate) | ENGLAND: Final overthrow of | |
+ | | attack the Empire in | Paganism. | |
+ | | the East and in Africa.| Triumph of Roman over Celtic| |
+ | | | Christianity. | |
+ | | Rise of the Shiite sect | FRANKS: Dukes of Austrasia | |
+ | | of Mohammedans. | (East Franks) dominate the| |
+ | | | Merovingian kings. | |
+ | 700 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 700 |
+ | | Revival in India of | Saracens (or Moors) | |
+ | | Brahmanism, gradually | overrun Spain. | |
+ | | developing into modern | Saracen advance checked by | |
+ | | Hinduism. | Emperor Leo the Isaurian | |
+ | | | at Constantinople, and by | |
+ | | | Charles Martel at Tours. | |
+ | | | Beginning of the | |
+ | | | Iconoclastic controversy. | |
+ | | | Discussions between Papacy | |
+ | | | and Eastern Church. | |
+ | 750 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 750 |
+ | | | ENGLAND: Supremacy of | |
+ | | | Mercia. | |
+ | | Division of the Caliphate| FRANKS: Fall of the | |
+ | | into Eastern (Abassid) | Merovingian dynasty. | |
+ | | at Bagdad and Western | Pepin the Short founds the | |
+ | | (Ommeiad) at Cordova. | Karling or Carolingian | |
+ | | | Dynasty. | |
+ | | Rise of the Turks in the | Empress Irene at | |
+ | | Caliphate armies. | Constantinople. | |
+ | | | FRANKS: Karl the Great | |
+ | | Harun-al-Raschid Caliph | (Charlemagne) succeeds | |
+ | | at Bagdad. | Pepin as king of the | |
+ | | | Franks. He drives the | |
+ | | | Moors beyond the Ebro, | |
+ | | | conquers the Lombards, and| |
+ | | | is crowned as Roman | |
+ | | | Emperor by the Pope. | |
+ | | | (800). | |
+ | 800 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 800 |
+ | | | Subjugation of the Saxons | |
+ | | | by Charlemagne. | |
+ | | Increasing power of the | Division of Charlemagne’s | |
+ | | Western Caliphate. | dominion among his | |
+ | | | grandsons. | |
+ | | | ENGLAND: Supremacy of | |
+ | | | Wessex under Egbert. | |
+ | | | The Danes, or Northmen, | |
+ | | | harry the coasts of | |
+ | | | Europe. | |
+ | 850 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 850 |
+ | | Fatemide Mohammedan | Carolingian dominion divided| |
+ | | dynasty established in | into West (Francia), East | |
+ | | Egypt. | (Franconia, Germany), | |
+ | | Decline of the Abassid | Central (Burgundy) and | |
+ | | Caliphs. | Italy. | |
+ | | | Pressure of Slavonic peoples| |
+ | | | on East Germany. | |
+ | | | ENGLAND: Alfred the Great. | |
+ | | | Settlement of the Danes | |
+ | | | in the Danelagh. | |
+ | | | Organisation of | |
+ | | | Government, Law, etc. | |
+ | | | Advance of Magyars in | |
+ | | | Hungary. | |
+ | | | Iceland colonised, 874-950. | |
+ | 900 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 900 |
+ | | | FRANCE: Duchy of Normandy | |
+ | | | ceded to Rollo. | |
+ | | | NORWAY united under Harold | |
+ | | | Haarfager. | |
+ | | | ENGLAND: House of Wessex | |
+ | | | kings of all England. | |
+ | | | GERMANY: Henry the Fowler, | |
+ | | | Saxon King of Germany, | |
+ | | | and his son Otto the | |
+ | | | Great, check the Magyar | |
+ | | | advance. | |
+ | | | Pressure of Slavs on | |
+ | | | Eastern Empire. | |
+ | 950 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+ 950 |
+ | | Recovery of Eastern | EMPIRE: Otto becomes King | |
+ | | Provinces from the | of Italy and Roman | |
+ | | Saracens by the | Emperor. The Holy Roman | |
+ | | Byzantine Empire. | Empire is from this time | |
+ | | | definitely German. | |
+ | | | FRANCE: The Capet dynasty | |
+ | | | replaces the Carolingian. | |
+ | | | Slavs driven back by Eastern| |
+ | | | Emperors. Russians | |
+ | | | Christianised. Slav | |
+ |1000 | | dominion established in |1000 |
+ |A.D. | | Poland. |A.D. |
+ +-----+--------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
+
+[Sidenote: England and France]
+
+In England, where a Norman dynasty and Norman aristocracy established
+themselves, the unifying process was astonishingly rapid. The country
+was comparatively shielded from Papal interposition by distance. A
+series of vigorous and able monarchs prevented pure feudalism from
+ever getting developed; it resulted that in the thirteenth century
+baronage and people made common cause in imposing not feudalism, but
+constitutional control over the kings. In France, the victory of the
+crown over feudalism was far slower; the feudatories were too powerful,
+and among them were the kings of England, as dukes or counts of great
+territories within France. The Hundred Years’ War was, in fact, not so
+much a contest for the French crown as a struggle between the French
+kings and their mightiest vassals. It was not till the English had
+been finally expelled that Louis XI. was enabled to make the crown
+supreme in France. There, as in England, the monarchy never submitted
+to the Papacy; it was so far victorious in that struggle that in the
+fourteenth century the seat of the Roman pontificate was transferred
+to Avignon, and the Pontiff himself became literally the creature of
+France.
+
+[Sidenote: Christendom and the Crusades]
+
+Spain and Byzantium alike remained for the most part outside the
+general European current. They were the buffers between Christendom and
+Islam. In the Spanish Peninsula the Moors were held more or less at
+bay, but the land was not freed from their dominion till the close of
+the fifteenth century. Byzantium held the Turks at bay till the middle
+of the same century; then she fell for ever. Between the eleventh
+and thirteenth centuries, Christendom carried on against Islam the
+long contest of the Crusades; but the warriors who took part in those
+wars neither fought nor organised as though themselves forming an
+organic body; the Christian hosts in Palestine were mere miscellaneous
+gatherings, united only in the temporary fits of enthusiasm. The Holy
+Sepulchre was gained, but within a century it was lost again; the
+crusading cause was one to which not states, but individuals only,
+devoted themselves. Conquest would have been possible only if the
+Crusaders had gone forth prepared to make their own homes in Asia. The
+East could not be held by garrisons with no abiding interest there.
+
+Islam, then, held, and more than held, its own against the West; while
+during these same centuries it swept east and south through the passes
+of the Punjab into India, establishing Turk and Afghan kingdoms over
+most of the great peninsula; though the vast bulk of the population
+there held to the Hinduism which, born of the earlier Brahmanism, had
+almost expelled the Buddhist religion, which, however, had established
+itself permanently in Further India and China.
+
+[Sidenote: Empire, Feudalism, & Papacy]
+
+The might of Islam could have been overthrown only by a united
+Christendom, and for that the disintegrating forces were too great.
+England and, more slowly, France freed themselves from feudalism. But
+Christendom required one head. If the Papacy had stood by the empire,
+feudalism might have been broken down, and the emperor have become
+that head. But the Papacy aimed at supremacy for itself--the spiritual
+power was at war with the temporal. Anti-imperial factions claimed
+the support of the Church; the efforts at consolidation of the great
+Hohenstaufen Emperors, Barbarossa and Frederick II., were unsuccessful.
+The empire itself became only a congeries of kingdoms and dukedoms,
+counties, bishoprics, free cities, and leagues of cities, under the
+Austrian house of Hapsburg; while Rome, mighty from the days of Gregory
+VII. to Innocent III., lost its prestige in the captivity at Avignon
+and by the Great Schism which followed. In England Wycliffe’s voice
+was raised; on the south-east of the empire the Hussite wars raged,
+premonitory of the Reformation.
+
+[Sidenote: End of the Middle Ages]
+
+In 1453 Constantinople fell, and the Turk was permanently established
+in the east of Europe. As a counterstroke, in the west, not forty years
+later, the Moorish dominion in Spain was wiped out, Spain emerging as
+a united Christian kingdom. Before the end of the century Columbus and
+Gama had discovered America, and virtually rediscovered India. Across
+the ocean a new, almost unlimited field for expansion, for enterprise,
+for rivalry had been opened to the European peoples. Already in
+the realms of intellect old forgotten knowledge had been gradually
+recovered by the Renascence, the revival of learning and letters; with
+the intellectual expansion and the invention of the printing press
+paths to new knowledge were being opened. Men were shaking themselves
+free from the shackles of authority and tradition. Hence, the sixteenth
+century witnessed that revolt of half Western Christendom from Rome
+which we call the Reformation; in its essence, though by no means in
+its form at the first, a revolt against the interposition of any human
+authority between the individual man and his Maker. With that revolt
+political and national divisions were inextricably blended, while the
+whole was complicated by the new conditions of political supremacy
+created by the New World.
+
+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | TIME-TABLE OF THE WORLD: A.D. 1000 to 1500 |
+ | |
+ | Development of Feudalism. The Rise and Decadence of the Papacy. |
+ | The Crusades. Holy Roman Empire. The Organisation of England, |
+ | France, and Spain. The Renaissance |
+ +-----+--------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
+ |A.D. | The Non-Christian World | Christendom |A.D. |
+ |1000 | | |1000 |
+ | | Mahmud of Ghazni. | Scandinavian power: Canute, | |
+ | | Beginning of | King of Norway, Sweden, | |
+ | | Mohammedan invasions | Denmark, and England. | |
+ | | of India. | Franconian line of emperors;| |
+ | | | Burgundy reunited to | |
+ | | | Empire. | |
+ | | | Dynasty of Hugh Capet in | |
+ | | | France. | |
+ |1050 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1050 |
+ | | | ENGLAND: The Norman | |
+ | | | conquest, 1066. | |
+ | | | Norman conquests in Sicily | |
+ | | | and S. Italy. | |
+ | | Power of the Seljuk | Power of the Empire under | |
+ | | Turkish Dynasty. | Henry III. | |
+ | | | Pontificate of Gregory VII. | |
+ | | | (Hildebrand). Beginning | |
+ | | | of the struggle between | |
+ | | | Papacy and Empire (Henry | |
+ | | | IV.) | |
+ | | | First Crusade. | |
+ |1100 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1100 |
+ | | | Development of Papal power. | |
+ | | | ENGLAND: Organisation of | |
+ | | | central government under | |
+ | | | Henry I. checked under | |
+ | | | Stephen. | |
+ | | | Norman kingdom of Sicily. | |
+ | | | Conrad, first Hohenstaufen | |
+ | | | emperor. Beginning of | |
+ | | | Guelphs (Papal) and | |
+ | | | Ghibellines (Imperial). | |
+ |1150 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1150 |
+ | | | The Angevin dominion of | |
+ | | | II., comprising half | |
+ | | | France. | |
+ | | Establishment of | ENGLAND: End of feudal | |
+ | | Mohammedan (Ghori) | anarchy. Maximum power of | |
+ | | dynasty at Delhi. | Crown. Henry worsted in | |
+ | | | the struggle with the | |
+ | | | Church. | |
+ | | Conquests of the Saracens| Chivalry typified in Richard| |
+ | | under the Seljuk | Cœur-de-Lion. | |
+ | | Saladin. | Frederick Barbarossa | |
+ | | | emperor, 1155-1190. | |
+ | | Third Crusade | City development. Lombard | |
+ | | (Cœur-de-Lion). | League; and German Free | |
+ | | | Cities. | |
+ | | | Advance of Moors in Spain. | |
+ |1200 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1200 |
+ | | Genghis Khan: Tartar | Highest power of Papacy, | |
+ | | conquests in Asia and | under Innocent III. | |
+ | | irruption into Europe. | Francis of Assisi: | |
+ | | Buddhism obsolescent in | institution of Mendicant | |
+ | | India. | Friars. | |
+ | | | ENGLAND: Magna Charta; | |
+ | | | contest of Crown and | |
+ | | | Barons. Loss of Angevin | |
+ | | | dominion. | |
+ | | | FRANCE: Development of | |
+ | | | central power under Louis | |
+ | | | VIII. and IX. | |
+ | | | Institution of the Teutonic | |
+ | | | knights. | |
+ | | | Break up of the Eastern | |
+ | | | Empire. Venice. | |
+ |1250 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1250 |
+ | | | Decadence of Imperial power.| |
+ | | | First Habsburg emperor. | |
+ | | | End of the Crusading period.| |
+ | | Rise of the Ottoman | ITALY: Rise of Florence. | |
+ | | (Othman) Turks. | Dante. Giotto. | |
+ | | Khublai Khan in Eastern | ENGLAND: Establishment of | |
+ | | Asia. | Parliament (Montfort and | |
+ | | | Edward I.). Organisation | |
+ | | | of the English nation. | |
+ |1300 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1300 |
+ | | | The Papacy “in captivity” | |
+ | | | at Avignon. | |
+ | | Mameluke Sultans in | Independence of Scotland. | |
+ | | Egypt. | Independence of Switzerland.| |
+ | | | Ottoman Turks establish a | |
+ | | | footing in Europe. | |
+ | | | ENGLAND AND FRANCE: | |
+ | | | Beginning of the 100 | |
+ | | | Years’ War. | |
+ |1350 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1350 |
+ | | Rise of the Ming dynasty | The Jacquerie in France. | |
+ | | in China: expulsion of | The Great Schism: period | |
+ | | Mongols. | of dual Papacy. | |
+ | | | ENGLAND: Peasant revolt. | |
+ | | Conquests of Timur the | Failure of Richard II.’s | |
+ | | Tartar (Tamerlane) | attempt at absolutism. | |
+ | | | Wycliffe. | |
+ | | | Union of Lithuania with | |
+ | | | Poland. | |
+ |1400 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1400 |
+ | | Empires of Mexico and | End of Great Schism. | |
+ | | Peru. | Hussite wars. | |
+ | | | English conquest of France, | |
+ | | | and subsequent expulsion. | |
+ | | | Increasing powers of | |
+ | | | Parliament. | |
+ | | | Invention of printing press.| |
+ |1450 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1450 |
+ | | | Turks capture | |
+ | | | Constantinople. | |
+ | | | ENGLAND: Wars of the Roses, | |
+ | | | 1455-1485. | |
+ | | | Maritime greatness of | |
+ | | | PORTUGAL. | |
+ | | | SPAIN consolidated under | |
+ | | | Ferdinand and Isabella. | |
+ | | Discovery of America by | FRANCE consolidated under | |
+ | | Christopher Columbus; | Louis XI. | |
+ | | and of Cape route to | ENGLAND consolidated under | |
+ | | India by Vasco da Gama.| Henry VII. Establishment | |
+ | | | of absolutism under | |
+ | | | constitutional forms. | |
+ |1500 | | Revival of learning. | 1500|
+ |A.D. | | Humanists. Savonarola. |A.D. |
+ +-----+--------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Modern Nations]
+
+The next two centuries, then, saw France, already a consolidated state,
+develop into the first military Power under the most absolute monarch
+in Europe--through a stage of prolonged religious strife which ended
+by establishing the tolerationist Bourbon, Henry IV., on the throne,
+through the rule of the two great cardinals, Richelieu and Mazarin, to
+the intolerant autocracy of Louis XIV., with a close aristocracy no
+longer in opposition to the crown but allied to it.
+
+In England the development was on different lines. There we find an
+absolutist movement, the outcome of the Wars of the Roses. But however
+autocratic the Tudors were, they held by constitutional forms, and
+preserved the intense loyalty of their people. On Elizabeth’s death,
+a century-old matrimonial alliance placed the sceptres of England and
+Scotland in a single hand.
+
+Then, on the theory of Divine right, the Crown attempted to override
+the constitution; the Civil War gave the power neither to king nor
+parliament, but to a military dictator. On his death the country
+reverted to a compromise between Crown and Parliament; the Stuarts,
+again, with the aid of their cousin, the autocrat of France,
+attempted to recover absolutism. They were driven from the country,
+and constitutionalism--in effect, government by an oligarchy of
+landowners--was decisively established. The religious problem had found
+a decisively Protestant solution at an early stage; but Anglicanism
+and Puritanism soon grew mutually intolerant; it was only with the
+Revolution of 1688 that toleration and constitutionalism definitely
+triumphed together.
+
+[Sidenote: Europe in Development]
+
+Meanwhile, in the reign of Elizabeth, England had asserted her
+intellectual eminence by giving birth to Shakespeare and to Bacon; and
+had decisively displaced Spain from the rulership of the seas. In
+the next century her colonisation of North America counterbalanced the
+Spanish dominion in the south and centre of the Western Hemisphere,
+though it was not unchallenged by France. In the East a great
+commercial rivalry had grown up between English, Dutch, and French--a
+rivalry still to be fought out.
+
+[Sidenote: Collision of the Dynasties]
+
+In the early years of the sixteenth century matrimonial alliances had
+joined Spain, the Low Countries, and the empire under a single ruler,
+a Hapsburg of the (Austrian) Imperial house. The vast dominion was
+extended by the acquisition of the golden territories of the American
+continent. The Empire passed to one Hapsburg branch, Spain and her
+dependencies to another. In the empire, a temporary _modus vivendi_
+was established between Roman Catholics and Protestants; but Spain,
+the colossus which threatened to dominate Europe, was split by the
+revolt of the Netherlands, and her power shaken to its foundations
+by the collision with England. In the sixteenth century, Germany was
+devastated by the religious Thirty Years’ War; Austria emerged only as
+the chief among a number of German states, and Holland won a naval and
+commercial position second only to that of England. The Ottoman Turks,
+still aggressive, were still held in check. In India, a Turkish dynasty
+known as the Moguls (Mughàls, Mongols) extended its sway from Kabul to
+the mouth of the Ganges, and almost to Cape Comorin.
+
+At the opening of the eighteenth century the aggressive Continental
+policy of Louis XIV. involved Europe in the “War of the Spanish
+Succession.” The French king’s armies were shattered by repeated blows
+at the hands of Marlborough and Eugene, but he finally obtained his
+primary object, the recognition of his grandson as king of Spain. The
+threat of a Hapsburg domination passed into the threat of a Bourbon
+domination. In the east of Europe a final limit was set to the Ottoman
+aggression. In Britain, the incorporation of Scotland was completed,
+formally by the Union of 1707, effectively by the suppression of
+Jacobitism in 1746.
+
+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | TIME-TABLE OF THE WORLD: A.D. 1500 to 1700 |
+ | |
+ | New World Entered, and East Re-entered. The Reformation. |
+ | Organisation of European Nations under Absolute Monarchies. |
+ | Constitutional Struggle in England. English Naval Supremacy |
+ +-----+--------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
+ |A.D. | Asia and Africa | Europe and America |A.D. |
+ |1500 | | |1500 |
+ | | The New World bestowed | Raphael, Michael Angelo, | |
+ | | on Spain and Portugal | and Titian. | |
+ | | by the Bull of Pope | Rivalry of Henry VIII. | |
+ | | Alexander VI. | (1509-47), Francis I. | |
+ | | Portuguese dominion | (1515-47), and Charles V. | |
+ | | established in the | (1519-56), who combines | |
+ | | Indian seas by | Spain, Burgundy, and the | |
+ | | Albuquerque. | Empire. | |
+ | | Conquest of Egypt by | Luther challenges the | |
+ | | Ottoman Turks. | Papacy, 1517-20. | |
+ | | Safid dynasty in Persia | The Reformation era opens. | |
+ | | (“The Sofy”). | | |
+ |1520 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1520 |
+ | | First circumnavigation | Turkish advance under | |
+ | | completed, 1522. | Solyman the Magnificent. | |
+ | | Invasion of Hindostan | Gustavus Vasa in Sweden, | |
+ | | (Northern India) by | 1523-60. | |
+ | | Baber, the first | Spain conquers Mexico (1520)| |
+ | | “Mogul” emperor, 1526. | Peru (1533). | |
+ | | Expulsion of Moguls: | REFORMATION: Subjection | |
+ | | dynasty of Sher Shah | of Church to Crown | |
+ | | at Delhi, 1540. | (England). Confession of | |
+ | | | Augsburg: Protestant | |
+ | | | League. Calvin creates | |
+ | | | Presbyterianism. | |
+ |1540 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1540 |
+ | | | RUSSIA: Ivan the Terrible. | |
+ | | | Order of Jesuits formally | |
+ | | | established. | |
+ | | François Xavier in | GERMANY: Contest between | |
+ | | Japan. | Charles V. and Protestant | |
+ | | | princes of Germany ended | |
+ | | | by compromise at Peace of | |
+ | | | Augsburg. | |
+ | | Restoration of Moguls, | ENGLAND: Protestant | |
+ | | 1556. | Revolution (Edward VI.) | |
+ | | | followed by Romanist | |
+ | | | reaction (Mary), and | |
+ | | | final establishment of | |
+ | | | Protestantism (Elizabeth) | |
+ | | | in England and Scotland. | |
+ |1560 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1560 |
+ | | Rule of Akbar, 1556-1605.| SPAIN: Philip II. and the | |
+ | | Toleration of Hinduism. | Inquisition. | |
+ | | | Council of Trent defines | |
+ | | | limits of Roman | |
+ | | | Catholicism. | |
+ | | | FRANCE: Series of civil | |
+ | | | wars of religion, | |
+ | | | 1562-95. | |
+ | | | Revolt of Netherlands from | |
+ | | | Spain. | |
+ | | | Turkish advance checked at | |
+ | | | Lepanto, 1571. | |
+ | | | PORTUGAL absorbed by Spain. | |
+ |1580 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1580 |
+ | | Mogul dominion | Gradual success of the | |
+ | | established and | Netherlands revolt. | |
+ | | organised throughout | English naval supremacy | |
+ | | Northern India. | proved by the Armada 1588.| |
+ | | | Decadence of Spain. | |
+ | | | FRANCE: Toleration secured | |
+ | | | by Henri IV. | |
+ | | | Spenser, Marlowe, and | |
+ | | | Shakespeare. | |
+ |1600 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1600 |
+ | | Development of Japanese | Galileo and Bacon. | |
+ | | Feudalism. | Union of English and | |
+ | | Reign of Jehan Gir in | Scottish Crowns, 1603. | |
+ | | Hindostan, 1605-27. | Dutch and English commerce | |
+ | | First English factory at | in the East Indies. | |
+ | | Surat, 1611. | Virginia, first successful | |
+ | | First English Embassy to | British colony in North | |
+ | | Delhi, 1615. | America, 1606. | |
+ | | | HOLLAND: Independence | |
+ | | | established, 1609. | |
+ | | | GERMANY: Thirty Years’ War | |
+ | | | begins, 1618-48. | |
+ |1620 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1620 |
+ | | Reign of Shah Jehan, | Gustavus Adolphus. | |
+ | | 1627-58. | FRANCE: Richelieu organises | |
+ | | The Taj Mahal built. | absolutism. | |
+ | | End of the Portuguese | ENGLAND: Constitutional | |
+ | | power in the East. | struggle between Charles | |
+ | | Extension of the Mogul | I. and Parliament. The | |
+ | | dominion into the | Petition of Right, 1628. | |
+ | | Deccan. | PORTUGAL recovers | |
+ | | | independence. | |
+ |1640 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1640 |
+ | | Rise of the Manchu | FRANCE: Rule of Mazarin: | |
+ | | (Tartar) dynasty in | absolutism established. | |
+ | | China. | ENGLAND: Civil War, | |
+ | | | resulting in military | |
+ | | | protectorate. | |
+ | | Reign of Aurangzib, | Thirty Years’ War ended by | |
+ | | 1658-1707. | Peace of Westphalia. | |
+ | | Rise of the Mahrattas | Commercial and naval rivalry| |
+ | | under Sivaji. | of English and Dutch. | |
+ | | | Development of France into | |
+ | | | the leading military | |
+ | | | power. | |
+ |1660 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1660 |
+ | | France enters the field | FRANCE: Louis XIV. initiates| |
+ | | in India. | policy of aggression. | |
+ | | Revival of intolerant | ENGLAND: Charles II. | |
+ | | Mohammedanism by | undermines supremacy of | |
+ | | Aurangzib. | Parliament. Repression of | |
+ | | Expansion of the Mogul | Nonconformity by | |
+ | | Empire over Southern | Parliament. | |
+ | | India. | Louis XIV. attacks Holland, | |
+ | | | with occasional support | |
+ | | | from Charles II. | |
+ | | | ENGLAND: Attack on Romanism.| |
+ |1680 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1680 |
+ | | | Aggressive movement of | |
+ | | | Turkey. | |
+ | | | FRANCE: Louis XIV. revokes | |
+ | | | Edict of Nantes, 1685. | |
+ | | | Constitutionalism | |
+ | | | established in England | |
+ | | | by the revolution of 1688.| |
+ | | | Wars of England and Holland | |
+ | | | against France. | |
+ |1700 | | RUSSIA: Peter the Great. | 1700|
+ |A.D. | | Newton and Leibnitz. |A.D. |
+ +-----+--------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
+
+[Sidenote: Settling Down of the Powers]
+
+From 1739 to 1763 Europe was again plunged into wars, with an eight
+years’ interval. The motives of those wars, and of the combinations
+of states on either side, were complicated; the results were simple.
+Prussia, under Frederick the Great, emerged as a first-class Power;
+France lost her North American Colonies to Great Britain; the British
+East India Company defeated the attempt of the French to establish a
+paramount influence with the native princes, the Mogul Empire having
+broken up into a congeries of practically independent satrapies; and
+the British themselves became established as a territorial Power by
+the conquest of Bengal. Russia also, organised at the beginning of the
+century by Peter the Great, had taken her place definitely among the
+great Powers.
+
+During the next twenty years (1763-1783) Poland was absorbed by her
+neighbours. The British Empire was sundered by the revolt of the older
+American Colonies, which were established as the United States of
+America; while Canada remained loyal. By this time the whole of Europe
+was practically governed by absolute monarchies; but a cataclysm was
+at hand. France became the scene of a tremendous revolution. Crown and
+aristocracy were toppled into the abyss.
+
+[Sidenote: Napoleon and the Revolution]
+
+France proclaimed herself the liberator of the peoples; the monarchs
+of Europe combined to suppress the proletariat. During the last decade
+of the century one revolutionary constitution after another was set
+up in Paris, while the revolutionary armies shattered monarchical
+armies, and turned the “liberated” peoples into subject dependencies
+of the Republic. On the seas, however, Britain successfully asserted
+her supremacy. Of the commanders of the Republic, the most brilliant
+was the Corsican Bonaparte. He dreamed of making Egypt the basis for
+achieving an Asiatic empire, and thence overwhelming Europe; but
+the dream was shattered when he found himself isolated by Nelson’s
+destruction of the French fleet at Aboukir in the Battle of the Nile.
+Returning to Paris, he transformed the republic into an empire; he set
+up his brothers or his generals as rulers over half the kingdoms in
+Europe; he dictated terms to every government except Britain. Britain
+annihilated his fleets, and fought and beat his generals in the Spanish
+Peninsula. He conquered the kings, but the nations rose against him,
+and overthrew him; his last effort was crushed at Waterloo.
+
+Absolutism was reinstated, but the proletariats had learnt to demand
+freedom. Steam-power and steam-traction so changed the conditions
+of production as to revolutionise the relations between labour and
+capital, and between the landed and the manufacturing interests.
+In Great Britain political power passed from the landowners to the
+manufacturers with the great Reform Bill of 1832, and from the wealthy
+to the labouring classes with the Franchise Bills of 1867 and 1884.
+Every monarchy has been compelled to submit to limitations of its own
+powers more or less copied from Britain.
+
+[Sidenote: The World as it is]
+
+Britain herself, not untaught by the breach with America, has learned
+to establish responsible government in her Colonies, making them
+virtually free states; and among those states the idea of federation
+has taken root and is bearing fruit. In India, challenged by one native
+race after another, she has extended her sway over the whole peninsula,
+and has abolished the anomaly of governing her great dependency through
+a trading company. In the West her kinsmen have raised the United
+States into a mighty nation.
+
+In Europe France has passed through monarchy and republic and second
+empire into a stable republic; Italy has revolted against foreign
+rulers, and become a united nation; the small peoples of the Balkan
+Peninsula have now achieved by arms their liberty from Turkish rule.
+Prussia has won the hegemony of the German states, and established
+a new German Empire. Russia, the bogey of the West, and of Britain
+in particular, has shown her weakness in collision with the sudden
+development of Japan.
+
+Finally, the Dark Continent has been explored and partitioned: in the
+south, after a sharp conflict, British and Dutch are on the way to
+become a united people; in the north, Egypt has been reorganised under
+British administration. We end, as we began, with the land of the
+Pyramids.
+
+ ARTHUR D. INNES.
+
+
+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | TIME-TABLE OF THE WORLD: A.D. 1700 to 1914 |
+ | |
+ | Struggle for Colonial Supremacy. French Revolution and Napoleonic |
+ | Wars. Growth of Democracy and Consolidation of European States. |
+ | Colonial Extension of Responsible Government |
+ +-----+--------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
+ |A.D. | Asia, Africa, and | Europe and America |A.D. |
+ |1700 | Australasia | |1700 |
+ | | | | |
+ | | | War of Spanish Succession, | |
+ | | | 1702-13. Bourbons | |
+ | | | established in Spain. | |
+ | | | Career of Charles XII. of | |
+ | | | Sweden, 1697-1718. | |
+ | | | GREAT BRITAIN: Incorporating| |
+ | | | union of England and | |
+ | | | Scotland, 1707. | |
+ | | | Turkish advance decisively | |
+ | | | stopped by Eugene, 1717. | |
+ | | | Alliance of France and | |
+ | | | Great Britain. | |
+ |1720 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1720 |
+ | | | Anglo-Spanish War, combined | |
+ | | | with War of the Austrian | |
+ | | | Succession, 1739-48. | |
+ | | | Development of Prussian | |
+ | | | military power under | |
+ | | | Frederick William. | |
+ |1740 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1740 |
+ | | Struggle between British | GREAT BRITAIN: End of | |
+ | | and French in Southern | Jacobitism (the | |
+ | | India, 1746-61. | Forty-five) consolidates | |
+ | | | the union. | |
+ | | | Seven Years’ War (1756-63): | |
+ | | | Prussia and Great Britain | |
+ | | | against France, Austria, | |
+ | | Clive conquers Bengal; | and Russia. Achievements | |
+ | | beginning of British | of Frederick. Overthrow of| |
+ | | territorial power in | France at sea, and in | |
+ | | India, 1757. | Canada and India. | |
+ |1760 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1760 |
+ | | British dominion receives| Treaties of Paris and | |
+ | | Mogul’s sanction. | Hubertsburg exclude France| |
+ | | | from America and India, | |
+ | | | and confirm the position | |
+ | | | of Prussia. | |
+ | | Haidar Ali in Mysore. | Partition of Poland. | |
+ | | Governor-Generalship of | GREAT BRITAIN: Quarrel | |
+ | | Warren Hastings | with Colonies; leading to | |
+ | | (1774-85), establishes | War of American | |
+ | | the British power. | Independence, 1775-83. | |
+ |1780 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1780 |
+ | | Dual control in India by | British recovery of naval | |
+ | | East India Company and | predominance. | |
+ | | Parliamentary Board of | UNITED STATES: Independence | |
+ | | Control set up by | established 1783. | |
+ | | Pitt’s India Act. | FRANCE: French Revolution, | |
+ | | | 1789. | |
+ | | Administration of British| War between European | |
+ | | India systematised. | Coalitions and French | |
+ | | | Republic, 1792-1802. Rise | |
+ | | | of Bonaparte. Triumphs of | |
+ | | | French Army and British | |
+ | | Overthrow of Mysore, and | Navy. | |
+ | | and institution of | GREAT BRITAIN: Legislative | |
+ | | subsidiary alliances by| Union with Ireland. | |
+ | | Lord Wellesley. | Kant and Goethe. | |
+ |1800 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1800 |
+ | | Overthrow of Mahratta | War renewed (1803) between | |
+ | | power by Lord Hastings | European Coalitions and | |
+ | | (1819): extensive | Emperor Napoleon (1804). | |
+ | | annexations. | Trafalgar and Austerlitz, | |
+ | | Acquisition of Cape | 1805. Peninsula War, | |
+ | | Colony from Holland by | 1808-13. Moscow Campaign, | |
+ | | Great Britain. | 1812. Waterloo Campaign, | |
+ | | Gradual planting of | 1815. | |
+ | | Australasian Colonies. | European reconstruction. | |
+ | | | Absolutist reaction: the | |
+ | | | Holy alliance. | |
+ |1820 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1820 |
+ | | | Independence of South and | |
+ | | | Central American States. | |
+ | | | Greek War of Independence, | |
+ | | | 1822-29. | |
+ | | Aggressive Eastward | FRANCE: Constitutional | |
+ | | movement of Persia | Monarchy under Louis | |
+ | | checked at Herat. | Philippe, 1830-48. | |
+ | | First Afghan Wars, | GREAT BRITAIN: Parliamentary| |
+ | | 1839-42. | Reform and manufacturing | |
+ | | CHINA: First collision | development. Railways. | |
+ | | with Europe. | | |
+ |1840 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1840 |
+ | | Sikh Wars, 1845-49. | Charles Darwin. | |
+ | | Annexations under | Revolutionary movements in | |
+ | | Dalhousie. | Europe. | |
+ | | Indian Mutiny, 1857. | FRANCE: Republic (1849) | |
+ | | Transfer of Indian | passing to Empire of | |
+ | | Government to British | Napoleon III. (1852). | |
+ | | Crown, 1858. | Crimean War, 1854-56. | |
+ | | JAPAN: Admission of | Establishment of responsible| |
+ | | foreign traders. | government in British | |
+ | | | Colonies. | |
+ |1860 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1860 |
+ | | JAPAN: Revived power of | American Civil War, | |
+ | | the Mikado. | 1861-65. Abolition of | |
+ | | | Slavery. | |
+ | | Advance of Russia in | Independence of United Italy| |
+ | | Central Asia towards | under Victor Emmanuel. | |
+ | | India. | Prussia acquires leadership | |
+ | | | of German States 1866. | |
+ | | Second Afghan War, | Franco-Prussian War, | |
+ | | 1878-80. | 1870-71. New German | |
+ | | | Empire, and new French | |
+ | | | Republic. | |
+ | | | Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78. | |
+ |1880 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1880 |
+ | | Mahdism in the Eastern | British control established | |
+ | | Sudan; ended at | in Egypt. | |
+ | | Omdurman in 1898. | Repeated disturbances in the| |
+ | | British control | Balkan States established | |
+ | | established. | by the Russo-Turkish War. | |
+ | | Partition of Africa into | First Peace Conference of | |
+ | | “Spheres of Influence.”| European powers at the | |
+ | | War between China and | Hague, 1899. | |
+ | | Japan. | Norway separates from | |
+ | | Annexation of Philippines| Sweden and elects King | |
+ | | by United States. | Haakon, 1905. | |
+ | | South African War | Second Peace Conference at | |
+ | | (1899-1902) and | the Hague, 1907. | |
+ | | incorporation of Dutch | | |
+ | | States into British | | |
+ | | Empire. | | |
+ | | Federation of Australian | | |
+ | | Colonies, 1901. | | |
+ | | War between Russia and | | |
+ | | Japan, 1904-5. | | |
+ |1910 +--------------------------+-----------------------------+1910 |
+ | | CHINA: Revolution: Manchu| Allied Balkan States defeat | |
+ | | dynasty displaced by | Turkey, 1912. | |
+ | | Republic, 1912. | Creation of Albania as | |
+ | | Tripoli annexed by Italy | independent state, 1914. | |
+ | | from Ottoman Empire, | Revolution in Mexico, | |
+ |A.D. | 1912. | 1913-14. |A.D. |
+ +-----+--------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
+
+
+A TIME-TABLE OF THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD
+
+FROM THE BEGINNING OF HISTORY TO THE PRESENT DAY
+
+Showing at a glance the fate of all nations, their rise, their sway,
+their decline, and their successors
+
+ On this double-page are shown the empires of the ancient world to
+ the rise of Rome, and on the succeeding double-page the ruling
+ powers from Rome until the present day. The chronology is in
+ divisions of a hundred years, except the first four, which, for
+ convenience of space, are shown in longer periods
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ NOTABLE EVENTS B. C.
+ 8000
+
+ The earliest civilisation known is that of Egypt, traces of
+ which have been found dating back to 7,000 or 8,000 B.C.
+ Equally early civilisations were probably established in the
+ Euphrates Valley. 4000
+
+ In the fifth millennium Khufu built the Great Pyramids; in
+ the fourth a Semitic migration, spreading westward from Asia,
+ peopled Babylonia, Assyria, Canaan, and Phœnicia afresh,
+ establishing new nations and kingdoms. 3000
+
+ The third millennium saw the Aryan invasion of India; the
+ beginning of Chinese history; and Aryan and Semitic waves of
+ migration towards Europe. 2000
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ Egypt was conquered by the Hyksos, a Semitic nomadic race. 1500
+
+ Hittite Empire established in Syria.
+
+ During the next three hundred years, of which the history
+ is obscure, the dynasty of the Ramesides was established in
+ Egypt, which waged wars with the Hittite Empire. Rameses 1400
+ II. is popularly identified with the Pharaoh of the Exodus,
+ an event which is also identified with the expulsion of the
+ Hyksos. The supremacy in the Mesopotamian regions alternates 1300
+ between Assyrian and Babylonian dynasties.
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1200
+
+ Rise of a Hebrew nation.
+
+ Age of Phœnician prosperity; commercial importance of Sidon
+ and Tyre.
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1100
+
+ Ionic and Doric migrations.
+
+ Predominance of Phrygia among kingdoms of Asia Minor.
+
+ 1048 B.C. David captures Jerusalem and becomes King over all
+ Israel.
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1000
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ JAPAN
+
+ CHINESE
+ EMPIRE
+
+ INDIA
+
+ PARTHIAN
+ EMPIRE
+
+ ARABIA
+
+ ROMAN EMPIRE
+
+ BRITAIN
+]
+
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1000
+
+ 975 B.C. Division of the Hebrew kingdom into Judah and Israel
+ after the death of Solomon.
+
+ Growth of the Hellenic States.
+
+ The age of Homer.
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 900
+
+ 850 B.C. Foundation of Carthage.
+
+ Beginnings of the Latin and Etruscan peoples.
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 800
+
+ Assyrian conquest of Babylon, Syria, and Israel.
+
+ 753 B.C. The foundation of Rome.
+
+ Rapid spread of the Greek Colonies.
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 700
+
+ Beginnings of the Macedonian kingdom.
+
+ Rise of Media.
+
+ Beginnings of Japanese history.
+
+ Decline of Assyria, fall of Nineveh, and establishment of new
+ Babylonian Empire.
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 600
+
+ Cyrus, King of Persia, conquers Media, establishes his empire
+ over Lydia, Assyria, and Babylonia (538 B.C.). His son
+ Cambyses conquers Egypt, 525 B.C.
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 500
+
+ The Greek States revolt against Persia and are triumphant.
+
+ Egypt regains independence.
+
+ Steady growth of Roman ascendancy in Italy.
+
+ Struggle between Athens and Sparta.
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 400
+
+ Conquests of Alexander the Great (334-322 B.C.). He conquers
+ Persia, masters Egypt, and invades India. At his death his
+ empire is divided: Egypt falls under the Ptolemies, Syria
+ under the Seleucidæ.
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 300
+
+ Babylon absorbed by Parthian Empire.
+
+ Carthage dominates Spain.
+
+ Wars between Rome and Carthage. Overthrow of Carthage (202
+ B.C.).
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 200
+
+ Judea attains independence under the Maccabees.
+
+ Growing power of Rome. Macedon a Roman province; Egypt and
+ Syria made Roman protectorates. The Greek States are absorbed
+ into province of Macedon.
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 100
+
+ Cæsar conquers Gaul and lands in Britain.
+
+ Egypt becomes a Roman province.
+
+ Augustus Cæsar. Establishment of the Roman Empire. B.C.
+
+
+[Illustration: FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE PRESENT
+DAY
+
+ JAPAN
+
+ CHINESE EMPIRE
+
+ INDIA
+
+ PARTHIAN EMPIRE
+
+ ARABIA
+
+ ROMAN EMPIRE
+
+ BRITAIN]
+
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ NOTABLE EVENTS
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ For the first four centuries of the Christian era the Roman
+ Empire absorbed the “known” world, bounded in Europe by
+ the ocean, the Rhine, and the Danube, and in Asia by the
+ Euphrates, and including the Mediterranean districts of
+ Africa. Germanic tribes bore with ever-increasing pressure
+ upon her European borders, and the Parthians defied her in
+ the East. At the close of the third century the centre of
+ political gravity was passing from Rome itself to Byzantium,
+ preparing for the scission of the Empire, into Eastern and
+ Western, which was practically at the close of the fourth
+ century, when it was becoming increasingly clear that Rome
+ could not stand against the Barbarian invaders, notably the
+ Goths under Alaric.
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ In the fifth century the Empire, long weakened by corruption
+ and the tyranny of the army, was overwhelmed by the
+ Barbarians. Vandals, Western Goths, and Suevi poured into
+ Spain; Franks and Alemanni spread over Gaul; Ostro-Goths and
+ Lombards settled in North Italy; Huns and Avars attacked
+ Thrace.
+
+ Britain was invaded by Saxons, Jutes, and Angles.
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ The seventh and eighth centuries were marked by the rapid
+ rise of Mohammedanism in Arabia; the conquests of the
+ Saracens in Egypt, Africa, and West Asia; the establishment
+ of the Caliphate at Bagdad; and their invasion of Spain. Here
+ they were checked by the Franks.
+
+ Charlemagne, son of Pippin, King of the Franks in Germany and
+ Gaul, was crowned in 768, conquered Lombardy in 774, calling
+ himself “King of the Franks and Lombards and Patrician of
+ the Romans.” His empire was divided after his death; from
+ it emerged modern France and Germany. His coronation by the
+ Pope at Rome (A.D. 800) originated the idea of the Holy Roman
+ Empire.
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+[Illustration]
+
+ JAPAN
+
+ CHINESE
+ EMPIRE
+
+ {BRITISH
+ {INDIAN
+ {EMPIRE
+
+ AFGHANISTAN
+
+ PERSIA
+
+ ARABIA
+
+ EGYPT
+
+ TURKEY
+ {BALKAN
+ {STATES
+
+ GREECE
+
+ RUSSIAN
+ EMPIRE
+
+ ITALY
+
+ AUSTRO-HUNGARY
+
+ GERMAN
+ EMPIRE
+
+ BELGIUM
+
+ HOLLAND
+
+ SWITZERLAND
+
+ FRANCE
+
+ PORTUGAL
+
+ {SOUTH
+ {AMERICAN
+ {STATES
+
+ SPAIN
+
+ MEXICO
+
+ MOROCCO
+
+ GREAT
+ BRITAIN
+ &
+ IRELAND
+
+ UNITED
+ STATES
+
+ DENMARK
+
+ NORWAY
+
+ SWEDEN
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ Disintegration of the Empire of the Caliphs, and rise in Asia
+ Minor of the Seljuk Turks, making war against the Byzantine
+ Empire and the Crusaders, and conquering Egypt.
+
+ India is invaded by Mohammedan Afghan rulers, who eventually
+ establish a dynasty at Delhi.
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ The Kingdoms of Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland, converted to
+ Christianity in the tenth century, come into increasing
+ prominence.
+
+ The Kings of Castile, Navarre, Aragon and Portugal war
+ against the Moors, who (A.D. 1248) are restricted to Granada.
+
+ The Mamelukes (Slave kings) conquer Egypt (1252).
+
+ Switzerland attains independence.
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ Failure of England to absorb Scotland, or to conquer France.
+ The Hundred Years’ War.
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ The Turks capture Constantinople (1453).
+
+ The Netherlands (Burgundy) united to the House of Hapsburg.
+ (1477).
+
+ Spain united; overthrow of the Moorish dominion.
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ Bohemia and Hungary united to Austria. Spain and Portugal
+ take possession of the New World. Mogul Empire established in
+ Hindostan. The Reformation leads to revolt of the Netherlands
+ from Spain; Spain absorbs Portugal.
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ Union of English and Scottish crowns (1603); followed by
+ legislative union (1707). Disruption of Germany in the Thirty
+ Years’ War. Establishment of English Colonies in America.
+ Portugal recovers independence.
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ Spain becomes a Bourbon Power. Rise of Russia and Prussia.
+ Partition of Poland between Russia, Prussia and Austria.
+ Further disintegration of German Empire. British dominion in
+ India and North America. Independence of United States.
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ France predominant under Napoleon. Rise of South American
+ States. Establishment of British India. Italy independent.
+ Egypt, Greece, and Balkan States freed from Turkey.
+ Foundation of German Empire.
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ Independence of Norway (1905).
+
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+ +-------------------------------------------+
+ | CONTEMPORARY FIGURES IN HISTORY |
+ +------+------------------------------------+
+ | TIME | |
+ | B.C. | |
+ +------+--------------+---------------------+
+ | 500 |India |Buddha |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |China |Confucious |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Persia |Darius |
+ | | |Xerxes |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Greece |Æschylus |
+ | | |Themistocles |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Rome |Tarquin the Proud |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Judah |Haggai |
+ | | |Zechariah |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 450 |Persia |Artaxerxes |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Greece |Socrates |
+ | | |Plato |
+ | | |Pericles |
+ | | |Herodotus |
+ | | |Thucydides |
+ | | |Sophocles |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Judah |Nehemiah |
+ | | |Ezra |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 400 |Greece |Euripides |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 350 |Greece |Aristotle |
+ | | |Demosthenes |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Macedon |Philip |
+ | | |Alexander |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 200 |Rome |Hannibal |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Judah |Judas Maccabæus |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 50 |Rome |Julius Cæsar |
+ | | |Cicero |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Egypt |Cleopatra |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ |Jesus |Rome |Augustus |
+ |Christ| |Tiberius |
+ | | |Horace |
+ | | |Virgil, Livy |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Judah |John the Baptist |
+ +------+--------------+---------------------+
+ +------+------------------------------------+
+ | A.D. | |
+ +------+--------------+---------------------+
+ | 50 |Britain |Boadicea |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Rome, Italy |Seneca |
+ | | |St. Paul |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Africa & East |Josephus |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 300 |Rome, Italy |Constantine |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Africa & East |Athanasius |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 400 |Rome, Italy |Alaric |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Africa & East |Augustine |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 600 |France |Chas Matel |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 700 |Britain |Bede |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 800 |Britain |Alfred |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |France |Charlemagne |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Africa & East |Haroun-al-Raschid |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1100 |Spain |The Cid |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Africa & East |Omar Khayyam (Persia)|
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1200 |Rome, Italy |St. Francis |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1300 |Britain |Chaucer |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Switzerland |William Tell |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Rome, Italy |Aquinas |
+ | | |Dante |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Africa & East |Tamerlane |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1350 |Britain |Wycliffe |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |France |Froissant |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Switzerland |Arnold von Winkelried|
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Rome, Italy |Petrarch |
+ | | |Boccaccio |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Africa & East |Hafiz (Persia) |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1450 |Britain |Caxton |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Rome, Italy |Da Vinci |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1500 |Britain |Knox |
+ | | |Latimer |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |France |Rabelais |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Germany |Luther |
+ | | |Copernicus |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Switzerland |Calvin |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Rome, Italy |Columbus |
+ | | |Savonarola |
+ | | |Machiavelli |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Spain |Ignatius Loyola |
+ | | |St. Theresa |
+ | | |Ferdnd. & Isabella |
+ | | |Cortez |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1550 |Britain |Philip Sidney |
+ | | |Spenser |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |France |Montaigne |
+ | | |Scaliger |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Rome, Italy |Cellini |
+ | | |Tasso |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Spain |Alva |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Netherlands |William the Silent |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Russia |Ivan the Terrible |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1600 |Britain |Shakespeare |
+ | | |Raleigh |
+ | | |Bacon |
+ | | |Jonson |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |France |Corneille |
+ | | |Richelieu |
+ | | |Descartes |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Germany |Kepler |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Rome, Italy |Galileo |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Spain |Cervantes |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Scandinavia |Gustavus Adolphus |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Netherlands |Rubens |
+ | | |Van Dyck |
+ | | |Grotius |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1650 |Britain |Cromwell |
+ | | |Milton |
+ | | |Bunyan |
+ | | |Dryden |
+ | | |Locke |
+ | | |Hobbes |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |France |Pascal |
+ | | |Racine |
+ | | |Molière |
+ | | |Fénélon |
+ | | |Rochefoucauld |
+ | | |Louis XIV. |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Germany |Leibnitz |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Netherlands |Spinoza |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Russia |Peter the Gt. & |
+ | | | Catherine |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1700 |Britain |Swift |
+ | | |Steele |
+ | | |Addison |
+ | | |Walpole |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Germany |Handel |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Scandinavia |Holberg |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1750 |Britain |Chatham |
+ | | |Burke |
+ | | |Pitt and Fox |
+ | | |Wesley |
+ | | |Burns |
+ | | |Goldsmith |
+ | | |Sheridan |
+ | | |Dr. Johnson |
+ | | |Coleridge |
+ | | |Flaxman |
+ | | |Reynolds |
+ | | |Gainsboro’gh |
+ | | |Nelson |
+ | | |Wellington |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |France |Voltaire |
+ | | |Lavoisier |
+ | | |Napoleon |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Germany |Fredk the Gt |
+ | | |Goethe |
+ | | |Schiller |
+ | | |Haydn |
+ | | |Mozart |
+ | | |Kant |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Switzerland |Rousseau |
+ | | |Gessner |
+ | | |Pestalozzi |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |America |Franklin |
+ | | |Washington |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1800 |Britain |Faraday |
+ | | |Scott |
+ | | |Byron |
+ | | |Keats |
+ | | |Shelley |
+ | | |Wordsworth |
+ | | |Lamb |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Germany |Hegel |
+ | | |Beethoven |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Scandinavia |Tegner |
+ | | |Thorwaldsen |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1825 |Britain |Gladstone |
+ | | |Macauley |
+ | | |Disraeli |
+ | | |Landseer |
+ | | |Mill |
+ | | |Livingstone |
+ | | |Ruskin |
+ | | |Dickens |
+ | | |Carlyle |
+ | | |Thackeray |
+ | | |Browning |
+ | | |Tennyson |
+ | | |Darwin |
+ | | |Huxley |
+ | | |Spencer |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |France |Balzac |
+ | | |Dumas |
+ | | |Victor Hugo |
+ | | |Georges Sand |
+ | | |Lesseps |
+ | | |Napoleon 3 |
+ | | |Gambetta |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Germany |Wagner |
+ | | |Heine |
+ | | |Bismarck |
+ | | |Moltke |
+ | | |William I. |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Rome, Italy |Garibaldi |
+ | | |Mazzini |
+ | | |Cavour |
+ | | |Victor Emmanuel |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |Scandinavia |Hans Andersen |
+ | | |Runeberg |
+ | | |Wergeland |
+ | | |Welhaven |
+ | | |Ibsen |
+ | | |Bjornson |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | |America |Irving |
+ | | |Emerson |
+ | | |Longfellow |
+ | | |Whittier |
+ | | |Lowell |
+ | | |Holmes |
+ | | |Lincoln |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | | Russia |Turgenieff |
+ | | |Tolstoy |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | | Hungary |Kossuth |
+ | +--------------+---------------------+
+ | 1900 | | |
+ +------+--------------+---------------------+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MAKING OF THE EARTH AND THE COMING OF MAN]
+
+
+
+
+THE BEGINNING OF THE EARTH
+
+BY PROFESSOR SOLLAS
+
+
+The origin of our planet is a problem which has appealed to the
+intellect of thoughtful men from the most remote times, and the
+earliest recorded speculations concerning it--those of the Mosaic
+cosmogony--possess a peculiar interest, since they embody the views of
+the ancient Chaldeans, who were not only systematic observers of the
+heavens, but made practical use of their results.
+
+[Sidenote: Beginning of a Famous Theory]
+
+The Mosaic cosmogony is not unworthy of the great people among whom
+it took its rise; it recognises the fact that the earth had a history
+antecedent to the advent of man, and its account of the order of
+events in this history is not only remarkable as a feat of _a priori_
+reasoning, but accords in some respects with the results achieved after
+much labour by modern science.
+
+It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that the reign
+of evolution began, and attempts were made to trace the history of
+a planetary system from its source in a primeval nebula on purely
+mechanical grounds. Swedenborg (1735) was the pioneer in this
+direction, then came Thomas Wright (1750) of Durham, whose work
+furnished inspiration to Emanuel Kant (1755), and led him to construct
+a consistent scheme of the Universe. The last of this group of cosmic
+philosophers is Laplace (1796), whose admirable description of the
+evolution of the solar system was arrived at independently, and without
+knowledge of the previous work of Kant.
+
+Laplace assumed as his starting-point the existence of a nebula formed
+of incandescent gas, and extending beyond the limits of the outermost
+planet of our system. It was in rotation about a central axis, and
+possessed in consequence a disc-like or lenticular form. Radiating
+its heat away in all directions through surrounding space, it grew
+continually colder, and in cooling diminished in bulk. As a consequence
+of this contraction its rate of rotation increased, till at length the
+centrifugal force of the outermost part became so great that this could
+no longer continue to follow the contracting mass within, and thus
+remained behind as a great rotating ring. The continued contraction
+of the internal mass, and the resulting increase in the velocity of
+rotation, again brought about the same condition of things, and a fresh
+ring was left behind.
+
+[Sidenote: Cooling of the Nebula]
+
+This process was repeated time after time, till as many rings were
+formed as there are planets in the solar system; the central mass
+which survived within the innermost ring condensed to form the sun.
+The rings were highly unstable--that is to say, a slight disturbing
+force was sufficient to destroy their continuity; they broke across and
+rolled up into great nebulous globes, which revolved round the sun in
+the same direction as the original nebula, and rotated on their axes
+in the same direction as that in which they revolved. Most of them
+repeated the behaviour of the original nebulæ, leaving behind rings
+as they contracted, and these rings either rolled up to form moons or
+satellites, or, in the solitary instance of Saturn’s rings, retained
+their annular form. The rings are now known to consist of a multitude
+of solid bodies, as proved by Clerk-Maxwell.
+
+[Sidenote: The Temperature of the Earth]
+
+By this hypothesis, so beautiful in its simplicity, an explanation was
+afforded embracing all the more important facts of our system; the
+revolution of all the planets in nearly circular orbits and in the
+same direction as that in which the sun rotates, and the revolution of
+their satellites, also in circular orbits and in the same direction
+as their primaries; the comparatively high temperature and consequent
+low density of the larger planets and the sun, as well as a variety of
+other phenomena, all seem to follow naturally from it. The fundamental
+assumption seems to be in harmony with a number of known facts. Thus
+in the case of our own planet the volcanoes distributed around the
+margins of the oceans, and the hot springs scattered irregularly over
+the whole terrestrial surface, suggest that great stores of heat exist
+beneath our feet, a presumption which finds confirmation in the fact
+that whenever we descend towards the interior of the earth, as in
+deep mines or wells, the temperature continues steadily to rise after
+we have passed a depth below which seasonal and diurnal changes of
+temperature cease to be felt, the rise being in some cases as much as 3
+deg. for 100 ft., in others only 1 deg. for the same distance, but on
+the average 1 deg. for 60 ft. or 70 ft. If this increase of temperature
+continues down to great depths, and there seems to be no reason why it
+should not, then a point will be reached, say, at thirty or forty miles
+down, where the interior will attain a white heat.
+
+[Sidenote: The Earth as a Star]
+
+Thus the earth might be regarded as a white hot body surrounded with a
+film of rock growing continually cooler towards the surface. But such a
+hot body suspended in space must be cooling, just as all bodies which
+are hotter than their surroundings. It is cooler to-day than it was
+yesterday, or--what is the same thing--it was hotter yesterday than it
+is to-day, and so of all previous yesterdays. And thus as we travel
+backwards in time we perceive that the earth will be growing hotter,
+the level of white heat will be mounting upwards towards the surface,
+and will at last reach it, so that the earth, instead of being, as it
+now is, a dark body shining only with the reflected light of the sun,
+will be self-luminous, a tiny star of a magnitude so diminutive as to
+have awakened resentment on the part of some terrestrial inhabitants,
+who have regarded it as disproportionate to their dignity. But we
+cannot arrest imagination at this stage; our thought still extends
+its retrospective glance into the abyss of past time, and we perceive
+the earth still growing hotter, till its temperature transcends
+those limits at which it can exist in the solid state. It becomes
+molten--nay, more, it becomes gaseous, and thus resumes the nebular
+state from which it sprang. Precisely the same argument applies to
+the sun; our mighty luminary is also a cooling body, and if we could
+restore to it the heat which it has lost in the course of past æons
+it would resume a completely gaseous state. Modified in one way or
+another, this chain of reasoning seemed irrefragable in those happy
+days which preceded the discovery of radium.
+
+[Sidenote: Universe still in Evolution]
+
+The question may be considered from another point of view. On searching
+the heavens we find that many of the stages which are assumed in
+Laplace’s hypothesis are still represented by actual existences. There
+are, to begin with, those immense diffused nebulæ, almost incapable of
+definition, which are proved, on spectroscopic examination, to emit
+that kind of light which is characteristic of glowing gas; from these
+we pass to others which are resolvable by the telescope into a central
+and more condensed nucleus, with two mighty nebulous arms whirled round
+in a spiral, and bearing more condensed masses in their midst; even
+ring nebulæ are known to exist; and, finally, there are nebulous halos
+which surround some of the stars. Then we come to the stars themselves,
+which are suns of various degrees of magnitude, some immensely larger
+than our own luminary, and these are evidently in various stages of
+existence. Some are blue, and afford evidence of a higher temperature
+than that of our sun; others are yellow, and make a nearer approach
+to the solar temperature; while, again, others are red, and certainly
+colder.
+
+These, in conjunction with other considerations, lead to the conviction
+that the universe is in a state of evolution, and that the solar
+system at one time existed in a nebular state. But whether Laplace’s
+description of the series of events through which the original nebula
+passed is the true one or not is a very different matter; it presents
+so many difficulties that scarcely any student now supports it.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ In the beginning, it is supposed that the earth was part of a vast
+ nebula of gaseous matter and meteorites, resembling the nebula of
+ Argo, illustrated above.
+
+ Later, as the cooling process advanced, the nebula assumed a
+ rotatory movement in the form of a spiral. The nebula of Andromeda
+ affords an excellent illustration of this.
+
+ Another stage would be as in the annular nebula of Aquaris, the
+ mass forming into a ball with the outer ring attached.
+
+HOW THE HEAVENS TELL THE STORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE EARTH]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Or, like the nebula of Cygni, with the central sun well formed and
+ the gaseous ring far removed, the earth would begin to shape, and
+ the ring would roll up to form the moon.
+
+ Jupiter, which is in a molten state, wreathed in thick vapour, with
+ the “great red spot” indicating the beginning of the solidifying
+ process, shows what the earth was like before it assumed its
+ present solid condition.
+
+ This shows the earth and the moon in their relative sizes; while
+ the diagram below it illustrates the distance apart.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Laplace’s Theory Abandoned]
+
+A fundamental difficulty is the extreme tenuity of the gas which is
+assumed to have formed the planetary rings. A second difficulty, which
+has been emphasised by Professors Chamberlin and Moulton, is to be
+found in the comparatively small amount of rotational energy which
+the system at present possesses, for this is less than 1/200 of that
+which, on the most favourable assumption, must have been contained
+within the original nebula. Less fundamental, but equally fatal, is the
+fact that one of the satellites of Saturn revolves round its primary
+in a direction opposed to that of the rotation of the planet itself.
+[Recently Mr. Stratton, following out a suggestion of Professor W. H.
+Pickering, has shown that this is quite consistent, and, indeed, is a
+natural deduction from Laplace’s hypothesis.] Hence for these and other
+reasons we are reluctantly compelled to abandon an hypothesis which
+for over a century has exercised an influence on our conception of the
+cosmos not less profound, penetrating, and far-reaching than that of
+the famous Darwinian doctrine of natural selection, now on its trial.
+
+[Sidenote: What are the Nebulæ?]
+
+At present, unanimity of opinion, even on questions of the most primary
+kind, is far to seek. Philosophers are not even agreed as to the
+constitution of the nebulæ. It is questioned whether even those least
+resolvable and most diffused forms which give bright line spectra
+really consist of masses of incandescent gas. Many observers, among
+them Sir Norman Lockyer, now maintain that they are formed of swarms of
+meteorites, which, moving with prodigious velocity, meet in frequent
+collision, and by their impact evolve sufficient heat to become
+self-luminous. Others, again, like the distinguished investigator
+Arrhenius, while admitting the gaseous nature of these nebulæ, deny
+that they are incandescent, and assert that their temperature is not
+much above that of surrounding space. Their exterior parts consist of
+the lighter gases in a highly rarefied state, and minute particles of
+negative electricity, which are always careering through space, on
+penetrating these gases produce a luminous discharge. A nebula composed
+of swarms of meteorites would, as Sir George Darwin has shown, behave
+very much in the same way as one composed of gas, and if in rotation
+would rotate as a solid mass. The meteorites would stand in the same
+relation to the nebula as molecules to a gas, and thus the question of
+the constitution of the nebula, although of great interest in itself,
+becomes of subsidiary importance in tracing its subsequent history.
+
+[Sidenote: Shaping of the Planets]
+
+One of the latest attempts to frame a nebular hypothesis is that of
+Professor J. H. Jeans. His reasoning is of a highly mathematical
+character, and his conclusions are expressed in the most general terms.
+Starting with a spherical nebula of gas or meteorites endowed with a
+small amount of rotation, he shows that as it cools or loses energy
+the temperature of the interior will not fall continuously in precise
+correspondence with the cooling of the outer parts, and this “lag” of
+the interior temperature will bring about a tendency to instability.
+The contraction of the nebula due to cooling will increase the velocity
+of rotation, and this again will tend to instability. As a result of
+the instability so produced the nebula will change its form, and become
+more or less pear-shaped. The narrow end of the pear will then separate
+from the body and assume an independent existence as a primitive
+planet. This process will recur again and again till the nebula is
+resolved into a sun with its attendant planets. The planets, existing
+at first as gaseous masses or quasi-gaseous masses, will be liable
+to the same kind of transformation, and may thus bud off moons or
+satellites.
+
+If the nebula were not in rapid rotation, a slight disturbing cause,
+acting at the critical moment when a planet was being ejected, might
+determine the inclination of the planet’s orbit, which might thus be
+very oblique to the equatorial plane of the nebula. Thus the hypothesis
+is not open to one of the objections which have been urged against
+that of Laplace--namely, that the orbits of some of the planets in the
+solar system are inclined at a large angle with the plane of the sun’s
+equator.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ This illustrates Laplace’s theory, which conceived of a vast nebula
+ filling the whole space of the solar system and rotating around a
+ central axis. The outer and thinner part had much greater movement
+ than the denser central mass, finally being thrown off as a ring,
+ which in turn rolled up into a ball, still following the same
+ course as the ring had followed. Thus the earth broke off from the
+ sun and the moon from the earth. The theory is, however, no longer
+ credited by scientists.
+
+ The pear-shaped nebula is the theory of a young English
+ mathematician, Professor J. H. Jeans. Starting with a spherical
+ nebula, he argues that in cooling it will assume the form
+ illustrated above, and that the smaller part will separate and form
+ a satellite rotating independently but within a distance influenced
+ by the parent mass.
+
+ The spiral nebula in Canes Venatici, a revolving mass of gas or
+ meteorites, supplies, according to the nebular hypothesis of
+ Messrs. Chamberlin and Moulton, an excellent example of how the
+ earth and moon were formed. We may reasonably imagine the smaller
+ spiral to represent the moon in the act of being thrown off by the
+ earth.
+
+THREE FAMOUS THEORIES OF THE BEGINNING OF THE EARTH]
+
+[Sidenote: Heavenly Bodies in Collision]
+
+Jeans mentions two disturbing causes in particular which might easily
+arise--one the penetration of the nebula by a wandering meteorite,
+which might precipitate an event already on the verge of happening,
+and simultaneously determine both the birth of a planet and the
+obliquity of its orbit; the second, the presence of some distant
+mass, such as a star, which, by raising a quasi-tide in the nebula,
+would give the final touch required to overturn its equilibrium. The
+influence of a distant body, such as a passing star, has been invoked
+by Moulton in another version of the nebular hypothesis. In conjunction
+with Chamberlin, he calls special attention to the spiral nebulæ, which
+are by far the commonest kind, as presenting the closest approach to
+the conditions which obtain when planets are actually in course of
+formation. Chamberlin and Moulton enter on a detailed account of the
+manner in which they suppose the planets to have grown by the gradual
+accretion of meteoric masses as these encountered each other while
+moving in various elliptical orbits.
+
+At present it would seem impossible to speak with certainty as to
+the precise history of the solar system. Meanwhile, we may console
+ourselves with the closing words of Professor Jeans’ paper, to the
+effect that “no difficulty need be experienced in referring existing
+planetary systems to a nebulous or meteoric origin on the ground
+that the configurations of these systems are not such as could have
+originated out of a rotating mass of liquid.”
+
+An investigation by Sir George Darwin, which has furnished inspiration
+to such hypotheses as that of Jeans, brings us nearer the immediate
+subject of this essay, since it treats of one of the last acts in the
+great drama of planetary existence, and attempts to derive the earth
+and moon from a common origin in a single rotating sphere.
+
+[Sidenote: Why the Day is Growing Longer]
+
+It is well known that, owing to the frictional effects produced by the
+tides, the earth is being gradually slowed down as it rotates upon
+its axis. Thus the day is constantly getting longer, so that in a few
+millions of years it will have increased in length from twenty-four
+to twenty-five hours. On the other hand, in past time it must have
+been shorter than at present: a few millions of years ago it was only
+twenty-three hours in length, and many millions of years earlier it
+was still less, only some five hours or so. At that time the earth
+was hotter than it is now, less rigid, more yielding, and, owing to
+its rapid rotation, less stable. The action on the moon of the tides
+produced in it by the earth is similar, and the rotation of the moon
+has been so far diminished by them that its day has become as long as
+the month--_i.e._, our satellite only turns once round on its axis in
+the time that it takes to revolve once round the earth; it is for this
+reason that our satellite keeps always the same face turned towards us.
+
+[Sidenote: The Moon Was Part of Our Sphere]
+
+The retardation of the earth in its rotation has, however, a very
+remarkable effect on the revolution of the moon; it involves--by the
+principle of the conservation of moment of momentum--a corresponding
+acceleration of the moon in its orbit, and, as a consequence of this,
+an enlargement of this orbit--that is, the moon is pushed away from us,
+as it were, and thus becomes more remote. But if so, the moon must have
+been nearer to us in times past. It is possible to trace the approach
+of the moon to the earth as we go backwards in time till the distance
+between them was only two and a half terrestrial radii instead of the
+sixty radii which now separate them. Mathematics do not take us farther
+back than this. But it is difficult to resist the suggestion that in
+the immediately preceding stage of development the earth and moon
+formed together a single sphere.
+
+If we may adopt this view, then we must regard the sphere as subject to
+the tidal influence of the sun. It was much hotter, and therefore more
+yielding, than the present earth; it was also rotating much faster,
+probably once in about four or five hours. It would be contracting as a
+consequence of cooling, and the contraction would lead to instability
+(gravitational instability); its rapid rotation would also tend toward
+instability (rotational instability). It is difficult to say which
+of these two, gravitational or rotational instability, would be the
+most effective; but the combined result would be to give a pear-shaped
+form to the rotating mass, and eventually to deepen the constriction
+between the narrow and the broad end, till the smaller protuberance
+became completely dissevered from the larger mass, and so entered on
+an independent existence as the moon. This final step in the process
+would probably depend on the tide-producing power of the sun; the
+larger mass remained behind as the earth, whose individual existence
+may be said to date from this event.
+
+[Sidenote: How the Moon Broke Away]
+
+The young earth would be subject to very much the same conditions after
+as before the ejection of the moon, and might very possibly again pass
+into a pear-shaped form, but without proceeding further through those
+subsequent changes, which would have led to the formation of another
+satellite; and while possessing some such form as this, she might
+very well have consolidated. With advancing years she would lose, as
+we have seen, the activity of her youth, the drag of the tides would
+cause her to spin ever more slowly on her axis, till the day would
+become prolonged to the twenty-four hours of the present. With this
+diminished rate of spin, the earth, if free to yield, would lose the
+pear-shaped form and become an oblate spheroid, and the oblateness of
+this spheroid would continually diminish, so that it would continually
+approach towards a true sphere. Suppose, however, that the earth as it
+cooled lost its power of readily yielding--and at present it is more
+rigid than a globe of steel--then it would pass from form to form,
+not by a flowing movement, but by a series of ruptures, and its form
+at any moment might be a little in arrear of that which it would have
+possessed if it had been in the fluid state.
+
+Thus it might indeed be possible still to discover some trace of an
+old-fashioned form in the existing planet; and a careful examination
+of the distribution of land and sea as represented on a terrestrial
+globe does, in fact, reveal a remarkable symmetry, in which we seem
+to recognise a surviving vestige of its early state. The great
+continent of Africa projects like the narrow end of a pear; around it
+are oceans--the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea,
+which was once of far greater extent; then comes a great dismembered
+ring of land, the two Americas, the Antarctic continent, Australia,
+Asia, and Europe. Within these, on the side opposite to Africa, is the
+great Pacific Ocean, which covers over the broad end of the pear.
+
+[Sidenote: Earth’s Unknown Changes]
+
+[Illustration: THE SHAPING OF THE FACE OF THE EARTH
+
+ Soon after the earth had cooled down, so that the oceans were
+ formed, the shaping of the great continents began. The action of
+ moving water in the making of new land is well illustrated by the
+ vast delta of the Mississippi, where an area larger than Wales has
+ been formed by debris deposited by the river.
+]
+
+A line drawn from somewhere in Central Africa to its antipodes in the
+Pacific, through the centre of the earth, would correspond to the long
+axis of the pear; a second, at right angles to this, would correspond
+to its breadth; and a third, at right angles to both, would correspond
+to the axis on which it rotates. A diameter of the earth taken through
+the equator is almost 8,000 miles in length, the Polar diameter is
+about sixteen miles shorter, and this slight difference measures the
+oblateness of the spheroid, or the departure of the form of the earth
+from a true sphere. Further, it would appear that the diameter drawn
+through Africa is about half a mile longer than the equatorial diameter
+taken at right angles to it, and this insignificant quantity measures
+the departure of the form of the earth from that of an oblate spheroid
+to that of a pear, so nearly complete is the adjustment of its form to
+existing conditions. Before this nice adjustment was reached, the earth
+must have suffered many changes, passed through many times of stress
+and storm, and witnessed many geological revolutions.
+
+[Sidenote: An Age of Red-hot Rain!]
+
+If, at the beginning of her career, the earth was molten, or at a
+very high temperature, she must have been surrounded by a very deep
+and dense atmosphere, for all the waters which now rest on her
+surface--oceans, lakes, and rivers--would have contributed to it in the
+state of steam; and not till the temperature of the ground had fallen
+to 380 deg. C. could liquid water have begun to accumulate. Then a
+steady downpour of almost red-hot rain would have set in, filling up
+the neck of the pear and extending far and wide over its broad end.
+
+The temperature would now fall somewhat rapidly, and in a short space
+of time the surface of the earth would have become as cool as it is at
+the present day. Directly the waters of the firmament had collected
+into the oceans, leaving behind an atmosphere like that which now
+exists, geological agencies of the kind we are now familiar with would
+begin their sway. Air and rain would exert their insidious power upon
+the rocks, sapping their strength, converting the hardest granite into
+soft sand and clay, which would be washed away by the rain through
+brooks and rivulets into the channels of many rivers, all hastening
+with their burden of sediment, to deposit it finally in the sea. Here
+it would accumulate, layer after layer, building up those mighty masses
+of strata which now form the greater part of the visible land. While
+this general action was everywhere in progress, wearing down continents
+and islands towards the level of the sea, more specialised activities
+were assisting to the same end.
+
+[Illustration: TWO STAGES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARTH
+
+ This illustrates in striking manner, based on the calculations
+ of the best authorities, the comparative sizes of the earth,
+ first as a gaseous mass, and, second, after it had cooled down
+ and solidified into the planet on which we live. The small dot
+ represents 8,000 miles, the earth’s diameter.
+]
+
+The waves which fall upon our coasts are now constantly undermining
+the cliffs and extending the margin of the sea at the expense of the
+land, and rivers not only serve to transport sediment, but cut down
+their channels deep into the rock, and so carve out the most varied
+landscapes of hill and valley from monotonous tableland.
+
+[Sidenote: Action of Winds and Tides]
+
+When we enter into calculations we are astonished at the rapidity
+with which these agents perform their work even at the present day;
+but as we proceed farther back into the past, when the earth was full
+of youthful energy, their power must have been greatly enhanced. We
+might almost take the measure of the day as the measure of their
+work, for they probably accomplished as much during the eight hours’
+day which once existed as they do now in twenty-four hours. A little
+consideration will make this clear. It is the winds which, blowing
+over the surface of the ocean, produce the sea waves, and it is these
+falling on our coasts that perform the work of marine denudation. But
+the winds are due in the first place to the heat of the sun, and the
+difference of temperature established at the equator and the poles;
+and, in the next place, to the rotation of the earth. Thus, with the
+increased rapidity of rotation which we know to have existed, and
+with increased radiation from the sun, a very probable contingency,
+the winds would increase in strength and more powerfully erode our
+coasts. Again, with the moon in greater proximity, and with a more
+rapid rotation of the earth, the tides would be much higher and more
+frequent, and these, raising and lowering the cutting edge of the sea,
+greatly assist it in its work of destruction. The winds and the tides
+produce various marine currents, and these help to distribute the
+sediment which the rivers deliver into the sea, so that when stronger
+currents flowed as a result of more powerful tides and more violent
+winds, the sediments would be strewn over wider areas; hence, the more
+ancient strata of our planet are far more widely distributed than are
+those of later time.
+
+[Illustration: THREE VIEWS OF THE GLOBE SHOWING HOW THE GREAT MOUNTAIN
+RANGES WERE FORMED
+
+ In the days when the earth’s crust had formed but was still
+ unstable, the process of cooling not having gone far enough,
+ there would not be the mountains which now characterise it. These
+ came when the earth contracted and crumpled up along certain
+ well defined lines, which are now represented by the three great
+ mountain chains of the world.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Building Up the Earth]
+
+Finally, a heavier rainfall would result from a more active atmospheric
+circulation, creating larger rivers, and thus, at the beginning, all
+those denuding agents which are engaged in wearing the land down into
+the sea would be working at a more rapid pace. Correspondingly, all
+the agents which are occupied in building up deposits of sediments
+would have extended their operations over a wider area, laying down a
+foundation broad and deep.
+
+On the other hand, the contraction of the earth, due to the loss of
+its energy of rotation as well as of its internal heat, would also
+have proceeded more rapidly, new land would have emerged from the sea,
+old lands would have been submerged beneath it far less slowly than at
+the present day; ruptures of the crust, accompanied by earthquakes and
+volcanic action, would have been more frequent and thus, by the more
+rapid loss of its intrinsic energy, the renovation of the earth would
+have kept pace with its accelerated destruction.
+
+One effect of the contraction of the earth which has manifested itself
+in even late geological times is the crumpling up of the terrestrial
+crust into the sharp folds of mountain chains; but at the beginning
+this crumpling must have been far more universal and energetic. In this
+connection it is interesting to observe that the most ancient rocks
+known to us--the Archæan--never present themselves under any other form
+than as intensely plicated masses. They originally consisted of lava
+flows and volcanic ashes, of ancient sediments and limestones, into
+which subterranean masses of granite and other molten, deep-seated
+rocks have been injected; but under the intense pressures to which
+they were subjected after their formation they and the invading
+granite have entirely lost their original character, and have been
+metamorphosed into gneisses, schists, and marble, all sharply and
+closely folded together. In any given district the direction of their
+folding is maintained with wonderful constancy over great distances.
+There is no succeeding system of rocks that has been so completely
+transformed, so universally plicated, as this ancient Archæan complex.
+
+In later times we can pass from stratum to stratum of the sedimentary
+series and read their history almost as we turn over the pages of a
+book; in the Archæan all are kneaded together into a state of such
+desperate entanglement as to defy the powers of human ingenuity to
+unravel them. Thus the line of demarcation between the Archæan and
+subsequent sedimentary systems is the sharpest and most absolute that
+is known to us in the history of the earth. It marks the close of our
+planet’s infancy, the several events of which have passed into oblivion
+as profound as that of our own forgetfulness of our earliest days.
+Later events, on the other hand, are recorded in the stratified series
+with a faithfulness which increases as we approach existing times.
+
+[Sidenote: How We Know These Wonders]
+
+[Sidenote: The Ocean 100 million Years old!]
+
+[Sidenote: The Part Radium may play]
+
+A history without dates must seem very unsatisfactory to a historian,
+and the question will naturally arise whether we can assign any
+definite time to the various critical events recorded in the
+evolution of the earth. At present we can only make more or less
+plausible estimates. Thus, from a consideration of the thickness of
+the sedimentary crust, and the rate at which sediments are now being
+deposited, it has been asserted that the interval which separates
+us from the close of the Archæan era may amount to about twenty-six
+millions of years. Professor Joly, basing his argument on the undoubted
+fact that the ocean derives the greater part of its salt from the
+dissolved material contributed to it by rivers, comes to the conclusion
+that the ocean first came into existence about one hundred millions
+of years ago. As regards the birth of the moon, Sir George Darwin has
+given a minimum limit of fifty-four millions of years, but he adds that
+it may have taken place many hundreds of millions of years before this.
+Lord Kelvin has attempted to determine the time which has elapsed since
+the earth first acquired a solid crust. If we only knew the rate at
+which the earth is cooling we might calculate back to this time with
+some assurance of certainty, always, however, on the assumption that
+the earth is simply a hot body cooling like any other hot body--such,
+say, as a red-hot cannonball. But a few years ago it began to be
+seriously suspected that this assumption was a very doubtful one, for
+a new element--radium--was discovered in 1898, which possesses the
+remarkable property of spontaneously liberating heat, and this not in
+small quantities, but at an astonishing rate. One gramme of radium, for
+example, gives out enough heat in one hour to raise the temperature of
+one gramme of water to boiling point; hour after hour, year in, year
+out, this wonderful substance is setting free the energy it contains,
+and will continue to do so until, some thousands of years hence,
+it has exhausted its store. If this element should happen to exist
+in sufficient quantity within the earth, then the earth could not be
+said to be cooling just like a piece of hot iron, and the increase of
+temperature we experience as we descend towards the interior of the
+earth might possibly be due to the heat set free from radium. Indeed,
+the argument is not confined to the earth; it may apply also to the
+sun, and much of the heat we derive from that luminary may be provided
+by bursting atoms of radium. This was pointed out by Sir George Darwin
+and Professor Joly in 1903.
+
+It became obviously a question of the first importance to discover
+what proportion of the earth’s crust consists of radium, and an
+investigation was undertaken for this purpose by the Hon. R. J.
+Strutt, who finds that the rocks composing the earth’s crust contain
+a superabundance of radium--sufficient, if this element is uniformly
+distributed through the whole earth in the same proportion as it occurs
+at the surface, not only to make good the heat which is radiated away
+into space, but actually to raise the temperature of our planet, which,
+on this evidence, should, therefore, be growing not colder, but hotter.
+
+This is a result as disconcerting at first sight as it is astonishing,
+and its effects are very wide-reaching. Of course, it completely
+destroys the validity of Lord Kelvin’s argument, but it also deprives
+the nebular hypothesis of one of its cherished lines of evidence--a
+loss which the force of the general argument enables us to bear with
+equanimity.
+
+[Sidenote: On the Eve of great Events]
+
+In any case, the vast body of facts bearing on the history of the earth
+suffices to show that its temperature cannot be rising. Mr. Strutt
+has, therefore, imagined that the radium is not uniformly distributed
+throughout the mass of the planet, and supposes that it is restricted
+to an external zone forty-five miles in thickness; this would suffice
+to maintain the earth at its existing temperature. If, however, we
+admit a restriction of this kind, we are in no way bound to fix the
+limit at forty-five miles. All we can say is that we do not know how
+far downwards the radium reaches--for aught we know five miles, or even
+less, is as likely a limit as forty-five miles. Professor Joly, indeed,
+maintains that the radium we meet with is not proper to the earth at
+all, but comes from the sun.
+
+Radium is a short-lived element, its existence being limited to a
+few thousand years; but as fast as it decays it is reproduced at the
+expense of another element--uranium--the lifetime of which is measured
+by hundreds of millions of years.
+
+The last quarter of a century has proved fertile in great
+discoveries--more so than any corresponding period in the past. As a
+result, the whole world of scientific thought has been thrown into
+commotion; old-established theories, and even the most fundamental
+notions, seem to be in a state of flux. Under the stimulus of new ideas
+great questions, such as the constitution of matter, the origin of
+species, and the birth of worlds are being re-investigated with renewed
+energy, and we seem to be on the eve of great events.
+
+ WILLIAM JOHNSON SOLLAS
+
+
+
+
+FOUR PERIODS OF THE EARTH’S DEVELOPMENT
+
+ A Postscript to Professor Sollas’s Chapter on the Wonderful Story
+ of the World’s Birth, beginning on page 79
+
+
+The earth was once “a fluid haze of light.” The whole solar system
+once formed a vast nebula, consisting of glowing gas, or a swarm of
+meteoroids. Our planet was slowly shaped into a globe out of this
+primitive nebula.
+
+This globe was at first intensely hot, and probably liquid. A solid
+crust formed on the surface as heat was lost by radiation, and this
+crust consisted of the oldest rocks of igneous formation like the
+granites and gneisses. During this Archæan or Eozoic Period, the earth
+acquired its atmosphere and its oceans, and it is probable that the
+mysterious origin of life took place.
+
+The later history of the earth since the stratified rocks began to
+appear, and life existed, is divided into four main periods, of which
+the first is known as Primary, or Palæozoic.
+
+
+The First Period of the Earth
+
+CAMBRIAN SYSTEM. The rocks formed in the Cambrian Age are
+mainly grits, quartzites, and conglomerates, with shales, schists, and
+limestones. The earth was then mostly covered by seas, and the first
+well-defined forms of life were of marine origin.
+
+SILURIAN SYSTEM. The Silurian rocks are mostly sandstones,
+shales, and slates deposited in the seas. The first vertebrates made
+their appearance as fishes, whilst insects began to flutter in the air,
+and occasionally to alight on the emerging land.
+
+DEVONIAN SYSTEM. This was the age of the old red sandstone.
+Fishes reached a high state of development, whilst the first traces
+appeared of land vegetation, ferns and lycopods.
+
+CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. This system is exceptionally important,
+because its chief rock is coal, the fossilised remains of the luxuriant
+vegetation which grew in tropical swamps. The first terrestrial
+animals, true air breathers, now appeared.
+
+PERMIAN SYSTEM. The last of the primary systems gave us the
+new red sandstone, distinguished from the old by lying above the coal
+measures. The Permian Age was apparently unfavourable to life, and is
+only notable for the first appearance of the land reptiles into which
+the amphibians developed.
+
+
+The Second Period of the Earth
+
+The Secondary Period marks the emergence of the dry land into
+importance greater than that of the sea.
+
+TRIASSIC SYSTEM. The Triassic rocks chiefly consist of
+sandstones and hardened clays laid down in shallow sea basins. Land
+vegetation now first began to assume a modern type, with conifers and
+cycads. The seas were still richly peopled, and the land first gave a
+home to huge reptiles, or dinosaurs.
+
+JURASSIC SYSTEM. This system is marked by a great variety
+of limestones, the product of dead sea creatures. It is essentially
+the age of reptiles. The ichthyosaurus disputed the seas with the
+plesiosaurus; the pterodactyl ruled the air; whilst on land, huge
+monsters like the brontosaur and diplodocus browsed on tropical
+vegetation. From these reptiles the birds were developing, whilst small
+marsupials, the oldest of the great mammalian race, skipped under the
+branches.
+
+CRETACEOUS SYSTEM. This was the age of the great chalk
+deposits. The birds, now emerging from their reptilian ancestry,
+dominated its life, and the first modern plants appeared on the land.
+
+
+The Third Period of the Earth
+
+The Tertiary Period marks the true beginning of modern geological
+history, when the great outlines of geography were laid down, and
+the first representatives of modern plants and animals made their
+appearance.
+
+EOCENE SYSTEM. The Eocene rocks are mainly limestones, with
+sandstone and hardened clays. We owe them to the sea and its organisms.
+Modern evergreen trees now first appeared. The mammals come to the
+front, with the tapir-like palæotherium and the first recognisable
+ancestor of the horse.
+
+MIOCENE SYSTEM. The Miocene Age was a mountain-building
+period, when the great chain which runs from the Alps into Central
+Asia received its final uplift. Deciduous trees, like the beech and
+elm, now made their appearance. The giant mastodon and the formidable
+sabre-toothed tiger roamed the Miocene forest, and true apes--man’s
+first forerunners--mopped and mowed in the boughs.
+
+PLIOCENE SYSTEM. The last of the Tertiary ages set the final
+stamp on the geological moulding of the earth’s crust. Its plants were
+transitional to the flora of modern Europe. Great herds of herbivora
+now appeared.
+
+
+The Fourth Period of the Earth
+
+The Quaternary Period is that in which we are still living. Its
+outstanding feature is the appearance of man.
+
+PLEISTOCENE OR GLACIAL SYSTEM. Its essential feature was the
+appearance of glacial conditions over most of the northern hemisphere,
+when great ice sheets rubbed our land into shape. The vegetation was
+Arctic, and only animals like the reindeer and the hairy mammoth could
+endure the cold.
+
+HUMAN OR RECENT SYSTEM. The precise antiquity of man is still
+uncertain, but it was only after the close of the Glacial Period that
+he made his home in Europe, where he shared a precarious existence
+with mammoth, cave-bear, and rhinoceros. Man developed through the
+_Palæolithic_ and _Neolithic_ ages of stone implements to the _Bronze_
+and _Iron_ ages, when metal was first worked. In the last of these we
+live.
+
+
+
+
+GEOLOGICAL CLOCK OF THE WORLD’S LIFE
+
+
+This page is an effort, based on Professor Lester Ward’s calculations
+in “Pure Sociology,” to show the comparative length of each geological
+period, and the thin white line between Tertiary and Archæan indicates
+the period of human history. Thin as this line is--and we could not
+show it thinner--it is too thick, and out of proportion to the rest
+of the clock. If we assume that from the beginning of the world--from
+its first forming into a solid sphere--to the present, time may be
+represented by a day of twenty-four hours, the time occupied by human
+history does not exceed twelve seconds. This is reckoning human history
+as ten thousand years. There is, of course, no possibility of obtaining
+more than relative figures for such a scheme as this, which should be
+regarded in connection with the previous page and the chart of the
+Beginnings of Life, facing page 96
+
+[Illustration: The thin white line between the Tertiary and the Archæan
+periods represents the duration of human history]
+
+
+TABLE SHOWING PROPORTIONS OF YEARS AND HOURS
+
+ Geological Periods | Years | Hours
+ ------------------------+-------------+---------
+ Archæan | 18,000,000 | 6
+ Laurentian | 18,000,000 | 6
+ Cambrian | 6,000,000 | 2
+ Silurian | 6,000,000 | 2
+ Devonian | 6,000,000 | 2
+ Carboniferous | 6,000,000 | 2
+ Triassic | 3,000,000 | 1
+ Jurassic | 3,000,000 | 1
+ Cretaceous | 3,000,000 | 1
+ Tertiary and Quaternary | 3,000,000 | 1
+ ------------------------+-------------+---------
+ The Quaternary Period | 72,000,000 = 24
+ is that in which we live|
+
+TERTIARY AND QUATERNARY PERIODS
+
+At a rough guess, three million years may be allowed for the Tertiary
+and Quaternary periods
+
+ --------------------+-----------+------+------+------
+ Geological Periods | Years | Hrs. | Min. | Sec.
+ --------------------+-----------+------+------+------
+ Tertiary | 2,600,000 | -- | 52 | --
+ Pleistocene | 300,000 | -- | 6 | --
+ Human | 100,000 | -- | 2 | --
+ +-----------+------+------+------
+ Total | 3,000,000 | 1 | -- | --
+ --------------------+-----------+------+------+------
+ Human History | 10,000 == == 12
+
+
+
+
+HOW LIFE BECAME POSSIBLE ON THE EARTH
+
+BY DR. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE
+
+
+Early writers on the relation of man and animated nature to the
+material universe not only assumed that the latter existed for the
+former, but that both alike were the results of special acts of
+creation.
+
+Furthermore, they usually took it for granted that all things were
+created very much in the condition in which we now see them, and that
+any changes that have since taken place are but slight superficial
+modifications of a permanent and unchanging whole. Not only were the
+sun and moon and stars created as appanages of the earth, but the earth
+itself in all its details of sea and land, hills and valleys, mountains
+and precipices, swamps and deserts, was made and fashioned just as we
+now see it, and every feature of its surface was supposed to have some
+purpose in connection with man.
+
+[Sidenote: The Old Ideas of Creation]
+
+These purposes we could, in some cases, understand, while in others
+they seemed wholly unintelligible, and much ingenuity was bestowed
+by the natural theologian and others to explain more and more of the
+observed facts from this point of view. The same opinions prevailed in
+regard to the infinite variety of animals and plants, each individual
+species being supposed to have been an independent creation, and all to
+have some definite and preordained purpose in relation to mankind.
+
+These views, however absurd they seem to most people now, were almost
+universally held so recently as during the seventeenth and eighteenth
+centuries, and were thus coincident with one of the most brilliant
+epochs of our literature and our dawning science. It was only towards
+the beginning of the nineteenth century, when geology became widely
+studied and its results were fully appreciated, that the more rational
+conception of a very slow development of the earth’s surface during
+countless ages began to be generally accepted.
+
+[Sidenote: Changing Conditions of the Earth]
+
+The grand nebular hypothesis of Laplace came to reinforce the views of
+the geologists, by showing how the earth itself may have originated
+as a gaseous or molten globe; and its slow process of cooling, with
+the reaction of the interior and exterior on each other, served to
+elucidate the facts of the heated interior, as shown by hot springs and
+volcanoes, as well as many of the phenomena presented by the distorted
+and metamorphosed strata which formed its crust. Hence it gradually
+came to be perceived that the condition of the earth, with all its
+endless variations of surface, of continents and oceans, of seas and
+islands, of vast plateaux and lofty mountain ranges and extensive low
+plains, with their ravines and cataracts, their great lakes and stately
+rivers, was subject to perpetual change from that remote epoch when it
+seems to have been actually the case that “the earth was without form
+and void,” and that owing to the greater density of the vapour-laden
+atmosphere, “darkness was upon the face of the deep.”
+
+[Sidenote: Changing Forms of Life]
+
+Another field of geological research forced us to the conclusion that
+the same continued process of change had affected the forms of life
+upon the earth. When carefully investigated, the crust was found
+to abound in the fossilised remains of animals and plants. Careful
+study of these showed that the oldest of all were of comparatively
+simple structure, and that the higher forms only appeared in more
+recent epochs; while the highest of all were probably very little
+older than man himself. It is only during the last half century that
+the theory of Evolution has been elaborated and has become generally
+accepted as applicable to the whole of the vast cosmic process--from
+the development of the nebulæ into stars and suns and systems, with a
+corresponding development of planets from an early condition of intense
+heat, through a more or less lengthy period of cooling and contraction,
+to an ultimate state of refrigeration, the earlier and later stages
+being alike unsuited to the existence of life.
+
+[Sidenote: Theory of Natural Selection]
+
+More important still, the discovery of the theory of Natural Selection
+by Darwin--and at a later period by myself--has led to a satisfactory
+explanation of the successive appearance of higher and more complex
+forms of life, and also of that wonderfully minute and complex
+_adaptation_ of every species to its conditions of existence and to
+its organic as well as its inorganic environment, which all other
+theories--even the most recent--have failed to grapple with.
+
+[Sidenote: Wonderful Complexity of the Universe]
+
+The logical completeness as well as the extreme simplicity of this
+explanation of organic evolution has led great numbers of thoughtful
+but ill-informed persons to reject it, because it seems to render
+unnecessary the existence of a primary intelligent cause; while
+another equally large but, as I think, equally ill-informed class--the
+so-called monists--use it to demonstrate the non-existence, or, at all
+events, the needlessness, of any such cause. Both alike err, because
+they fail to take cognisance of the fact that every form of evolution,
+and pre-eminently that of the organic world, is an explanation of a
+process of change, a law of development, not in any sense or by any
+possibility an explanation of fundamental laws, causes, or origins.
+It presupposes the existence not only of matter--itself a thing whose
+nature is becoming more and more mysterious and unthinkable with the
+advance of physical science--but of all the vast complex of laws
+and forces which act upon it--mechanical, physical, chemical, and
+electrical laws and forces--all more or less dependent on the still
+more mysterious, all-pervading ether. Thus, the universe in its purely
+physical and inorganic aspect is now seen to be such an overwhelmingly
+complex organism as to suggest to most minds some vast intelligent
+power pervading and sustaining it.
+
+Persons to whom this seems a logical necessity will not be much
+disturbed by the dilemma of the agnostics--that, however wonderful the
+material universe may be, a being who could bring it into existence
+must be more wonderful, and that they prefer to hold the lesser
+marvel to be self-existent rather than the greater. When, however,
+we pass from the inorganic to the organic world, governed by a new
+set of laws, and apparently by some regulating and controlling forces
+altogether distinct from those at work in inorganic nature; and when,
+further, we see that these organisms originated at some definite epoch
+when the earth had become adapted to sustain them, and thereafter
+developed into two great branches of non-sentient and sentient
+life, the latter gradually acquiring higher and higher senses and
+faculties till it culminated in man--a being whose higher intellectual
+and moral nature seems adapted for, even to call for, indefinite
+development--this logical necessity for some higher intelligence to
+which he himself owes his existence, and which alone rendered the
+origin of sentient life possible, will seem still more irresistible.
+
+[Sidenote: Mind Behind the World]
+
+The preceding remarks are intended to suggest that the theory of
+evolution, combined with the quite recent and very startling advances
+in physical science, so far from making the universe around us more
+intelligible as a self-sustaining and self-existent whole, has really
+rendered it less so, by showing that it is infinitely more complex
+than we had formerly supposed; and further, that matter itself,
+instead of being, as was once believed, a comparatively simple thing,
+eternal and indestructible, is in all its various forms subject to
+decay and disintegration. We now see that the only thing known to us
+that we can conceive as having unending existence is mind itself; and,
+just as Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection has opened up to us an
+infinite field of study and admiration in the forms and colours and
+mutual relations of the various species of animals and plants, so does
+modern science open up to us new and unfathomable depths in the inner
+structure of matter and of the cosmos, and thus compels us more and
+more to recognise a mental rather than a mere physical substratum to
+account for its existence.
+
+There is, however, another set of relations which have been hitherto
+very little studied--those between the organic and the inorganic
+worlds in their broader aspects. These are now found to be very much
+more complex and more remarkable than is usually supposed, and they
+also have an important bearing upon the great problem of the origin
+and destiny of man. This is a subject which opens up a variety of
+considerations of extreme interest, showing that the exact adaptations
+of our earth--and presumably of any other planets--to enable it to
+sustain organic life, from its first appearance and through its long
+course of development, is as varied and complex and as much beyond
+the possibilities of chance coincidences as are any of the individual
+adaptations of animals and plants to their immediate environment. Most
+of these latter adaptations have been made known to us by Darwin and
+his followers, and they have excited the admiration and astonishment
+of all lovers of Nature. When the antecedent and grander relations of
+planet to life are studied with equal care, these also will, I believe,
+excite deeper admiration, still more profound astonishment, because
+any secondary laws that could have brought them about are less easy to
+discover, or even to imagine.
+
+[Sidenote: Essential Conditions of Life]
+
+Before we can form any adequate idea of the nature of a world which
+shall be able to support and develop organic life, we must consider
+what are the special conditions that alone render such life possible.
+We, of course, refer to the whole of the organic world, from the lowest
+to the highest, not to the few exceptional cases in which life may be
+possible under conditions that would be fatal to the higher as well as
+to most of the lower forms.
+
+[Sidenote: The Miracle of Human Life]
+
+The one striking speciality of the higher animals--and to a less
+degree of the higher plants--is that of continuous, all-pervading
+motion, every portion of their substance being in a state of flux:
+each particle itself moving, growing, living and dying, and being
+replaced by other particles of the same nature and fulfilling the
+same functions. To keep up this growth, and to enable every part of
+the structure to be continually renewed, food is required. This is
+taken into the stomach of animals in the solid or liquid form, is
+then decomposed and recomposed, that which is useless or superfluous
+being thrown off by the intestines, while what is needed for growth
+is transformed into blood and by a wonderfully intricate system of
+branching tubes is carried to every part of the body, furnishing
+nourishment and repair alike to bone and muscle, to all the internal
+organs and all the outward integuments, and to that marvellously
+complex nervous system which also permeates every part of the body and
+is essential to the higher manifestations of life--to the exertion of
+force, voluntary motion, and, apparently, to thought itself. Add to
+this the constant influx of air, which at once purifies the blood and
+supplies animal heat, and is so important that its cessation for a
+few minutes is usually fatal, and we have a machine so complex in its
+structure and mode of action that the most elaborate of human machines
+is but as a grain of sand to a world in comparison.
+
+[Sidenote: Basis of Physical Life]
+
+Now the very possibility of such a material organism as this depends
+upon a highly complex form of matter termed protoplasm, which is at
+once extremely plastic and of extreme instability, and is yet capable
+of secreting or building up its atoms into such solid and apparently
+durable forms as bone, horn, and hair, besides the various liquids and
+semi-solids which build up the organism. This fundamental organic
+substance consists of only four chemical elements--nitrogen, hydrogen,
+oxygen and carbon, and almost all animal and vegetable structures and
+products have the same elemental constitution, though with such widely
+different characteristics. Four other elements--sulphur, lime, silicon,
+and phosphorus--also occur in small quantities in organic tissues,
+to supply special needs; but these are not essential to all forms of
+life, and are only taken up and utilised by the living protoplasm when
+required. Protoplasm is undoubtedly the basis of physical life, yet
+it only exists in, and is produced by, living organisms. The moment
+such an organism dies, disorganisation and decay set in, and the whole
+mass becomes gradually changed into more stable compounds, or into its
+constituent elements. It appears, therefore, that some agency--usually
+termed “vital force”--must be at work, first to produce this wonderful
+compound, then to form it into “cells”--the physiological units of
+all organisms--and afterwards to direct the energies supplied by heat
+and light so as to build up the excessively complex structures, with
+all their wonderful powers and potentialities, which we term animals
+and plants. All this seems to imply not “a force” only, but very many
+forces, all of which must have some kind of mind in or behind them,
+to direct these forces to such infinitely varied yet perfectly defined
+ends.
+
+[Sidenote: A Marvel of Every Day]
+
+Consider for a moment one of the simplest of these cases. Let us take
+the minute seed of one of the great tropical fig-trees, and another
+seed of a strawberry, or of garden cress. Both will be about the same
+size and shape, and the most acute microscopist would not find any
+difference in the internal structure that could intelligibly account
+for the different results when these little grains of protoplasm are
+exposed to identical conditions. For, even if planted near each other,
+and exposed to the same amount of heat and moisture, to the very same
+atmosphere, and the same kind of water, as well as identically the
+same soil, yet invariably the one will grow into a large tree, the
+other into a small herb, and in the course of time, still with no
+change whatever of the physical conditions to which both are exposed,
+each will produce its peculiar foliage, and flowers, and fruit, very
+different in all their characters from those of the other. Were this
+result not so common as to seem to us “natural,” we should call it
+a miracle; and it is really and essentially as inexplicable as many
+things which are termed miracles only because they are unfamiliar and
+inexplicable.
+
+Now, this wonderful substance, the physical base of all life--and as
+it is the only base that exists, or has ever existed, on the earth, we
+may fairly assume that no other is possible--can only maintain itself
+and perform its functions under certain very definite conditions, which
+conditions are now maintained on our earth’s surface, and must have
+been maintained throughout the long geological periods during which
+life has been slowly developing. What these conditions are we will now
+proceed to show.
+
+[Sidenote: The First Essential for Life]
+
+The first essential for organic life is a certain very limited range of
+temperature. We are so accustomed to consider the change of temperature
+from winter to summer, from day to night, and that which occurs when we
+pass from the tropics to the Polar regions as being very great, that we
+do not realise what a small proportion such changes bear to the whole
+range of temperature that exists in the known universe. The absolute
+zero of temperature is calculated to be minus 461° F., while the heat
+of the sun has been determined to be over 10,000° F., and many of the
+stars are known to be much hotter than the sun. The actual range of
+temperature is therefore enormous; but any development of organic life
+is possible only within the very narrow limits of the freezing and
+boiling points of water, since within those temperatures only is the
+existence of liquid water possible. But a much less range than this
+is really required, because albumen, one of the commonest forms of
+protoplasm, is coagulated or solidified at a temperature of about 160°
+F. Now, if, as is generally believed, the earth has been once a liquid
+or even a gaseous mass and has since cooled to its present temperature
+on the surface, and the sun is undergoing a similar process of cooling,
+we are able to understand that the very limited range of temperature
+within which life development is possible implies an equally limited
+period of time as compared with that occupied by the whole process of
+solar and planetary development.
+
+[Sidenote: We Live by the Heat of the Sun]
+
+It must be understood, however, that the present temperature of the
+earth’s surface is due entirely to sun-heat, and that if that were
+withdrawn or greatly diminished the whole surface of the globe would
+be permanently far below the freezing point and all the oceans be
+frozen for a considerable depth; so that all organic life would become
+extinct. Under such conditions no renewed development of life would be
+possible; and it is therefore quite certain that the sun has actually
+maintained the uniform moderate temperature required, and must continue
+to maintain it for whatever future period man is destined to continue
+his existence upon the earth.
+
+But it is not only a certain amount of heat that is required, but also
+a sufficient quantity of light; and this implies a further restriction
+of conditions, because light is due to vibrations of a limited range of
+wave-length, and without these particular rays plants cannot take the
+carbon from the carbonic acid in the atmosphere, and by its means build
+up the wonderful series of carbon compounds, including protoplasm,
+which are essential for the life of animals. What is commonly termed
+dark heat, therefore, would not be sufficient for the development
+of any but the lowest forms of life, even though it produced the
+necessary temperature during a sufficient period of time.
+
+All organisms, from the lowest to the highest, whether plant or animal,
+consist very largely of water, and its constant presence either in the
+liquid or gaseous form is essential for organic life. On our earth
+oceans and seas occupy the greater part of the surface, while their
+average depth is so great that the quantity of water is sufficient to
+cover the whole of the globe free from inequalities two miles deep.
+It is this enormous amount of water that supplies the air with ample
+moisture, such as renders the life of the tropics so luxuriant. Yet
+even now the inequality of water-supply is such that large areas in all
+parts of the earth are what we term deserts, only supporting a very few
+forms of life that have become specially adapted to them, and certainly
+unfitted for the continuous development of life from lower to higher
+forms.
+
+[Sidenote: Water and the Atmosphere]
+
+Water is also of immense importance as an equaliser of temperature, the
+currents of the ocean conveying the warmth of the tropics to ameliorate
+the severity of temperate and Polar regions, while the amount of
+water-vapour in the atmosphere acts as a retainer of heat during the
+night, without which it is probable that the surface of the earth would
+freeze every night even in the tropics. When we consider that water
+consists of two gases--oxygen and hydrogen--in definite proportions,
+and that without their presence in these proportions and in the
+necessary quantity the development of organic life would have been
+impossible, we find that we have here a remarkable and very complex set
+of conditions which must be fulfilled in any planet to enable it to
+develop life.
+
+But this is not all. The atmosphere is so intimately associated with
+water in its life-relations, and is itself so absolutely essential to
+the existence from moment to moment of the higher animals, that the two
+require to be duly proportioned to each other and to the globe of which
+they form a part.
+
+[Sidenote: How Water Protects Earth by Night]
+
+In the first place the atmosphere must be of a sufficient density,
+this being needed in order that it may be an adequate storer up of
+solar heat, and also in order that it may be able to supply sufficient
+oxygen, water-vapour, and carbonic-acid gas for the requirements of
+both vegetable and animal life. We have a striking example of the use
+of air as a storer-up and distributor of heat and moisture in the
+very different character of our south-west and north-east winds. The
+effect of the density of the air is equally well shown when we ascend
+lofty mountains where we find perpetual snow and ice, due simply to
+the fact that the air is not dense enough to retain the heat of the
+sun--which is actually greater than at low levels--so that at night
+the temperature regularly falls below the freezing point. On the other
+hand a very much denser atmosphere would absorb so much water vapour as
+probably to shut out the light of the sun, and thus have a prejudicial
+effect on vegetable life.
+
+Again, there is good reason to believe that the proportions of the
+various gases in the atmosphere are, within certain narrow limits, such
+as are most favourable not only for the life that actually exists, but
+for any life that could be developed from the elements that constitute
+the universe. Oxygen has properties which seem absolutely essential to
+organic life; but nitrogen, though only serving to dilute the oxygen
+so far as the higher animals are directly concerned, is yet indirectly
+essential for them, since it is in vegetables a constituent of that
+protoplasm which is the very substance of their bodies.
+
+[Sidenote: Use of Thunderstorms]
+
+[Sidenote: The Wonder of the Atmosphere]
+
+Now, plants obtain their nitrogen mainly from the minute proportion
+of ammonia that exists in the atmosphere, and this ammonia is formed
+by the union of the nitrogen of the air with the hydrogen of the
+water-vapour under the influence of electric discharges--that is,
+of thunderstorms. It is evident, then, that the required amount of
+this essential compound will depend upon a due adjustment of the
+quantities of nitrogen and aqueous vapour always present; while the
+electric discharges seem to be due to the friction of various strata
+of air with each other and with the earth’s surface, due to the winds
+and storms; and winds are due to highly complex causes, involving
+the rate of the earth’s rotation, the rise and fall of the tide, the
+density of the atmosphere, the quantity of its aqueous vapour, and the
+amount of solar heat which it receives. Unless all these very diverse
+factors existed in their due proportion, some of the results might be
+highly prejudicial if not quite inimical to the development of life.
+To these various adaptations of our gaseous envelope we must add one
+other. Carbonic acid gas in the atmosphere is absolutely essential
+to vegetable life, while it is directly antagonistic to that of the
+higher animals. Its quantity must, therefore, be strictly proportionate
+to the needs of both; and that beneficial proportion must have been
+preserved throughout the whole period of the existence of the higher
+air-breathing animals.
+
+These various considerations show us that our atmosphere, consisting
+as it does mainly of two common gases mixed together, and therefore
+seeming to most people one of the simplest things possible, is really a
+wonderfully complex arrangement which is adapted to serve the purposes
+of living organisms in a great variety of ways. But this by no means
+exhausts the subject of its adaptation to support and develop organic
+life, because its very existence on the earth in a suitable quantity
+and composed of the essential elements can be shown to depend on other
+and deeper relations which will now be pointed out.
+
+The older writers on the subject of the habitability of the planets
+took no account whatever of the importance of size, distance from the
+sun, period of rotation, and obliquity of the ecliptic as determining
+the possibility of organic life, but simply assumed that, because the
+earth possessed an abundant life-development, all the other planets
+must also possess it. But we know that the above-mentioned factors are
+of very high importance, as we will proceed briefly to point out.
+
+[Sidenote: Earth’s Envelope of Gas]
+
+It is now believed that the amount of atmosphere possessed by a
+planet is due mainly, perhaps entirely, to the planet’s mass, and its
+consequent gravitative power. Spectrum-analysis has shown that vast
+masses of gaseous matter exist in the universe, and it is probable
+that, in a state of extreme tenuity, these are very widely diffused.
+Just as meteoric dust is constantly attracted to the earth, and
+periodically in larger quantities, so are gases, and supposing the
+aggregations of free gaseous matter to have been distributed with some
+approach to uniformity, then, as planets grew in size, they would also
+tend to secure a larger amount of the diffused gases, thus forming
+deeper atmospheres. The observed facts agree with this view. The
+largest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, have such a depth of atmosphere as
+permanently to obscure any solid interior they may possess. The only
+planet closely approaching the earth in size and density--Venus--has
+an atmosphere which appears to be loftier than ours, but it may be
+composed of different gases. Mars, which has only one-ninth the mass
+of the earth, has a lofty but very tenuous atmosphere, and probably no
+water, the Polar snows being due probably to the freezing of some dense
+gas. The climate and physical condition of Mars is, however, still a
+subject of much controversy, which I hope to discuss in a separate work
+dealing with the arguments of Professor Lowell [see page 105]. In that
+volume the reader will find, fully set forth my reasons, on scientific
+grounds, against the supposed habitability of Mars.
+
+[Sidenote: The Earth Selects and Uses Gas]
+
+But, besides attracting cosmic masses of gaseous matter to form its
+atmosphere, there is another equally important function of the mass of
+a planet--its selective power on the kind of gases it can permanently
+retain in a free state. The molecules of gases are in a condition of
+rapid motion in all directions, which explains the elastic force they
+exhibit. The speed of this motion has been determined for all the chief
+gases, and also the gravitative force necessary to prevent them from
+continually escaping into space from the upper limit of the atmosphere.
+Thus the moon, which has a mass only one-eightieth that of the earth,
+can retain no free gas whatever on its surface. Mars can retain only
+the very heavy gases, but neither hydrogen nor water-vapour. The earth,
+however, has force enough to retain all the gases except hydrogen,
+which is just beyond its limit; and this may explain why it is that
+there is no free hydrogen in the atmosphere, although this gas is
+continually produced in small quantities by submarine volcanoes, is
+emitted sometimes from fissures in volcanic regions, and is a product
+of decaying vegetation. Once united with oxygen to form water, it
+becomes amenable to gravity in the form of invisible aqueous vapour,
+and is thenceforth a permanent possession for us in its most valuable
+form.
+
+[Illustration: EARLY ICE AGE, WHEN MAMMOTHS ROAMED THE EARTH AND MAN
+WAS ARISING]
+
+The very accurate adjustments that render our earth suitable for
+the production and long-continued development of organic life,
+culminating in man, may be well shown by another consideration. If our
+earth had been 9,600 miles instead of 8,000 miles in diameter--a very
+small increase in view of the immense range of planetary magnitudes
+from Mercury to Jupiter--with a slight proportionate increase in
+density, due to its greater force of gravitative compression, its
+mass would have been about double what it is now. This would probably
+have led to its having attracted and retained double the amount of
+gases, in which case the water produced would have been double what
+it is--perhaps even more, because hydrogen gas would not then escape
+into space as it does now. But the surface of the globe would have
+been only one-half greater than at present; so that, unless the ocean
+cavities were twice as deep as they actually are, the whole surface of
+the earth--except, perhaps, a few tops of submarine volcanoes--would
+have been covered several miles deep in water, and all terrestrial life
+would have been impossible.
+
+[Sidenote: The Deep Atmosphere of Venus]
+
+From the various considerations here set forth it appears clear to me
+that no other planet of the solar system makes any approach to the
+conditions essential for the development of a rich and varied organic
+life such as adorns our earth. One only--Venus--has a sufficient bulk
+and density to give it the needful atmosphere; but as it receives
+about twice as much solar heat as does the earth, it is probable that
+its very deep atmosphere may be mainly due to the fact that a large
+proportion of its water is held in a state of vapour, its seas and
+oceans being proportionately reduced in extent. Judging from what
+happens on the earth, this would probably lead to an excessive area
+of deserts, and thus be inimical to life. But this planet appears to
+possess one feature which renders it fundamentally unsuitable for
+organic life.
+
+[Sidenote: Why there is no Life on Venus]
+
+Several modern observers have found that the older astronomers were
+all in error in giving Venus a rotation-period almost exactly the
+same as ours, an error due to the indefinite and variable markings
+of its surface. They have now deduced a period about equal to that
+of its revolution round the sun--a rate which has been confirmed by
+spectrum-analysis, and further confirmed by the fact that this planet
+has no measurable polar compression. As during transits of Venus over
+the sun’s disc the conditions for the accurate measurement of the
+compression, if any exist, are the best possible, and as none has been
+found, this alone affords a demonstration that the rate of rotation
+must be very slow, because the laws of motion _necessitate_ a definite
+amount of equatorial protuberance corresponding to that rate. Half the
+surface has, therefore, perpetual day and the other half perpetual
+night, leading to violent contrasts of heat and cold for the two
+hemispheres with, in all probability, correspondingly violent winds,
+rains, and electrical disturbances--conditions so entirely opposed
+to the uniformity of temperatures and stability of meteorological
+phenomena during long geological epochs which are essential for the
+full development of organic life, that such development is perhaps less
+probable on this planet than on any other.
+
+I think I have now shown not only that no other planet in the solar
+system makes any approach to the possession of the varied and complex
+adaptations which are essential for a full development of organic life,
+but also that on the Earth itself the conditions are so numerous and so
+nicely balanced that very moderate deviations in excess or defect of
+what actually exists in the case of any one of them--and of others not
+referred to here--might have rendered it equally unsuitable, so that
+either no organic life at all, or only a very low type of life, could
+have been developed or supported.
+
+[Sidenote: There is Purpose in our World]
+
+If, then, the more superficial indications of design in the relations
+of animals to their environment, and of man to the universe, have been
+shown by modern science to have required no _special_ interference of
+a higher power to bring them about, but that they have been due to
+natural laws acting in accordance with and in subordination to the
+deeper laws and forces that determine the very constitution of matter
+and the unknown power and principle we term “life,”--yet, on the other
+hand, we find that a more careful study of the outer universe, or
+cosmos, reveals a new set of adaptations not less wonderful or more
+easily explicable by chance coincidence than those presented by the
+organic world.
+
+Even the very brief sketch of the subject here given suggests the
+idea of _purpose_ in a world so precisely and uniquely adapted to
+develop organic life, and to support that life during the countless
+ages required for the completed evolution of man. But that suggestion
+becomes a logical induction when the whole of the available evidence
+is set forth, as I have attempted to set it forth in my work on “Man’s
+Place in the Universe.” I have there shown not only that the cumulative
+evidence for the earth being the only supporter of a fully-developed
+organic life within the solar system is irresistible, but that there
+is some direct, and much more indirect, evidence that this uniqueness
+extends to the whole stellar universe; and it is certain that no
+particle of _direct_ evidence for the existence of organic life
+elsewhere has been, or is likely to be, adduced.
+
+I have also shown (in an appendix to the second edition of my book)
+that the purely biological argument for the uniqueness of the
+development of man--as the culminating point of one line of descent
+throughout the diverging ramifications of the animal kingdom--is
+overwhelmingly strong; hence the logical conclusion from the whole
+of the evidence is that man is the one supreme product of the whole
+material universe.
+
+My object in the present essay has been limited to showing that,
+besides and beyond the special adaptations of the various kinds of
+animals and plants to their special environments, there exist in the
+earth as a planet, in its various physical and cosmical relations, a
+whole series of adaptations of a very remarkable character which, so
+far as we can judge, are essential to its function as a life-producing
+world. The study of these adaptations, therefore, may be considered
+to be appropriate here, as constituting a preliminary chapter in the
+natural history of the Earth and of Mankind.
+
+ ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE
+
+[Illustration: IN THE DAYS OF THE SEA MONSTERS
+
+ Reproduced from a plate in Hawkins’ “Book of the Great Sea
+ Dragons.”
+]
+
+
+
+
+THE BEGINNING OF LIFE ON THE EARTH
+
+BY DR. C. W. SALEEBY
+
+
+[Sidenote: The Earth Without Life]
+
+For some decades past we have been faced with a critical difficulty
+at the most critical and important point in the history of the earth.
+In the first place, it has been definitely established that in the
+earlier period of its history there was no life whatever--as the word
+is usually understood--upon the earth, as is abundantly shown elsewhere
+in this work. None of the conditions that make life possible, as we
+know it, were satisfied. As a recent French writer has said, life is
+an aquatic phenomenon, absolutely incapable of existence except in the
+presence of liquid water; and there was an age of vast duration in the
+history of the earth when all its water must have been in the gaseous
+state. Other reasons of equal cogency may be at present ignored. The
+broad fact is that, however widely students of this matter may differ
+on other points, there is absolute agreement upon the cardinal and
+initial fact that whereas there is life upon the earth now, there was a
+time when there was none.
+
+[Sidenote: A Gap in the Philosophy of Evolution]
+
+Now, in the ever memorable year 1859, Charles Darwin published a
+volume, the main thesis of which is now universally accepted, wherein
+the following is the last sentence: “There is grandeur in this view of
+life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the
+Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has
+gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple
+a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been,
+and are being evolved.” “The Origin of Species” may be said, in a
+word, to establish the doctrine of the evolution of living organisms
+upon the earth “by laws acting around us”--to use Darwin’s own phrase.
+But Darwin’s work begins with and assumes the existence of life as an
+established planetary fact. There obviously remains a tremendous gap in
+the evolutionary philosophy as it stands in our statement of it thus
+far; and the first fact which we have to note is that the existence
+and recognition of this supposed gap, so far from being a matter of
+common recognition from the earliest times, so far from being an
+observation made by the critics of the doctrine of evolution, is, on
+the contrary, a special doctrine peculiar to scientific study and of
+quite recent origin, being indeed established--as was supposed--within
+the memory of many now living.
+
+If we turn to the first chapter of Genesis, we shall see no suggestion
+or recognition of the supposed difficulty involved in the beginning of
+life upon the earth. In this immortal piece of ancient poetry it is
+stated that after the creation of the heaven and the earth, which were
+at first “without form and void,” God said, “Let the earth bring forth
+grass ... and it was so”; and later God said, “Let the waters bring
+forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life ... let the earth
+bring forth the living creature after his kind.” Here we have suggested
+to us the natural origin of living creatures in earth and sea under the
+will and direction of the Creator as conceived by the poet.
+
+[Sidenote: First Ideas on the Origin of Life]
+
+[Sidenote: The Coming of Darwin]
+
+Partly to the influence of Genesis, partly to the apparent facts of
+observation, and partly to the views which would naturally be held by
+poets and thinkers, we may attribute the belief which has been held
+by man, simple and philosophic alike, since first men began to think,
+until, we may say, the third quarter of the nineteenth century--the
+belief that the lowest of living things arose by a natural genesis or
+so-called spontaneous generation in suitable materials already provided
+on the land or in the sea. It was not suggested or believed that very
+large and conspicuous living creatures were thus bred, though it is
+true that the ancients thought even crocodiles to be generated by the
+action of the sun upon the slime of the Nile. The living creatures
+supposed to arise naturally in the womb of earth--the all-mother--were
+mostly small creatures, like insects and worms. The ordinary belief of
+the uninstructed to-day--a belief which they share with the greatest
+thinkers of antiquity and the Renaissance--is that the cheese-mite, for
+instance, is evolved from the substance of the cheese. Now, it is of
+particular moment to observe the vast contrast between the significance
+of this belief prior to the publication of “The Origin of Species” and
+its significance to-day. Before we accepted the doctrine of organic
+evolution, the supposed spontaneous origin of the cheese-mite in
+cheese, or of the maggot in putrid meat, was of no very great moment;
+a maggot or a cheese-mite is an extremely insignificant object. So far
+as the great problems of the universe are concerned, a cheese-mite, as
+we say, is neither “here nor there,” and its spontaneous generation was
+not regarded as a fact of any great moment.
+
+But then there arose Darwin, who, in establishing the doctrine of
+organic evolution already supported by his own grandfather, by Lamarck,
+and Goethe, and Herbert Spencer, gave an entirely new importance to
+the question. He demonstrated how we could conceive the evolution of
+all organisms, including man, from a “few simple forms,” under the
+continuous influence of natural law; and thus such forms ceased to
+be insignificant, and the manner of their genesis came to be a vital
+problem in more senses than one. Such organisms--the mite, the maggot,
+and even the mould--could no longer be regarded as insignificant, for
+they were revealed as not unlike the ancestors of man himself.
+
+[Sidenote: Evolution a Continuous Process]
+
+The question of the beginning of life upon the earth had only to be
+satisfactorily answered for the establishment of the belief in a
+continuous process of evolution by natural law, even from the very
+beginning of the earth itself “without form and void,” until the
+production of the highest living organisms which it displays in our
+own time. And all ages, even by the mouths of their great thinkers and
+closest observers, had agreed in giving an apparently satisfactory
+answer to this question. It might well have been thought that Darwin
+was quite entitled to ignore altogether, as he did, the question of
+the origin of life. Everyone knew, so to say, that simple living
+organisms were every day evolved in organic refuse and elsewhere.
+Darwin himself, if we may judge from a casual remark in a letter,
+regarded the question apparently as purely speculative, and of small
+real moment. It is all rubbish, he says, thinking about the origin of
+life; we might as well argue about the origin of matter. We must beware
+of illegitimately attributing opinions to the immortal dead, but this
+remark, though a casual one, does seem to suggest that Darwin regarded
+these two questions as on all-fours, if not, indeed, as different forms
+of the same question, and that, if he had actually formulated his
+views, they would have taken the shape of the doctrine which asserts
+that life is implicit and potential in matter; in other words, that
+when suitable conditions arose--such, for instance, as the presence of
+liquid water--matter would display the properties of life.
+
+[Sidenote: An Abyss that could not be Bridged]
+
+Now, the remarkable fact--one of the most striking in the history of
+science--is that the time-honoured belief in spontaneous generation
+should have been attacked, and attacked with apparent success, just
+at the very time when it would otherwise have begun to assume real
+philosophic importance. For ages it had been accepted, taken as a
+matter of course, and not regarded as having any particular bearing
+upon the supreme questions. Then there came the time when this belief
+would have been an all-important link, without which the chain of
+evolution could not be completed, a link without which we were left
+to contemplate a perfect chain of inorganic evolution--the history of
+the earth before life--and a perfect chain of organic evolution--the
+history of life upon the earth, with an abyss between the two that
+could not be bridged, for how came life where there was no life? A
+series of experiments were made, experiments in which, strikingly
+enough, some of the greatest evolutionists of the day took a leading
+part, and these seemed to upset, just when it was most wanted by
+themselves for the establishment of their new doctrine, the belief
+which had gone without question for so many ages.
+
+[Sidenote: Is Life only Self-movement?]
+
+Now, some may be inclined to wonder how it should be that certain
+pioneers of the new doctrine of evolution, such as Tyndall and Huxley,
+should devote themselves with such persistence and labour and force
+to the overthrow of a doctrine which was so necessary for the complete
+establishment of their own case--so much so, that when they had
+overthrown it, they found themselves, as regards their own doctrine
+of evolution, placed in a difficulty from which they did not live to
+emerge. It is my own belief that this question can be answered, and
+the answer is of strict relevance to our present inquiry. I believe
+that Huxley and Tyndall were largely impelled by the desire to oppose
+a doctrine of the nature of life which was current in their time and
+is usually called “vitalism.” We shall not begin to understand the
+question of the beginning of life upon the earth, as that question may
+be legitimately stated to-day, unless we fully realise in what terms
+the doctrine of spontaneous generation was accepted in the past, and
+an understanding of this will teach us that the present-day revival of
+this doctrine presents it in a form very different from that which it
+so long held. Our discussion must be somewhat philosophic in character,
+but the question at issue is a highly philosophic one, and the reason
+why we have made so little progress in answering it hitherto is that
+men of science have too frequently discussed it without paying any
+serious attention to the profound philosophic questions which really
+underlie it. We have permitted ourselves to talk freely about life and
+matter, whilst claiming the right to take for granted the absolute
+validity of our conceptions of life and our conceptions of matter.
+
+It was universally held by those, philosophic and simple, who also held
+throughout so many centuries the belief in spontaneous generation, that
+there is an overwhelming contrast between living and lifeless matter,
+and it was their belief in this overwhelming contrast that led them
+to give to the doctrine of spontaneous generation, as they held it, a
+form which cannot possibly be defended. The great character of life was
+conceived to be self-movement, this self-movement being displayed in
+the matter which composed the living organisms. But it was universally
+held that matter, as it was seen otherwise than in living organisms,
+was obviously and notoriously inert, gross, brute, and dead.
+
+[Sidenote: The Influence of Plato]
+
+The great influence of Plato taught men to despise matter in this
+fashion, and there was the everyday experience that a stone lies where
+it is placed until something from outside moves it, being, therefore,
+inert, whilst a living creature such as a bird moves freely at its own
+will. The more strongly men held the natural matter of which the earth
+is composed to be inert, the more necessary was it to suppose that
+when life was displayed in it the difference consisted in the taking
+possession of this dull clay by a vital force--a mystic and wonderful
+principle of quickening--which endowed even gross, inert matter with
+activity and power. From the time of Plato until the last few years of
+the nineteenth century thinkers vied with one another in insisting upon
+the impotence and grossness and inertness of matter, and each fresh
+insistence upon this doctrine rendered more necessary a corresponding
+doctrine of vital force or vitalism, which should explain the amazing
+transformation undergone by, let us say, the gross and inert matter
+composing food, when that food was converted by the “living principle”
+into the tissue of a living creature, and then displayed self-movement.
+
+[Sidenote: Philosophy of Dead Matter]
+
+[Sidenote: The Great Work of Pasteur]
+
+This doctrine of vitalism, which held sway for so long, was naturally
+invoked to explain the origin of life upon the earth, when the advance
+of astronomy and geology demonstrated a natural evolution for the
+earth and proved that there must have been a time when no life was
+possible upon it. The prevalent conception of matter came in at this
+point and denied altogether any such monstrous doctrine as that the
+wonderful thing called life could spontaneously arise in the despicable
+thing called matter. The material of the earth, whether solid, liquid
+or gaseous, consisted of eternal, unchangeable, and indestructible
+atoms. These were moved as forces from outside moved them. They had
+no energy or power of their own. Men simply thought of them as of
+incredibly minute grains of sand of various shapes and sizes, and it
+was as impossible to conceive of life being spontaneously generated
+in a chance heap of inert atoms as to conceive that a heap of grains
+of sand should organise themselves into a little organism. As for
+spontaneous generation occurring on the earth to-day, the development
+of mites from cheese and so forth, that was a very different matter,
+men must have thought--in so far as they thought at all--since cheese
+and flesh and so forth were themselves products of life. It is well
+worth noting that the common doctrine of spontaneous generation was
+always held in reference to organic materials, such as the slime of the
+Nile--not the dry sand of the desert. The reader may be inclined to say
+that men’s beliefs on this subject in the past generation make very
+confused reading, and indeed, that is true. But the fact is that their
+beliefs were most confused. The work of Darwin had staggered everybody,
+and straightforward, systematic, unprejudiced thinking was very nearly
+impossible in the welter of controversy. Nevertheless, something
+apparently definite was done. The doctrine of the beginning of life
+upon the earth was left almost undiscussed, and the accepted notion
+of the nature of matter--a notion which to us who know radium seems
+puerile--was left unchallenged in all its falsity. But the work of the
+great French chemist Pasteur led to a close examination of the belief
+that humble forms of life are daily produced from lifeless organic
+materials, and the conclusion was reached that no such spontaneous
+generation occurs.
+
+[Sidenote: Every Living Thing from a Living Thing]
+
+This conclusion is of great importance in the history of modern
+thought, and it was proclaimed with much rejoicing and vigour as a
+great achievement of science, whilst some of its chief advocates
+seemed at times to forget the extreme awkwardness of the inferences
+which had to be made from it. The doctrine may be stated in Latin in
+the form of the familiar dogma, “Omne vivum ex vivo,” every living
+thing from a living thing. Just as the existence of a man is quite
+sufficient to prove to us the prior existence of living human parents,
+just as we feel sure that every beast of the field has had living
+parents and that every oak has sprung from an acorn developed in a
+previous oak, so, according to the doctrine of “Omne vivum ex vivo,”
+we must believe that every living creature, whether human, animal, or
+vegetable, whether as big as the mammoth or as small as the smallest
+microbe not one-twenty-thousandth part of an inch in diameter, has
+sprung from living parents. Nature, according to this doctrine, was
+divided--as Nature, being a mighty whole, can never be divided--into
+two absolute categories, the living and the lifeless, or living matter
+and dead matter. Dead matter was notoriously dead and impotent, and
+life could not conceivably arise in it, though it could be used by life
+for purposes of food. On the other hand, living matter rejoiced in the
+possession of all those great attributes which lifeless matter lacked,
+and, in accordance with the contrast between the two kinds of matter,
+the living could never be produced from the lifeless but only from the
+living: for every creature, microbe or mammoth or man, we must trace
+back in imagination a series of living ancestors, differing perhaps in
+various characters, but always living. This series must be traced back
+and back and back until----?
+
+[Sidenote: Life Evolved from the Lifeless]
+
+And there the difficulty arose. For the uninhabitableness of the
+primitive earth was a fact of which men of science were as certain
+as if from some habitable planet they had been able to gaze upon it.
+Notwithstanding the dogma of “Omne vivum ex vivo,” it was impossible to
+assert that every living creature has an _endless_ series of ancestors.
+How, then, did life begin?
+
+What we may call the doctrine of the older orthodoxy--the doctrine of
+special creation, of supernatural interposition for the introduction
+of a new entity into the scheme of things--offered one alternative. To
+accept it, however, would be to abandon the whole modern conception
+of natural law and of a universe which was not created once on a day,
+and has not been tinkered with subsequently, but from everlasting to
+everlasting is the continuous expression to us of the Infinite and
+Eternal Power which to some eyes it veils and to others it reveals.
+Unless we are to abandon our philosophy, this alternative cannot be
+accepted, and it is now accepted by no philosophic thinker.
+
+[Illustration: BUFFON PLATO LAMARCK
+
+BERTHELOT HERSCHEL CLERK MAXWELL
+
+D^{R.} BASTIAN DARWIN TYNDALL
+
+HUXLEY LORD KELVIN SPENCER
+
+MASTER THINKERS WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF LIFE
+
+ Photos by Gerschel, Maull & Fox, E. Walker, London Stereoscopic,
+ Barraud, and Mills
+]
+
+Thus, whether “Omne vivum ex vivo” be true or false to-day, we are
+compelled to accept the only other alternative, which is that it has
+not always been true, or, in other words, that life was spontaneously
+evolved from the lifeless (so-called) at some remote age in the past.
+Just at the present time philosophic biology is out of fashion. Minds
+of the great cast which endeavour to see things in their eternal
+aspect have been lacking to the science of life since the days when
+Huxley and Spencer were in the plenitude of their powers. Anyone who
+cares to compare the principal reviews of the last decade with those
+same reviews from the year of, say, 1875 to 1890, can readily see
+this fact for himself. In the absence of that deliberate thought and
+discussion without which clear ideas on any subject are impossible,
+what may be called the official opinion of biology at the present time
+is thus most remarkable and contradictory. On the one hand, it is
+strenuously asserted as a matter of dogma that at the present day no
+life is produced or producible upon the earth except by the process of
+reproduction of previously existing life; and on the other hand it is
+asserted--when the direct question is put, though otherwise the subject
+is simply ignored--that life must somehow or other have been naturally
+evolved in the past, presumably once and for all. I have called this
+opinion contradictory, and it is indeed far more contradictory and
+unsatisfactory than it may at present appear. The obvious question that
+the critic asks is, “If then, why not now?”
+
+[Sidenote: “If then, why not now?”]
+
+[Sidenote: Is Life Now Arising from the Lifeless?]
+
+The answer alleged is that, of course, the experiments of Pasteur and
+Tyndall, to which some reference must afterwards be made here, merely
+demonstrated the impossibility of the spontaneous generation of life
+in our own day or under any conditions similar to those of our own
+day; but doubtless the first few simple forms of living matter arose
+by natural processes at some distant epoch “when the conditions were
+very different from those that obtain to-day.” Now it happens to be
+true that every difference between past and present conditions which
+physics and geology and chemistry can assert tends to the probability
+that if spontaneous generation is impossible now, it must have been a
+hundredfold more impossible a hundred million years ago. Yet for some
+three decades the great majority of biologists have been content to
+believe that spontaneous generation is impossible now, even though
+land and sea and sky are packed with organic matter under the very
+conditions which obviously favour life--as the all but omnipresence
+of life abundant to-day demonstrates--but that spontaneous generation
+was possible in the past when, by the hypothesis, there was no
+organic matter present at all, and when life had to arise in the union
+and architecture of such simple substances as inorganic carbonates!
+Such biologists are like those who know that the human organism can
+be developed from the microscopic germ in a few years, but find it
+incredible that man can have been developed from lowly organisms in
+æons of æons. Nor has any living biologist even attempted to make an
+adequate answer to the question, why what is impossible now should
+have been possible a hundred million years ago. On the contrary, so
+soon as the matter is looked at philosophically, we see that all the
+probabilities, all the analogies, all the great generalisations of
+science, are in favour of the belief that life must be arising from the
+lifeless now, as in the past, whenever certain conditions, such as the
+assemblage of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen in the presence of
+liquid water, are satisfied.
+
+For the moment, however, I propose to postpone this question of the
+truth of “Omne vivum ex vivo” at the present day, for I desire to
+throw into the forefront of my argument two quite recent developments
+of science, unreckoned with because non-existent in the controversy
+of the ’seventies, and in my judgment not yet duly appraised to-day.
+In the present and future discussion of the manner and causation of
+that supreme event in the earth’s history, the beginning of life upon
+it, we must reckon with two new orders of inquiry relating to facts
+unthinkably contrasted in physical magnitude yet equally relevant to
+our subject. The first series of facts with which I will deal are
+_astronomic_, and the second _atomic_.
+
+[Sidenote: The Evidence from Other Worlds]
+
+[Sidenote: Vegetable Life on Mars]
+
+In discussing the origin of life upon the earth, we of the twentieth
+century must recognise such facts as may be obtainable in regard to
+life upon other orbs than ours. Now, in the first place, there is at
+least one illustrious contemporary astronomer, Professor Pickering,
+the chief living student of the moon, in whose opinion there are many
+evidences upon our satellite of the action of vegetation, either past
+or present. This, of course, is not the place for a discussion of
+that evidence; it is, however, the place to record the most highly
+qualified opinion at present obtainable, and to remind ourselves of
+the certainty that when the moon was first borne--or born--from the
+earth, life cannot possibly have been evolved, since the conditions
+of temperature alone, to name one factor, were such as life could not
+sustain, no liquid water being extant. There is some reason to suppose,
+then, that, whatever the present case may be, life was at one time
+spontaneously evolved upon the moon.
+
+The second piece of astronomical evidence relevant to our inquiry is
+afforded by the planet Mars. This, of course, is a much controverted
+question, which cannot receive any discussion here. It suffices to
+note that Professor Lowell, who is admittedly the greatest living
+authority on Mars, has observed and photographed, not merely to
+his own satisfaction, but to that of an ever increasing number of
+astronomers, signs of vegetation upon Mars. I will say nothing here
+as to the existence of intelligent beings there. That fascinating and
+momentous question, upon which there will doubtless be difference
+of opinion for some time to come, does not now concern us. It is of
+quite sufficient significance for our present purpose if the existence
+of merely vegetable life, and no more, upon the planet Mars can be
+demonstrated, and there are now very few astronomers indeed who
+question this demonstration, however chary they may be of going any
+further. I submit that the question of the beginning of life upon
+the earth should not be considered without reference to the evidence
+which suggests the spontaneous origin of life upon the moon, and to
+the practically positive demonstration of the present existence, with
+seasonal alternations, as on our own earth, of vegetable life in the
+watered areas of Mars.
+
+[Sidenote: The Earth’s Crumbling “Foundations”]
+
+These considerations were entirely unknown to the great
+controversialists of a generation ago; but there is another order of
+facts, entirely unimagined by them, which are now demonstrable and
+admitted. For them, or for most of them, the ancient conception of
+matter which we trace to Plato was substantially true; nay, more.
+The recent work of the physicists and chemists had endowed that
+ancient conception of matter as gross and inert and dead with a new
+concreteness and vividness. One of the greatest physicists of the age,
+James Clerk-Maxwell, in his famous address to the British Association,
+spoke of atoms as the “foundation stones of the visible universe, which
+have existed since the creation unbroken and unworn.” The accepted
+conception of an atom was that of a passive thing; it had its own
+inherent shape and properties, which were impressed upon it at its
+creation. It had “the stamp of the manufactured article,” as Sir John
+Herschell said, and throughout its endless history it responded to and
+behaved under the influence of external forces in due accordance with
+its shape and size. But it was unchangeable, inert and brute, the sport
+of its surroundings, like the mote in the sun-beam.
+
+[Sidenote: Immeasurable Ocean of Energy]
+
+But to-day we stand amazed at such conceptions. We have learnt that
+within the atoms of matter there is a fund of energy so incalculably
+vast that the sum total of all the energies previously recognised, and
+now to be styled extra-atomic, is as nothing compared with it. This
+is a change indeed, that all the energies hitherto known to us should
+be merely the overflow trickling from the immeasurable ocean of the
+intra-atomic energy, the very existence of which has been formally and
+repeatedly denied by practically all thinkers from Plato down to our
+own time. Matter is not gross and inert, brute and dead. The atom, the
+so-called unchangeable foundation stone, is, on the contrary, itself
+an organism, the theatre of Titanic forces about which we at present
+know practically nothing except that they certainly exist, and are
+powerful beyond all our previous conceptions. The atom is no atom, but
+a microcosm; it is no more the unit of inorganic matter than the cell
+is really the unit of living matter.
+
+Now it is surely evident on consideration, though the significance
+of the change has been ignored, that the whole discussion of the
+spontaneous origin or evolution of life in matter takes an entirely
+new shape when our old and widely erroneous conception of matter is
+abandoned, and a true one is substituted. Life is a marvellous and
+characteristic demonstration of energy. When the origin of this energy
+in matter was formerly discussed, we were told that the constituent
+parts of matter contain no energy at all, but now we know that a quite
+overwhelming proportion of the sum total of universal energy is to be
+found there, and nowhere else. This is one of the most revolutionary
+advances in the whole history of thought, and its full significance has
+yet to be recognised.
+
+There must also be added an essential to any future discussion of this
+question, the extraordinary achievement of synthetic chemistry, of
+which Professor Berthelot was the grand master. As long ago as 1828
+it was shown that there was at least one exception to the doctrine of
+the vitalists, that chemical compounds characteristic of living matter
+cannot be built up except by the living organism. To-day chemistry
+has succeeded in building up alcohols, starches, sugars, and even the
+forerunners of the proteids themselves, from the inorganic elements in
+the laboratory, under the action of non-vital forces. This fact could
+not be reckoned with a generation ago.
+
+[Sidenote: Can Chemistry Build Up Life?]
+
+We are now entitled to state very briefly the sequence of events
+which may reasonably be imagined as culminating in the origin of life
+upon the earth _for the first time_. Whatever we may hold as to the
+present, we have to recognise that the origin of life for the first
+time constituted a fact utterly different in certain essentials from
+any origin of life that may be expected to be occurring to-day. The
+capital fact is that in the beginning there was no organic matter
+to serve as food material. If ever there was a case in which it is
+the first step that costs, it is here. Nothing can be easier than
+to imagine the spontaneous origin of life in organic matter to-day,
+favoured with sun and water and air. The case is far different when a
+primary origin in inorganic matter has to be conceived. But of some
+things we are certain. We are certain, for instance, that so long as
+the earth’s surface temperature was above that of boiling water, no
+life was possible. It was not until the gaseous water in the atmosphere
+became liquefied by the lowering of the earth’s temperature that the
+production of life became possible. The first seas were seas of boiling
+water, or rather water infinitesimally below the boiling point, and
+we may reasonably suppose, with Buffon, that the Polar seas, being
+the first to cool, must have provided the first “nest” for life upon
+the earth. I assume, of course, that this essay will be read in
+conjunction with that of Professor Sollas upon the formation of the
+earth [page 79], and that of Dr. Wallace upon the exquisite adaptation
+between life and the earth to-day [page 91].
+
+[Sidenote: The Study of Ferments]
+
+But how were those complex organic bodies formed, especially those
+vastly complex proteids with which all life whatsoever, as we know it,
+is invariably associated? Apart from the laboratories of the synthetic
+chemists of to-day, these compounds are always the products of
+pre-existing life, and yet without them there could be no pre-existing
+life.
+
+[Sidenote: Mystery of the Cell]
+
+[Sidenote: Is the Cell a Product of Evolution?]
+
+It is my belief that this most difficult question, which quite baffles
+us, will seem simple and straightforward in another generation, when
+science has devoted itself on a large scale to a study now in its
+very infancy--I mean the study of those curious bodies which chemists
+call ferments. The properties of ferments are shared both by the
+familiar ferments, such as trypsin and pepsin, and also by certain
+inorganic substances, such as the metal platinum. Now, though pepsin
+is a product of living cells, platinum is certainly not. Altogether
+apart from the living world there are substances which have powers of
+fermentation; and ferments do not act exclusively, as is erroneously
+supposed, in breaking down complex compounds, but also build them
+up from their constituents. The powers of a ferment, moreover, are,
+so far as we know, inexhaustible. All life whatever is exercised by
+ferments, and it is true that life, chemically considered, is “a series
+of fermentations.” Now, there is quite recent evidence already which
+seems to show that certain ferments, acting in suitable material, have
+the power of reproducing themselves--that is to say, of converting that
+material into their like. These facts are highly suggestive, and it is
+difficult to refrain from suggesting that the gap between living and
+lifeless matter, which seemed so absolute to our ancestors, and which
+even to us, who have a new conception of matter, seems wide enough, may
+yet be bridged by the ferments. We are far too apt, I think, to assume
+that when we can see no intermediate stage there were no intermediate
+stages, and thus to make difficulties for ourselves. We declare that
+life began as a single cell, which was the starting-point of organic
+evolution. I myself believe rather that the cell constitutes the acme
+of a vast epoch of evolution, which may yet be reproduced in brief in
+the laboratory. Denying or declining to think of this, the biologist
+who knows the amazing complexity and intricacy of the architecture of
+the cell may well decline to believe that such a thing could spring
+with a single jump from inorganic matter. We preach and go on preaching
+that Nature does nothing by jumps, and in the same breath we declare
+that life began as a simple cell. In another hundred years we may begin
+to realise that a cell in its own measure and on its own scale is an
+organism, as complex and mature a product of evolution as a society,
+or, for the matter of that, as the atom of modern chemistry!
+
+But the reader will legitimately declare that so long as the
+spontaneous generation of life to-day in the most favourable
+circumstances is a proved impossibility, he cannot be expected to
+accept the doctrine of its spontaneous origin in the past. There are
+signs, however, that the biologists are now beginning to listen to Dr.
+Charlton Bastian, the sole survivor from the great controversy of the
+’seventies, whose book, “The Evolution of Life,” was published only a
+few months ago. Against Pasteur and Tyndall and Huxley, Dr. Bastian
+maintained that their experiments, asserted to be conclusive, were not
+conclusive--the facts observed were certainly facts, but the deductions
+were unwarrantable. The experiments only proved the impossibility under
+the experimental conditions. The difference is the difference between
+proving what you set out to prove, and begging the whole question.
+First establish conditions under which spontaneous generation is
+impossible, then demonstrate its non-occurrence under those conditions,
+and thence infer that it is impossible under any conditions.
+
+[Sidenote: The Creed of the Future]
+
+The student is right in declining to believe in the spontaneous
+beginning of life upon the earth so long as the possibility of
+spontaneous generation to-day is denied, but there are not a few who
+think that the most conservative attitude that can be adopted is one of
+suspended judgment.
+
+The present philosophic tendency is undoubtedly in the direction of a
+return to the ancient conception that matter is not without its own
+degree of life, and that the distinction between the organic and the
+inorganic is a distinction of degree and not radical. Nature does not
+admit of being sorted into any of our puny categories. As the facts
+accumulate they point more and more definitely towards the opinion that
+hylozoism, or the doctrine of potential life in all matter, will be
+part of the scientific creed of the future.
+
+Controversies as to the origin of life, judged in the light of this
+great conception, seem to become trivial if not puerile. Knowing,
+as we now do, that Plato’s conception of matter was as false as it
+possibly could be, and having had revealed to us by radio-activity the
+omnipresence within the very atoms of matter, of forces incessant and
+stupendous, we find the doctrine of vitalism, however stated, to be
+wholly meaningless; we find that the gap between the living and the
+lifeless is by no means abysmal or impassable.
+
+[Sidenote: How Long Has Life Existed?]
+
+And the definition of life as self-movement seems to become almost
+comical, for on that definition surely the whole physical universe,
+the only perpetual motion machine we know of, is itself alive. A
+discussion of this question can at the utmost only be suggestive. Very
+few positive assertions have been made, nor can their number be added
+to, in reference to a question which is bound to be asked: How long has
+life existed on the earth? The study of radium and its presence in the
+earth’s crust alone suffices to abolish altogether the old estimates,
+and new ones cannot yet be substituted. Only it is certain that the
+past history of planetary life may be far longer than any previous
+estimate has indicated. It now seems that the earth is not only not
+self-cooling, but actually self-heating, and if on the older assumption
+Lord Kelvin could talk of a hundred million years since, so to speak,
+water first became wet, and life, as we know it, possible, who shall
+say of how long periods we may speculate now? Meanwhile, the glass-eyed
+stare vacantly around them and declare that the progress of science
+means the destruction of the spirit of wonder and reverence. To them we
+reply in the words of the Earth Spirit in Goethe’s “Faust”:
+
+ “At the whirring loom of Time unawed,
+ I weave the living garment of God.”
+
+ C. W. SALEEBY
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+THE MASTERY OF THE EARTH AND HOW MAN OBTAINED IT
+
+BY DR. ARCHDALL REID]
+
+
+All the world--at any rate, all that part of the world which is
+acquainted with the facts--is now agreed that man is a product of
+evolution, and that his remote ancestors were of different bodily make
+and shape, and of different mental type and calibre, from their late
+descendants. No study of human kind can be comprehensive that does not
+include a survey of the mode by which the faculties that have given man
+the mastery of the earth were evolved.
+
+[Sidenote: We Know the Present by the Past]
+
+A history of his evolution, based, like a political history, on
+episodes, cannot, of course, be written. But man is a bundle of parts
+and capabilities. By comparing the civilised being with the savage and
+the savage with lower animals, we are able to trace, in many important
+particulars at least, his natural history with a degree of certainty to
+which, I think, no political history can aspire. As our comprehension
+of adult man is helped by a knowledge of the development of the child,
+so our understanding of our species is aided by a study of its past.
+Armed with some clear conceptions of what man was, and is, we shall
+be the better fitted to investigate social and political change, and
+to perceive how it happens that while some nations have inherited the
+earth and the fruits thereof, others have stagnated or fallen into
+decay.
+
+[Sidenote: How Man Learns by Experience]
+
+At a certain stage in his development the caterpillar builds himself
+a cocoon. His dwelling is a wonderful structure, but from our human
+point of view the remarkable thing is that he does not learn to build
+it. He may never have seen a cocoon before, and he constructs only
+one in his life. Yet his work is perfect, or at least very excellent,
+and it is as good in its beginnings as in its endings. Evidently he
+owes nothing to experience, but is impelled and guided throughout by
+a faculty which we term _instinct_. An instinct may be defined as an
+innate, inherited impulse, an inclination to do a certain definite
+act, the instinctive act, on receipt of a certain definite stimulus
+or incitement to action. In the case of the caterpillar the stimulus
+appears to be the sight at the proper time of a suitable spot in which
+to build a cocoon. Since this particular impulse does not appear at the
+beginning of conscious life, it is termed a deferred instinct. Man,
+on the other hand, cannot build his house unless he first learns how
+to build. He depends, not on instinct, but on experience. The faculty
+by means of which experience is stored in the mind is _memory_. The
+faculty by means of which we use stored experience to guide present
+or future conduct is _intelligence_. When the contents of memory are
+very vast, and the processes of thought by which they are utilised
+comparatively difficult and complex, intelligence is termed _reason_.
+Intelligence and reason depend, therefore, on memory, on ability to
+learn, on capacity to profit by experience. Memory is not the whole of
+intelligence, but it is the basis of it. Without memory there could be
+feeling and emotion, but no thought, for the materials of thought would
+be lacking.
+
+[Sidenote: Instinct in Place of Memory]
+
+[Sidenote: The Basis of Rational Action]
+
+We always measure the intelligence of an animal by its power of
+profiting by experience. Thus, a cat is more intelligent than a rabbit
+because it can learn more; a dog, for the same reason, is still more
+intelligent. A purely instinctive animal, one that has no memory, can
+have no conception of its past, and therefore no idea of its future.
+It lives wholly in the immediate present; feeling, but not thinking.
+It acts entirely on inclination, not on reflection. It makes provision
+for the future, not with any notion of providing, but simply because
+it has an impulse to a certain course of action, the performance of
+which gives it pleasure of the kind a child derives from playing or
+eating, and with the ultimate result of which it is no more consciously
+concerned than a child. If a caterpillar sheltered in a hole with the
+idea, founded on past experience, of avoiding danger, his action would
+be intelligent. If, appealing to a memory in which a great number of
+complex experiences were stored, he took thought and designed himself
+a shelter in which provision was made for all sorts of _remembered_
+dangers, his action would be rational. But if, making no appeal to the
+past nor taking thought for the future, he builds only because impelled
+by an innate impulse, then, no matter how elaborate the edifice he
+rears, his action is instinctive.
+
+Animals low in the scale of life--for example, most insects--appear
+incapable of learning. But often they are wonderfully equipped by
+instinct. The details of the behaviour of a small beetle, as quoted
+from Professor Lloyd Morgan, may not have been quite correctly
+ascertained, but they are sufficiently accurate for our purpose.
+
+ A certain beetle (Sitaris) lays its eggs at the entrance of the
+ galleries excavated by a kind of bee (Anthophora), each gallery
+ leading to a cell. The young larvæ are hatched as active little
+ insects, with six legs, two long antennæ, and four eyes, very
+ different from the larvæ of other beetles. They emerge from the egg
+ in the autumn, and remain in a sluggish condition till the spring.
+ At that time (in April) the drones of the bee emerge from the
+ pupæ, and as they pass out through the gallery the Sitaris larvæ
+ fasten upon them. There they remain till the nuptial flight of
+ the Anthophora, when the larva passes from the male to the female
+ bee. Then again they wait their chance. The moment the bee lays an
+ egg, the Sitaris larva springs upon it. Even while the poor mother
+ is carefully fastening up her cell, her mortal enemy is beginning
+ to devour her offspring, for the egg of the Anthophora serves not
+ only as a raft, but as a repast. The honey, which is enough for
+ either, would be too little for both, and the Sitaris, therefore,
+ at its first meal, relieves itself from its only rival. After
+ eight days the egg is consumed, and on the empty shell the Sitaris
+ undergoes its first transformation, and makes its appearance in a
+ very different form.... It changes into a white, fleshy grub, so
+ organised as to float on the surface of the honey, with the mouth
+ beneath and the spiracles above the surface.... In this state
+ it remains until the honey is consumed, and, after some further
+ metamorphoses, develops into a perfect beetle in August.
+
+[Sidenote: Wonderful Instinct of the Beetle]
+
+The beetle has sense organs; therefore she feels. But we have no reason
+to suppose that she remembers or thinks. Memory would be of little use
+to her; therefore parsimonious Nature bestows little or none. Cast
+adrift in a hostile world, she must come into existence ready armed by
+instinct for the battle of life. She has no time to learn, and during
+the rapid and strange changes in her career has little opportunity of
+acquiring knowledge that could beneficially guide her future conduct.
+Since memory and its corollary reflection are most developed in the
+highest animals, and are imperceptible in the lower, they are clearly
+later and higher products of evolution than instinct.
+
+[Sidenote: Man’s Helplessness at Birth]
+
+Family life is a product of memory, for the mate and offspring are
+_re_-cognised; therefore it always implies some degree of intelligence.
+The young are watched and protected, and taught by the higher animals.
+Opportunities are thus afforded of learning about the world, and more
+particularly of acquiring the traditions, the stored experiences,
+of the race. With the opportunity to profit by experience comes the
+ability to profit by it, and with the latter a gradual decay of
+instinct. Intelligence is substituted, more or less, for unthinking
+impulse. All the instincts are not lost, but in the higher animals we
+find no such elaborate innate impulses as in the lower. “Sitaris” is
+able to fend for herself from the first; but just in proportion as
+animals are highly placed in the scale of life, so they are helpless
+at the beginnings of consciousness, but correspondingly capable later.
+A young pig can run as soon as it is born, but the acquirements of the
+most learned pig are small compared to that of a dog, which, though
+more helpless than the pig at birth, is so teachable that he becomes
+the companion of man. Our domestic animals are all teachable, otherwise
+we could not tame them.
+
+Of living beings man is by far the most helpless at birth. He cannot
+even seek the breast. In him instinct is at its minimum. For him more
+than any other animal prolonged and elaborate tuition is necessary;
+but so vast is his memory, and so great his power of utilising its
+stored experience, that in later life he is beyond comparison the most
+capable of the inhabitants of the earth. Compare what even a dull
+man knows, including the words of a language and its inflections and
+articulations, with what is acquired by the cleverest dog, and the
+immensity of the difference is at once apparent. We may take a solitary
+frog and rear him from the egg in an aquarium. If, subsequently, we
+remove him to a pond, he will take his place with his fellows at
+once. He has little, if anything, to learn. Instinctively he knows his
+food, and how to seek it; his enemies and rivals, and how to escape or
+fight them; his mate, and how to deal with her; and she knows how to
+dispose of her eggs. But how forlorn and helpless would be a man reared
+from infancy in a dark cell out of sight and sound of his kind, and
+then turned into a world where his _experienced_ fellows struggle for
+existence!
+
+[Sidenote: Fear is the Result of Experience]
+
+Traditional knowledge--knowledge, that is, imparted by one generation
+to the next--is common enough amongst the higher of the lower animals,
+and forms no inconsiderable part of their mental equipment. Thus we
+may see the hen teaching her chickens how to seek food, and the cat
+instructing her kitten how to ambush mice. Birds and mammals inhabiting
+desert islands have none of that fear of man which in our country they
+acquire from dire experience. We have a saying, “as wild as a hawk”;
+but Darwin relates how he almost pushed a hawk from its perch with
+his gun in the Galapagos Islands. Round our coasts the sea-birds are
+exceedingly shy; in a harbor they feed from the hand. Formerly the
+Arctic seals, impelled by fear of bears, inhabited the outer margin
+of the floes; at the present day they have retreated from the more
+dangerous neighbourhood of man to the landward edge. Antarctic seals,
+harried by the great carnivora of the ocean, are watchful in the water;
+on land or on the surface of the ice, where till lately they met no
+danger, they may be slaughtered like sheep in a shambles. They are
+capable of profiting by experience; but they are slow to learn, and
+can acquire but little. Judged by our human standard, they are very
+stupid. The means of escape adopted by Arctic seals, and the means of
+capturing them, the ships and guns adopted by man, furnish a measure of
+the intellectual difference.
+
+[Sidenote: Slavery in the World of Insects]
+
+When animals are social, and so have the opportunity of learning, not
+only from their parents, but from other members of the species, the
+power of making useful mental acquirements is correspondingly great. It
+reaches a remarkable degree of development even amongst insects, some
+species of which live together in great communities. Young ants, for
+example, are tended with anxious care. It is said that they are led
+about the nest and instructed by older individuals. They are reported
+to be playful. Most significant of all is the fact that some species
+have the habit of capturing slaves belonging to other species, which
+they take as pupæ, never as adult ants, and to whom, as they develop,
+they teach their duties. The slaves are neuter individuals, and have no
+offspring, the supply being maintained by fresh captures. It follows
+that the slaves must _learn_ their work, and therefore that their
+performance of it is not instinctive, but intelligent.
+
+It is a fair inference that many of the so-called instincts of ants
+are really acquired habits, bits of knowledge and ways of thinking
+and acting which are handed down from one generation to the next, not
+by actual inheritance, but traditionally and educationally, just as
+children receive from us language, or religion, or a trade. Indeed,
+there is reason to believe that the power of making mental acquirements
+has evolved to a greater degree in the favourable environment of the
+ant-nest than among any other species except man.
+
+[Sidenote: Man’s Essential Instincts]
+
+The instincts of man, though comparatively few and simple, are yet
+essential to his existence. He has the instinct of hunger and the
+instinctive recognition of food as food, the instincts to sleep
+periodically, to rest when tired, and to sport when rested, the
+instincts of curiosity and imitativeness, and the deferred instincts
+of sexual and parental love, and perhaps one or two others. All these
+innate impulses he shares with the lower animals, but those which impel
+him to store and use his vaster memory are more developed in him than
+in any other type. Thus the instinct of sport urges him, not only to
+develop his limbs, but, through experience, to acquire dexterity and
+much besides. The little girl turns naturally to her doll, which she
+handles as she will her baby. The play of a boy as naturally involves
+contests, which foreshadow the grimmer battles of adult life. As he
+grows older the character of his sport changes. More and more it
+becomes an appeal to the wits, an appeal to wider experience and a
+means of adding to it.
+
+[Sidenote: A Child’s Play Fits it for the Future]
+
+The higher amongst the lower animals also have their sports, which, in
+every instance, are adapted to fit the members of the species for the
+future business of life. Compare, for example, the ambush and pounce
+of the kitten, the ardent chase and overthrow of the puppy, and the
+climbing proclivities of the kid. As a general rule, in proportion as
+an animal is capable of becoming intelligent, and as long as it is
+so capable, it is inclined to sport. A cat loses the desire early in
+life, a man retains it to the end. A child’s play, therefore, is no
+indication of mere frivolity. It is the outward and visible sign of an
+eager and splendidly directed mental activity. Curiosity also prompts
+the child to store its memory. Imitativeness impels him to acquire
+those mental traits which enabled his progenitors to survive in their
+world. Parental love prompts to the care and instruction of offspring.
+Very illuminating and beautiful is the instinctive delight of some dull
+and careworn mother in babyish play with her infant, and her joy when
+it first “takes notice,” and in its earliest beginnings of speech and
+locomotion.
+
+Every animal species is fitted by its structures and their associated
+faculties to its particular place in Nature. In some cases it holds
+its own largely through the evolution of some one structure or group
+of structures. Thus, the bat is especially distinguished by the
+great development of its fingers and of the web between them, and
+the elephant by its trunk. The principal distinguishing physical
+peculiarity of man is the enormous relative size in him of that upper
+part of the vertebrate brain which is termed the cerebrum, and, we have
+every reason to believe, constitutes the organ of memory and thought.
+
+[Sidenote: Evolution of Man’s Powers]
+
+Associated in a special way with his great brain are his organs of
+speech and manipulation. These three structures, the brain, the vocal
+apparatus, and the hand, undoubtedly underwent concurrent evolution
+by the constant survival, during a period of intense competition, of
+those individuals who were naturally the best capable of receiving
+and storing experience, of using it for the intelligent manipulation
+of objects, and of communicating it to their fellows and descendants
+through the medium of speech. Even the highest of the lower animals are
+able to learn from one another only by example or through such very
+elementary verbal signs as calls, growls, or cries of alarm, which
+express no more than simple emotions.
+
+Their traditional knowledge, therefore, is as nothing compared with
+that of man, who by means of articulated speech communicates not only
+information concerning sense impressions and emotions, but complex
+items of knowledge and processes of thought which have been garnered,
+elaborated, and systematised during tens of thousands of years by
+millions of predecessors. Without speech, or some such method of
+communicating abstruse information, his great brain would be useless.
+But knowledge and powers of thought are of no avail unless they can be
+translated into action; and for this the hands are necessary. To set
+free the fore limbs, which had hitherto been organs of locomotion, for
+their new function of manipulation, man became a biped, and assumed
+the erect posture--by no conscious effort, however, but solely by the
+survival of the fittest in each generation.
+
+[Sidenote: Man Paves His Way to Greatness]
+
+Savage man, then, differs from the lower animals in that he has a
+larger brain, a more capacious memory, and greater powers of utilising
+and communicating its contents. Modern man differs from ancient man
+because he is the heir of longer experience. Civilised man differs from
+the savage chiefly in that he has invented and more or less perfected
+certain artificial aids to speech, written symbols by means of which
+he is able to store in an available form knowledge immensely more
+abstruse and voluminous than would otherwise be possible. His books are
+artificial memories and vehicles of communication of unlimited capacity
+and unerring accuracy. Moreover, by means of these symbols he is able,
+as in the mathematics, to perform feats of thinking quite beyond the
+powers of his unaided mind; just as by means of machinery and other
+mechanical contrivances he is able to perform physical feats beyond the
+unaided powers of his body.
+
+To memory, then, is due the advance of the savage beyond the lower
+animal; to tradition, the child of memory, the advance of modern
+man beyond ancient man; to tradition stored in books the advance of
+civilised men beyond the savage. To written symbols are due also man’s
+vast powers for future advance. The brute, the mammoth, the mastodon,
+the whale, the elephant, and the tiger, became ever more and more
+helpless in the presence of a knowledge and an ingenuity that gathered
+with the rolling years, and, though accumulated for ages, were yet
+relatively new things in this enormously old world.
+
+Low animals, in proportion as they lack memory, move in a narrow,
+instinctive groove. Their mental traits are all inherited, and
+therefore each individual follows exactly in the footsteps of its
+predecessor. Since they cannot learn, they cannot adapt themselves to
+circumstances. Removed from the ancestral environment they perish. Cast
+in a rigid, inexpansive mould, every individual resembles every other
+of the same species, as much mentally as physically.
+
+[Sidenote: Man can Revert to Savagery]
+
+It is different with man. He is preeminently the educable, the
+reflective, the adaptive animal. Since the experiences of no two men
+are quite similar, they differ in knowledge, ideas, and aspirations,
+and, therefore, none are very closely alike mentally. The child does
+not follow exactly in the footsteps of the parent. So great is human
+adaptability that, though the mind of the savage differs immensely in
+all except instinct and power of learning from that of the civilised
+man, yet, were the child of the latter trained from birth by the
+former, he could not be other than a savage.
+
+On the other hand, utter savages--for example, the Maories of New
+Zealand--have passed in a single generation from barbarism to
+civilisation. The average individual amongst us may be trained to fill
+the rôle of a beggar or a king, a scientist or a monk, a thief or a
+legislator. He is able to dwell in the Tropics or in the Arctic, in the
+town or in the wild. Memory, knowledge, intelligence, adaptability, are
+all links in a single chain of efficiency.
+
+[Sidenote: Dawn of Human Life]
+
+Memory is of two sorts, conscious and unconscious. The conscious memory
+contains experiences which can be recollected, such as the words of a
+language or the sights we have seen. The unconscious memory contains
+impressions which cannot be recalled to mind, but which are none the
+less important. Thus, we learn to use our limbs, a process which
+involves a precise but quite unconscious adjustment of the actions of
+numerous nerves and muscles, the very names and existences of which
+are known only to the anatomist. So, also, in youth we unconsciously
+imitate our fellows, adopting in great measure their mental tones and
+attitudes without knowing how or when we were influenced. Much, too,
+that was once capable of being recalled is added to that hidden store,
+and, though apparently lost, remains potent for good or evil. Our
+minds are like floating icebergs, of which the visible part is but a
+fraction of the whole, and are moved by deep currents in a seemingly
+unaccountable way. At birth the mind of a child, unlike that of a
+beetle, is practically blank. Sights and sounds and the other feelings
+convey no meanings to it. But soon the messages sent by the sensation
+are understood. In a few weeks the child evolves order out of chaos,
+and comprehends to a wonderful degree the world around it. It learns to
+move its muscles in a purposeful way, and in a year or two is able to
+walk and speak a language, and do a vast deal more besides. In these
+early years, the period of man’s greatest mental activity, are made
+his most valuable and indispensable acquirements. But as he becomes
+more and more completely equipped for the battle of life, his powers
+of adding to the store slowly decline. In adult life the gains are
+balanced by the losses. In old age the losses exceed the gains. Compare
+the perfection with which the young acquire the manners of society,
+and every accent, inflection, and intonation of a language, with the
+imperfections displayed when learning is undertaken later.
+
+[Sidenote: Habits are Imitation Instincts]
+
+We learn to do new things, acquire new knowledge, and think new
+thoughts with toil. But practice brings facility. In the end we perform
+with ease that which was acquired with difficulty. We cannot, however,
+unlearn as we learnt, by an act of will. The facility lingers, and,
+as a consequence, our actions and thoughts, our mental attitudes, our
+whole outlook on life becomes more or less automatic and stereotyped.
+In other words, our acquirements come at last to resemble instincts,
+and are often so misnamed, as when a boy who has learned to dodge is
+said to avoid a blow instinctively. A being from another planet who
+for the first time saw a man walking or cycling could not distinguish
+the nature of these acquirements from such instinctive movements as
+the running or flying of an insect. The patriotism of a Spartan or a
+Japanese differs from that of a bee only in its mode of origin. In
+brief, the low animal is a creature of instincts, the man is a creature
+of habits, which are nothing other than imitation instincts.
+
+[Sidenote: Mankind’s Substitutes for Instinct]
+
+A principal function, then, of our faculty of making mental
+acquirements, of our conscious and unconscious memories, is to supply
+us with those automatic ways of thinking and acting which are our
+substitutes for instincts. Our conscious memories supply us with our
+stereotyped mental attitudes--desires, beliefs, aspirations, habitual
+way of thinking, and so forth. Our unconscious memories supply our
+stereotyped ways of acting--the automatic ways of acting we have just
+considered. It is a principal business of our lives to acquire them;
+but, though a great advantage is thus gained, one almost as great is
+lost. We act and think more quickly in familiar situations, but in
+proportion as we grow older we lose our splendid human capacity for
+learning. Beyond the verge of our imitation instincts spreads a domain,
+very wide in the infant, but narrowing as we pass towards old age,
+which is the real realm of the active intellect. Here, where thoughts
+and actions are not yet stereotyped, memory gathers fresh harvests,
+imagination plays, and reason ponders. Here man is a rational being in
+the strict sense of the word.
+
+[Sidenote: Mind and Memory]
+
+A little thought renders it evident that a feeble-minded person, an
+idiot, or an imbecile, is always one with a defective memory. He is
+unable to profit like the normal individual from experience. The truth
+that the higher faculties are more often absent in the feeble-minded
+than the lower is due entirely to the fact that they can be acquired
+only by people whose receptive powers are well developed. In effect
+and in fact the feeble-minded person is an instance of reversion to a
+prehuman mental state. Judged by the human standard, every monkey is
+an idiot. But the reversion is not complete, for, though the imbecile
+loses some part of his power of profiting by experience, he regains no
+part of the lost power of being guided by instinct. Therefore he is
+correspondingly helpless as compared with a lower animal.
+
+Owing to the constitution of the human mind, some decay of the faculty
+of profiting by experience accompanies advancing age. But it need
+seldom be so great as it usually is, and never so great as it often
+is. Certain mental attitudes, certain systems of education, certain
+environments, leave the mind of the man almost as open as that of a
+little child; others inflict on it premature senility. An Aristotle or
+a Darwin learns to the last year of his long life; a Mohammedan or a
+Tibetan ecclesiastic is old before he has ceased to be young. Convinced
+that pestilence is due directly to the wrath of God, he scorns the
+notion that sanitation can be right or useful; believing that the earth
+is flat, no evidence will convince him that it is round; holding his
+sacred religion with a steadfast faith, he will murder the heretic
+rather than think out his propositions.
+
+[Sidenote: How the Minds of Men Differ]
+
+But habits of stupidity are not confined to particular regions of
+thought. Becoming almost as incapable of mental change as a beetle,
+a man may undergo an arrest of mental development which differs from
+that of the idiot only because it occurs later in life, is less
+complete, and is acquired, not innate. In his ordinary surroundings he
+appears a normal person; but placed among people of more open mind,
+his brute-like inability to learn suggests sharply the resemblance
+to the feeble-minded child. Let us sum up. Man has conquered the
+earth because he is pre-eminently the educable, the adaptive animal.
+His educability--indeed, his whole thinking capacity--depends
+on his memory. He has few instincts, a fact which increases his
+mental ductility; but one of the most important of his instincts is
+imitativeness, which impels him to copy not only such obvious things as
+the speech of his predecessors, but their mental attitudes as well. In
+this way not only the actual knowledge and beliefs but also the habits
+of thought of one generation are handed on to the next. Apart from a
+few instincts which are more active in the child than in the adult, and
+two or three others whose appearance is deferred till later life, the
+whole mental difference between the child and the adult lies in the
+fact that the former has a great memory in the sense that it is very
+capable of storing experience, whereas the latter has a great memory
+in the sense that it has already stored much experience. As parent to
+child, so one racial generation hands on its acquirements to the next,
+but with greater certainty; for the parent is not the only influence
+in the life of the child, who imitates many other people, sometimes
+more closely than the parent; whereas, since few individuals travel
+during youth, the young are seldom influenced by others than by members
+of their own race. Except in times of great change, therefore, racial
+generations resemble one another even more closely than parents and
+children.
+
+Like individuals, races differ in their mental characteristics. The
+English have one set of characters, the Japanese another, and the
+Russians a third. The problem of the extent to which these characters
+are inborn or acquired is very important to the student of history.
+Accordingly as we believe they are the one or the other we are driven
+to accept one or other of two very different readings of the past.
+
+[Sidenote: Influences in a Child’s Life]
+
+Are races, then, brave or cowardly, energetic or slothful, enlightened
+or savage, and so forth, by nature or by training? Are the qualities
+that have enabled some races to flourish, while others are decadent,
+transmitted as instincts or handed on, as knowledge is? The reader
+has now materials of a kind not usually found in historical works on
+which to found a judgment. He must bear in mind that, while an American
+infant reared by cannibals would retain the bodily characteristics
+of his race mentally, he could not be other than a savage. He must
+remember also that some races have altered their mental characteristics
+very rapidly. Thus, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
+immediately after the long Dark Ages, the British and several other
+European races suddenly became intellectually active and socially
+progressive. The Japanese supply a more modern, the Greeks and Romans
+more ancient, instances. The latter quite as suddenly sank into abysmal
+degradation. Innate mental characters, such as the instincts, usually
+change so slowly that not merely historical but geological time elapses
+before the alteration is perceptible. Again, the reader must note that,
+while the _opinion_ that racial traits are inborn is nearly universal,
+most men _act_ as if they knew them to be acquired; for nearly all men
+are careful in training their children, especially with respect to
+those traits that contribute to the formation of character.
+
+[Sidenote: Great Facts to Remember]
+
+Doubtless, races of men differ innately in mind as they do in body, but
+these differences can occur only within narrow limits. The instincts
+of all races are, of course, very similar, for all the instincts
+are essential to the preservation of life. But races may differ in
+strength of instinct, and more especially in powers of memory. Thus
+it is possible, or probable, that the English, for example, are more
+capable of profiting by experience than Australian blacks. Certainly,
+their brains are larger. On the other hand, the brain grows under the
+stimulus of use, and therefore the larger size of the English brain may
+be due to more arduous labour.
+
+[Sidenote: The Real Value of History]
+
+Lastly, the reader must ask himself the question: What mental effects
+have centuries of freedom or slavery, or of civilisation, or of
+barbarism, on races? Do they produce innate changes, or do they merely
+render certain acquirements so nearly universal that their perpetuation
+by imitation is insured? If he supposes that the changes are innate,
+he must ask himself the additional question whether they arose through
+the transmission of parental acquirements to offspring, or through the
+actual and constant destruction in certain environments of certain
+definite types of individuals who were thus prevented from leaving
+offspring and so perpetuating their like. The former hypothesis is now
+generally repudiated by science. The latter may be true, but as yet
+has not been supported by evidence; or at any rate is supported only
+by such evidence as that which Mill and Buckle denounced. In either
+case, though history may furnish him with intellectual occupation,
+it will supply few lessons of practical value. If, on the other
+hand, he has perceived the greatness of the part played in the human
+mind by acquirement, if he has noted that man is man, a thinking and
+rational being, the conqueror of the earth, only because he is the
+most impressionable and therefore the most adaptable of living types,
+the reader will learn from the racial see-saw of the past what kinds
+of mental training have conduced to success and happiness and what to
+ruin, and so perhaps he may find himself in a position to help the
+fortunes of his people and his children. The real value of history,
+as in the last analysis of all experience, lies in its educational
+applications.
+
+ G. ARCHDALL REID
+
+[Illustration: PREHISTORIC MEN ATTACKING THE GREAT CAVE BEARS]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE RISE OF MAN AND THE EVE OF HISTORY]
+
+
+
+
+THE WORLD BEFORE HISTORY
+
+By Professor Johannes Ranke
+
+
+THE WONDERFUL STORY OF DRIFT MAN
+
+
+[Sidenote: Nature’s Great Book of History]
+
+The history of the world is the history of the human mind. The oldest
+documents affording us knowledge of it lie buried in those most mighty
+and comprehensive historical archives, the geological strata of our
+planet. Natural philosophy has learned to read these stained, crumpled,
+and much-torn pages that record the habitation of the earth by living
+beings; but only a few sections of this book of the universe have yet
+been perused, and these appear but fragmentary in comparison with the
+whole task. The passages that relate to the human race are small in
+number and often even ambiguous, and it is only the last pages that can
+give an account of it.
+
+The oldest undisputed traces of the presence of man on the earth that
+have hitherto been discovered are met with in the strata of the Drift
+Epoch, and it is only during the last generation that the existence of
+“Drift Man” has been palæontologically proved beyond dispute. The late
+Sir J. Prestwick believed, however--and his results have been confirmed
+by later discoveries--in the existence of evidence of the presence of
+man in Western Europe before the present river system of our land was
+established, long before the age of the “Drift” relics. The evidence
+consists of rudely shaped pieces of flint, apparently artificially
+chipped along one or more edges. These supposed implements are termed
+“Eoliths.” They were first discovered by Mr. Benjamin Harrison in the
+high-level plateau, probably of the Upper Pliocene Age, in Kent, and
+their significance is now widely accepted.
+
+Up to the middle of last century research appeared to have established
+as a positive fact that man could not be traced back to the older
+geological strata; remains of man were said to be found only in the
+newest stratum of the earth’s formation--in the alluvial, or “recent”
+stratum. The bones of man were accordingly claimed to be sure guides
+to the geological formations of the present time, as the bones of the
+mammoth and cave-bear were to the strata of the Drift. Where traces of
+man were found it was considered as proved by natural science that the
+particular stratum in which they occurred was to be allotted to the
+most recent system, which we see forming and being transformed under
+our eyes at the present day.
+
+[Illustration: A PAGE FROM NATURE’S HISTORY BOOK
+
+ It is in the successive layers of the earth’s strata with their
+ human and animal remains that we read the story of the past.
+ Embedded in the earth itself we have the existence of “Drift Man”
+ established. Our illustration is that of a section of the famous
+ Kent’s Cavern, near Torquay, which is rich in prehistoric remains.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: The Theory of Natural Catastrophes]
+
+While it was declared that man belonged to the alluvial stratum, it
+was at the same time stated, according to the doctrine of Cuvier,
+which had the weight of a dogma, that man could not have belonged to
+an older geological stratum or era, and therefore not even to the next
+older one, the Drift. The beginning and the end of geological eras are
+marked by mighty transformations which have caused a local interruption
+in the formation of the strata of the earth’s surface. In many cases
+we can point to volcanic eruptions as the chief causes, but more
+especially to a change in the distribution of land and water. Cuvier
+had conceived these changes involving the transformation to have been
+violent terrestrial revolutions, the collapse of all existing things,
+in which all living beings belonging to the past epoch must have been
+annihilated. It appeared impossible that a living thing could have
+survived this hypothetical battle of the elements, and passed from an
+older epoch into the next one; and the new epoch was supposed to have
+received plants and animals by re-creation. All this had to be applied
+to man also; he was supposed to have come into existence only in the
+alluvial period. Not without consideration for the Mosaic account of
+the Creation, which, like the creation legends of numerous peoples
+scattered far and wide over all the continents of the earth, tells of
+a great deluge at the beginning of the present age, the Pleistocene
+Epoch of the earth’s formation preceding the present period had been
+termed the Flood Epoch, or Diluvium. In its stratifications it was
+thought that the effects of great deluges could largely be recognised;
+but the human eye could not have beheld these, for, according to the
+catastrophe theory, it appeared out of the question that man could have
+been “witness of the Flood.”
+
+[Sidenote: What Actually Happened]
+
+Here modern research in the primeval history or palæontology of mankind
+begins, starting from the complete transformation of the doctrine of
+the geological epochs brought about by Lyell and his school. Proofs
+of terrestrial revolutions, as local phenomena and epoch marks, are
+doubtless to be found, imposing enough to make the views of the older
+school appear intelligible; but, generally speaking, a complete
+interruption of the existing conditions did not take place between the
+periods. Everything tends to prove that even in the earlier eras the
+transformation of the earth’s surface went on in practically the same
+way as we see it going on before our eyes to-day in a degree that is
+slight only to appearance. The effects of volcanic action; the rising
+and sinking of continents and islands, and the alteration in the
+distribution of sea and land caused thereby; the inroads of the sea
+and its work in the destruction of coasts; the formation of deltas and
+the overflowing of rivers; the action of glaciers and torrents in the
+mountains, and so forth, are constantly working, more or less, at the
+transformation of the earth’s surface.
+
+[Sidenote: Nature’s Unbroken Chain]
+
+As we see these newest alluvial deposits being formed, so in principle
+have the strata of the earlier eras also been formed, and their
+miles of thickness prove, not the violence of extreme and sudden
+catastrophes, but only the length of time that was necessary to remove
+such mighty masses here and pile them up there. It was not sudden
+general revolutions of great violence, but the slowly working forces,
+small only to appearance, well known from our present-day surroundings,
+which destroy in one place and build up again in another with the
+material obtained from the destruction--it was these which were the
+causes of the gradual transformation of the earth in all periods of its
+history comparable to the present. According to this new conception of
+geological processes, a general destruction of plants and animals at
+the end of eras, and a new creation at the beginning of the following
+ones, was no longer a postulate of science as it had been. The living
+creatures of the earliest eras could now be claimed as ancestors of
+those living to-day; the chain seems nowhere completely broken. The
+ancestors of the human race were also to be sought in the strata of the
+earlier geological periods.
+
+[Illustration: This indicates a vast stretch of the lost land of
+England, looking towards the Scilly Isles from Land’s End. All between
+the broken lines was once land as far as Scilly, thirty miles away and
+fifty miles thence to Lizard Point.]
+
+[Illustration: In old maps Bavent was formerly the most easterly point
+of England; now that is Lowestoft.]
+
+[Illustration: The coast of England is being slowly worn away by the
+sea. In many places houses have been swallowed up. Here we see the
+disintegrating process going on at Holderness, where the sea front
+presented this appearance after a gale.]
+
+[Illustration: SLOW INFLUENCES THAT DESTROY IN ONE PLACE AND BUILD UP
+IN ANOTHER
+
+ The coming of the sea over the land is so slow as to be almost
+ imperceptible, but these pictures illustrate its progress. The
+ pictures in the upper half of the page show how the sea is
+ encroaching on the coast; the opposite result is shown in the
+ bottom view from Reigate Hill, where we see an ancient arm of the
+ sea now a rich and populous valley.
+]
+
+Among the forces which we find attended by a transformation of the
+fauna and flora of the earth’s eras, the influences of climatic changes
+in particular are clearly and surely shown. In that primeval period in
+which the coal group was formed the climate in widely different parts
+of the earth was comparatively equable, little divided into zones, and
+of a moist warmth; this is proved by the really gigantic masses of
+plant growth implied by the formation of many coal strata, in which the
+remains of a luxuriant cryptogamic flora are everywhere embedded. In
+Greenland, in the strata belonging to the chalk period, and even in the
+deposits of the Tertiary Period, which immediately precedes the Drift
+Era, the remains of higher dicotyledonous plants of tropical character
+are found. The occurrence of palæozoic coral reefs in high latitudes
+also goes to prove that the temperature of the sea water there was
+higher at that time: in fact, that a tropical climate existed in the
+farthest north--an extreme contrast to the present ice-sheet on its
+land and the icebergs of its seas.
+
+[Illustration: EUROPE BEFORE THE BRITISH ISLES WERE FORMED
+
+ This map and section illustrate the coast line of Prehistoric
+ Europe when the British Isles were part of the Continent and the
+ North Sea did not exist. The black parts of the section were all
+ above the level of the Atlantic.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE SUBMERGED LANDS OF EUROPE
+
+ This map and section show how the Continental shelf of Europe runs
+ out to the Atlantic, and how enormous is the area now submerged in
+ the comparatively shallow water of the North Sea, the Irish Sea,
+ and the Channel.
+]
+
+In Central Europe the climatic conditions can have been only slightly
+different. During the middle Tertiary Period palms grew in Switzerland;
+and even at the end of the Tertiary Period, as it was slowly passing
+into the Drift Era, the climate in Central Europe was still warmer than
+now, being much like that of Northern Italy, and its protected west
+coast the Riviera. There was also a rich flora, partly evergreen,
+and a fauna adapted to such mild surroundings. Even in the oldest
+(Preglacial) strata, and again in the middle (Interglacial) strata of
+the Central European drift, there was still an abundant plant-growth
+requiring a temperate climate, at any rate not more severe than Central
+Europe possesses at the present day. Our chief forest trees grew even
+then--the pine, fir, larch, and yew, and also the oak, maple, birch,
+hazel, etc. On the other hand, Northern and Alpine forms are absent
+among the plants. The same holds good of the animal world, which was
+certainly much farther removed than the plant world from the conditions
+prevailing now. The gigantic forms--the elephant, rhinoceros, and
+hippopotamus--appear particularly strange to us, as also the large
+beasts of prey--the hyena, lion, etc. But besides these, and the giant
+deer with its powerful antlers, and two large bovine species--the bison
+and the urus--there were also the majority of the present wild animals
+of Central and Northern Europe that were originally natives--as the
+horse, stag, roe, wild boar, and beaver, with the smaller rodents and
+insectivora, and the wolf, fox, lynx, and bears, of which last the
+cave-bear was far larger than the present brown bear, and even than the
+Polar and grizzly bears.
+
+We have sure proofs that through a decrease in the yearly temperature
+a glacial period set in over Europe, North Asia, and North America,
+burying vast areas under a sheet of ice, of the effect and extent of
+which Northern Greenland, with its ground-relief veiled in inland ice,
+can give us an idea.
+
+The immediate consequence of this total climatic change was an
+essential change in the fauna. Forms that were not suited to the
+deteriorated climate, that could neither stand it nor adapt themselves
+to it, were first compelled to retire, and then were exterminated.
+This fate befell the hippopotamuses, and also one of the two elephant
+species, _Elephas antiquus_, with its dwarf breeds in Sicily and Malta,
+probably thus developed by this retreat; then the rhinoceros-like
+_Elasmotherium_, a species of beaver; the _Trogontherium_, and the
+powerful cat _Machairodus_ or _Trucifelis_, which still lived in
+England, France, and Liguria during the Drift Period. Other animals,
+like the lion and hyena, withdrew to more southerly regions, not
+affected by the increasing cold and more remote from its effects.
+
+[Sidenote: The Older Drift Animals]
+
+On the other hand, according to Von Zittel’s description, an
+immigration of cold-loving land animals took place, which at the
+present day live either in the Far North or on the wild Asiatic
+steppes, or in the high mountain ranges. These new immigrants mixed
+with the surviving forms of the older drift fauna. The latter lived,
+as we have seen, by no means in a warm climate, but only in a temperate
+“northerly” one, even in the warmer periods of the epoch. So we can
+understand that many of this older animal community were well able
+to adapt themselves to colder climatic conditions, and among them
+two of the large Drift pachydermata, the elephant and rhinoceros,
+whose kin we now find only in the warmest climes. But a thick
+woolly coat made these two Drift animals well fitted to defy a raw
+climate--namely, the woolly-haired mammoth, _Elephas primigenius_, one
+of the two Drift species of elephants of Europe, and the woolly-haired
+rhinoceros, _Rhinoceros antiquitatis_. A second species of rhinoceros,
+_Rhinoceros merckii_, was also preserved, and maintained its region of
+distribution. The horse was now more largely distributed, and inhabited
+the plains in herds; but, above all, the reindeer immigrated along
+with other animals that now belong only to Far Northern and Arctic
+regions, and pastured in large herds at the edges of the glaciers.
+With the reindeer, although less frequent, was the musk-ox of the Far
+North, besides many other cold-loving species, such as the lemming,
+snow-mouse, glutton, ermine, and Arctic fox. Many of the animal
+forms that were very frequent then, in the Drift Period, appear now
+in Central Europe only as Alpine dwellers, living on the borders of
+eternal snow, such as the ibex, chamois, marmot, and Alpine hare.
+
+[Sidenote: The Animal Invasion of Europe]
+
+[Sidenote: The Change of the Ice Age Climate]
+
+Of special importance for our main question is the great invasion of
+Europe by Central Asiatic animals; immigrants direct from the Asiatic
+steppes pushed westward “as in a migration of nations,” among them the
+wild ass, saiga antelope, bobac, Asiatic porcupine, zizel, jumping
+mouse, whistling hare, and musk shrew-mouse. According as the glaciers
+and inland ice grew or shrank, the animals of the glacial period
+advanced more or less far to the North or retired more to the South,
+extending or reducing their range of distribution. The Glacial Period
+was no invariable climatic phenomenon. It is perfectly certain that a
+first Glacial Period with a low yearly temperature, under the influence
+of which the ice-masses, with their moraines, advanced a long way
+from the North and from the high mountains, so that in Germany, for
+instance, only a comparatively narrow strip remained free and habitable
+for higher forms of life between the two opposing rivers of ice--was
+succeeded by at least one period of warmer climate, and that certainly
+not a short one. The mean yearly temperature had increased so much
+that the ice-masses melted to a considerable extent, and had to retire
+far to the North and into the high valleys of the Alps. In this warmer
+Interglacial Period, as it is called, the Drift animals advanced far
+to the North, especially the mammoth, which, with the exception of
+the greater part of Scandinavia and Finland (districts which remained
+covered with ice during the Interglacial Period), is distributed
+throughout the drift strata of the whole of Europe and North Africa,
+and as far as Lake Baikal and the Caspian Sea in Northern Asia. Even
+the older Drift fauna, so far as it had not yet died out or retired,
+returned to its old habitats, so that the Interglacial fauna of Central
+Europe appear very similar to the Preglacial fauna. A long-sustained
+decrease of temperature led once more to the growth of the ice, which
+in this second Glacial Period almost reconquered the territory it had
+won at first.
+
+In consequence of these oscillations in the climatic conditions of the
+Drift Era as a whole, we have to distinguish the Preglacial Era and
+the Interglacial Era, as warmer sub-periods of the Drift, from the
+real Glacial Periods. The latter appear as a first, or earlier, and a
+second, or later Glacial Period, as remains of which the zone of the
+older moraines and the zone of the later ones clearly mark the limits
+of the former glaciation.
+
+[Illustration: Alpine Hares
+
+The Chamois
+
+The Ibex
+
+ The Marmot Dando
+
+TYPES OF ANIMALS SURVIVING IN CENTRAL EUROPE FROM THE DRIFT PERIOD
+
+ Many of the animal forms that were very frequent in the Drift
+ Period appear now in Central Europe only as Alpine dwellers, living
+ on the borders of eternal snow. Such are the ibex, chamois, marmot,
+ and Alpine hare.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Breaking up of the Earth]
+
+It was this second deterioration of the climate, with the fresh
+advances made by the glaciers and masses of inland ice, which
+definitely did away with the older Drift fauna that was not equal to
+the sudden climatic change. Nor did the woolly-haired rhinoceros, the
+_Rhinoceros merckii_, and the cave-bear survive the climax of the new
+Glacial Period. Even the woolly-haired mammoth succumbed. It and the
+woolly-haired rhinoceros, accompanied by the musk-ox and bison, had
+made their way into the Far North of Asia. But while the two last
+species bore the inclemencies of the climate, the rhinoceroses and
+elephants met their end here. And yet they had long preserved their
+lives on the borders of eternal ice. Whole carcases, both of the
+woolly-haired and Merckian rhinoceroses, and also of the woolly-haired
+mammoth, the bison, and the musk-ox, with skin and hair and
+well-preserved soft parts, have been discovered in the ice and frozen
+ground between the Yenisei and Lena, and on the New Siberian Islands
+at the mouth of the Lena. The carcases of the mammoth and rhinoceros
+found imbedded in the ice were covered with a coat of thick woolly hair
+and reddish-brown bristles ten inches long; about thirty pounds of hair
+from such a mammoth were placed in the St. Petersburg Natural History
+Museum. A mane hung from the animal’s neck almost to its knees, and on
+its head was soft hair a yard long. The animals were therefore in this
+respect well equipped for enduring a cold climate. As regards their
+food they were also adapted to a cold climate, traces of coniferæ and
+willows--that is, “Northern plants”--having been found in the hollows
+of the molar teeth of mammoths and rhinoceroses. The mammoth proves to
+have had greater resisting power, and to have been more fit for further
+migrations, than the rhinoceros. The latter’s range of distribution
+extended over the whole of Northern and Temperate Europe, China and
+Central Asia, and Northern Asia and Siberia. But, as we have seen, the
+mammoth penetrated not only into North Africa, but, what is of the
+highest importance for the proper understanding of the settling of the
+New World, even into North America.
+
+[Sidenote: Companions of the Mammoth]
+
+[Sidenote: Mammoth’s Arrival in Europe]
+
+The connection which in earlier geological periods had united
+Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America in the greatest homogeneous
+zoogeographical kingdom, the Arctogæa, was broken during the Tertiary
+and Drift Periods, so that several zoogeographical provinces were
+formed. The connection with North America was the first to be broken,
+so that even in the last two divisions of the Tertiary Period, the
+Miocene and Pliocene Epochs, the Old and the New Worlds stood in the
+relation of independent zoogeographical provinces to one another.
+Now, it is of the greatest importance to note that during the Drift
+Period North America again received some Northern immigrants from
+the Old World, according to Von Zittel “probably viâ Eastern Asia.”
+Consequently, during the Drift Period communication existed, at least
+temporarily, between Asia and North America in the region of Bering
+Strait, sufficient to allow the mammoth and some companions to migrate
+from the one continent to the other. In Kotzebue Sound mammoth remains
+are found in the “ground-ice formation,” together with those of the
+horse, elk, reindeer, musk-ox and bison. Mammoth remains are also known
+to have been found in the Bering Islands, St. George in the Pribylov
+group, and Unalaska, one of the Aleutian Islands. In that period the
+mammoth arrived in the New World as a colonist driven from the Old.
+It spread widely over British North America, Alaska, and Canada; it
+has also been found in Kentucky. A relatively recent union of the
+circumpolar regions of the Northern Hemisphere--of Europe, Asia, and
+North America--is also proved by the occurrence of animals that we
+recognise as companions of the mammoth, but which, surviving the
+Glacial Period, are still distributed over the whole region, such as
+the reindeer, elk, and bison. The absence in Asia of several animals
+specially characteristic of the European Drift (the hippopotamus, ibex,
+chamois, fallow-dear, wildcat, and cave-bear) explains also their
+absence in the North American Drift fauna. It is particularly strange
+that the cave-bear did not reach Northern Asia. It is otherwise the
+most frequent beast of prey of the Drift Period, and hundreds of its
+carcases often lie buried in the caves and clefts it once inhabited.
+In Southern Russia numerous remains of it are found, whereas in the
+English caves it is rarer, the cave-hyena predominating here. Apart
+from the exceptions just mentioned, J. F. Brandt considers North
+Asia and the high Northern latitudes to be the region in which the
+European, North Asiatic, and North American land fauna had concentrated
+during the Tertiary and Drift Periods, and whence their migrations and
+advances took place according as it grew older. As the northern fauna
+spread over more southern latitudes during the Drift Period, they
+took possession of the habitats of the species there belonging to the
+Tertiary Period, drove them back into tropical and subtropical regions,
+and formed the real stock of the Drift fauna, as described by Von
+Zittel in his “Palæozoology.”
+
+[Illustration: AN ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPH OF THE PREHISTORIC MAMMOTH
+
+ This stuffed carcase of a mammoth is the rarest treasure of St.
+ Petersburg Academy. Skeletons of these creatures exist in plenty,
+ but actual carcases are very rare. This was found embedded in
+ the ice on the New Siberian Islands. One carcase so embedded was
+ discovered five years before it could be freed from the ice.
+]
+
+One thing is certain--namely, that the northern borders of Siberia
+were not the real home of the mammoth and its companions; the
+original habitat of these animals points to the far interior of Asia,
+particularly to the wild table-lands, where they so far steeled
+themselves in enduring the climate that in the course of the Glacial
+Period half the world became accessible to them. As far as is known
+to-day, the mammoth arrived in Europe earlier than on the northern
+borders of Asia, where, protected by climatic conditions, its remains
+are most numerous and best preserved. The number of these gigantic
+animals must have been very considerable in this Far Northern region
+for a time, judging from the abundance of bones found there. In Central
+Europe only a few places are known--such as Kannstatt, Predmost in
+Moravia, etc.--where the mammoth is found with similar frequency. The
+mammoth attained its widest distribution in the Interglacial Period.
+In that period it crossed the Alps, and arrived on the other side, in
+North Asia, at the border of the “stone-ice” masses of inland ice that
+were still preserved from the first Glacial Period. The vegetation
+there was richer then than it is to-day; now only the vegetation of
+the tundra can exist. Animals found coniferæ, willows, and alders in
+sufficient quantity to enable them to keep in herds. All the same, we
+have not to imagine the climate on the borders of the ice to have been
+“genial,” for from that period originate the mammoth carcases that are
+found frozen entire in crevasses of the ice-fields. When the new period
+of cold--the second Glacial Period--began, these Far Northern regions
+must have become unsuitable for the mammoth owing to the want of food.
+Von Toll, who has examined the fossil ice-beds and, their relation to
+the mammoth carcases particularly on New Siberian Islands, says:
+
+ The mammoths and their contemporaries lived where their remains
+ are found; they died out gradually in consequence of physical
+ geographical changes in the region they inhabited, and through no
+ catastrophe; their carcases were deposited during low temperatures,
+ partly on the river-terraces, and partly on the banks of lakes or
+ on glaciers (inland ice), and covered with mud; like the ice-masses
+ that formed the foundation of their graves, their mummies were
+ preserved to the present day, thanks to the persistent or
+ increasing cold.
+
+[Illustration: SKELETON OF A MAMMOTH
+
+ in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington.
+]
+
+The woolly-haired mammoth did not survive the second Glacial Period
+anywhere; in the post-Glacial Period its traces have disappeared.
+
+The Drift series of strata are nowhere so clearly exemplified as in
+the New Siberian Islands, where the Drift stone-ice still forms very
+extensive high “ice-cliffs,” always covered with a layer of loam, sand,
+and peat, and having precipices often of great height--in one place
+seventy-two feet.
+
+Embedded in these cliffs of stone-ice have been found the mammoth
+carcases, which formerly sank into crevices in the ice. These crevices
+are partly filled up with snow, which has turned into “firn” and
+finally into ice, but partly also with loam or sand, which are merged
+above immediately into the strata overlying the stone-ice. In the year
+1860 Bojavski, the mammoth-hunter, found a mammoth, with all its soft
+parts preserved, sticking upright in a crevice in the ice filled with
+loam; in 1863 it was thrown down, together with the coast-wall that
+sheltered it, and washed away by the sea.
+
+[Illustration: A SURVIVOR OF THE DRIFT PERIOD
+
+ Only one representative of the great Drift fauna, the musk-ox, has
+ been able to preserve its life to the present day on the larger
+ remnants of its former vast home, such as Greenland and Grinnell
+ Land.
+]
+
+The Tunguse Schumachow had been more fortunate as early as 1799.
+During his boating expeditions along the coast, on the look-out for
+mammoth-tusks, he observed one day, between blocks of ice, a shapeless
+block which was not at all like the masses of driftwood that are
+generally found there. In the following year the block had melted a
+little, but it was only at the end of the third summer that the whole
+side and one of the tusks of a mammoth appeared plainly out of the ice;
+the animal, however, still remained sunk in the ice-masses. At last,
+towards the end of the fifth year, the ice between the ground and the
+mammoth melted more quickly than the rest, the base began to slope, and
+the enormous mass, impelled by its own weight, glided down on to the
+sand of the coast. Here Adams found the carcase in 1806, or as much as
+the dogs and wild animals had left of it. The whole skeleton, with a
+portion of the flesh, skin, and hair, has since formed one of the chief
+ornaments of the collection in the Academy at St. Petersburg. According
+to Von Toll, who personally visited the site of Bojavski’s discovery,
+the following profile presented itself there: first the tundra stratum;
+then an alternation of thin strata of loam and ice; under these a
+peat-like layer of grass, leaves, and other vegetation, that had been
+washed together; then a fine layer of sand, with remains of _Salix_,
+etc., and finally stone-ice. At another place, in Gulf Anabar, in 73°
+north latitude, Von Toll also found the ground-moraine under a fossil
+ice-bed, which appears to prove his theory of a Drift region of inland
+ice, of which the stone-ice beds of New Siberia and Eschscholtz Bay are
+remains.
+
+Of these strata the frozen loam deposits over the stone-ice, containing
+the willow and the alder, are doubtless Interglacial. Some of the
+remains of the alder are in such wonderful preservation that there are
+still leaves and whole clusters of catkins on the branches.
+
+The land-mass to which the present New Siberian Islands belong was
+only dismembered at the end of the Interglacial Period, when colder
+sea-currents procured an entrance, and the accumulation of snow-masses
+diminished simultaneously with the sinking of the land, whereas the
+cold increased. The flora died off, says Von Toll, and the animal world
+was deprived of the possibility of roaming freely over vast areas. Only
+one representative of the great Drift fauna, the musk-ox, has been able
+to preserve its life to the present day on the larger remnants of its
+former vast home, such as Greenland and Grinnell Land.
+
+[Sidenote: Remains of the Ice Age]
+
+As we have said, the geological and climatic conditions in all regions
+of the earth affected by the Glacial Period were closely similar to
+those just described. In other places the Drift stone-ice has long
+disappeared, but the ground-moraines of the former inland ice-masses,
+and the surface-moraines (terminal and lateral) of the former gigantic
+glaciers, constitute its unobliterated traces. On the moraines of the
+earlier Glacial Period we find the strata of the Interglacial Period
+deposited, and on the later moraines of the second (last) Glacial
+Period lie the remains of the post-Glacial Period, in the course of
+which a continual increase in the yearly temperature--probably only
+a few degrees of the thermometer--caused the glaciers to melt and
+retreat, and opened the way for the return of plants and animals to
+what had been deserts of snow and ice. The place formerly occupied by
+the Interglacial and Glacial fauna is then taken by the post-Glacial
+fauna, which proves considerably different.
+
+A number of the most characteristic species of the former sections
+of the Drift Period are already absent in the earliest post-Glacial
+deposits; the fauna approaches nearer and nearer in its composition to
+that of the present day. The inland ice-masses and gigantic glaciers
+began to melt away, and gradually retired to the present limits of the
+glaciation that forms the remains of the Glacial Period of the Drift.
+The animal forms of the beginning of the post-Glacial Period are still
+living, and the plants characterising this final stage of the Drift
+Period are still growing on the borders of the ice at the present day.
+In the post-Glacial Period a few Northern forms--such as the reindeer,
+lemming, ringed lemming, glutton, zizel, whistling hare, and jumping
+mouse--still retained for a time their habitats in Central Europe.
+Part of the Drift fauna--as the horse, wild ass, saiga antelope, and
+Asiatic porcupine--concentrated again in the Asiatic steppes, from
+which they had formerly won their territory of the Drift Period;
+the specific Glacial forms--the reindeer and his above-mentioned
+companions--followed the retreating ice-masses into the Far North, and
+even into Polar regions. Another part--the specially Alpine forms, such
+as the ibex, chamois, marmot, and Alpine hare--migrated with the Alpine
+glaciers into the high valleys of the Alps, where they could continue
+the life they had led in the lowlands during the Glacial Period. The
+mammoth, woolly-haired rhinoceros, and cave-bear are extinct.
+
+The present-day mammalian fauna of Europe and North Asia accordingly
+bears a comparatively young character; during the Drift, and
+especially in consequence of the Glacial Period, it underwent the most
+considerable transformations.
+
+[Sidenote: Coming of Man upon the Scene]
+
+It is in the middle of this great drama of a gigantic animal world
+struggling and fighting for its existence with the superior powers of
+Nature, during the Interglacial period of the Drift, that man suddenly
+appears upon the scene in Europe like a _deus ex machina_.
+
+Whence he came we do not know.
+
+Did he make his entrance into Europe in company with the Drift fauna
+that immigrated from Central Asia, or have we to seek his original home
+in the New World?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST TENANTS OF THE WORLD: CREATURES THAT LIVED
+BEFORE MAN
+
+ This page represents the most typical of the giant creatures that
+ inhabited the world before man. With possibly one exception, they
+ had disappeared before man came and, through long centuries, slowly
+ won dominion over the earth.
+]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE WORLD
+ BEFORE
+ HISTORY--II
+
+ Professor
+ JOHANNES
+ RANKE
+]
+
+
+
+
+THE APPEARANCE OF MAN ON THE EARTH
+
+
+[Sidenote: The Mystery of a Human Skull]
+
+The remains of the Drift fauna are usually found mixed up and washed
+together in caves and rock-crevices. From the investigation of the
+caves in Thuringia, Franconia, and elsewhere practically proceeded
+the first knowledge of the Drift fauna of Central Europe. Here,
+right among the bones of primeval animals, were also found bones and
+skulls of man. The strata in which they were discovered appeared
+undisturbed; that they came into the old burial-places of the Drift
+fauna subsequently--perhaps by an intentional burial of relatively
+recent times--was thought to be out of the question. The discovery
+that became most famous was Esper’s, in one of the richest caves of
+“Franconian Switzerland,” the Gaillenreuth cave. There, in 1774, Esper
+found a man’s lower jaw and shoulder-blade at a perfectly untouched
+spot protected by a stone projection in the cave wall, in the same loam
+as bones of the cave-bear and other Drift animals. Later, a human skull
+with some rude potsherds of clay came to light in another place. Esper
+argued thus:
+
+ As the human bones (lower jaw and shoulder-blade) lay among the
+ skeletons of animals, of which the Gaillenreuth caves are full,
+ and as they were found in what is in all probability the original
+ stratum, I presume, and I think not without sufficient reason, that
+ these human limbs are of equal age with the other animal fossils.
+
+The Cuvier catastrophe theory could not allow this inference; according
+to that theory it was a “scientific postulate” that man could not have
+appeared on the earth until the alluvial period, and therefore after
+the Drift fauna had become extinct. Therefore, in spite of appearances,
+the human bones must have been more recent; and it was indeed
+absolutely proved that the skull that Esper had found in the cave with
+the rude clay potsherds originated from a burial in the floor of the
+cave. As this was full of remains of Drift animals, the corpse, which
+had been covered with the earth that had been thrown up in digging the
+grave, was necessarily surrounded by these remains, and even appeared
+embedded in them.
+
+[Sidenote: The Story of the Caves]
+
+It was ascertained that in very early times, but yet long after the
+Drift Period, the dwellers near by had had a predilection for using
+the caves as burial-places, so that the fact of human bones coming
+together with bones of Drift animals in the floor of the same cave is
+easily explained. Moreover, it was found that from the earliest times
+down to the present day the caves had been used by hunters, herdsmen,
+and others as places of shelter in bad weather, as cooking-places,
+and sometimes even--especially in very early times--as regular
+dwelling-places for longer periods, so that refuse of all kinds, and
+often of all ages and forms of civilisation that the land has seen
+from the Drift Period down to modern times, must have got into the
+floors of the caves. If these were damp and soft, the remains of every
+century were trodden in and got to lie deeper and deeper, so that, for
+instance, the fragments of a cast-iron saucepan were actually found
+right among the bones of regular Drift animals in a cave in Upper
+Franconia.
+
+[Sidenote: The Caves do not Prove Drift Man]
+
+The discoveries of human remains in caves appeared discredited by
+this, and to be of no value as proofs of the co-existence of man with
+the Drift fauna. And indeed this position must practically be still
+taken at the present day: all cave-finds are to be judged with the
+greatest caution. They in themselves would never have been sufficient
+to establish the existence of Drift Man, although, according to the
+general change in scientific thought that led to the overthrow of
+Cuvier’s theory, Drift Man is now just as much a postulate of science
+as was formerly the case for the opposite assumption.
+
+[Sidenote: Finding the First Drift Man]
+
+The first sure proofs were adduced in France by Boucher de Perthes,
+in the Drift beds of the Somme valley, near Abbeville, at the end of
+the third decade of the nineteenth century. Fully recognising the
+inadequacy of proof given by cave-finds, he had sought for the relics
+of man in the undisturbed Drift beds of gravel and coarse sand that
+contains the bones of Drift animals, which by their covering and depth
+precluded all suspicion of having been subsequently dug over. And he
+was successful. He had argued in exactly the same manner as Esper
+had formerly done, but with better right. In the stratified Drift
+formations every period is sharply defined by the layers of differently
+coloured and differently composed strata horizontally overlying one
+another. Here the proofs begin. They are irrefutable if it is shown
+that the relics of man have been there since the deposit. Being no less
+immovable than this stratum in which they lie, as they came with it,
+they were likewise preserved with it; and as they have contributed to
+its formation, they existed before it.
+
+[Sidenote: The Overthrow of Cuvier’s Famous Theory]
+
+That is the line of thought according to which Boucher de Perthes was
+able, in 1839, to lay before the leading experts in Paris--at their
+head Cuvier himself--his discoveries proving the former existence of
+Drift man. But his demonstrations were not then sufficient to break
+the old ban of prejudices that were apparently founded on such good
+scientific bases; his proofs of the presence of man in the Somme
+valley at the time of the Drift, contemporaneously with the extinct
+Drift animals, were ridiculed. It was twenty years before these
+long-neglected discoveries in the Somme valley concerning the early
+history of man were recognised by the scientific world. This was only
+made possible by Lyell, whose authority as a geologist had risen
+above Cuvier’s, placing the whole weight of it on Boucher’s side,
+after having personally travelled over the Somme valley three times
+in the year 1859, and having himself examined all the chief places
+where relics of Drift Man had been discovered. According to Lyell’s
+description, the Somme valley lies in a district of white chalk, which
+forms elevations of several hundred feet in height. If we ascend to
+this height we find ourselves on an extensive tableland, showing only
+moderate elevations and depressions, and covered uninterruptedly for
+miles with loam and brick earth about five feet thick and quite devoid
+of fossils. Here and there on the chalk may be noticed outlying
+patches of Tertiary sand and clay, the remains of a once extensive
+formation, the denudation of which has chiefly furnished the Drift
+gravel material in which the relics of man and the bones of extinct
+animals lie buried. The Drift alluvial deposit of the Somme valley
+exhibits nothing extraordinary in its stratification or outward
+appearance, nor in its composition or organic contents. The stratum
+in which the bones of the Drift fauna are found intermingled with the
+relics of man is partly a marine and partly a fluviatile deposit. The
+human relics in particular are mostly buried deep in the gravel; almost
+everywhere one has to pass down through a mass of overlying loam with
+land shells, or a fine sand with fresh-water molluscs, before coming to
+beds of gravel, in which the relics of Drift Man are found.
+
+[Sidenote: Animals of the Ice Age]
+
+Everything shows that the relics of man are here in a secondary
+_situs_, deposited in the same way as the bones of extinct animals
+and the whole geological material in which everything is embedded.
+That is the reason why the finds cannot be more exactly dated. They
+doubtless belong to the general drift, but whether to the Postglacial
+Period, or the warmer Interglacial Period, cannot be decided. The fauna
+admits of no absolute limitation, owing to its being mixed from both
+periods. The mammalia most frequently found in the strata in question
+are the mammoth, Siberian rhinoceros, horse, reindeer, ure-ox, giant
+fallow-deer, cave-lion, and cave-hyena. In very similar Drift deposits
+of the Somme near Amiens traces of man were found beside the bones of
+the hippopotamus and the elephant.
+
+These animals were chiefly prevalent in France and Germany in the
+Preglacial and Interglacial Periods of the Drift. Part of the animal
+remains found near Abbeville, particularly those of the cave-lion
+and cave-hyena, also point to the warmer Interglacial Period; on the
+other hand, the mammoth, Siberian rhinoceros, and especially the
+reindeer, appear to indicate with all certainty the second Glacial and
+Postglacial Periods. The bones of the older Drift animals may have been
+washed out of other primary _situs_; the reindeer had certainly already
+taken possession of those parts of France when the relics of man were
+embedded.
+
+[Illustration: Lyell
+
+Cuvier
+
+Boucher De Perthes
+
+THE OVERTHROW OF A FAMOUS THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE EARTH AND MAN
+
+ When Cuvier was supreme among geologists his theory that the great
+ geological ages ended with sudden catastrophes which annihilated
+ all life, and that all life was then created afresh, was
+ universally accepted. One result of this theory was the disbelief
+ in the existence of man before the Glacial Age. Boucher de Perthes
+ sought to establish the former existence of Drift Man on finding
+ human relics in the Somme Valley; but not until Sir Charles Lyell
+ threw his influence on the side of De Perthes was the Preglacial
+ existence of man admitted, and the long-accepted theory of Cuvier
+ overthrown.
+]
+
+In spite of the most eager search for similar relic-beds affording sure
+evidence of Drift Man, only a very few have as yet been discovered
+that can be placed by the side of those in the Somme valley. Two are
+in Germany, and are the more valuable as a more exact date can be
+given to them within the Drift Period. One is near Taubach (Weimar),
+the other at the source of the Schussen. The one at Taubach belongs
+to the Interglacial Period, that at the source of the Schussen to
+the Postglacial Period. The former lies on the moraines of the first
+Glacial Period, which was followed by the Interglacial Period; the
+latter on the moraines of the second Glacial Period, which slowly
+passed into the Postglacial Period.
+
+[Sidenote: The Climate of the Ice Age]
+
+The Drift relic-bed in the calc-tufa near Taubach lies, as we have
+said, over the remains of the first Glacial Period, and according to
+Penck, one of the best authorities on the Drift, belongs to the warmer
+intermediate epoch between the two great periods of glaciation. The
+proofs given by the plant and animal remains agree entirely with the
+proofs given by the conditions of stratification. In the rich fauna
+found there, animals indicating a cold climate are entirely absent, and
+a comparison of the whole of the finds proves that at the time when
+man was present there no kind of arctic conditions can have prevailed.
+There is no reindeer, no lemming. The roe, stag, wolf, brown bear,
+beaver, wild boar, and aurochs were at that time inhabitants of these
+regions, and the only inference they allow is that of a temperate
+climate. The mollusc fauna, in which also all Glacial forms are absent,
+also leads to the same conclusion; all that occur are familiar to us
+from those of the present day in the same district. The fauna would
+really appear quite modern were it not that a very ancient stamp is
+imparted to it by several extinct types. With the modern animals
+enumerated are associated the cave-lion, cave-hyena, ure-elephant, and
+Merckian rhinoceros, characterising the whole deposit as a distinctly
+Drift one, which is still further proved stratigraphically by the
+covering of “loess.” The Taubach relic-bed is a typical illustration
+of the climatic and biological conditions of the warmer Interglacial
+Period; the regions of Central Europe, which had been covered with
+masses of ice in the first Glacial Period, had, after the ice melted,
+become once more accessible to the banished plants and animals of
+the Preglacial Period, until they were annihilated, or at least
+driven definitely from their old habitats by the second Glacial
+Period. The celebrated relic-bed at the source of the Schussen, near
+Schussenried, at a little distance from Ulm, brings us--in strong
+contrast to Taubach--into quite glacial surroundings. It was on the
+glacier-moraines of the last great glaciation, and belongs, therefore,
+to that period which must still be reckoned as part of the Drift--the
+Postglacial Period, which gradually passed into the warmer present
+period. Under the tufa and peat at the source of the Schussen we find
+the type of a purely northern climate, with exclusively northern flora
+and fauna; everything corresponds to climatic conditions such as
+prevail nowadays on the borders of eternal snow and ice, or begin at
+70° north latitude.
+
+[Sidenote: Flora and Fauna of the Ice Age]
+
+Schimper, one of the best authorities on mosses at the present day,
+found among the plant-remains under the tufa at the source of the
+Schussen only mosses of northern or high Alpine forms. Among them was a
+moss brought from Lapland by Wahlenberg, which, according to Schimper,
+occurs in Norway near the chalets on the Dovrefjeld, on the borders of
+eternal snow, and also in Greenland, Labrador, and Canada, and on the
+highest summits of the Tyrolese Alps and the Sudetic Mountains. It has
+a special preference for the pools in which the water of the snow and
+glaciers flows off with its fine sand. There were also found mosses
+which have now emigrated to cold regions, to Greenland and the Alps.
+The most numerous animals were the reindeer, and yellow and Arctic
+foxes, as distinctly Arctic forms; and there were also the brown bear
+and wolf, a small ox, the hare, the large-headed wild horse--which
+always occurs in the Drift as the companion of the reindeer--and,
+lastly, the whistling swan, which now breeds in Spitzbergen or Lapland.
+There is an absence of all the present animal forms of Upper Swabia, as
+well as of the extinct Drift animals, either of which would indicate a
+warmer climate.
+
+More decided climatic or biological contrasts than those afforded by
+the relic-beds at Taubach and the source of the Schussen could not be
+imagined; here we have with certainty two perfectly different periods
+before us, but both belonging to the general Drift Era.
+
+Although almost all the other places where Drift Man has been found
+exhibit peculiarities, Taubach and the source of the Schussen seem the
+best representatives of the two chief types in Europe. Places giving
+better proof have not yet come to light anywhere in the Old World.
+
+[Illustration: REVEALING THE UNKNOWN LIFE OF THE PREHISTORIC PAST
+
+ A section of the earth, representing excavators in the act of
+ discovering the remains of mammals in a cave in the South of
+ England. Our illustration is reproduced from Buckland’s “Reliquiæ
+ Diluvianæ,” London, 1822.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Evidence from South America]
+
+At first sight the palæontological strata of South America, in which
+the presence of man has been proved by Ameghino, appear to give a very
+different picture. The animal forms occurring here contemporaneously
+with man deviate to such an extent from those familiar to us in
+the Drift of the Old World that it required the keen eye and the
+complete grasp of the whole palæontological material of the world that
+characterise Von Zittel to recognise and establish the connections
+here, while the discoverer himself thought that he must date his
+discoveries of man back to the Tertiary Period. The strata in which
+the earliest traces of man as yet appear to be proved in South America
+are the extensive “loess-like” loam deposits of the so-called “pampas”
+formation in Argentina and Uruguay, with their almost incomparable
+wealth of animal remains, particularly conspicuous among which are
+gigantic representatives of edentates that now occur only in small
+species in South America: Glyptodontia (with the gigantic _Glyptodon
+reticulatum_) and dasypoda; also of the gravigrada, the giant sloth
+(_Megatherium americanum_). The toxodontia were also large animals, now
+extinct. But besides the specifically South American forms, numerous
+“North American immigrants” also appear in the pampas formation. It was
+only at the close of the Tertiary Period that the southern and northern
+halves of America grew together into one continent, and the faunæ of
+North and South America, so characteristically different, then began to
+intermingle with one another. The South American autochthons migrate
+northward; on the other hand, North American types--as the horse, deer,
+tapir, mastodon, _Felis_, _Canis_, etc.--use the newly-opened passage
+to extend their range of distribution. The northern animal forms are
+very conspicuous among the animal world of South America, hitherto
+cut off from North America and characterised by the above-mentioned
+wonderful and, in part, gigantic edentates, marsupials, platyrhine
+apes, etc. Of the great elephantine animals of North America only
+the mastodon crossed over to South America. In the middle and latest
+Tertiary formations the genus mastodon is widely distributed over
+Europe, North Africa, and South Asia. In North America the oldest
+species of the mastodon appear in the Middle Tertiary (Upper Miocene),
+but the most species are found in the latest Tertiary (Pliocene) and
+the Drift (Pleistocene); in South America the mastodon is limited to
+the time of the pampas formation. Its tusks are long and straight, or
+slightly curved upward; its lower jaw also possesses two tusks, which
+project in a straight direction, but are considerably less than the
+upper tusks in size. From the results of Ameghino’s investigations man
+appears to have come to South America with these northern immigrants,
+especially with the mastodon. In Ameghino’s lists of the animals of
+the pampas formation Von Zittel describes man, like the animal forms
+enumerated above, as an immigrant from North America, and as a northern
+type.
+
+According to Von Zittel’s statements there is no longer any doubt that
+the pampas formation, and with it early man, of South America, is to be
+assigned to the Drift Era; he sums up the case in these words:
+
+ In South Asia and South America the Tertiary Period is followed
+ by Drift faunæ, which in the main are composed of species still
+ existing at the present day, but yet show somewhat closer relations
+ to their Tertiary predecessors.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE WORLD
+ BEFORE
+ HISTORY--III
+
+ Professor
+ JOHANNES
+ RANKE
+]
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF MAN IN THE STONE AGE
+
+
+[Sidenote: Man a Witness of the Flood]
+
+The oldest remains affording us knowledge of man are not parts of his
+body--not the skeleton from which, in the case of primeval animals, we
+have learned to reconstruct their frame--but evidences of the human
+mind. Until the discoveries of Boucher de Perthes turned the scale,
+search had been made in vain among the bones of the fossil fauna for
+remains of the skeleton of fossil man of undoubtedly the same age; it
+was not bones, but tools, by which the Abbeville antiquary proved that
+man had been a “witness of the Flood” in Europe; tools which taught
+irrefutably that the mental powers of fossil man of the Drift were
+similar in kind to, if possibly less in degree than, those of living
+members of mankind. The Drift tools prove that, even in that early
+epoch to which we have learned from Boucher to trace him back, man was
+distinctively man.
+
+Boucher de Perthes was an expert archæologist, and he knew that in
+Europe, in a very early period of civilisation, men had made their
+tools and weapons of stone, as many tribes and races in a backward
+state of civilisation--for example in South America, the South Sea
+Islands, and many other places--do at the present day. These stone
+implements are practically indestructible, and from ancient times
+manifold superstitions have attached to the curious articles that the
+peasant turns up out of the earth in ploughing. Such stone weapons were
+called lightning-stones by the Romans, as they are by country-folk at
+the present day. Scientific archæology occupied itself with them at an
+early date. In 1778 Buffon declared the so-called lightning-stones, or
+thunder-stones, to be the oldest art-productions of primeval man, and
+as early as 1734, Mahudel and Mercati had pronounced them to be the
+weapons of antediluvian man. Such views determined the line of thought
+in Boucher’s researches. From the very beginning he sought, in the
+undisturbed Drift beds of his home, not so much for the bones of Drift
+Man as for his tools, which he suspected to be of the form of the
+lightning-stones, although he knew that, so far as was hitherto known,
+these belonged to a very much later epoch--that is, specially to the
+Alluvial or “Recent” Period.
+
+His expectations were crowned with success. Deep below the mass of
+overlying loam and sand, right in the strata of gravel and coarse sand,
+he found stone tools, which without the slightest doubt had been worked
+by the hand of man for definite and easily recognisable purposes as
+implements and weapons. Although to a certain extent ruder, they are
+practically the same forms as the tools, weapons, and implements of
+stone that we see in use among so-called “savages” of the present day.
+It is the tool artificially prepared for a certain purpose that raises
+man above the animal world to-day, as it did in the time of the Drift.
+
+[Sidenote: Drift Man’s Three Kinds of Tools]
+
+[Sidenote: The Chief Forms of Tools]
+
+Upon his first visit to the relic-beds near Abbeville in the spring
+of 1859, Lyell had obtained seventy specimens of these stone tools
+from the chief of them. The tools were all of flint, which occurs in
+abundance in the chalk of the district, and is still obtained and
+worked for technical purposes at the present day. The worked stones
+that Boucher found were termed flint or silex tools, according to the
+material of which they were made. They occurred in the particular beds,
+as Lyell expressed it, in wonderful quantities. The famous geologist
+distinguished three chief forms. The first is the spear-head form, and
+varies in length from six to eight inches. The second is the oval form,
+not unlike many stone implements and weapons that are still used as
+axes and tomahawks at the present day--for instance, by the aborigines
+of Australia. The only difference is that the edge of the Australian
+stone axes, like that of the European implements of later periods of
+civilisation known as thunderbolts or lightning-stones, is mostly
+produced by grinding, whereas on the stone axes from the drift of the
+Somme valley it has always been obtained by simply chipping the stone,
+and by repeated, skilfully directed blows. According to Tylor the stone
+implements of the old Tasmanians were entirely of Drift form and make,
+all without traces of grinding, being simply angular stones whose
+cutting-edge had been sharpened by being worked with a second stone.
+Some of these stone implements of Drift Man may have been simply used
+in the hand when the natural form of the stone offered a convenient
+end, but the majority were certainly fastened in a handle in some way
+or other, to serve as weapons--spear-heads or daggers--both for war and
+the chase. Lyell’s second chief form would have been used as an axe for
+such purposes as digging up roots, felling trees, and hollowing out
+canoes, or to cut holes in the ice for fishing and for getting drinking
+water in the winter. In the hand of the hunter and warrior the stone
+axe also became a weapon. As the third form of stone implements Lyell
+distinguished knife-shaped flakes, some pointed, others of oval form
+or trimmed evenly at one end, obviously intended partly as knives and
+arrow-heads, and partly as scrapers for technical purposes.
+
+[Illustration: HOW PREHISTORIC MANKIND IS REVEALED
+
+Most of our knowledge of the earliest life of man has been revealed
+by the excavator. When at a certain depth below the earth’s surface
+the skeleton of a man is found, surrounded with rude stone weapons,
+ornaments, and the remains of domestic animals, a whole chapter in the
+life of Prehistoric Man stands revealed at one glance. Our photograph
+shows an actual skeleton and grave of the Stone Age, as discovered in
+the year 1875 near Mentone.]
+
+Although there are many variations between the first two chief forms,
+yet the typical difference indicating the different purpose of their
+use is always easily recognised in well-finished examples. A large
+number of very rude specimens have also been found, of which many
+may have been thrown away as spoiled in the making, and others may
+have been only rubbish produced in the working. Evans has practically
+proved that it is possible to produce such stone implements in their
+remarkable agreement of form without the use of metal hammers. He made
+a stone hammer by fastening a flint in a wooden handle, and worked
+another piece of flint with this until it had assumed the shape of the
+axe form--the second, oval form--of the Drift implements.
+
+[Sidenote: Lyell’s Find in the Somme Valley]
+
+Lyell draws attention to the fact that, in spite of the relatively
+great frequency of stone implements, it would be a great mistake to
+rely on finding a single specimen, even if one occupied himself for
+weeks together in examining the Somme valley. Only a few lay on the
+surface, the rest not coming to light until after removing enormous
+masses of sand, loam, and gravel. As we may presume with Lyell that the
+larger number of the Drift stone implements of Abbeville and Amiens
+were brought into their position by the action of the river, this
+sufficiently explains why so many were found at great depths below the
+surface; for they must naturally have been buried in the gravel with
+the other stones in places where the stream had still sufficient force
+or rapidity to wash stones away. They can, therefore, not be found in
+deposits from still water, in fine sediment and overflow mud.
+
+Bones of Drift Man are absent from the deposits of the Somme valley,
+in spite of the wonderful abundance of stone implements. The “lower
+jaw from Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville,” had been fraudulently placed
+there by workmen. But proof of the existence of man is undeniably
+assured by the objects, so unpretentious in themselves, that have been
+recognised as the work of his hands.
+
+When once the recognition of Drift Man, founded on the authority of
+Lyell, was achieved, search for further relic-beds was made in England
+and France with success. Yet scarcely one of the newly discovered
+stations was to be compared to those of the Somme valley as regards
+purity of stratification and conditions of discovery. The relics of the
+“earliest Stone Age” or “Palæolithic Period,” as the period of Drift
+Man was called, frequently came from caves and grottos, whose primary
+conclusiveness Boucher had rightly doubted.
+
+Under these circumstances it was of the greatest importance that in
+Germany Drift Man was discovered in two places, where not only was the
+geological stratification just as clear as at Abbeville and Amiens,
+but where also the relics of Drift Man were found, not in a secondary
+_situs_, as they were then, but in a primary one. In addition to this
+the two German relic-beds may be safely assigned to the last two great
+divisions of the Drift Period, to the warmer Interglacial Period, and
+to the cold Glacial Period proper, with its Postglacial Period; and
+their climatic conditions were made clear from the remains of plants
+and animals found in them.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mercier
+
+A WORKER IN THE STONE AGE
+
+ Making an axehead of flint, like that photographed on the opposite
+ page. From the painting by F. Cormon.
+]
+
+From the occurrence, in the deposits of the Somme, of reindeer that
+contain the stone implements of Drift Man, we can not, as we saw,
+exactly settle in what part of the Drift Era man lived there, whether
+in the Interglacial Period, to which numerous animal remains found
+there doubtless belong, or not until the “Reindeer” Period, as the last
+Glacial and early Postglacial Periods were called, when the reindeer
+was most largely distributed over France and Central Europe. One is
+inclined to date man’s habitation of the Somme valley back to the
+Interglacial Period; but it is certain that the relic-bed near Taubach
+is the first, and, as far as I can see, the only one hitherto, that
+has given sure proof of Interglacial Man in Europe. There the oldest
+vestiges of man in Europe were found that have yet been absolutely
+proved. We have not hitherto succeeded in Europe in tracing man farther
+back than the Interglacial Period. Relics of him are hitherto as absent
+in the older Drift as they are in the Tertiary.
+
+[Illustration: A WORKMAN’S TOOL IN THE STONE AGE
+
+ Flint implement found in Gray’s Inn, London; now in British Museum.
+]
+
+The Taubach relic-bed also furnished no bones of Drift Man among all
+the parts of skeletons of Drift animals that we have mentioned. Here,
+too, as in the Somme valley, the proof of the presence of man is
+based on the works of his hand and mind. Here, too, stone implements
+and stone weapons are the chief things to be mentioned. But whereas,
+in the chalk district of France, flints of every size were to be had
+in the greatest abundance for the preparation of weapons and tools,
+corresponding stones are not exactly wanting at the two standard
+German places, though they occur in limited number and size. It is
+due to this that the larger forms of flint implements, which are
+most in evidence in the Somme valley, are absent at Taubach. On the
+other hand, smaller “knives and flakes”--Lyell’s third form of Drift
+flint implements--occur here with comparative frequency and variety
+of form. Next to the usual lancet-shaped knife, worked flint flakes,
+of triangular prismatic form, with sharp corners, are most numerous
+at Taubach, and scrapers, chisels, awls, and the chipping-stones with
+which the stone implements were produced may also be distinguished
+among other things. The material for the implements was supplied by
+the older Drift débris of the valley--namely, flint, flinty slate, and
+quartz porphyry.
+
+Besides the stone implements which alone were observed in the Somme
+valley, still further important relics were found here in their primary
+_situs_. Above all, numerous finds of charcoal and burnt bones prove
+that the Drift Men of Taubach not only knew how to kindle fire, but
+were also accustomed to roast the flesh of the animals they killed
+in the chase. Stones and pieces of shell limestone also occur which
+have become reddish and hard from the action of heat. These are to be
+regarded as the floors and side-walls of the fireplaces on which the
+food was then and there prepared. The animal bones, especially those
+that were taken up from around the fireplace, appear in most cases to
+be remains of meals. This is shown at once by the fact that bones of
+young representatives of the large beasts of the chase--such as the
+rhinoceros, elephant, and bear--are very frequent as compared with the
+rare occurrence of full-grown animals.
+
+[Sidenote: Hunters of the Stone Age]
+
+[Sidenote: How Drift Man Killed the Great Animals]
+
+It appears that in the hunting and capture of animals the young
+ones were most easily killed, and therefore served chiefly as food.
+Whenever a large animal was killed, it was probably cut up on the spot
+by the fortunate hunters, who consumed at once part of its flesh;
+the trunk was then left at the scene of the killing, while the head,
+neck, and fore and hind legs, on which was the most muscular flesh,
+and which were at the same time easier to carry away, were taken to
+the settlement. This may explain why, among the many large bones of
+the rhinoceros that have hitherto been found, the ribs and the dorsal
+and lumbar vertebræ are almost entirely absent. Some of the bones of
+the beasts of the chase bear the unmistakable traces of man. They
+are broken in the manner characteristic of “savages” of all ages and
+climes--for the sake of the marrow, one of the greatest dainties of men
+living chiefly on animal fare. The broken-off heads of the metatarsal
+bones of the bison still show particularly clearly the method of
+breaking. They are broken off transversely exactly where the marrow
+canal ends, and on all these bones there is a roundish depression,
+or hole, at the same place--namely, in the middle of their front or
+back surface, and just where the end of the marrow canal is, therefore
+about in the centre of the break of the broken-off piece. The hole is
+a “blow-mark” of one inch in diameter, evidently driven in by force
+from without, as several well-preserved specimens still show the edges
+and splinters of bone pressed inward. These splinters and all the
+breaks are old, and have on the surface the same greasy coating, full
+of the sand in which they lay, as the bones themselves. The instrument
+used for breaking the bones in this way might very well have been the
+lower jaw of a bear with its large canine tooth, as Oscar Fraas has
+ascertained to have been the case in other places where Drift Man has
+been found. Such lower jaws were found at Taubach, and the nature and
+size of the hole and its edges agree with this assumption. The long
+bones of the elephant and rhinoceros were whole. Drift Man did not
+succeed in breaking these huge pieces, and where such bones are found
+broken they are accidental fractures. On the other hand, almost all
+bones of the bear and bison are intentionally split--in almost all
+cases transversely, and seldom lengthways.
+
+[Sidenote: Drift Man at his Meals]
+
+In the Somme valley we have only the flint implements--which, although
+rude, are very regularly and uniformly made for different recognisable
+purposes--to tell us of the life and state of Drift Man; but the finds
+at Taubach afford us a rather closer insight into the conditions of
+his life and culture. What we had suspected from the first finds is
+confirmed here. During the Interglacial Period we see near Taubach, on
+the old watercourse of the Ilm, which had there at that time become
+dammed up into a kind of pond, a human settlement. This was occupied
+for a long period, as is proved by the large number of bones, evidently
+remains of meals, and by the quantity of charcoal. Immediately on the
+bank were the fireplaces--rude hearths built of the stones obtained
+without trouble in the neighbourhood. Here the flesh of the beasts
+of the chase, the bison and the bear, and also the elephant and
+rhinoceros, was broiled in a crude manner in the hot ashes, as is still
+done by savages on the level of the Fuegians and primitive tribes of
+Central Brazil at the present day. For this no utensils are required,
+a sharpened rod or thin pointed stick being sufficient for turning
+and taking out the pieces of meat. The ashes that the gravy causes to
+adhere supply the place of salt and other seasoning. The meat was cut
+up with the stone knives, and many traces of cuts on the bones may also
+be attributable to these instruments. For cutting out larger portions a
+powerful and very suitable instrument was at hand, in the lower jaw of
+the bear, with its strong canine tooth, which also served for breaking
+bones to obtain the marrow. In spite of the apparent meanness of the
+weapons, remains of which we have found, the Drift Men of Taubach were
+yet able, as their kitchen refuse proves, not only to kill the bison
+and bear, but also the gigantic elephant and rhinoceros, both young and
+full grown.
+
+[Illustration: REINDEER HUNTING IN THE LATER ICE AGE. After a picture
+by W. Kranz
+
+ The reindeer was the most familiar animal of the Later Ice Age, its
+ body supplying food, clothing, and implements for Glacial Man.
+]
+
+[Illustration: WEAPONS OF THE CHASE USED BY PREHISTORIC MAN
+
+ A collection of neolithic lance and arrow heads found in Ireland,
+ now to be seen in the British Museum.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Drift Man after the Hunt]
+
+This shows man to have been then, as he is to-day, master even of
+the gigantic animal forms which so far surpass him in mechanical
+strength. It is the mind of man that shows itself superior to the
+most powerful brute force, even where we meet him for the first time.
+From the finds in the Somme valley it appears that Drift Man already
+possessed spear, dagger, and axe, besides the knife, as weapons. There
+the blades were of stone. The relatively small blades of the Taubach
+stone implements are, it is true, of the same character as the stone
+implements of Abbeville and Amiens, but they are chiefly, as we have
+said, merely knife-like articles, very suitable as blades for knives,
+scrapers, and daggers, and as arrow-heads, but not strong enough as
+hunting-weapons for such big game. The hunt must, therefore, have
+been more a matter of capture in pits and traps, as practised at the
+present day where similar large types of animals are hunted by tribes
+armed only with defective weapons. The kitchen refuse also proves
+that the settlement by the Ilm pond, near Taubach, was a permanent
+one, to which the hunters returned after their expeditions, bringing
+their game and trophies so far as they were easily transportable. But
+there is no trace of domestic animals. They could not have completely
+disappeared, any more than remains of clay vessels, which are still
+less destructible than bones, and in this respect may be compared to
+stone implements. There was no trace of potsherds either.
+
+[Sidenote: The Best “Find” of the Ice Age]
+
+The finds in the Somme valley and near Taubach are of incalculable
+importance as sure, indisputable proofs of Drift Man in Europe; but as
+regards the wealth of information to be derived from them respecting
+man’s psychical condition in that first period in which we can prove
+his existence, they are far and away surpassed by the find at the
+source of the Schussen, which Oscar Fraas, the celebrated geologist,
+has personally inventoried and described. Fraas has rightly given to
+his description of this find of Glacial Man--the most important and
+best examined hitherto--the title “Contributions to the History of
+Civilisation During the Glacial Period.”
+
+The geognostic stratification of the relic-bed on one of the farthest
+advanced moraines of the Upper Swabian plateau proves that it
+belongs to the Glacial Period, and that this had already pushed its
+glacier-moraines to the farthest limit ever reached. In point of time
+the finds are, therefore, to be placed at the end of the Glacial
+Period, as it was passing into the Postglacial Period; everything still
+points to Far Northern conditions of life. The finds at the source of
+the Schussen are thus decidedly more recent, geologically, than those
+made at Taubach. They are a typical, or, better, _the_ typical example
+of the so-called “Reindeer Period” of the end of the Drift.
+
+[Illustration: IMPLEMENTS OF THE STONE AGE AND THEIR MAKING
+
+ The methods of holding a hammer-stone and of making a flint by
+ pressure are illustrated at the top, those of using a chopping tool
+ at the bottom, of this plate. The other objects are spear-heads,
+ axes, and hammers of stone and flint, and javelin-heads of horn,
+ the latter being smooth and barbed. The method of tying a flint
+ chisel to a wooden handle is shown at the right (×). Most of these
+ objects are to be seen in the British Museum.
+]
+
+From Fraas’s description there seems to be no doubt whatever that the
+relic-bed, with its remains of civilisation, was perfectly undisturbed,
+and its palæontological contents plainly show its great geological
+age. It was perfectly protected by Nature. On the top lies peat, the
+same that covers the lowlands of the whole neighbourhood for miles,
+and forms the extensive moorlands of Upper Swabia, on which no other
+formations are to be seen than the gravel drift-walls thrown up by
+glaciers of the Drift Period. Under the peat lies a layer of calc-tufa,
+four to five feet thick, a fresh-water formation from the water-courses
+that now unite with the source of the Schussen. Under this protecting
+cover of tufa were the remains of the Glacial Period and Glacial Man.
+The tufa covered a bed of moss of a dark brown colour, inclining to
+green, the moss still splendidly preserved. Under this bed of moss was
+the glacier drift. The moss was dripping full of and intermingled with
+moist sand. In it were the relics of Glacial Man--all lying in heaps as
+fresh and firm as if they had been only recently collected. A sticky,
+dark-brown mud filled the moss and sand and the smallest hollow spaces
+of antlers and bones, and emitted a musty smell.
+
+[Illustration: EARLY DRINKING VESSEL
+
+ Reindeer’s skull used as drinking vessel by men of the Stone Age.
+ British Museum collection.
+]
+
+[Illustration: TREASURE-STORES OF PRIMEVAL KNOWLEDGE
+
+ Such to-day are the mounds of prehistoric rubbish accumulated by
+ the people of the Stone Age. These Danish “kitchen middens” have
+ vastly enriched our knowledge of the remote past.
+]
+
+Glacial Man had used the place as a refuse-pit. Among the bones and
+splinters of bone of animals that had been slaughtered and consumed by
+man, among ashes and charred remains, among smoke-stained hearthstones
+and the traces of fire, there lay here, one upon the other, numerous
+knives, arrow-heads, and lance-heads of flint, and the most varied
+kinds of hand-made articles of reindeer horn. All this was in a shallow
+pit about seven hundred square yards in extent, and only four to
+five feet deep in the purest glacier drift, clearly showing that the
+excellent preservation of the bones and bone implements was solely due
+to the water having remained in the moss and sand. The bank of moss was
+like a saturated sponge; it closed up its contents hermetically from
+the air, and preserved in its ever-damp bosom what had been entrusted
+to it thousands of years before.
+
+Under the peat and tufa at the source of the Schussen we find only the
+type of a purely Northern climate, with Northern flora and Northern
+fauna. There are no remains of domestic animals--not even of the
+dog, nor any bones of the stag, roe, chamois, or ibex. Everything
+corresponds to a Northern climate, such as begins to-day at 70° north
+latitude. We see Upper Swabia traversed by moraines and melting
+glaciers, whose waters wash the glacier-sand into moss-grown pools. We
+find a Greenland moss covering the wet sands in thick banks; between
+the moraines of the glaciers we have to imagine wide green pastures,
+rich enough to support herds of reindeer, which roved about there as
+they do in Greenland, or on the forest borders of Norway and Siberia,
+at the present day. Here, also, are the regions of the carnivora
+dangerous to the reindeer--the glutton and the wolf, and, in the second
+rank, the bear and Arctic fox.
+
+[Illustration: A FAMILY GROUP IN THE STONE AGE
+
+ It was thus that the Danish kitchen middens illustrated on the
+ opposite page were created. Each family group cast its refuse,
+ in the shape of shells, bones, wood, etc., on the midden near at
+ hand, and these heaps of rubbish in process of time became valuable
+ records of the people’s life, in which the archæologist can read
+ for us the story of the past.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: History in a Rubbish Heap]
+
+According to Fraas, it is on this scene that man of the Glacial Period
+appears; in all probability, a hunter, invited by the presence of the
+reindeer to spend some time--probably only the better portion of the
+year--on the borders of ice and snow. It is true that the relic-bed
+that tells of his life and doings is only a refuse-pit, which contains
+nothing good in the way of art productions, but only broken or spoiled
+articles and refuse from the manufacture of implements. The bulk of the
+material consists of kitchen refuse, such as, besides charcoal and
+ashes, opened marrow-bones and broken skulls of game. Not one of the
+bones found here shows a trace of any other instrument than a stone. It
+was on a stone that the bone was laid, and it was with a stone that the
+blow was struck. Such breaking-stones came to light in large numbers.
+They were merely field stones collected on the spot, particular
+preference being given to finely rolled quartz boulders of about the
+size of a man’s fist. Others were rather rudely formed into the shape
+of a club, with a kind of handle, such as is produced half accidentally
+and half intentionally in splitting large pieces. Larger stones were
+also found--gneiss slabs, from one to two feet square, slaty Alpine
+limes, and rough blocks of one stone or another, which had probably
+represented slaughtering-blocks, or done duty as hearthstones, as on
+many of them traces of fire were visible. Where these stones had stood
+near the fire they were scaled, and all were more or less blackened
+by charcoal. Smaller pieces of slate and slabs of sandstone blackened
+by fire may have supplied the place of clay pottery in many respects;
+for, with all the blackened stones, not a fragment of a clay vessel was
+found in the layers of charcoal and ashes of the relic-bed.
+
+[Sidenote: Making Drift Man’s Tools]
+
+The flint implements are of the form familiar to us from Taubach and
+the Somme valley, being simply chipped, not ground or polished. At
+the source of the Schussen, also, only comparatively small pieces of
+the precious raw material were found for the manufacture of stone
+implements. So that here, too, as at Taubach, Lyell’s third form, the
+knife or flake, was practically the only one represented. They fall
+into two groups--pointed lancet-shaped knives and blunt saw-shaped
+stones. The former served as knife-blades and dagger-blades, and
+lance-heads and arrow-heads; the latter represented the blades of the
+tools required for working reindeer horn. The larger implements are
+between one and a quarter and one and a half inches broad and three
+to three and a half inches long; but the majority of them are far
+smaller, being about one and a half inches long and only three-eighths
+of an inch broad. The various flint blades appear to have been used
+in handles and hafts of reindeer horn. Numerous pieces occur which
+can only be explained as such handles, either ready or in course of
+manufacture.
+
+Moreover, owing to the want of larger flints, numerous weapons,
+instruments, and implements were carved from reindeer horn and bone
+for use in the chase and in daily life. Fraas has ascertained exactly
+the technical process employed in producing articles of reindeer horn,
+and we see with wonder how the Glacial men of Swabia handled their
+defective carving-knives and saws on the very principle of modern
+technics. They are principally weapons--for example, long pointed
+bone daggers, otherwise mostly punchers, awls, plaiting-needles (of
+wood), and arrow-heads with notched grooves. These may possibly be
+poison-grooves; other transverse grooves may have served partly for
+fastening the arrow-head by means of some thread-like binding material,
+probably twisted from reindeer sinews, as is done by the Reindeer Lapps
+at the present day; other scratches occur as ornaments.
+
+[Sidenote: The Skilled Workman of the Drift]
+
+The forms of the bone implements show generally a decided sense
+of symmetry and a certain taste. For instance, a dagger, with a
+perforated knob for suspension, and a large carefully-carved fish-hook.
+Groove-like or hollow spoon-shaped pieces of horn were explained by
+Fraas to be cooking and eating utensils; probably they also served
+for certain technical purposes--as for dressing skins for clothing
+and tents, like the stone scrapers found in the Somme valley. A
+doubly perforated piece of a young reindeer’s antler appears to be an
+arrow-stretching apparatus, like those generally finely ornamented,
+used by the Esquimaux for the same purpose. A branch of a reindeer’s
+antlers, with deep notches filed in, is declared by the discoverer to
+be a “tally.” The notches are partly simple strokes filed in to the
+depth of a twelfth of an inch, and partly two main strokes connected by
+finer ones. “The strokes,” says Fraas, “are plainly numerical signs--a
+kind of note, probably, of reindeer or bears killed, or some other
+memento.” Among the objects found were also pieces of red paint of the
+size of a nut--clearly fabrications of clayey ironstone, ground and
+washed, and probably mixed with reindeer fat and kneaded into a paste.
+The paint crumbled between the fingers, felt greasy, and coloured the
+skin an intense red. It may have been used in the first instance for
+painting the body. The Glacial men at the source of the Schussen were,
+according to the results of these finds, fishermen and hunters, without
+dogs or domestic animals and without any knowledge of agriculture and
+pottery. But they understood how to kindle fire, which they used for
+cooking their food. They knew how to kill the wild reindeer, bear,
+and other animals of the district they hunted over; their arrows hit
+the swan, and their fish-hooks drew fish from the deep. They were
+artists in the chipping of flint into tools and weapons; with the
+former they worked reindeer horn in the most skilful manner. Traces of
+binding material indicate the use of threads, probably prepared from
+reindeer sinews; the plaiting-needle may have been employed for making
+fishing-lines. Threads and finely-pointed pricking instruments indicate
+the art of sewing; clothing probably consisted of the skins of the
+animals killed.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mercier
+
+HUNTING FOR FOOD IN THE LATER ICE AGE
+
+ From the painting by Ferdinand Cormon
+]
+
+To this material concerning Drift Man, scientifically vouched for,
+coming from Drift strata that have certainly never been disturbed,
+other countries have hitherto made no equal contributions really
+enlarging our view. Yet the numerous places where palæolithic--that
+is, only rudely chipped--implements of flint, such as were doubtless
+used by Drift Man, have been found must not remain unmentioned here. We
+know of them in Northern, Central, and Southern France, in the South of
+England, in the loess at Thiede, near Brunswick, and in Lower Austria,
+Moravia, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, North Africa, and
+Russia.
+
+[Illustration: IMPLEMENTS OF THE STONE AGE
+
+ The upper illustrations show handles of celt or stone-cutting
+ instruments and method of hafting; the lower picture is that of a
+ handmill of sandstone.
+]
+
+[Illustration: A HUT-CIRCLE OF THE BRONZE AGE
+
+ One of the earliest forms of habitation in Britain. From the
+ British Museum “Guide to the Bronze Age.”
+]
+
+It is of special importance to note that similar flint tools have also
+been found along with extinct land mammalia in the stratified drift
+of the Nerbudda valley, in South India, as the supposition more than
+suggests itself that Drift Man came to our continent with the Drift
+fauna that immigrated from Asia. The possibility that man also got
+from North Asia to North America with the mammoth during the Drift
+Period can no longer be dismissed after the results of palæontological
+research. It explains at once the close connection between the build of
+the American and the great Asiatic (Mongolian) races.
+
+[Illustration: REMAINS OF A STONE AGE MANSION
+
+ These remains of a large pile hut discovered in Germany show that
+ Stone Age Man had made good progress in building. The lower diagram
+ shows a transverse section.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE EARLIEST EFFORTS AT BOAT-BUILDING
+
+ The dug-out canoe, hollowed from a single trunk, was the far-off
+ parent of the ocean-going ship. The upper picture represents a
+ prehistoric canoe found in Sussex and the lower example is taken
+ from a German specimen.
+]
+
+Stone implements of palæolithic form have been found in Drift strata
+in North America, and the same applies also, as we have seen, to South
+America. The best finds there were those made by Ameghino in the
+pampas formation of Argentina. Here marrow-bones, split, worked, and
+burnt, and jaws of the stag, glyptodon, mastodon, and toxodon have
+been repeatedly found along with flint tools of palæolithic stamp;
+and Santiago Roth, who took part in these researches, supposes that
+fossil man in South America occasionally used the coats of mail of
+the gigantic armadillos as dwellings. But the civilisation of South
+American man is doubtless identical with that of European fossil
+man--tools and weapons of the stone types familiar in Europe, the
+working of bones, the use of fire for cooking, and animal food, with
+the consequent special fondness for fat and marrow.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE WORLD
+ BEFORE
+ HISTORY--IV
+
+ Professor
+ JOHANNES
+ RANKE
+]
+
+
+
+
+PRIMITIVE MAN IN THE PAST & THE PRESENT
+
+
+To the picture of Drift Man that has been drawn for us by the
+discoveries of human activity in deposits of uniform character and
+sharply defined age, the much richer but far less reliable finds in the
+bone caves add scarcely any entirely new touches. Von Zittel says:
+
+ The evidence of the caves is unfortunately shaken by the
+ uncertainty that, as a rule, prevails with regard to the manner in
+ which their contents were washed into them or otherwise introduced,
+ and also with regard to the beginning and duration of their
+ occupation; moreover, later inhabitants have frequently mixed up
+ their relics with the heritage of previous occupants.
+
+[Sidenote: First Dwellers in Caves]
+
+This doubt strikes us particularly forcibly as regards man’s
+co-existence with the extinct animals of the earlier periods of the
+Drift, the Preglacial and Interglacial Periods. On the other hand, the
+habitation of the caves by man during the Reindeer Period appears in
+many cases to be perfectly established, and, according to Von Zittel,
+the oldest human dwellings in caves, rock-niches, and river-plains in
+Europe belong for the most part to the Reindeer Period--that is, the
+second Glacial and, in particular, the Postglacial Period.
+
+In the caves there is also no domestic animal, and no pottery or
+trace of potsherds, in the best-defined strata where Drift Man has
+been found. In the Hohlefels cave, in the Ach valley in Swabia, a new
+utensil was found in the form of a cup for drinking purposes or for
+drawing water, made out of the back part of a reindeer’s skull. Also
+a new tool in the form of a fine sewing-needle with eye, from the
+long bone of a swan, such as have also been found in the caves of the
+Périgord. Teeth of the wild horse and lower jaws of the wildcat, which
+are found in the caves, perforated for suspending either as ornaments
+or amulets, are also hitherto unknown, it appears, in the stratified
+Drift. As both animals are at a later period connected with the deity
+and with witchcraft, one could imagine that similar primitive religious
+ideas existed among the old cave-dwellers. In the stratum of the
+Reindeer Period at the Schweizerbild, near Schaffhausen, Nüesch found a
+musical instrument, “a reindeer whistle,” and shells pierced for use as
+ornaments.
+
+[Sidenote: Drift Man’s Working Materials]
+
+The finds in the French cave districts prove that man was able to
+develop certain higher refinements of life, even during the Drift in
+the real flint districts--where a very suitable material was at man’s
+disposal in the flint that lay about everywhere or was easily dug up;
+which was worked with comparative ease into much more perfect and
+efficient weapons and implements than those supplied by the wilder
+stretches of moor and fen of Germany, with their scarcity of flint.
+
+If we compare the small, often tiny, knives and flint flakes from the
+German places with the powerful axes and lance-heads of those regions,
+it is self-evident how much more laborious life must have been for the
+man who used the former. What labour he must have expended in carving
+weapons and implements out of bone and horn, while flint supplied the
+others with much better and more lasting ones with less expenditure
+of time and trouble! In this light a wealth of flint was a civilising
+factor of that period which is not to be under-estimated. In the flint
+districts not only are the stone implements better worked, answering in
+a higher degree the purpose of the weapon and the tool, but delight in
+ornament and decoration is also more prominent.
+
+[Sidenote: The Life in the Caves]
+
+[Sidenote: Drift Man as Artist]
+
+Life in the caves and grottos and under the rock shelters in the
+neighbourhood of rivers was by no means quite wretched. The remains
+left in the caves by their former inhabitants give almost as clear an
+idea of the life of man in those primeval times as the buried cities of
+Herculaneum and Pompeii do of the manners and customs of the Italians
+in the first century of the Christian era. The floors of these caves
+in which men formerly lived appear to consist entirely of broken bones
+of animals killed in the chase, intermixed with rude implements and
+weapons of bone and unpolished stone, and also charcoal and large burnt
+stones, indicating the position of fireplaces. Flints and chips without
+number, rough masses of stone, awls, lance-heads, hammers, and saws of
+flint and chert lie in motley confusion beside bone needles, carved
+reindeer antlers, arrow-heads and harpoons, and pointed pieces of horn
+and bone; in addition to which are also the broken bones of the animals
+that served as food, such as reindeer, bison, horse, ibex, saiga
+antelope, and musk-ox. The reindeer supplied by far the greater part of
+the food, and must at that time have lived in Central France in large
+herds and in a wild state, all trace of the dog being absent.
+
+[Sidenote: Pictures from the Drift World]
+
+Among these abundant remains of culture archæologists were surprised
+to find real objects of art from the hand of Drift Man, proving that
+thinking about his surroundings had developed into the ability to
+reproduce what he saw in drawing and modelling. The first objects of
+this kind were found in the caves of the Périgord. They are, on the one
+hand, drawings scratched on stones, reindeer bones, or pieces of horn,
+mostly very naïve, but sometimes really lifelike, chiefly representing
+animals, but also men; on the other hand imitations plastically carved
+out of pieces of reindeer horn, bones, or teeth. Such engravings also
+occurred on pieces of ivory, and plastic representations in this
+material have been preserved. On a cylindrical piece of reindeer horn
+from the cave excavations in the Dordogne is the representation of
+a fish, and on the shovel-piece of a reindeer’s horn are the head
+and breast of an animal resembling the ibex. Illustrations of horses
+give faithful reproductions of the flowing mane, unkempt tail, and
+disproportionately large head of the large-headed wild horse of
+the Drift. The most important among these representations are such
+as endeavour to reproduce an historical event. An illustration of
+this kind represents a group consisting of two horses’ heads and an
+apparently naked male figure; the latter bears a long staff or spear
+in his right hand, and stands beside a tree, which is bent down almost
+in coils in order to accommodate itself to the limited space, and
+whose boughs, indicated by parallel lines, show it to be a pine or
+fir. Connected with the tree is a system of vertical and horizontal
+lines, apparently representing a kind of hurdlework. On the other
+side of the same cylindrical piece are two bisons’ heads. Doubtless
+this picture tells a tale; it is picture-writing in exactly the same
+sense as that of the North American Indians. Our picture already
+shows the transition to abbreviated picture-writing, as, instead of
+the whole animals--horses and bisons--only the heads are given. The
+message-sticks of the Australians bear certain resemblances; Bastian
+has rightly described them as the beginnings of writing.
+
+If we have interpreted them aright, the finds that have been made, with
+the tally from the source of the Schussen and the message-stick from
+the caves of the Dordogne, place the art of counting, the beginnings of
+writing, the first artistic impulses, and other elements of primitive
+culture right back in the Drift period.
+
+[Sidenote: The Emerging of the Human Mind]
+
+“None of the animals whose remains lie in the Drift strata,” says
+Oscar Fraas, “were tamed for the service of man.” On the contrary, man
+stood in hostile relation to all of them and only knew how to kill
+them, in order to support himself with their flesh and blood and the
+marrow of their bones. It was not so much his physical strength which
+helped man in his fight for existence, for with few exceptions the
+animals he killed were infinitely superior to him in strength; indeed
+it is not easy, even with the help of powder and lead, to kill the
+elephant, rhinoceros, grizzly bear, and bison, or to hunt down the
+swift horse and reindeer. It was a question of finding out, with his
+mental superiority, the beast’s unguarded moments, and of surprising it
+or bringing it down in pits and snares. All the more wonderful does the
+savage of the European Drift Period appear to us, “for we see that he
+belongs to the first who exercised the human mind in the hard battle of
+life, and thereby laid the foundation of all later developments in the
+sense of progress in culture.” And yet, in the midst of this poor life,
+a sense of the little pleasures and refinements of existence already
+began to develop, as proved by the elegantly carved and decorated
+weapons and implements, and there were even growing a sense of the
+beauty of Nature and the power of copying it. The bone needles with
+eyes and the fine awls are evidences of the art of sewing, and the
+numerous scrapers of flint and bone teach us that Drift Man knew how to
+dress skins for clothing purposes, and did it according to the method
+still used among the Esquimaux and most northern Indians at the present
+day. Spinning does not seem to have been known. On the other hand Drift
+Man knew how to twist cords, impressions and indentations of which are
+conspicuous on the bone and horn implements; on which also thread-marks
+were imitated as a primitive ornament. Pottery was unknown to Drift
+Man. Indeed, even to-day the production of pottery is not a commonly
+felt want of mankind. The leather bottle, made of the skin of some
+small animal stripped off whole without a seam, turned inside out as
+it were, takes the place of the majority of the larger vessels; on the
+other hand, liquids can also be kept for some time in a tightly-made
+wicker basket.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mercier
+
+PRIMITIVE NATURE FOLK ENGAGED IN FISHING
+
+ From the painting by Ferdinand Cormon.
+]
+
+The art of plaiting was known to Drift Man. This is shown by the
+ornaments on weapons and implements, the plaiting-needle from the find
+at the source of the Schussen, and the hurdlework represented on the
+message-stick mentioned above, which may be either a hurdle made of
+boughs and branches or a summer dwelling house. To these acquirements,
+based chiefly on an acquaintance with serviceable weapons and
+implements, is added the art of representing natural objects by drawing
+and carving. This results in the attempt to retain historical _momenta_
+in the form of abridged illustrations for the purpose of communicating
+them to others--incipient picture-writing. The tally shows the method
+of representing numbers--generally only one stroke each, but also
+two strokes connected by a line to form a higher unit. Of the art of
+building not a trace is left to us apart from the laying together of
+rough stones for fireplaces; nor have tombs of that period of ancient
+times been discovered.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mercier
+
+EARLY AGRICULTURISTS, WITH IMPLEMENTS OF BONE, STONE, AND BRONZE
+
+ From the painting by Ferdinand Cormon.
+]
+
+The civilisation of Drift Man and his whole manner of life do not
+confront the present human race as something strange, but fit perfectly
+into the picture exhibited by mankind at the present day. Drift
+Man nowhere steps out of this frame. If a European traveller were
+nowadays to come upon a body of Drift men on the borders of eternal
+ice, towards the north or south pole of our globe, nothing would
+appear extraordinary and without analogy to him; indeed it would be
+possible for him to come to an understanding with them by means of
+picture-writing, and to do business with them by means of the tally.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mercier
+
+AN EMIGRATION OF THE GAULS IN THE BRONZE AGE
+
+ From the painting by Ferdinand Cormon.
+]
+
+The manner of life led by man beyond the borders of higher
+civilisation, especially under extreme climatic conditions, depends
+almost exclusively on his outward surroundings and the possibility of
+obtaining food. The Esquimaux, who, like Drift Man of Central Europe
+in former times, live on the borders of eternal ice with the Drift
+animals that emigrated thither,--the reindeer, musk-ox, bear, Arctic
+fox, etc.--are restricted, like him, to hunting and fishing, and to
+a diet consisting almost entirely of flesh and fat; corn-growing and
+the keeping of herds of domestic animals being self-prohibitive. Their
+kitchen refuse exactly resembles that from the Drift. Before their
+acquaintance with the civilisation of modern Europe they used stone
+and bone besides driftwood for making their weapons and implements,
+as they still do to a certain extent at the present day, either
+from preference or from superstitious ideas. Their binding material
+consisted of threads twisted from reindeer sinews, with which they
+sewed their clothes and fastened their harpoons and arrows, the latter
+resembling in form those of Drift Man. They knew no more than he the
+arts of spinning and weaving, their clothes being made from the skins
+of the animals they hunted; pots were unknown and unnecessary to them.
+
+[Illustration: PRIMITIVE ART OF OUR OWN DAY
+
+ The picture-writing of the American Indians in our own day offers
+ an interesting parallel to that of the primitive peoples of the
+ remotest past. The Pawnees decorate their buffalo robes with such
+ drawings as these, representing a procession of medicine men, the
+ foremost giving freedom to his favourite horse as a sacrifice to
+ the Great Spirit.
+]
+
+It has often been thought that we should have a definite criterion of
+the period if it could be proved that fresh mammoth ivory was employed
+at the particular time for making implements and weapons, or ornaments,
+carvings, and drawings. There can be no doubt that when Drift Man
+succeeded in killing a mammoth he used the tusks for his purposes.
+But on the borders of eternal ice, where alone we could now expect to
+find a frozen Drift Man, no conclusion could be drawn from objects
+of mammoth ivory being in the possession of a corpse to determine
+the great age of the latter. For the many mammoth tusks which have
+been found and used from time immemorial in North Siberia, on the New
+Siberian Islands, and in other places, are absolutely fresh, and are
+even employed in the arts of civilised countries in exactly the same
+way as fresh ivory. Under the name of “mammoth ivory” the fossil tusks
+dug up by ivory-seekers, or mammoth-hunters, form an important article
+of commerce.
+
+The same conditions as many parts of Northern Siberia still exhibit
+at the present day prevailed over the whole of Central Europe at
+the end of the Glacial Period and the beginning of the Postglacial
+Period. Here man lived on frozen ground on the borders of ice-fields
+with the reindeer and its companions, as he does to-day in Northern
+Asia, and here, too--as he does there to-day--he must have found the
+woolly-haired mammoth preserved by the cold in the ice and frozen
+ground. The Drift reindeer-men of Central Europe presumably searched
+for mammoth tusks just as much as the present reindeer-men in North
+Asia. The great field of mammoth carrion at Predmost was, therefore, a
+very powerful attraction, not only for the beasts of prey--chief among
+them wolves--but also for man.
+
+[Illustration: THE EARLIEST ART: MANKIND’S FIRST EFFORTS IN
+PICTURE-MAKING
+
+ These illustrations are of engravings on stone and bone and
+ scratchings on rocks made by prehistoric man, chiefly in France.
+ The figures of the reindeer and those of the mammoth and the bison,
+ the two latter found at Dordogne, are astonishingly good, and
+ indicate genuine power of draughtsmanship at a remote period of
+ human life.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Drift Man Compared with Modern Man]
+
+In France especially many primitive works of art of the “Ivory Epoch”
+have been found, and even the nude figure of woman is not wanting;
+but no proof is given that these carvings belong to the time when the
+mammoth still lived. Much sensation has been caused by an engraving
+on a piece of mammoth ivory representing a hairy mammoth with its
+mane and strongly-curved tusks. This illustration has been taken as
+unexceptionable proof that the artist of the Drift Period who did it
+saw and portrayed the mammoth alive. But could the mammoth hunter
+Schumachow--the Tunguse who, in 1799, discovered, in the ice of the
+peninsula of Tumys Bykow at the mouth of the Lena, the mammoth now
+erected in the collection at the St. Petersburg Academy [see page
+123]--have pictured the animal otherwise when it was freshly melted out
+of the ice? And the Madelaine cave in the Périgord, where the piece
+of ivory with the picture of the mammoth was found, certainly belongs
+to the Reindeer Period. Had we not independent proofs that Drift
+Man lived in Central Europe--for instance, at Taubach--with the great
+extinct pachydermata, neither the finds in the “loess” near Predmost,
+nor the articles of ivory, nor the illustration of the mammoth itself,
+could prove it. They furnish absolute proof of the existence of Drift
+Man only back to the Reindeer Period. To decide whether a corpse
+frozen in the stone-ice belonged to a Drift Man, the examination of
+the corpse itself, its skull, bones, and soft parts, would no more
+suffice than clothing, implements, and ornament. For at least so much
+is confidently asserted by many palæontologists, that all the skulls
+and bones hitherto known to have been ascribed to Drift Man by the
+most eminent palæontologists, geologists, and anthropologists, cannot
+be distinguished from those of men of the present day. Von Zittel, the
+foremost scholar in the field of palæontology in Germany, says:
+
+ The only remains of Drift Man of reliable age are a skull from
+ Olmo, near Chiana, in Tuscany; a skull from Egisheim, in Alsace;
+ a lower jaw from the Naulette cave near Furfooz, in Belgium; and
+ a fragment of jaw from the Schipka cave in Moravia. This material
+ is not sufficient for determining race, but all human remains of
+ reliable age from the drift of Europe, and all the skulls found in
+ caves, agree in size, form, and capacity with _Homo sapiens_, and
+ are well formed throughout. In no way do they fill the gap between
+ man and ape.
+
+[Illustration: PRIMITIVE PEOPLE OF TO-DAY
+
+ Until they came in touch with European travellers the Esquimaux
+ were in precisely the same condition as Drift Man: they were living
+ in the Ice Age. They are but little more advanced now, and the
+ difference between them and prehistoric men is slight. This is a
+ group of young Esquimau women.
+]
+
+“On the other hand,” writes Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, “a large majority
+of modern anatomists and palæontologists accept the antiquity of such
+skulls as the Neanderthal specimen, and agree that these point to the
+existence of a human race inferior to any now existing. This race
+comprised powerfully-built individuals, with low foreheads, prominent,
+bony ridges above the eyes, and retreating chins. The radius and ulna
+were unusually divergent, so that the forearms must have been heavy and
+clumsy. The thigh-bones were bent and the shin-bones short, so that the
+race must have been bow-legged and clumsy in gait.”
+
+[Sidenote: A Type Between Man and Ape?]
+
+“The intermediate position of these primitive types has received
+extraordinary confirmation by the discovery of what may truly be called
+the link, no longer missing, between man and the apes. In 1894, Dr.
+Eugene Dubois discovered in the Island of Java in a bed of volcanic
+ashes containing the remains of Pliocene animals the roof of a small
+skull, two grinding-teeth, and a diseased femur. These remains indicate
+an animal which, when erect, stood not less than 5 ft. 6 in. high.
+The teeth and thigh-bones were very human, and the skull, although
+very human, had prominent eyebrow ridges like those of the Neanderthal
+type, and a capacity of about 1,000 cubic centimetres--that is to
+say, much greater than that of the largest living apes, and falling
+short by about 100 cubic centimetres of the largest skull capacities
+of existing normal human beings. This creature, regarded at first by
+some anatomists as a degenerate man, by others as a high ape, has now
+been definitely accepted as a new type of being, intermediate between
+man and the apes and designated as _Pithecanthropus erectus_.” There
+is no doubt that Asia, Europe, North Africa, and North America, so
+far as their ice-covering allowed of their being inhabited, form one
+continuous region for the distribution of Palæolithic Man, in which
+all discoveries give similar results. In this vast region the lowest
+and oldest prehistoric stratum that serves as the basis of historical
+civilisation is the homogeneous Palæolithic stratum. In the Drift
+Period, Palæolithic Man penetrated into South America, as into a new
+region, with northern Drift animals. In Central and South Africa and
+Australia, Palæolithic Man does not yet seem to be known. All the more
+important is it that in Tasmania Palæolithic conditions of civilisation
+existed until the middle of the last century.
+
+[Illustration: THE HOMES OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLE OF THE PRESENT DAY
+
+ There are people still living in dwelling-places of prehistoric
+ type. This photograph of Esquimau stone and turf huts, in
+ Greenland, shows exactly the kind of dwellings used by prehistoric
+ men in the Ice Age.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE GRADUAL EXTINCTION OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
+
+ The Yukaghirs, natives of Siberia, a division of the Mongolic
+ family, were formerly a wide-spread race, and, according to their
+ national tradition, were so numerous that “the birds flying over
+ their camp fires became blackened with smoke.” The Jesup Expedition
+ found them reduced to 700 in number. Hunger had forced some of
+ them to cannibalism and suicide. They are a primitive people, but
+ considerably superior to the Esquimaux.
+]
+
+[Illustration: A CREATURE BETWEEN APE AND MAN
+
+ The skull of the Fossil Ape-man found in 1894, in the island of
+ Java; restored by Dr. Eugene Dubois.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Backward Races of Europe]
+
+The palæontology of man has hitherto obtained good geological
+information of the oldest Palæolithic culture-stratum of the Drift in
+only a few parts of the earth, and only in Tasmania does this oldest
+stratum appear to have cropped out free, and still uncovered by other
+culture strata, down to our own times. Otherwise it is everywhere
+overlaid by a second, later culture-stratum of much greater thickness,
+which, although opened up in almost innumerable places, is not spread
+over the whole earth as is the Palæolithic stratum. As opposed to
+the earliest Stone Age of the Drift, which we have come to know as
+the Palæolithic Period, this has been called the Later Stone Age or
+Neolithic Period.
+
+The Neolithic Period is also ignorant of the working of metals; for
+weapons and implements, stone is the exclusive hard material of which
+the blades are made. But geologically and palæontologically the two
+culture-strata are widely and sharply separated.
+
+As regards Europe, and a large part of the other continents, the second
+stratum of the culture of the human race still lies at prehistoric
+depth. But in other extensive parts of the earth the stratum of
+Neolithic culture was not covered by other culture-strata until far
+into the period of written history. Even a large part of Europe was
+still inhabited by history-less tribes of the later Stone Age at the
+time when the old civilised lands of Asia and of Africa, and the
+coasts of the Mediterranean, had everywhere--on the basis of the
+same Neolithic elements, with the increasing use of metals--already
+risen to that higher stage of civilisation which, with the historical
+written records of Egypt and Babylonia, forms the basis of our present
+chronology.
+
+When these civilised nations came into direct contact with the more
+remote nations of the Old World, they found them, as we have said,
+still, to a certain extent, at the Neolithic stage of civilisation,
+just as, when Europeans settled in America, the great majority of the
+aborigines had not yet passed the Neolithic stage, at which, indeed,
+the lowest primitive tribes of Central Brazil still remain. Australia,
+and a large part of the island world of the South Sea, had not yet
+risen above the Neolithic stage (Tasmania, probably, not even above
+the Palæolithic) when they were discovered. There the Stone Age, to a
+certain extent, comes down to modern times; likewise in the far north
+of Asia, in Greenland, in the most northern parts of America, and at
+the south point of the New Continent among the Fuegians.
+
+The men of the later Stone Age are the ancestors of the civilised men
+of to-day. Classical antiquity among Greeks and Romans had still a
+consciousness of this, at least partly; it was not entirely forgotten
+that the oldest weapons of men did not consist of metal, but of stone,
+and even inferior material. The worked stones which the people then,
+as now, designated as weapons of the deity, as lightning-stones or
+thunderbolts, were recognised by keener-sighted men as weapons of
+primeval inhabitants of the land.
+
+[Sidenote: What the Kitchen Middens Tell Us]
+
+The “kitchen middens” on the Danish coasts mark places of more or less
+permanent settlement, consisting of more or less numerous individual
+dwellings. From these middens a rich inventory of finds has been made,
+affording a glimpse of the life and doings of those ancient times.
+The heaps consist principally of thousands upon thousands of opened
+shells of oysters, cockles, and other shellfish still eaten at the
+present day, mingled with the bones of the roe, stag, aurochs, wild
+boar, beaver, seal, etc. Bones of fishes and birds were also made
+out, among the latter being the bones of the wild swan and of the now
+extinct great auk, and, what is specially important in determining
+the geological age of these remains, large numbers of the bones of
+the capercailzie. Domestic animals are absent with the exception of
+the dog, whose bones, however, are broken, burnt, gnawed in the same
+way as those of the beasts of the chase. Everything proves that on
+the sites of these middens there formerly lived a race of fishers and
+hunters, whose chief food consisted of shellfish, the shells of which
+accumulated in mounds around their dwellings. Proofs of agriculture and
+cattle-rearing there are none; the dog alone was frequently bred not
+only as a companion in the chase, but also for its flesh.
+
+The state of civilisation of the old Danish shellfish-eaters was not
+quite a low one in spite of its primitive colouring, and in essential
+points was superior to that of Palæolithic Man. Not only had they tamed
+a really domestic animal, the dog, but they made and used clay vessels
+for cooking and storing purposes. The cooking was done on fireplaces.
+They could work deer-horn and bone well. Of the former hammer-axes
+with round holes were made, and of animal bones arrow-heads, awls, and
+needles, with the points carefully smoothed. Small bone combs appeared
+to have served not so much for toilet purposes as for dividing animal
+sinews for making threads, or for dressing the threads in weaving.
+
+[Illustration: EUROPE IN THE ICE AGE
+
+ The map illustrates the extent of the Ice Age in Europe. It will
+ be noticed that in England the ice-cap did not extend south of the
+ position of London though it occurred much further south in the
+ mountain regions of the Pyrenees, the Alps, Tyrol, the Carpathians
+ and the Caucasus. The dark portions of the map represent the extent
+ of the ice.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Drift Man and His Adversaries]
+
+In the way of ornaments there were perforated animal teeth. The fish
+remains found in the middens belong to the plaice, cod, herring, and
+eel. To catch these deep-sea fish the fishermen must have gone out
+to sea, which implies the possession of boats of some kind. Nor was
+only small game hunted, but also large game. Ninety per cent. of the
+animal bones occurring in the shell-mounds consist of those of large
+animals, especially the deer, roe, and wild boar. Even such dangerous
+adversaries as the aurochs, bear, wolf, and lynx were killed, likewise
+the beaver, wildcat, seal, otter, marten, and fox. The very numerous
+fragments of clay vessels belong partly to large pot-like vessels
+without handles and with pointed or flat bottoms, and partly to small
+oval bowls with round bottoms. All vessels were made with the free
+hand of coarse clay, into which small fragments of granitic stone were
+kneaded; as ornament they have in a few cases incisions or impressions,
+mostly made with the finger itself on the upper edge.
+
+The great importance of the Danish middens in the general history of
+mankind is due to the fact that their age is geologically established,
+so that they can serve as a starting-point for chronology. It is
+to Japetus Steenstrup that the early history of our race owes this
+chronological fixing of an initial date.
+
+[Sidenote: The First Elements of Civilisation]
+
+The earliest inhabitants of the North of Europe during the Stone
+Age, as recorded by these kitchen-middens of the Danish period, were
+scarcely superior to Palæolithic Man in civilisation, judging from
+outward appearances. But a closer investigation taught us that,
+in spite of the poverty of their remains, a higher development of
+civilisation is unmistakable. And this superiority of the Neolithic
+over the Palæolithic Epoch becomes far more evident if we take as our
+standard of comparison, not the poor fisher population, who probably
+first reached the Danish shores as pioneers, but the Neolithic
+civilisation that had been fully developed in sunnier lands and
+followed closely upon these trappers or squatters. Next to hunting
+and fishing, cattle-breeding and agriculture are noticeable as the
+first elements of Neolithic civilisation, and in connection with
+them the preparation of flour and cooking; and as technical arts,
+chiefly carving and the fine working of stone, of which weapons and
+the most various kinds of tools were made; with the latter wood,
+bone, deer-horn, etc., could be worked. The blades are no longer
+sharpened merely by chipping, but by grinding, and are made in various
+technically perfect forms. Special importance was attached to providing
+them with suitable handles, for fixing which the stone implement or
+weapon was either provided with a hole, or, as in America especially,
+with notches or grooves.
+
+[Sidenote: The Mental Life of Ancient Days]
+
+In addition to these, there are the primitive arts of man--the ceramic
+art, spinning, and weaving. In the former, especially, an appreciation
+of artistic form and decoration by ornament is developed. The ornament
+becomes a kind of symbolical written language, the eventual deciphering
+of which appears possible in view of the latest discoveries concerning
+the ornamental symbolism of the primitive races of the present day.
+Discoveries of dwellings prove an advanced knowledge of primitive
+architecture; entrenchments and tumuli acquaint us with the principles
+of their earthworks; and the giant chambers, built of colossal blocks
+of stone piled upon one another, prove that the builders of those
+times were not far behind the much-admired Egyptian builders in
+transporting and piling masses of stone. The burials, whose ceremonies
+are revealed by opened graves, afford a glimpse of the mental life
+of that period. From the skulls and skeletons that have been taken
+from the Neolithic graves, science has been able to reconstruct the
+physical frame of Neolithic Man, which has in no way to fear comparison
+with that of modern man. Of the ornaments of the Stone Age the most
+important and characteristic are perforated teeth of dogs, wolves,
+horses, oxen, bears, boars, and smaller beasts of prey. How much in
+favour such ornaments were is proved by the fact that even imitations
+or counterfeits of them were worn. Numerous articles of ornament,
+carved from bone and deer-horn, were universal: ornamental plates and
+spherical, basket-shaped, square, shuttle-like, or chisel-shaped beads
+were made of these materials and formed into chains.
+
+[Illustration: THE ICE AGE IN THE PRESENT DAY: AN ESQUIMAU WATCHING A
+SEAL HOLE]
+
+In the Swiss lake-dwellings of the Stone Age have been found skilfully
+carved ear-drops, needles with eyes, neat little combs of boxwood, and
+hairpins, some with heads and others with pierced side protuberances.
+Remains of textile fabrics, even finely twilled tissue, and also
+leather, were yielded by the excavations of the lake-dwellings of
+that period, so that we have to imagine the inhabitants adorned with
+clothes of various kinds.
+
+[Sidenote: Man’s First and Oldest Animal Friend]
+
+What raises man of the later Stone Age so far above Palæolithic Man is
+the possession of domestic animals and the knowledge of agriculture.
+As domestic animals of the later Stone Age we have proof of the dog,
+cow, horse, sheep, goat, and pig. Among the animals that have attached
+themselves to man as domestic, the first and oldest is undoubtedly the
+dog. It is found distributed over the whole earth, being absent from
+only a few small islands. Among many races the dog was, and is still,
+the only domestic animal in the proper sense of the word. This applies
+to all Esquimau tribes, to the majority of the Indians of North and
+South America, and to the continent of Australia.
+
+We have no certain proofs that Palæolithic Man possessed the dog as a
+domestic animal. In the Somme valley, at Taubach, and at the source
+of the Schussen, bones of the domestic dog are absent. And yet, among
+Drift fauna in caves remains of dogs have been repeatedly met with,
+which have been claimed to be the direct ancestors of the domestic dog.
+The dog’s attachment to man may have taken place at different times
+in different parts. Man and dog immigrate to South America with the
+foreign Northern fauna simultaneously--in a geological sense--during
+the Drift. In Australia, man and dog (dingo), as the most intimate
+animal beings, are opposed to an animal world that is otherwise
+anomalous and, to the Old World, quite antiquated; probably man and dog
+also came to Australia together. We know of fossil remains of the dingo
+from the Drift, but no reliable finds have yet proved the presence of
+man during that period.
+
+[Sidenote: The Dog in the Stone Age]
+
+In the later Stone Age the dog already occurs as the companion of
+man wherever it occurs in historic times. In Europe its remains have
+been found in the Danish kitchen-middens, in the northern Neolithic
+finds, in the lake-dwellings of Switzerland, in innumerable caves of
+the Neolithic Period, in the terramare of Upper Italy, etc. It was
+partly a comparatively small breed, according to Rütimeyer similar to
+the “wachtelhund” (setter) in size and build. Rütimeyer calls this
+breed the lake-dwelling dog, after the lake-dwellings, one of the
+chief places where it has been found. Like all breeds of animals of
+primitive domestication, the dog at this period, according to Nehring,
+is small--stunted, as it were. With the progress of civilisation the
+dog also grows larger.
+
+[Sidenote: Great Value of the Dog to Man]
+
+In the later prehistoric epochs, beginning with the so-called “Bronze”
+Period, we find throughout almost the whole of Europe a rather
+larger and more powerful breed with a more pointed snout--the Bronze
+dog--whose nearest relative seems to be the sheep-dog. At the present
+day the domestic dog is mostly employed for guarding settlements and
+herds and for hunting. In the Arctic regions the Esquimaux also use
+their dogs, which are like the sheep-dog, for personal protection and
+hunting; they do particularly good service against the musk-ox, while
+the wild reindeer is too fast for them. But the Esquimau dog is chiefly
+used for drawing the sledge, and, where the sledge cannot be used,
+as a beast of burden, since it is able to carry fairly heavy loads.
+In China and elsewhere, as formerly in the old civilised countries
+of South America, the dog is still fattened and killed for meat. So
+that the domestic dog serves every possible purpose to which domestic
+animals can be put, except, it seems, for milking, although this would
+not be out of the question either. The dog was also eaten by man in
+the later Stone Age, as is proved by the finds in his kitchen refuse.
+The reindeer is now restricted to the Polar regions of the Northern
+Hemisphere--Scandinavia, North Asia, and North America, whereas in the
+Palæolithic Period it was very numerous throughout Russia, Siberia,
+and temperate Europe down to the Alps and Pyrenees. It does not seem
+ever to have been definitely proved that the reindeer existed in the
+Neolithic Period of Central and Northern Europe, although according to
+Von Zittel it lived in Scotland down to the eleventh century and in
+the Hercynian forest until the time of Cæsar. The earliest definite
+information we appear to have of the tamed reindeer, which at the
+present day is a herd animal with the Lapps in Europe, and with the
+Samoyedes and Reindeer Tunguses in Asia, is found in Ælian, who speaks
+of the Scythians having tame deer.
+
+Oxen at present exist nowhere in the wild state, while the tame ox
+is distributed as a domestic animal over the whole earth, and has
+formed the most various breeds. In the European Drift a wild ox, the
+urus, distinguished by its size and the size of its horns, was widely
+distributed, and it still lived during the later Stone Age with the
+domestic ox. In the later prehistoric ages, and even in historic times,
+the urus still occurs as a beast of the forest.
+
+[Sidenote: The Taming of the Wild Horse]
+
+In the later Stone Age the horse, too, is no longer merely a beast of
+the chase, but occurs also in the tame state. During the Drift the
+horse lived in herds all over Europe, North Asia, and North Africa.
+From this Drift horse comes the domestic horse now found all over the
+earth. Even the wild horses of the Drift exhibit such considerable
+differences from one another that, according to Nehring’s studies,
+these are to be regarded as the beginning of the formation of local
+breeds. The taming and domestication of the wild horse of the Drift,
+which began in the Stone Age, led to the domestic horse being split up
+later into numerous breeds. The old wild horse was comparatively small,
+with a large head; a similar form is still found here and there on the
+extensive barren moors of South Germany in the moss-horse, or, as the
+common people call it, the moss-cat. At the present day the genus of
+the domestic horse falls, like the ox, into two chief breeds--a smaller
+and more graceful Oriental breed, and a more powerful and somewhat
+larger Western breed with the facial bones more strongly developed.
+The horse of the later Stone Age of Europe exhibits only comparatively
+slight differences from the wild horse; it is generally a small,
+half-pony-like form with a large head, evidently also a stunted product
+of primitive breeding under comparatively unfavourable conditions.
+Two species extant in the Stone Age still live wild on the steppes of
+Central Asia at the present day; one of them also occurs as a fossil in
+the European Drift, although only rarely. That the ass occurred in the
+European Drift is probable, but not proved. It has not yet been found
+in the Neolithic Period of Europe.
+
+[Sidenote: Did the Horse come from Asia?]
+
+A survey of the palæontology of the domestic animals shows that they
+come from wild Drift species which--at any rate, as regards the ox,
+horse, and dog--are now extinct, so that these most important domestic
+animals now exist only in the tame state. Some of the domestic animals
+came from Asia, and, according to Von Zittel, were imported into Europe
+from there; this applies to the peat-ox and the domestic goat and pig.
+The Asiatic origin of the domestic horse and sheep is probable, but not
+proved; the sheep is found wild in South Europe as well as in Asia.
+The tarpan, a breed of horse very similar to the wild horse, lives in
+herds independent of man on the steppes of Central Asia. This has been
+indicated as being probably the parent breed of the domestic horse, and
+the origin of the latter has accordingly also been traced to Asia.
+
+One thing is certain: a considerable number of animal forms that
+co-exist with man in Europe at the present day--for instance, almost
+all the forms of our poultry and the fine kinds of pigs and sheep--have
+originally come from Asia. Our investigations show a similar state of
+things even in the Neolithic Period.
+
+In the North of Europe, which has furnished us with our standard
+information regarding the Neolithic culture-stratum, the certain proofs
+that have hitherto been found of agriculture and the cultivation of
+useful plants having been practised at that time (to which civilisation
+owes no less than to the breeding of useful tame animals) consist not
+so much of plant remains themselves as of stone hand-mills and spinning
+and weaving implements, which indicate the cultivation of corn and flax.
+
+[Sidenote: History in the Lake Dwellings]
+
+Our chief knowledge of Neolithic agriculture and plant culture has been
+furnished by the lake-dwellings, especially those of Switzerland, which
+have preserved the picture of the Neolithic civilisation of Central
+Europe, sketched for us, as it were, in the North, in its finest lines.
+So far we can prove the cultivation of the following useful plants
+in the later Stone Age; their remains were chiefly found, as we have
+said, well preserved in the Stone Age lake-dwellings of Switzerland,
+which have been described in classical manner by Oswald Heer. Of
+cereal grasses Heer determined, in the rich Stone Age lake-dwellings
+of Wangen, on Lake Constance, and Robenhausen, in Lake Pfäffikon,
+three sorts of wheat and two varieties of barley--the six-rowed and
+two-rowed. Flax was also grown by Neolithic Man. This was, it seems, a
+rather different variety from our present flax, being narrow-leaved,
+and still occurs wild, or probably merely uncultivated, in Macedonia
+and Thracia. Flax has also been found growing wild in Northern India,
+on the Altai Mountains, and at the foot of the Caucasus.
+
+[Illustration: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HORSE
+
+The horse which was common in the Stone Age was a wild ancestor of our
+own domestic horse, but not quite so large or so strong as the average
+well-bred creature familiar in our modern life. Its remotest ancestor
+was the Hyracotherium, or Orohippus, while an intermediary stage was
+that of the Hypparion, or Protohippus, in which, as shown in the
+diagram, the change from the foot to the hoof had advanced to a very
+great extent.]
+
+The common wheat occurring in the lake-dwellings of the Stone Age is a
+small-grained but mealy variety; but the so-called Egyptian wheat with
+large grains also occurs.
+
+[Sidenote: Gardening in the Stone Age]
+
+Traces of regular gardening and vegetable culture are altogether
+wanting. Some finds, however, seem to indicate primitive arboriculture,
+apples and pears having been found dried in slices in the
+lake-dwellings of the Stone Age; there even appears to be an improved
+kind of apple besides the wild-growing crab. But although they are
+chiefly wild unimproved fruit-trees of whose fruit remains have been
+found, we can imagine that these fruit-trees were planted near the
+settlements, and the great nutritious and health-giving properties
+of the fruit, as a supplement to a meat fare, must have been all the
+more appreciated owing to the lack of green vegetables. The various
+wild cherries, plums, and sloes were eaten, as also raspberries,
+blackberries, and strawberries. Beechnut and hazelnut appear as wild
+food-plants.
+
+The original home of the most important cereals--wheat, spelt, and
+barley--is not known with absolute certainty; probably they came from
+Central Asia, where they are said to be found wild in the region of
+the Euphrates. The real millet came from India; peas and the other
+primeval leguminous plants of Europe, such as lentils and beans,
+came likewise from the East, partly from India. So that, apart from
+flax, which probably has a more northern home, the regular cultivated
+plants of the Stone Age of Central Europe--cereal grasses, millet, and
+lentils--indicate Asia as their original home. We have therefore a
+state of things similar to that observed in the case of the domestic
+animals.
+
+[Sidenote: Beginning of the Potter’s Art]
+
+The potter’s art was probably entirely unknown to Palæolithic Man, for
+in none of the pure Drift finds have fragments of clay vessels been
+found. So where clay vessels or fragments of them occur, they appear
+as the proof of a post-Drift period. On the other hand, pottery was
+quite general in the Neolithic Age of Europe. Still, the need of clay
+vessels is not general among all races of the earth even at the present
+day; up to modern times there were, and still are, races and tribes
+without pots. From their practices it is evident that the European
+Stone men of the Drift could also manage to prepare their food, chiefly
+meat, by fire without cooking vessels. The Fuegians lay the piece of
+meat to be roasted on the glowing embers of a dying wood fire, and turn
+it with a pointed forked branch so as to keep it from burning. Meat
+thus prepared is very tasty, as it retains all the juice and only gets
+a rind on the top, and the ashes that adhere to it serve as seasoning
+in lieu of salt. On a coal fire not only can fish be grilled, stuck on
+wooden rods, but whole sheep can be roasted on wooden spits, precisely
+as people have the dainty of roast mutton in the East. To these may be
+added a large number of other methods of roasting, and even boiling,
+without earthen or metal vessels, which are partly vouched for by
+ethnography and partly by archæology, and some of which, like the
+so-called “stone-boiling,” are still practised at the present day.
+
+[Sidenote: No Perfect Pottery in the Stone Age]
+
+Although, according to this, pottery is not an absolute necessary
+of life for man, yet it is certain that even those poorly equipped
+pioneers who first settled in Denmark in the Pine Period, in spite of
+their having an almost or quite exclusive meat fare, had clay pottery
+in general use for preparing their food, and probably also for storing
+their provisions. As we have already shown, the remains that have been
+preserved in the kitchen-middens are the oldest that have been found
+in Denmark. Simple and rude as the numerous potsherds that occur may
+appear, they are of the highest importance on account of the proof of
+their great age. Unfortunately, as we have already seen, not a single
+perfect vessel has come to light. The fragments are very thick, of
+rough clay with bits of granite worked in, and are all made by hand
+without the use of the potter’s wheel. The pieces partly indicate
+large vessels, some with flat bottoms, and others with the special
+characteristic of pointed bottoms, so that the vessel could not be
+stood up as it was. Smaller bowls, frequently of an oval form, also
+occurred with rounded bottoms, so that they also could not stand by
+themselves. It is very important to note that on these fragments of
+pottery we find only extraordinarily scanty and exceedingly simple
+ornamental decorations, consisting merely of incisions, or impressions
+made with the fingers, on the upper edge.
+
+[Illustration: MAN’S FIGHT WITH THE GIANT ANIMALS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
+
+ From the painting, “The Slaughter of a Mammoth,” by V. M.
+ Vasnetsov, now in the Russian Historical Museum at Moscow.
+]
+
+We shall see how far this oldest pottery of the Stone Age
+is distinguished by its want of decoration from that of the
+fully-developed Stone Age. But it is very important to notice that
+this rudest mode of making clay vessels, which we here see forming the
+beginning of a whole series that rises to the highest pitch of artistic
+perfection, remained in vogue not only during the whole Stone Age, but
+even in much later times.
+
+[Sidenote: Stone Age Potter’s Handwork]
+
+It is true that in the fully developed neolithic Stone Age of Europe
+the clay pottery is also all made by hand, without the potter’s wheel,
+the oldest and rudest forms still occurring everywhere, as we have
+said; but besides these a great variety is exhibited in the size, form,
+and mode of production of the pottery. The clay is often finer, and
+even quite finely worked and smoothed, and the vessels have thin sides
+and are burnt right through. The thick fragments are generally only
+burnt outside, frequently only on one side, and so much that the clay
+has acquired a bright red colour, whereas the inside, although hard,
+has remained only a greyish black. We have numerous perfectly preserved
+vessels of the later Neolithic Age. They are frequently distinguished
+by an artistic finish and beauty of form, and on their surfaces we find
+ornaments incised or imprinted, but rarely moulded on them, which,
+although the style is only geometrical, cannot be denied a keen sense
+of beauty and symmetry. The clay vessels also show the beginning of
+coloured decoration. The incised strokes, dots, etc., are often filled
+out with white substance (chalk or plaster), which brings the patterns
+out into bold ornamental relief from the black or red ground of the
+surface.
+
+After that it is no wonder that pottery advanced to the real coloured
+painting of the vessels during the Neolithic Period, at least in some
+places.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Artistic Taste]
+
+On these vessels the handle now appears, in its simplest form as a
+wart-like or flatter projection from the side of the vessel, pierced
+either vertically or horizontally with a narrow opening just large
+enough to admit of a cord being passed through. Other handles, just
+like those in use at the present day, are bowed out broad, wide, and
+high for holding with the hand. These generally begin quite at the top,
+at the rim of the vessel, and are continued from there down to its
+belly, whereas the first-mentioned are placed lower, frequently around
+the greatest circumference of the vessel.
+
+There is no doubt whatever that in the main these clay vessels were
+made on the spot where we find their remains at the present day. This
+easily explains the local peculiarity that we recognise in various
+finds, by which certain groups may be defined as more or less connected
+with one another. Different styles may be clearly distinguished by
+place and group. But, this notwithstanding, wherever we meet with
+neolithic ceramics, they cannot conceal their homogeneous character. In
+spite of all peculiarities this general uniform style of the ceramics
+of the Stone Age, which we can easily distinguish and determine even
+under its various disguises, goes over the whole of Europe.
+
+[Sidenote: The Proofs of Man’s Mental Development]
+
+In finds that lie nearer to the old Asiatic centres of civilisation and
+to the coasts of the Mediterranean--as, for instance, at Butmir--the
+vessels are in part better worked, and the ornaments are richer and
+more elegant, and the spirals more frequent and more regular, and
+are sometimes moulded on, and sometimes, as we have mentioned, even
+painted in colour. But the general character remains unmistakably
+Neolithic, and may be found not only on the European coasts of the
+Mediterranean and the islands of the Ægean Sea, but in certain respects
+also in Mesopotamia and Egypt. The oldest Trojan pottery also exhibits
+unmistakable points of agreement with it.
+
+Not only the stone weapons and implements, but, as far as we can see,
+even the remains of the oldest ceramics, show that uniform development
+of the culture of the Neolithic Period which proves a like course of
+mental development in mankind.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE WORLD BEFORE HISTORY--V
+
+Professor JOHANNES RANKE]
+
+
+
+
+THE HOME LIFE OF PRIMITIVE FOLK
+
+
+[Sidenote: What the Lake Dwellings Tell]
+
+A picture, of unequalled clearness of delineation, of the general
+conditions of the life and culture of Central European Man during the
+Neolithic Period, was given, according to the results of the celebrated
+researches of Ferdinand Keller and his school of Swiss archæologists,
+by the lake-dwellings in the Alpine lowlands. Whereas in cave districts
+the caves and grottos often served the men of the later Stone Age as
+temporary and even as permanent winter dwellings, in the watery valleys
+of Switzerland the Neolithic population built its huts on foundations
+of piles in lakes and bogs. In that period we have to imagine the
+Alpine lowlands still extensively covered with woods and full of wild
+beasts; at that time the huts standing on piles in the water must have
+afforded their inhabitants a security such as scarcely any other place
+could have given. The first founders and inhabitants of settlements of
+pile-dwellings in Switzerland belong to the pure Stone Period. In spite
+of their lake-dwellings the old Neolithic men of Switzerland appear
+to have possessed almost all the important domestic animals, but they
+also knew and practised agriculture. They lived by cattle-rearing,
+agriculture, hunting, and fishing, and on wild fruit and all that the
+plant world freely offered in the way of eatables. Their clothing
+consisted partly of skins, but partly also of stuffs, the majority of
+which seem to have been prepared from flax.
+
+[Sidenote: Beginnings of a Social Order]
+
+The endeavour of the settlers to live together in lasting homes
+protected from surprises, and in large numbers, is an unmistakable
+proof that they were aware of the advantages of a settled mode of life,
+and that we have not to imagine the inhabitants of the pile-dwellings
+as nomadic herdsmen, and still less as a regular race of hunters and
+fishermen. The permanent concentration of a large number of individuals
+at the same point, and of hundreds of families in neighbouring inlets
+of the lakes, could not have taken place if there had not been through
+all the seasons a regular supply of provisions derived principally
+from cattle-rearing and agriculture, and if there had not existed the
+elements of social order. Even the establishment of the lake-settlement
+itself is not possible for the individual man; a large community must
+have here worked with a common plan and purpose. Herodotus describes
+a pile-village in Lake Prosias, in Thracia, which was inhabited by
+Pæones, who defended it successfully against the Persian general
+Megabazos. The scaffold on which the huts were built stood on high
+piles in the middle of the lake; it was connected with the bank only by
+a single, easily removable bridge. Herodotus says:
+
+ The piles on which the scaffolds rest were erected in olden times
+ by the citizens in a body; the enlargement of the lake-settlement
+ took place later, according as it was necessitated by the formation
+ of new families.
+
+[Sidenote: The Lake Dweller At Home]
+
+According to the large number of lake-dwellings of the Stone Age in
+the Alpine lowlands, and according to the large quantity of products
+of primitive industry that have been found there, centuries must have
+elapsed between the moment when the first settlers rammed in the piles
+on which to build their dwellings and the end of the Stone Period.
+
+The huts of the settlements of the Stone Age were partly round and
+partly quadrangular, and, like the pile-hut discovered by Frank near
+Schussenried, were divided into two compartments--one for the cattle,
+and the other, with a hearth built of stones, for the dwelling of man.
+The floor of the hut was made of round timber with a mud foundation,
+and perhaps also with a mud flooring; in Frank’s hut the walls were
+formed of split tree-trunks, standing vertically with the split sides
+turned inward, firmly put together between corner posts. The round huts
+had walls of roughly intertwined branches, covered with clay inside and
+out; of this clay-plaster numerous pieces have been preserved, hardened
+by fire, with the marks of the branches. The pile huts of the lakes
+were connected with the water by block or rung ladders. Victor Cross
+found such a ladder in one of the oldest stations; it consisted of a
+long oak pole provided at fairly regular intervals with holes in which
+the rungs were inserted.
+
+[Sidenote: First Traces of Textiles]
+
+[Sidenote: In a Stone Age Kitchen]
+
+Of special importance in estimating the degree of civilisation attained
+by the lake-dwellers of the Stone Age are the remains of spinning and
+weaving implements and of webs and textile fabrics, plaited work,
+etc. Flax has been found wound on the implements made of ribs, that
+we mentioned above as flax combs; we have also mentioned the fixing
+of blades with flax, or threads made of it, and the numerous wide and
+narrow nets made of threads. For spinning the thread, spindles were
+used just like those of the present day, a spindle-stick of wood being
+fastened into a spinning-whorl made of stone, deer-horn, or clay. The
+distaff was probably not yet known; a loom has not yet been found,
+either; but numerous weaver’s weights, which served for spinning
+the threads, have been. Excellent webs, some of them twilled, were
+produced, of which we have many fragments. Remains of mats and baskets
+prove that those were manufactured from the materials still employed
+at the present day. Corn was baked into a kind of bread consisting of
+coarsely ground grains. The millstones that were used for grinding the
+corn are found in large numbers. They are rather worn, hollowed slabs
+of stone, and smaller flat stones rounded on the top, with which the
+grains of corn were crushed on the larger slabs. Some of the kitchen
+utensils we find already much improved. Large and small pots for
+storing purposes, earthen cooking pots, and dishes, and large wooden
+spoons and twirling-sticks--the latter probably for churning--have been
+preserved. Vessels like strainers served for making cheese; they are
+pots in whose sides and bottoms a number of small holes were made for
+pouring off the whey from the cheese.
+
+Here, in the fully developed Neolithic Period we find the early
+inhabitants of Switzerland to be a settled agricultural and farming
+population. Although hunting and fishing still furnished an important
+part of their food, so that in some places even more deer bones have
+been found among the cooking remains than bones of the ox, yet the
+milk, cheese, and butter of the cows, sheep, and goats, the flesh of
+these and of the hog, and bread and fruit, already formed the basis of
+their subsistence.
+
+[Illustration: A PRIMITIVE STYLE OF DWELLING STILL WIDESPREAD IN SAVAGE
+LANDS
+
+ The lake dwellings still in use in New Guinea, illustrated in
+ this reproduction from an old work, D’Urville’s “Voyage of the
+ Astrolabe,” are exactly like the lake dwellings of prehistoric
+ Europe.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Man Learning the Art of Living]
+
+The results of cave research are almost as rich and varied as the
+results yielded by the study of the lake-dwellings in their bearing on
+the Neolithic stratum. Where there is a Drift stratum in the cave-earth
+the confusion of Palæolithic and Neolithic objects can, as we have
+said, scarcely be avoided. But there are numerous grottos and small
+caves in which the Neolithic stratum is the oldest, so that mistakes
+are out of the question. In a large number of such places in the cave
+district of the Franconian-Bavarian Jura the conditions under which
+finds have been made in the Neolithic stratum have proved almost as
+pure and unmixed as in the lake-dwellings.
+
+The cave-dwellers of the later Stone Age in the Franconian Jura were,
+like the Swiss lake-dwellers of the Stone Age, mainly a pastoral race.
+They possessed all the important domestic animals that the latter
+possessed--dog, cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig--and likewise practised
+agriculture, or, at any rate, flax-growing; at the same time hunting
+and fishing formed a considerable part of their means of subsistence.
+So that, not only on artificial pile-works on the shores of lakes, but
+also on the banks of South German rivers, there formerly lived a race
+which, although still mainly restricted to hunting and fishing, and
+using no metal, but exclusively stone and bone tools, already practised
+cattle-breeding and primitive agriculture, and was able to increase
+the means of existence afforded it by Nature by the first technical
+arts--by the chipping and grinding of stone instruments, bone carving,
+and, above all, pottery-making, tanning, and the arts of sowing,
+weaving and plaiting.
+
+[Sidenote: Beginning of Weaving and Knitting]
+
+Of most importance, as showing the state of civilisation of the
+Neolithic rock-dwellers, are the numerous articles carved from bone
+that must be looked upon as instruments for weaving and net-knitting.
+For the latter purpose there were large, finely-smoothed bone
+crochet-needles, some of them carved from the rib of a large ruminant.
+The handle-end is smoothed by use, and the end with the hook is rounded
+from the same cause. The end is frequently perforated, so that it might
+be hung up. Still more numerous were shuttles of various forms.
+
+According to the numerous finds of perforated clay weaver’s weights,
+the loom, like that of the lake-dwellers, must have been like the
+ancient implement that, according to Montelius, was in use on the
+Faröe Islands a comparatively short time ago. Spinning-whorls are very
+numerous, being partly flat, round discs of bone pierced in the centre,
+and partly thick bone rings or large beads of bone and deer-horn and
+flat burr-pieces of deer-antlers.
+
+It was formerly thought that the Neolithic Europeans did not possess
+the arts of engraving and carving animals and human figures which
+the Palæolithic Men had understood in such conspicuous manner. The
+progress of research has now produced more and more proof that in the
+later Stone Age the arts of carving and engraving had not died out.
+We have the celebrated amber carvings of the later Stone Age from
+the Kurisches Haff, near Schwarzort, some of which probably served a
+religious purpose; those of ivory, bone, stalactite, etc., from the
+caves of France and the Polish Jura; the figures from Butmir, and other
+evidences.
+
+[Sidenote: Fortified Settlements in Stone Age]
+
+In Italy, in Lombardy, and Emilia, another group of settlements of
+the Stone Age has been found, which again exhibit the civilization
+and all other signs of the later Stone Age, and in many respects more
+closely resemble the lake-dwellings than do the cave-dwellings. These
+are the “terramare,” whose inhabitants, however, had already to some
+extent advanced to the use of bronze. A sharp division of strata into
+habitation of the pure Stone Age and habitation of the Metal Age has
+not yet been made. The huts stood on pile-work on dry land, the piles
+being six to ten feet high; the whole settlement was fortified with
+trench and rampart, generally with palisades, and was of an oblong
+or oval plan. Besides many natural and artificial caves in Italy the
+dwelling-pits, which may formerly have borne the superstructure of a
+hut, also belong to the pure Stone Age.
+
+[Illustration: LAKE-DWELLERS RETURNING FROM THE HUNT IN THEIR DUG-OUT
+CANOES
+
+ From a painting by Hippolyte Coutau, in the Geneva Museum.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Strange Homes of Early Man]
+
+Such dwelling-pits of the Stone Age seem to have been distributed all
+over Europe. Burnt wall-plaster with impressions of interwoven twigs,
+has frequently been found near or in the pits, doubtless indicating
+hut-building. In Mecklenburg, where the dwelling-pits were first
+carefully examined by Liesch, they have a circular outline of ten
+to fifteen yards, and are five to six and a half feet deep. At the
+bottom of the pit lie burnt and blackened stones, hearthstones,
+charcoal, potsherds, broken bones of animals, and a few stone
+implements, the latter being mostly found in larger numbers in the
+vicinity of the dwellings. The same circular dwelling-pits of the Stone
+Age are found in France. Smaller hearth-pits were recently found in
+very large numbers in the Spessart, in Bavaria, with hundreds of stone
+hatchets and perforated axe-hammers, some of the former being very
+finely made of jadeite.
+
+[Sidenote: America before History]
+
+During the Neolithic Period dwellings were frequently made on heights,
+and it seems that even at that time they were to a certain extent
+walled round and fortified. Such settlements are numerous all over
+Southern and Central Germany, in Austria-Hungary, especially in the
+coast-country, and in Italy and France. Many of these stations belong
+purely to the Stone Age; indeed, the majority were inhabited already
+during the Stone Age, and furnish the typical Neolithic relics familiar
+from the foregoing. On the other hand, they continue to be inhabited
+even in the later metal periods, and in some cases right down to modern
+times. The rock near Clausen, in the Eisack valley, in the Tyrol, on
+which the large Säben monastery now stands, was a mediæval castle, and
+during the times of the Romans a fortified settlement called Sobona
+stood there; and when excavations were made in 1895, for adding new
+buildings to the monastery, a well-ground stone hatchet of the later
+Stone Age came to light. On many hills in Central Germany are found
+traces of the ancient presence of men who lived on them or assembled
+on them for sacrificial feasts; the earth is coloured black by charred
+remains and organic influences, and this “black earth on heights and
+hills” contains frequently, as we have said, the traces of Neolithic
+men. In Italy, many finds on such heights--for instance, those made
+on the small castle-hill near Imola--seem to exhibit that stage of
+the Stone Age that is missing in the terramare, and that precedes the
+beginning of the Metal Age of the terramare, but corresponds to it in
+every essential except in the possession of metal.
+
+But the view that is opened up is still wider. The prehistoric times
+of the New World also exhibit a Neolithic stage, corresponding to
+that of Europe, as the basis of the further development of the ancient
+civilised lands of America. And where a higher civilisation did not
+develop autochthonously in America, European discoverers found the
+Neolithic civilisation still in active existence, as they did in the
+whole Australian world. Accordingly in these vast regions, which
+have never risen above the Stone Age of themselves, the same stage
+of civilisation which in the old civilised lands belongs to a grey,
+immemorial, prehistoric period, here stands in the broad light of
+historic times. The study of modern tribes in an age of stone throws
+many a ray of light on the conditions of the prehistoric Stone Age; and
+this study, on the other hand, shows us that the primitive conditions
+of civilisation of those tribes stand for a general stage of transition
+in the development of all mankind.
+
+[Sidenote: The Foundations of Society]
+
+The lake-dwelling stations, and the land settlements resembling them,
+prove of themselves how far the culture of the early inhabitants of
+Europe was advanced even in that ancient period which was formerly
+imagined to be scarcely raised above half-animal conditions. Such
+structures could not be erected unless men combined into large social
+communities, which is indeed indicated by the very fact of the number
+of dwellings that were crowded into a comparatively small space. For
+the first ramming-in of the pile-works a large number of men working
+together on a common plan was absolutely necessary. The same applies
+to the construction of the artificial islands, protected by pile-works
+and partly resting on piles, termed “crannoges” by Irish archæologists,
+and to the Italian villages called “terramare,” which likewise once
+rested on piles and were protected by ditches. From the extent of
+the pile-works we are able to estimate the number of the former
+inhabitants of the settlements supported by them. Quite as clear an
+idea of the number of the former inhabitants is also given by the early
+circumvallations on the tops of hills and shoulders of rock, which were
+likewise made and inhabited during the Stone Age.
+
+The co-operation of a large number of men for a common purpose is
+also shown in the often huge stone structures to which, on account
+of the size of the stones employed in their construction, the name
+“megalithic” structures, or gigantic stone structures, has been
+given. In Northern Europe they, too, belong to the Stone Age proper.
+The majority of these gigantic structures were originally tombs; the
+principle on which they are built is often repeated even in far less
+imposing tombs.
+
+[Illustration: THE FAMOUS GIANT CHAMBER NEAR ROSKILDE IN DENMARK
+
+ That the men of the later Stone Age had developed a considerable
+ degree of culture is proved by such remains as these. The erection
+ of these giant chambers must have called for a vast amount of
+ co-operation, skill, and ingenuity. The means whereby the massive
+ stones were placed into position, and so fixed to withstand the
+ shocks of thousands of years, have not yet been satisfactorily
+ explained by archæology.
+]
+
+The stone blocks of which these gigantic structures are piled now
+often lie bare. Large stones placed crosswise, which represent, as
+it were, the side-walls of a room, support a roof of one or several
+“covering-stones” of occasionally colossal size. For the erection of
+these in their present position without the technical resources at the
+disposal of modern builders, human strength appears inadequate; in
+popular opinion only giants could have made such structures. Some of
+the stones are really so large, and the covering-stones especially so
+enormous, that these buildings have defied destruction, for thousands
+of years, by their very weight.
+
+In the time of their construction these giants’ graves were mostly
+buried under mounds. They were the inner structures of large tumuli,
+in which the reverence of the men of the Stone Age once buried its
+heroes. One of the finest “giant’s chambers” is probably that near Öm,
+in the neighbourhood of Roskilde, in Denmark. The building material
+consists merely of erratic stone blocks of enormous size. The rough
+blocks were mostly set up by the side of one another, without any
+further working, so as to support one another as far as possible; at
+the same time all of them, as Sophus Müller observes, are slightly
+inclined inward, so that they are kept more firmly in position by their
+own weight. The stones thus erected, forming the parallel side-walls
+of the whole structure, stand so far apart that a huge erratic block,
+reaching from one wall to the other, could be placed on them as a roof.
+The distance between the side-walls of the giant’s chambers attains
+a maximum of eight to nine feet; the covering-stones placed on them
+are some ten to eleven feet long. The pressure of the covering-stones
+from above helps considerably to hold the whole structure together.
+In order to distribute the pressure of the covering-stones regularly,
+smaller stones were carefully inserted under the wall-stones where they
+had to stand on the ground. How exactly these proportions of weight
+were judged is proved by the fact that these structures of heavy and
+irregular stones, resting on their natural, differently shaped sides
+and edges, have held together until the present day. The inner walls
+of the chambers were made as carefully as possible. Where, as on the
+outside, the rough and irregular form of the stone block projects,
+either the naturally smooth side was turned inward or the roughness was
+chipped off.
+
+[Illustration: THE MARVELLOUS MEMORIALS OF THE STONE AGE AT CARNAC IN
+BRITTANY
+
+ On the plain near the little town of Carnac, in Brittany, stand
+ eleven thousand immense monoliths in eleven rows, erected probably
+ for religious purposes in the Stone Age.
+]
+
+These are the beginnings of a real architecture, seen also in the
+regular wedging with small stones of the spaces left between the
+wall-stones and covering-stones and between the wall-stones themselves.
+These small stones were frequently built in, in regular wall-like
+layers. Sandstone was often used for the purpose, being more easily
+split into regular pieces, which gave this masonry a still more
+pleasing appearance. The number of stone blocks used for the wall-sides
+varies according to the size of the giant’s chambers, as does also
+the number of covering-stones. For smaller chambers, with six to nine
+wall-stones, two or three covering-stones were required. But far larger
+stone chambers occur, as many as seventeen wall-stones having been
+counted. Such large chambers require a whole row of covering-stones
+beside one another. The door-opening often shows a special regard for
+architectonics. The two door-post stones are rather lower than the
+other wall-stones; on them a stone was laid horizontally, which kept
+them apart and distributed the pressure of the covering-stone equally
+on both posts.
+
+Very often there was also a stone as a threshold. Leading to the door
+is a low passage, made in similar manner to the chamber, but of far
+smaller stones. The passage is only high enough to allow one to creep
+through, whereas the chamber itself is about as high as a man, so that
+one could stand upright in most of them. Larger stone chambers are
+rarely without this passage, and from it such grave-structures have
+been named “passage-graves.” Besides the building-in of small stones,
+the holes still remaining between the stones were also coated over on
+the outside with mud to keep the rain-water from soaking in; mud was
+also frequently used for making a rough plaster floor for the chamber
+if the natural floor could not be made level enough. On the floor is
+frequently found a compact layer of small flints, or a regular pavement
+of flat stones, often rough-hewn, or roundish stones fitting one
+another as nearly as possible, which were then probably also covered
+with a thick layer of mud.
+
+[Illustration: “THE MERCHANTS’ TABLE”: AN IMMENSE DOLMEN ERECTED IN THE
+STONE AGE
+
+ Archæologists are not entirely agreed as to the purpose of these
+ dolmens. They were more likely graves, or chambers associated with
+ religious rites, than residences. This example is at Locmariaquer,
+ near Carnac, in Brittany.
+]
+
+So that in these giant’s chambers we have real buildings, which imply
+high technical accomplishments and have preserved for us the usual
+form of the dwellings of those early times. In what manner the huge
+covering-stones were placed on the side-walls of the giant’s chambers
+is a problem still unsolved. Doubtless many hands were occupied on
+such structures; and the history of building teaches us that with the
+proper use of human strength--as, for instance, in ancient Egypt--great
+weights can be raised and placed in position with very simple
+tools--round pieces of wood as rollers, ropes, and handspikes.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE “MERCHANTS’ TABLE”
+This is the interior of the above dolmen. It will be seen that the
+earth has slowly risen a great height since it was erected, nearly
+covering the dolmen, thus indicating immense age. The principal
+supporting stone is covered with sculpture.]
+
+Some of these giant’s chambers, which were originally enclosed in
+mounds or barrows, are still preserved at the present day, and
+splendidly too. Very often the chamber was quite covered with earth
+outside; it then formed the centre of what was generally a circular
+barrow, often regular small hills ten to fifteen feet high and
+frequently over ninety feet in circumference.
+
+[Illustration: A PALACE UNDER A CLIFF: A REMARKABLE MONUMENT OF THE
+STONE AGE IN CLIFF PALACE CAÑON, COLORADO
+
+ This is perhaps the most noteworthy of all the remains of the cliff
+ dwellers, and indicates how considerable was the culture of those
+ early people in America.
+]
+
+The corpses were buried, not cremated. They were frequently in a
+crouching attitude, or that of a sleeper lying sideways with the
+legs drawn up to the body. The smaller graves often represent single
+interments; the larger or largest ones are mostly family tombs, in
+which numerous corpses were interred one after the other at different
+times. But this repeated use of the graves is found also with smaller
+ones, and even with stone cists. Only the last corpse then lies in a
+normal position, while, through the repeated opening of the grave and
+the later interments, the skeletons belonging to previously interred
+corpses appear more or less disturbed or intentionally put aside.
+The skulls of the corpses interred in the Neolithic graves are well
+formed, their size indicating a very considerable brain development.
+The corpses were no bigger than the present inhabitants of the same
+districts, and the form of the head corresponds partly with that of the
+present population of those countries. Nor do the skeletons otherwise
+differ from those of modern men.
+
+In America, also, gigantic structures were erected by the aborigines
+who lived in the Stone Age, to commemorate and to protect their dead.
+They consist partly of large mounds of stones and earth, which are
+likewise often regular small hills, and partly of stone structures
+reminding one of the giants’ chambers. The majority of the mounds were
+doubtless mainly sepulchral; others may have been temple-hills or
+sacrificial mounds, defensive works or observatories.
+
+The objects buried with the occupants belong mostly to the Neolithic
+Period, and consist chiefly of stone weapons and tools, some rude, but
+others finely worked and polished. Some are of pure natural copper,
+which was beaten into shape cold with stone hammers. Besides these,
+and ornaments and pottery, an American specialty is found in the form
+of tobacco-pipes carved from stone, some of which give interesting
+representations of men and animals; this seems to prove that tobacco
+also played a part in the American funeral rites of those times.
+
+The graves of the Neolithic Period not only indicate that mankind
+generally was endowed with the same gifts as regards the first
+principles of the art of building, but they also afford us a glimpse
+of the mental life of that period of civilisation which at a more
+or less distant period was spread over the whole earth. What is so
+characteristic is the affectionate care for the corpse, for whose
+protection no amount of labour and trouble appeared too great. We
+can have no doubt that this reverence was based on a belief in the
+immortality of the soul--a belief which we find also at the present day
+among the most backward and abandoned “savages.” That the prehistoric
+men of the Stone Age held this belief is proved by the ornaments,
+weapons, implements, and food placed with the dead for use in the next
+world. Their burial customs certainly express a kind of worship of
+departed souls which has played and still plays so important a part in
+the religious ideas of all primitive peoples, and is one of the oldest
+fundamental notions common to mankind.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ G. Nordenskiöld
+
+HOW STONE AGE MAN WAS BURIED
+
+ Photograph of an actual skeleton, in position of burial, taken from
+ a prehistoric mound grave in North America.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE STRANGE RELIGION OF THE STONE AGE: A DRUID CEREMONY
+AT STONEHENGE
+
+ A vivid illustration, from an old print, of the purposes of the
+ mysterious stone circles common in Celtic countries
+]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE WORLD BEFORE HISTORY--VI
+
+Professor JOHANNES RANKE]
+
+
+
+
+WHEN HISTORY WAS DAWNING
+
+
+The discovery of Drift Man, his distinction from man of the later
+Stone Age, the investigation of the Palæolithic and Neolithic strata
+of culture of Europe and of the whole earth, and the scientific
+reconstruction of the earliest forms of civilisation based on these,
+are due solely to the natural-science method of research.
+
+It was only when the exact methods of palæontology and geology had been
+brought to bear with all their rigour on the study of ancient man by
+savants schooled in natural science that solid results were obtained.
+On this sure foundation the science of history now continues building,
+and uses, even for the later periods, so far as recorded information is
+not available, and to supplement it, the same methods of palæontology
+and natural science which were applied so successfully to the earliest
+stages of the evolution of mankind.
+
+[Sidenote: Time-Table of Prehistoric Periods]
+
+The first point is to collect the relics of the periods of the
+evolution of culture which follow on the later Stone Age, and to
+separate them according to geological strata, uninfluenced by those
+older pseudo-historic fancies by which the deepening of our historical
+knowledge has so long been hindered. By carefully separating and
+tracing the earth’s strata till we come to those that furnish remains
+of times recorded in history, it has been possible to establish first
+a relative chronology of the so-called later prehistoric periods of
+Central Europe, whose offshoots pass immediately into recorded history.
+
+By digging, after the same method of palæontological science,
+through stratum after stratum in the oldest centres of culture,
+especially in the Mediterranean countries, and by arranging the
+products by strata--uninfluenced by historical hypotheses--after
+the same natural-science method of research which has produced such
+remarkable results in Central Europe, the most surprising conformity
+in the evolution of culture in widely remote regions has been shown.
+It was found that in the Mediterranean countries, and also in Egypt
+and Babylonia, forms of culture already belong to the time of real
+history which were first recognised in Central Europe as preliminary
+prehistoric stages of historical strata; so that it was possible also
+to establish an absolute historical chronology for those instead of the
+relative prehistoric one.
+
+[Sidenote: Europe’s Prehistoric Night]
+
+Thus times which, as regards Central Europe, were hitherto wrapped in
+prehistoric night are enlightened by history. Although, as regards
+Central and Northern Europe, we cannot name the peoples who were the
+bearers of those forms of culture, and although we disdain to give them
+a premature nomenclature of hypothetical names, yet their conditions of
+life and culture and the progressive development of these, in manifold
+contact and intercourse with neighbouring and even far remote historic
+peoples and periods, have risen from the darkness of thousands of
+years; and their relation in time to the latter has been recognised.
+
+Thus prehistoric times have themselves become history. The historical
+account of every single region has henceforth to begin with the
+description of the oldest antiquities of the soil that tell of man’s
+habitation, in order thereby to obtain the chronological connection
+with the evolution of the history of mankind generally. That is the
+palæontological method of historical research.
+
+[Sidenote: Landmarks of Early Culture]
+
+The palæontology of man has proved the Stone Age to be a general
+primary stage of culture for the whole human race. All further general
+progress in culture was affected by the discovery of the art of
+metal-working--the extraction of the metals from their ores and the
+casting and forging of them. The later and latest eras of culture are
+the Metal Ages, as opposed to the Stone Ages. It is not the use of
+metal in itself, but the above-mentioned metallurgical arts, that form
+the criterion of the advance of culture beyond the bounds of the Stone
+Age. Where, as in some parts of America, native copper was found in
+abundance, this red malleable mineral could probably be worked in the
+same way as stone, without any further progress necessarily developing
+therefrom. The same may apply to meteor-iron, which is said to have
+been used for arrows, together with stone points, by American tribes
+who were otherwise in the age of stone and but poorly civilised.
+
+[Illustration: From stone to metallic form
+
+Growth of the stop-ridge
+
+Growth of the wings
+
+THE TRANSITION FROM STONE TO IRON
+
+ This series of diagrams, reproduced from specimens in the British
+ Museum, by permission of the Trustees, shows how the stone axehead
+ was used as the model for the metal axe or celt, and how that in
+ turn was modified as workers gained experience in the use of the
+ metal
+]
+
+In civilised lands it is chiefly metal casting and the forging of the
+heated metal which have made it possible to produce better weapons and
+tools and more valuable ornaments. The worked metals are first copper,
+then the alloy of copper and tin that bears the name of classical
+bronze, and to these are soon added gold and--especially in districts
+rich in the metal, as in Spain--silver. Later on the extraction of iron
+from its ores and the forging of that metal are discovered.
+
+According to this course of metallurgical progress the first metal
+period is distinguished as the Bronze Period, which is begun by a
+Copper Period lasting more or less long in different places. The second
+or later metal period is the Iron Period, in which we are living at the
+present day. In the course of time, by gradually displacing bronze and
+copper from the rank of metals worked for weapons and tools, this Iron
+Age has developed to its present stage.
+
+In Central Europe the pile-dwellings in the lakes of Western
+Switzerland again present us with specially clear and uninterrupted
+series of illustrations of the progress of culture from the Stone
+Age to the Iron Age. Ending the Stone Age, we find first a period
+of transition, in which, while stone continued to be principally
+employed, a few ornaments, weapons, and tools of metal began to be
+used. This metal is at first almost exclusively copper, with only
+very little bronze; iron is quite absent. Copper objects have been
+found in Western Switzerland by Victor Gross, most extensively in
+Fenel’s lake-dwelling station, which otherwise still belongs to the
+Stone Age. The majority of these are small daggers, formed after the
+pattern of the flint daggers; some already possess rivetings for
+fastening the blade to a handle. There are also chisels and small awls
+in bone handles, beads, and small ornamental leaves, and hatchets
+of the form of the simplest stone hatchets, with the edge hammered
+out and broadened. Much has proved the existence of a Copper Period
+corresponding to this description in the lake-dwelling in the Mond
+See in Austria, and in Hungary the remains of a Copper Period are
+particularly frequent. Parallel cases also occur in many other parts of
+Europe, particularly, as Virchow has proved, in the Spanish Peninsula,
+and in the Stone Age graves of Cujavia in Prussian Poland. These are
+the more important as they are most closely related to the conditions
+of culture discovered in the ancient strata of Hissarlik-Troy. Further
+unmistakable analogies occur with very ancient finds in Cyprus, and
+probably even with the oldest remains of Babylonian culture hitherto
+known. Here, too, we may include the finds of copper in the Stone Age
+of America.
+
+[Sidenote: The Passing of the Stone Age]
+
+So that in the normal and complete evolution of culture there seems to
+be first a stratum of copper as the connecting link between the Stone
+and Metal Ages; and this must be missing in those regions in which
+progress from the stone to the metal culture was only brought about at
+a relatively later period by external influences. This applies not only
+to all modern races in an age of stone, who obtained metal in recent
+times only through contact with European nations who had been living in
+the Iron Period for thousands of years, but, curiously enough, also to
+the greater part of Africa, where the use of iron was prevalent at a
+prehistoric period.
+
+Just as the modern Stone races passed straight from the Stone Age
+into the most highly-developed Iron Age of the most advanced culture,
+so also the stone stratum of Central and South Africa is immediately
+overlaid by a stratum of iron culture, which was brought there in
+ancient times, probably direct from Egypt. As there is in Egypt and
+throughout North Africa a regular development from the Copper-bronze
+Period to the complete iron culture, corresponding to the progress
+of the metal cultures of Europe and Asia, the point of time is thus
+chronologically fixed at which this important element of culture was
+transmitted from Europe to the blacks of Central and South Africa.
+
+[Illustration: WEAPONS USED BY MAN IN THE PERIODS OF DAWNING HISTORY
+
+ Reproduced chiefly from specimens in the British Museum.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Advancing Civilisation in Bronze Age]
+
+In Western Switzerland the transition period of copper is followed
+without a gap in the development by the Bronze Period proper. With the
+introduction of bronze all the conditions of life were more highly
+developed in the sense of increased culture. With better tools the
+stations of the Bronze Age could be erected at a greater distance from
+the bank, often two hundred to three hundred yards; the space they
+take up is also much greater. The piles are not only better preserved,
+according as the time of their being driven in more nearly approaches
+our own, but they are also better worked, are often square, and the
+points that are rammed into the lake-bottom are better cut. The
+settlements of the Bronze Age often cover an area of several hundred
+square yards, and are no longer comparatively mean villages, as in the
+Stone Age; the pile settlements of the Bronze Age are well-organised
+market towns and even flourishing small cities, where a certain luxury
+already prevails. The products of their industry are graced by that
+beauty and elegance of form that only an advanced civilisation can
+create. As in the Stone Age, so also in the Bronze Age of Central
+and Northern Europe, the most important working-implement, which
+was, however, also used as a weapon, was the axe, or celt. The most
+primitive forms of axes, like the above-mentioned copper axes, still
+resemble the simple stone axes: like these, they have no special
+contrivance for fastening the handle. In more developed forms of axes
+such contrivances for fastening the handle appear first in the form of
+slight flanges, which become wider and wider; finally they develop into
+regular wings, which, by curving towards one another, develop into two
+almost closed lateral semi-canals on the upper side of the celt. In the
+hollow celts a simple socket for the handle was cast in the making; an
+additional means of fastening the handle was provided in a loop, which
+also occurs on winged celts. Besides the celt, or axe-blade, broad
+and narrow chisels of bronze occur in various forms for working wood.
+A second chief type of instrument is the one-edged bronze knife with
+elegantly curved back and a handle tongue.
+
+[Illustration: THE HILL OF TROY, IN WHICH IS RECORDED A WONDERFUL STORY
+OF MAN’S PROGRESS
+
+ Seven towns of Troy were built upon this hill, one above the ruins
+ of the other, the earliest dating from 3000 B.C.; and the brilliant
+ excavations of Dr. Henry Schliemann, which have won him immortal
+ fame, have contributed more to our knowledge of the history of
+ mankind than any other excavations in our time, as on this site is
+ concentrated a continuous record of man’s progress from the late
+ Stone Age to the height of Greek civilisation.
+]
+
+The manner in which iron was found in the lake-dwellings, as mentioned
+above, shows the gradual development of a period of transition between
+a Bronze and an Iron Age. In spite of the difference in the material
+which the lake-dwellers used for making their weapons and tools in the
+periods of transition, they still imitate the old forms received from
+their forefathers. Just as the first metal axes of copper are copies
+of the stone axes, so also, when iron first became known, were weapons
+made of this metal which corresponded in form to the bronze weapons
+that had hitherto been used.
+
+The Bronze Period was first proved to have been a complete form of
+culture in the North of Europe--in North Germany and Scandinavia. We
+have now succeeded in establishing the fact that it was a preliminary
+stage of the Iron Age, in locally original development, in all ancient
+centres of culture. It is very remarkable that the civilised states
+of the New World also employed only copper and bronze as working
+metals. Thus the Peruvians did not know iron any more than the other
+American peoples until they came in contact with European influences.
+Besides copper and bronze they had tin and lead, gold and silver. The
+Peruvian bronzes contain silver to the extent of five to ten per cent.
+There are axes or celts of bronze similar to the rudest of the first
+European beginnings in metal corresponding in form to the simple stone
+axe. Many of the other forms of weapons and implements familiar in the
+Bronze Age of the Old World were also made of bronze or copper in
+America; semi-lunar knives with a handle in the middle, lance-heads
+and arrow-heads, swords, war-clubs like morning stars, etc. At the same
+time weapons and implements of stone still remained in use.
+
+In the Old World progress beyond bronze is everywhere due to iron.
+
+[Illustration: EXCAVATIONS IN THE TEMPLE OF ATHENA AT TROY
+
+ Dr. Schliemann’s discoveries in the ruins of this temple and the
+ ruins of older buildings beneath it were among the richest in the
+ entire annals of archæological research.
+]
+
+One place has been found and most completely investigated after the
+method of palæontological research, with all the help afforded by
+archæological and historical science, where, in overlying geological
+strata, the evidences have been found of a progressive development
+of culture from the end of the Stone Age down to the brilliant days
+of Græco-Roman history. There the chronological connection has been
+obtained, not only for the metal periods, but also for the end of the
+Neolithic Period. This most important place is Troy, the citadel-hill
+of Hissarlik, by the excavation of which Henry Schliemann has won
+immortal fame. Schliemann’s excavations, supplemented and completed
+in decisive manner by Dörpfeld, have brought about the most important
+advancement of the history of mankind that our age can show.
+
+[Illustration: A WINE MERCHANT’S CELLAR IN ANCIENT TROY
+
+ Nine colossal earthen jars were discovered by Dr. Schliemann in the
+ depths of the Temple of Athena. They had evidently belonged to some
+ wine merchant’s cellar in the pre-Hellenic period.
+]
+
+Virchow’s name is inseparably associated with Schliemann’s.
+Furtwängler, in his account, based on personal observation, of the
+results of the excavations at Troy, has accomplished the great service
+of exactly determining the chronological connections of the prehistoric
+with the historic eras, and thereby linking the former to history.
+
+On the spot on which tradition placed Homeric Troy (says Furtwängler)
+there really has stood a stately citadel, which was contemporaneous
+with the golden age of Mycenæ, the epoch of the Agamemnon of legend,
+was intimately related to Mycenæan culture, and at the same time
+corresponds most exactly to the idea of Troy underlying the old epic.
+
+[Sidenote: Seven Towns on One Hill]
+
+The citadel-hill of Troy terminates a ridge of heights stretching
+westward from Mount Ida, almost parallel to the Hellespont, and
+slopes steeply into the Trojan plain or the valley of the Scamander.
+The natural hill itself is not very high, but it was overlaid by
+enormous layers of ruins of buildings and walls, whereby it has been
+considerably increased not only in height, but also in breadth. Stratum
+after stratum lies one upon the other like the leaves of a bud, so that
+the history of the habitation of this venerable place from the most
+ancient times can be read from these strata which have been opened up
+by Schliemann and Dörpfeld, as from the leaves of a book. The original
+ground of the hill-plateau now lies some sixty feet above the plain,
+but the latter may have been raised something like sixteen to twenty
+feet by alluvial deposits since the Trojan War. The whole stratum
+of ruins lying on the original ground of the hill, which Schliemann
+opened up, amounts to about fifty-two and a half feet. Schliemann
+distinguished seven or eight different layers or strata, corresponding
+to as many towns which were successively built on this hill, one on the
+ruins of the other.
+
+The lowest stratum, lying immediately on the original ground, belongs
+accordingly to the oldest, or first town, on the citadel-hill of Troy.
+Furtwängler says:
+
+[Sidenote: The First Town of Troy]
+
+ By moderate computation this settlement must belong to the first
+ half of the third millennium before Christ, but it may very well
+ date back even to the fourth millennium. The inhabitants already
+ used copper implements in addition to stone ones. Their whole
+ culture is most closely connected with that which prevailed in
+ Central Europe during the Copper Period. Clay vessels of the Copper
+ Period from Lake Mond, in Austria, agree completely with those of
+ the first Trojan town. Troy represents only an offshoot of Central
+ European culture, and its inhabitants were in all probability of
+ European origin.
+
+We have already learned that the Copper Period is the end of the
+Neolithic Period and the beginning of the Metal Age. In the first
+Trojan town there is still extraordinarily little metal used, the
+axes, hatchets, knives, and saws still being of stone, of the familiar
+Central European types, and of the same materials, among which nephrite
+is particularly frequent. Other materials are serpentine, diorite,
+porphyry, hematite, flint, etc.
+
+[Sidenote: The First Period of Troy’s Glory]
+
+The forms of these implements correspond entirely to those of the later
+Stone Age of Europe. The character of the ceramics also conforms in
+many respects, according to Virchow, to that of the European Stone
+Age; and the Stone Age finds at Butmir, in Bosnia, and similar ones
+in Transylvania seem especially to offer close analogies. It would be
+a highly important step toward connecting history with the Neolithic
+Period if the first town could be even more closely investigated,
+and perhaps more sharply divided from that second stratum which lies
+between it and the stratum described by Schliemann as the second or
+burnt city, and which Schliemann afterward separated into two strata,
+corresponding to two towns. Perhaps the metal comes only from the
+second or higher stratum under the burnt city. In that case the oldest
+would belong purely to the Stone Age. The ceramics would seem to
+contradict this. Furtwängler continues:
+
+ High above the first town, a deep layer of débris, is the level
+ surface of the second town, which must at least be dated back to
+ the second half of the third millennium before Christ. It was the
+ first period of Troy’s glory. Mighty walls protected the citadel.
+ Three different building periods may be distinguished. The walls
+ were brought out a long way and strengthened, and magnificent new
+ gates were built. During the third period of this second city a
+ prince, fond of splendour, had the old narrow gateway replaced by
+ magnificent propylæa and a large hall-erection with a vestibule.
+ A great conflagration destroyed his citadel. A treasure was found
+ by Schliemann--he called it Priam’s treasure--in the upper part of
+ the citadel wall, which was made of straw bricks. The tools of the
+ second city are still partly of stone, but also partly of bronze,
+ so that they already belong to the Bronze Age.
+
+[Illustration: THE EXCAVATIONS AT TROY: REVEALING THE WALL OF THE
+ACROPOLIS
+
+ A view of the great substruction wall of the acropolis of the
+ second city of Troy, on the west side, close to the south-west
+ gate: (a) is the paved road, which leads from the S.W. gate down
+ to the plain; (b) is the continuation of the great acropolis-wall
+ of the second city on the west side of the S.W. gate; (c) is
+ the foundation of the paved road and the quadrangular pier to
+ strengthen it; (d) marks the masonry added by the third settlers.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: The Early Culture of Troy]
+
+The general character of culture is, according to Furtwängler, still
+essentially Central European. And yet many an individuality has
+developed, and the influence of Babylonian culture is everywhere
+apparent, although it does not go very deep. To this influence our
+authority chiefly attributes the occurrence of a few pots turned on the
+wheel, especially flat dishes; for the potter’s wheel was still quite
+unknown at that time in Europe, and even at a post so far advanced
+toward the East as Cyprus, while in Egypt and Babylonia it had been in
+use from the earliest times. In this period also Troy inclines more to
+Central Europe as its centre of gravity, but remains far behind the
+peculiar development that bronze work attained there; in the metal
+tools no advance is made on the forms of the Copper Period. Into any
+close relation with Cyprus it does not come; only the basis of their
+culture is common to both. But this basis had a wide range, relics from
+German districts being often more closely related to the Trojan ones
+than are those from Cyprus.
+
+[Illustration: TROY: THE GREAT TOWER OF ILIUM
+
+ The top of the tower is 26 ft. below the surface of the hill. The
+ foundation is on the rock 46 ft. deep; the height of the tower is
+ 20 ft.
+]
+
+ The brilliant period of the second city is followed by a long
+ period of decline for Troy. Ruins are piled upon ruins, walls
+ rise upon walls, but each poorer than the others; no new citadel
+ walls, no gates, no palaces belong to this period, in which three
+ strata--the third, fourth, and fifth towns--are distinguished. The
+ first half of the second millennium before Christ must at least be
+ regarded as the time of this deposit. The inhabitants evidently
+ remained the same, and their culture is that of the second city.
+ But no progress was made; nothing but stagnation; the same forms of
+ vessels continue to be made, the same decorated whorls. Naturally,
+ no active intercourse with abroad could develop in this period.
+ And yet this was the time when an active civilised life began to
+ develop on the islands of the Ægean Sea and on the east coast of
+ Greece, which was to bloom in all its splendour in the following
+ period. To this time the finds at Thera belong, where the pottery,
+ all turned on the wheel, is already painted with a so-called
+ varnish colour which shines like metal, and in which plants,
+ flowers, and animals are treated in quite a new and promising
+ naturalistic style hitherto unheard of in Europe. In Cyprus, too,
+ the decoration of pottery developed exceedingly in wealth and
+ variety in this period of the Bronze Age. Troy, on the other hand,
+ is poor and degenerate.
+
+ But a new period of prosperity arrived for Troy, too; this is the
+ sixth town. Rich and powerful princes again ruled in this citadel.
+ They enlarged it far beyond its former compass. They built strong
+ new walls--the old ones had long since sunk in ruins--not of small
+ stones and straw bricks as before, but of large, smooth blocks, and
+ gates and turrets. They did not have the sloping mound of ruins
+ levelled, as the lords of the second city had done; they let the
+ new buildings rise in terraces, on the ruins of the old; stately
+ mansions with wide, deep halls, covered the acropolis. Constant
+ intercourse existed with the princes of Greece, who at that
+ time--the second half of the second millennium before Christ--built
+ their citadels with cyclopean walls. The Trojans employed the same
+ peculiar, constantly-recurring small projections in their walls
+ that we find in a Mycenæan town on Lake Copaïs in Bœotia.
+
+ And, above all, the Trojans now provided themselves with those
+ beautiful vessels painted with shining colour that characterise
+ Mycenæan culture in Greece, and whose natural style had so
+ wonderfully developed there on the basis of the attempts that
+ we found at Thera. In Troy these things caused some imitation,
+ but the results remained far behind the originals. The living,
+ imaginative conception of the natural was closed to the Trojan; the
+ home-made pottery kept, on the whole, to its unpainted vessels,
+ although these were now almost entirely made on the wheel.
+
+[Illustration: THE TREASURE OF PRIAM, KING OF TROY: A COLLECTION
+REVEALED BY THE EXCAVATIONS
+
+ This remarkable collection of regal treasure comprises the key of
+ the treasure-house (at top of picture in centre); and, under and
+ about the key, a number of golden diadems, fillets, earrings, and
+ smaller jewels. On the shelf below there are a number of silver
+ talents and vessels of silver and gold; while below them is a
+ series of silver vases and a curious plate of copper. A variety
+ of weapons and helmet crests of copper and bronze are displayed
+ beneath, and on the floor are a vessel, a cauldron and a shield,
+ all made of copper.
+]
+
+ Yet what chiefly interests us is the historical. The sixth town,
+ too, was suddenly given up, destroyed, and burnt. What follows it
+ are again only poor settlements. Its destruction must have taken
+ place about the end of the Mycenæan epoch of culture. The seventh
+ town, which is built immediately on the ruins of the sixth, shows,
+ already, other and later culture. It had long been suspected that
+ a historical kernel was concealed in the legend of Troy--now we
+ have the monumental confirmation. There really was a Troy, which
+ was strong and great at the same time as the rulers of Mycenæ,
+ rich in gold and treasure, held way in Greece. And that Troy was
+ destroyed--we may now safely affirm, from this agreement between
+ relics and legend--by Greek princes of the Mycenæan epoch, whom the
+ legend calls Agamemnon and his men.
+
+The seventh and eighth towns, built soon after the destruction of the
+sixth, show an interruption in the intercourse with Greece. There the
+Mycenæan period was broken by the displacement of peoples known as
+the Doric migration, and that rich civilised life was replaced by a
+relapse into the semi-barbaric conditions of the North. In Troy, too,
+we perceive a period of decline, “a relapse into a stage long since
+past; black hand-made vessels, which in their form and decoration are
+strikingly like the home-made pots usual in Italy, especially Etruria
+and Latium, in the first part of the first millennium before Christ.”
+Finally, the seventh town also furnishes inferior imported Greek vases
+with painting, though coming not from Greece itself, but from the coast
+of Asia Minor, where Greeks had settled in connection with the Doric
+migration. “The Æolic colonisation of Troas brought Ilium no fresh
+prosperity. Other places rose, Troy remained a miserable village.
+In the Hellenistic period the sky clears over Troy. What Alexander
+intended, Lysimachus carried out; he restores Ilium to the place of a
+real city with new walls, and erects a magnificent temple to Athene
+on the top of the acropolis.... Yet artistic creation came to no real
+perfection. It was only when the great men of Rome, mindful of their
+Trojan ancestors, began to interest themselves in the place, that new
+life bloomed on Troy’s ruins.”
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Thus the geological-archæological method relates history, merely
+relying upon the monuments of the soil, without requiring written
+evidences. Pre-history has here attained its end; it has become history.
+
+ JOHANNES RANKE
+
+[Illustration: A VIEW SHOWING THE REMARKABLE CHARACTER OF THE
+EXCAVATIONS AT TROY
+
+ Some idea of the enormous work involved in unearthing ancient Troy
+ will be gathered from the fact, made clear in this view, that
+ the ground-level before excavating was above the height of these
+ buildings. A deep trench was cut, as shown in the illustration,
+ through the whole hill of Hissarlik, the citadel town.
+]
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT STEPS IN MAN’S DEVELOPMENT
+
+BY PROFESSOR JOSEPH KOHLER
+
+
+
+
+THE MATERIAL PROGRESS OF MANKIND
+
+
+The opinion that our own circumstances and affairs are the only
+standard for judging universal history has long been obsolete. Our day,
+with its conceptions, beliefs, hopes, and endeavours, is but a tiny
+portion of the past; for thousands of years peoples have existed who
+have lived in other intellectual spheres than ours, who have pursued
+other ideals.
+
+The study of history does not consist in an examination of the past
+projected, as it were, into the present; it is the study of the past
+considered as a part of the constant coming and going of men. And in
+order to become qualified as historians we must first of all attain
+a point of view from which we may, independently of time, behold
+history with all its great events file by; as though we were men who
+had ascended to some elevation in the universe from which they could
+look down upon the whole earth lying as a unity before them. This
+is rendered possible through the power of abstraction gained from a
+study of history; it enables us, on the one hand, to adapt ourselves
+to strange times and beliefs, and, on the other, to look upon our own
+day--all time to its contemporary men--objectively, as a mere hour
+of the ages of human development. We must learn to escape from the
+present, to withdraw ourselves from that which we may call the tyranny
+of our own time.
+
+[Illustration: THE PRIMITIVE ART OF WEAVING
+
+ The art of weaving arose from plaiting, and soon developed to
+ perfection, the American Indians and most primitive peoples of our
+ own day being skilled weavers.
+]
+
+From universal history we obtain a picture of the development of
+humanity--that is, the development of the various active germs or
+principles inherent in man. By these are meant the active principles
+innate in mankind in the aggregate, in contradistinction to those which
+may exist in single individuals or in single races.
+
+The result of development is called “civilisation”--the state of
+intellectual being, and of outward, material life, attained by a
+people through evolution. Although spiritual and material culture flow
+into each other, they may be separated to this extent: as a physical
+being endowed with senses, man endeavours to obtain satisfaction of
+his needs, and strives for a position in relation to his environment
+corresponding with the efforts he has made to obtain welfare; as
+a feeling, inquiring, spiritual being he contains within him an
+ever-present desire to fuse the multitude of separate impressions he
+receives into unity, and to struggle forward until he arrives at a
+conception of the world and of life.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ B.C. 5000 -| EGYPTO-BABYLONIAN |-
+ -| OR |-
+ -| ANCIENT ERA |-
+ -| |- Building of the Pyramids.
+ -| |- Earliest monuments to kings
+ B.C. 4500 -| |- in Babylonia.
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ B.C. 4000 -| |- Rise of Semitic Babylonian
+ -| |- kingdoms.
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ B.C. 3500 -| |- Chaldæan Astronomy.
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ B.C. 3000 -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ B.C. 2500 -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |- Khammurabai.
+ -| |- Assyrian records.
+ B.C. 2000 -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ B.C. 1500 -| |- Hebraic Monotheism.
+ -| |-
+ -| |- Zoroaster.
+ -| |- Ægean Culture.
+ -| GRECO-ROMAN OR |-
+ B.C. 1000 -| CLASSICAL ERA |- Hellenic Culture.
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |-
+ -| |- Thales.
+ B.C. 500 -| |- Buddha. Confucius.
+ -| |- Socrates.
+ -| |- Plato. Aristotle.
+ -| |- Stoics and Epicureans.
+ -| |-
+ A.D. 1 -| |-
+ -| |- Christianity.
+ -| |-
+ -| |- Neo-platonists.
+ -| |-
+ A.D. 500 -| |- St. Augustine.
+ -| DARK |-
+ -| AGES |- Mohammed.
+ -| |-
+ -| |- Johannes Scotus.
+ A.D. 1000 -| |- Avicenna.
+ -| |- Scholasticism.
+ -| MEDIÆVAL OR |- Anselm. Abelard.
+ -| SCHOLASTIC ERA |- Aquinas. R. Bacon.
+ -| |- Wiclif.
+ A.D. 1500 -| MODERN |- Copernicus. Luther.
+ -| SCIENTIFIC |- Francis Bacon. Newton.
+ -| ERA |-
+ -| |- Kant. Steam.
+ A.D. 1900 -| |- Darwin. Electricity.
+
+OUR OWN DAY COMPARED WITH THE HISTORIC PAST
+
+ Our day, with its conceptions, beliefs, hopes, and endeavours, is
+ but a tiny portion of the past; for thousands of years peoples have
+ existed who have lived in other intellectual spheres than ours, who
+ have pursued other ideals.
+]
+
+“Material civilisation” is the mode of life through which the obstacles
+opposed to humanity may be overcome. By the surmounting of obstacles is
+meant the conquering of enemies, particularly of hostile animals, the
+obtaining of means for the preservation of existence, and the employing
+of these means for the increase of bodily welfare. In respect of
+material civilisation man passes through stages that differ widely from
+one another, that vary according to the manner in which the necessities
+for existence are obtained, and according to the way in which enemies
+are withstood for the safeguarding of life, welfare, and acquisitions
+already gained. Races are spoken of as supporting themselves by the
+chase and fishing, or by cattle-breeding and farming, according to
+whether they are accustomed to derive subsistence directly from “nature
+unadorned,” or by means of the cultivation and utilisation of natural
+products.
+
+No sharp line of distinction, however, may be drawn. It is inadmissible
+to speak of races as supporting themselves solely by hunting and
+fishing, for the very same peoples feed on products of the soil
+wherever they are found and recognised as means of subsistence. They
+live, it is true, upon flesh and fish, but also upon roots and the
+fruit of wild trees. While in this state of civilisation, man avails
+himself only of that which Nature places before him; he neither adapts
+Nature to his desire, to his needs, or to his manner of living, nor
+understands how to do it. He can make no further use of Nature than
+to acquire a knowledge of the sources of supply, of how to seize time
+and opportunity, and to overcome the obstacles of life in his own
+territory. He ascertains the haunts of game, discovers how to obtain
+fish, explores for wild honey or edible roots, learns to climb the
+tallest trees and to let himself down into the deepest caves; but
+he lacks the ability to cultivate Nature, to cause her to produce
+according to his will.
+
+Gradually the one phase amalgamates with the other. It is not seldom
+that hunting tribes have small tracts of land on which they raise a few
+edible plants. Observation of Nature teaches them that germs develop
+from fallen seeds, and leads of itself to the idea that it is not best
+to allow plants to grow up wild, and that it would be expedient to
+clear the surrounding ground for their better growth. And when this
+stage is reached, the next step--not to allow seeds to spring up by
+chance, but to place them in the soil one’s self--is not very far off;
+and thus the mere acquisition of Nature’s raw vegetable products gives
+place to agriculture. Often enough we observe instances of the men of
+a group carrying on hunting operations, while the women are not only
+occupied with their domestic employments, but also till the soil; thus
+the men are hunters and fishers, and the women are agriculturists.
+Domestic work led the latter to take up the cultivation of plants,
+even as it led them to the other light feminine handicrafts; while
+the repairing of weapons and of contrivances used for the capture of
+animals lay within the province of the men.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: MANKIND’S PROGRESS IN HABITS OF DRESS
+
+ This series of typical pictures is intended roughly to illustrate
+ the upward progress of man from the almost nude savage to
+ the neatly and conveniently dressed gentleman of to-day. The
+ Elizabethan dandy is, of course, as fully dressed as man can be,
+ and is introduced only as indicating the great change of sartorial
+ ideas in modern times.
+]
+
+The discovery of how to produce fire by artificial means, independently
+effected in all parts of the world--as was also the discovery of the
+art of navigation--was of the greatest importance for the entire
+future. Fire was first a result of chance.
+
+When lightning set a portion of the forest in flames, and caused a
+multitude of animals or fruits to be roasted, men put it to practical
+use. They recognised the advantage that fire gave them and sought to
+preserve it. The retention of the fire which had been sent down from
+heaven became one of the most weighty and significant of functions. Man
+learned how to keep wood-fibres smouldering, and how to blow them into
+flame at will; he also learned that it was possible to convey fire, or
+the potentiality of fire, along with him in his wanderings. But even
+then success was uncertain until a lucky chance led him to discover
+how to produce flames at will, by rubbing two sticks together or by
+twirling one against the other. These actions were originally performed
+for other purposes--to bore holes in a piece of wood, or to rub it into
+fibres; finally, one or the other was carried out with such vigour that
+a filament began to burn, and the discovery was made. Sparks from flint
+must have suggested a second method of kindling a fire; certainly
+the art of igniting soft filaments of wood by means of a spark--thus
+enabling the very smallest source of combustion to be used for human
+purposes--was known to man in the earliest times. The obvious results
+of the use of fire are means of obtaining warmth and of cooking food.
+
+[Illustration: ESQUIMAU MAKING FIRE BY FRICTION]
+
+[Illustration: AN INGENIOUS INDIAN FIRE DRILL]
+
+[Illustration: THE GAUCHO’S WAY OF GETTING A LIGHT]
+
+Self-defence had already led to the use of weapons, and, at the same
+time, the contrivances for hunting and fishing must have become
+more and more perfect. A very low degree of civilisation is that of
+races unacquainted with the bow and arrow, and familiar with club or
+boomerang only--who know how to make use merely of the weight of a
+substance, or, as in the case of the boomerang, of a peculiar means of
+imparting motion.
+
+The time previous to the discovery of the art of working in metal was
+the Age of Stone. It was a natural transition period during which men
+began to learn to make use of the malleable metals, which could be
+hammered and beaten into various shapes, and finally discovered how
+to work in iron. Iron, by being placed in the fire, brought to a white
+heat, and smelted, was rendered capable of being put to such uses as
+were impossible in the case of brittle materials--bone or stone, for
+example. Many races never acquired the art of working even in the
+softer metals, and procured metallic implements from other peoples.
+The great importance of metal-working is borne out by the fact that
+the position of the smith, even in legendary times, has been of the
+utmost significance. The Ages of Stone and of Metal belong to the most
+important stages of civilisation.
+
+Having made himself weapons, man did not employ them in fights with
+animals only; he also used them on his fellow-men, and at the same time
+arose the necessity for protective coverings--that is, the need for a
+means of neutralising the effect of weapons on the body. Thus followed
+the invention of the shield as a portable shelter, of the coat of mail
+and of the helmet, and of armour in general in all its different forms
+and varieties.
+
+Together with weapons, utensils are characteristic of material culture.
+Utensils are implements used in the arts of peace, domestic and
+industrial; they are instruments which enable us to increase power
+over Nature. Some utensils have undergone the same transformations as
+have weapons; others have their own independent history. Just as the
+edges of shells served as patterns for knife-blades, so did hollow
+stones, the shells of crustaceans or of tortoises, become models for
+dishes and basins. From the discovery of the imperviousness of dried
+earth, the potter’s art developed; it became possible to mould clay
+into desired shapes while moist, and then, when dry, to employ it in
+its new form as a vessel for holding liquids; for that which has always
+been of the greatest importance in the making of utensils has been
+the taking advantage of two opposite characteristics displayed by a
+material during the different stages of its manufacture--plasticity,
+which admits of its first being moulded into various forms, and another
+quality, which causes it afterward to stiffen into solidity and
+strength.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mansell
+
+THE MAN WITH THE HOE
+
+ From the painting by Millet
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Underwood & Underwood
+
+THE WONDERFUL ADVANCE IN AGRICULTURE
+
+ These pictures present a striking contrast: the sullen clod with
+ his primitive hoe, and the great Canadian reaper drawn by thirty
+ horses, both in use to-day.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of the Textile Arts]
+
+A further acquisition was the art of braiding and plaiting, the joining
+together of flexible materials in such a way that they held together
+by force of friction alone. Thus coherent, durable fabrics may be
+produced, and by joining together small parts into an aggregate it is
+also possible to give a definite form to the whole and to adapt it to
+various uses. The quality of adaptability is especially developed in
+the products of plaiting, but the quality of imperviousness is lacking.
+Wickerwork was used not only in the form of baskets, but also in other
+shapes, as means for protection and shelter, as material for sails, as
+well as for tying and binding. The art of weaving arises from plaiting,
+and along with it come methods for spinning thread. It thus becomes
+possible to make an immense number of different useful articles out of
+shapeless vegetable material. Fibres are rendered more durable by being
+bound together, and textures formed from threads are adapted to the
+most various uses of life. This has an influence on the development of
+weapons also: bow-strings, slings, and lassos presuppose a rudimentary
+knowledge, at least, of the textile arts; and as knowledge increases,
+so are the products improved in turn.
+
+[Illustration: MAN’S METAL DRESS: THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARMOUR FROM
+ANCIENT TO MEDIÆVAL TIMES
+
+ The way in which man has protected himself against his foes in
+ battle, and the gradual progress and decline of such methods,
+ is shown in these pictures. The first is from the monuments of
+ Nineveh, and shows the earliest form of chain mail. In the second
+ we see the armour of the Roman legionary, while the third shows
+ the heavy accoutrement of a mediæval warrior. A helmet of the same
+ period is also shown.
+]
+
+Means for conveyance are also invented, that difficulties arising
+from distance may be overcome. At first men carry burdens upon their
+backs, heads, or shoulders, or in the hand, placing whatever they
+wish to transport in a utensil--a basket or a piece of cloth--thus
+producing a coherent whole; later, in order to render conveyance
+still more convenient, handles are invented. Objects are dragged
+along the ground, and from an effort to save them from injury the
+idea of sledges develops. Things that are round enough are rolled
+to their destinations; this leads to the invention of rollers and
+wheels, materials of required form being brought into combination with
+rudimentary agents of circular motion, and thus, through a rotary, a
+horizontal movement is obtained; and so the force of gravity is made
+use of, consistency of motion procured, and the hindering effect of
+friction overcome to the greatest possible degree.
+
+Means for carrying inanimate objects once invented, it is not long
+before they are put to use for the conveyance of man himself; thus
+methods for the transportation of human beings are discovered in the
+same manner as the means for the carriage of goods.
+
+[Sidenote: Man’s First Boats]
+
+In primitive times transportation by water is employed to a far greater
+extent than by land. Man learns how to swim in the same way as other
+animals do, by discovering how to repress his struggles, transforming
+them into definite, regular movements. The sight of objects afloat
+must, through unconscious analysis--experience--have taught men to make
+light, water-tight structures for the conveyance of goods upon water,
+and, later, for the use of man himself. The pole by which the first
+raft was pushed along developed into the rudder. Kayaks and canoes were
+built of wood, of bark, and of hides. In this connection, moreover,
+an epoch-marking invention was that of cloths in which to catch the
+wind--sails; and this, too, was a result of observation and experience.
+Man had known the effect of the wind upon fluttering cloth, to his
+loss, long enough before he hit upon the idea of employing it to his
+advantage. Finally he learned that by adjusting the sails he might make
+use of winds blowing from any direction.
+
+[Illustration: MAN’S METAL DRESS: THE GRADUAL MODIFICATION OF ARMOUR IN
+MODERN TIMES
+
+ The invention of gunpowder and firearms rendered the protection of
+ armour useless, and by the sixteenth century it had been greatly
+ modified. The first of these pictures shows the slight armour worn
+ by James II. The second is a suit of Japanese armour, discarded
+ in our own time; while the last is a portrait of a present day
+ Life-guardsman, whose cuirass is more ornamental than useful.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Man’s First Houses]
+
+Habitations are structures built in order to facilitate and assure
+the existence of man and the preservation of his goods. Indeed, the
+presence of caverns caused men to recognise the protective virtue of
+roof and wall, and the knowledge thus acquired gave rise in turn to
+the making of artificial caves. Holes beneath overhanging banks and
+precipices led to the building of houses with roofs extending beyond
+the rambling walls. Perhaps the protection afforded by leafy roofs,
+and the walls formed by the trunks of trees in primeval forests, may
+also have turned men’s thoughts to the construction of dwellings.
+Houses of various forms were built, circular and rectangular; some with
+store-rooms and hearths. The use of dwellings presupposes a certain
+amount of consistency in the mode of living, the presence of local
+ties, and a general spirit favouring fixed and permanent residence.
+Nomadic races use movable or temporary shelters only--waggons, tents,
+or huts.
+
+[Sidenote: Home and Dress]
+
+The houses of stationary peoples become more and more firm and stable.
+At first they are built of earth and wickerwork, later of stone, and
+finally of bricks, as among the Babylonians. Foundations are invented,
+dwellings are accurately designed as to line and angle; the curved line
+is introduced, bringing with it arches both round and pointed, as may
+be seen in the remains of Roman and Etruscan buildings. The structure
+is adorned, and it becomes a work of art.
+
+But man also dwelt over the water, sometimes erecting his habitations
+upon rafts and floats, often upon structures that rose from beneath the
+surface. Thus was he, dwelling in communities of various sizes, secure
+from the attacks of land enemies. Even to-day there are uncivilised
+peoples who live over water, constructing their homes upon piles.
+
+[Sidenote: Taming of the Wild]
+
+Clothing, however, was invented partly that in cold climates men might
+survive the winter, partly for the sake of ornament. In tropical
+regions man originally had no knowledge of the necessity for clothing:
+garments are masks, disguises; they bear with them a charm; they
+are the peculiar property of the medicine-men or of those who in
+the religious dance invoke the higher powers. Modesty is a derived
+feeling; it cannot exist until a high state of individualisation has
+been attained, until each man desires exclusive possession of his wife,
+and therefore wishes to shield her from the covetousness of other men.
+With the knowledge of dress, a desire for adornment, the effort to
+assist Nature in producing certain definite æsthetic effects, arises.
+Less uniformity in the appearance of the body is wanted, and this
+brings tattooing and the use of ornament into vogue. Later there is a
+fusing of these several aims; clothing becomes protection, veil, and
+ornament in one, fulfilling all three functions at the same time.
+
+Another epoch-marking discovery, often arrived at while races are
+still in the state of subsistence by hunting, is the domestication of
+animals. This may have originated in the practice of provoking one
+beast to attack another in order to vanquish them both the more easily.
+Further development, bringing with it the idea of totemism and the
+notion that the soul of an animal dwells in man, drew him nearer to his
+animal neighbours; and he sought them out as comrades and attendants.
+The taming of wild creatures arose from two sources--human egoism, and
+the innate feeling of unity and identification with Nature common to
+all savages; hence on the one hand, the subjugation of animals, and,
+on the other, their domestication. Neither employment rendered it by
+any means less possible for men to hold animals in reverence, or to
+attribute to them virtue as ancestral spirits.
+
+Such acquisitions of external culture accompany man during the
+transition from his subsistence by the pure products of Nature
+to the cultivation of natural resources, cattle-breeding and
+agriculture--occupations necessitating the greatest unrest and
+mobility. The simple life in Nature incites men to wander forth that
+they may discover land adapted for their support; they rove about in
+search of roots as well as of living prey. The breeding of domestic
+animals also causes them to travel in the hope of finding ground for
+pasture; nor does agriculture in its primitive form tend to establish
+permanence of residence, although it contains within itself latent
+possibilities of developing a settled life, one of the most important
+factors in the progress of mankind.
+
+[Illustration: PRIMITIVE DWELLINGS OF TO-DAY: HOUSE-BOATS AT CANTON
+
+[Sidenote: Mankind “Settling Down”]
+
+ Not only are there lake-dwellers to-day, as we have seen, but even
+ large communities, as at Canton, in China, live in boats.
+]
+
+Only fixed, domestic peoples are able to create great and lasting
+institutions, to store up the results of civilisation for distant
+later races, and to establish a developed, well-organised commercial
+and civil life. The transition from nomadism to life in permanent
+residences has, therefore, been one of the greatest steps in the
+development of humanity. At the time of the beginnings of agriculture,
+however, man was still a periodic wanderer. According to the
+field-grass system of cultivation, seed is sown in hastily-cleared
+ground, which soon becomes exhausted and is then abandoned. A migration
+follows and new land is cleared. This system continues until men learn
+to cultivate part of the land in a district, allowing the remainder
+to lie fallow for a time in order that the soil may recover; thus
+they remain fixed in their chosen district. Various circumstances--for
+example, the danger of enemies from without, and the difficulties
+attending migration--must have led to this change, the transition to
+the system of alternation of crops. The wanderings are confined to less
+extensive regions, the same fields are returned to after a few years,
+until finally the relation of patches under cultivation to fallow land
+is reduced to a system, and the time of wandering is past.
+
+[Illustration: THE BEGINNINGS OF COMMERCE: PRIMITIVE PEOPLE BARTERING
+IVORY TUSKS AND BULL-HIDES]
+
+[Sidenote: The coming of the Craftsman]
+
+With fixed residence the forms of communities alter. The group settles
+in a certain district, homes are built close to one another, and the
+patriarchal organisation gives place to the village, which, with
+its definite boundaries, is thenceforth the nucleus of the social
+aggregate. Often several village communities have fields and forests in
+common, and a common ownership of dams and canals; Nature takes care
+that they do not become isolated, but unite together in close contact
+for common defence and protection. With agriculture is associated the
+working up of raw products. These are fashioned into materials for the
+support of life and for enjoyment; furniture for dwellings, clothing,
+tools, utensils, and weapons are made. For, however much agriculture
+favours a life of peace, so rarely does man live in friendship with
+his fellows that agricultural peoples also find it necessary to arm
+themselves for war.
+
+At first manufacture is not separated from farming; the agriculturist
+himself prepares the natural products, assisted by the members of
+his family. Later, it is easily seen that some individuals are
+more skilled than others; it is also recognised that skill may be
+developed by practice and that employments must be learned. Therefore
+it is requisite that special individuals of the community should
+prepare themselves for particular activities in the working up of raw
+products and pursue these activities in consistency with the needs
+of the society--trade or craft. The craftsman at first labours for
+the community; in every village the tailor, cobbler, smith, barber,
+and schoolmaster is supported by society at large. The craftsman
+receives his appointed income--that is, his portion of the common
+supply of food; and, in addition, every one for whom he expends his
+labour gives him something in compensation, or finds him food while
+employed about his house, until, finally, a systematic method of
+exchange is established; and with this another advance--an epoch for
+civilisation--is arrived at.
+
+[Sidenote: The First Labour Problem]
+
+This is the division of labour. It is found advantageous not only that
+the craftsman be employed as he is needed, but also that he produce a
+supply of products peculiar to his trade; for the times of labour do
+not in the least harmonise with the times of demand. Although during
+the first periods of industrial life men sought more or less to adjust
+these factors, in later times they become wholly separate from one
+another. There is always, in addition, labour ready to be expended on
+casual needs; in more advanced phases of civilisation this condition of
+affairs is not avoided; but wherever labour can be disassociated from
+fortuitous necessity, the capacity for production is greatly increased.
+Commodities are manufactured during the best seasons for production
+and are preserved until the times of need; thus men become independent
+of the moment. Here also, as in other problems of civilisation, it is
+necessary to surmount the incongruities of chance, and to render all
+circumstances serviceable to our purposes.
+
+[Sidenote: Crafts and Trades Developing]
+
+Exchange and division of labour are the great factors of the progress
+of a civilisation based upon industrialism. Crafts and trades develop
+and improve; greater and greater skill is demanded, and consequently
+the time of preparation necessary for the master craftsman becomes
+longer and longer. The worker limits himself to a definite sphere of
+production and carries his trade forward to a certain perfection. His
+wares will then be more eagerly sought for than those made by another
+hand; they are better, yet cheaper, for his labour is lightened by his
+greater skill. His various fellow craftsmen, and the agriculturist
+also, must exchange their goods for his; for the more specialised the
+work of an individual, the more necessary the community is to him, in
+order that he may satisfy all his various requirements. Exchange is
+at first natural; that is, commodities are traded outright, each
+individual giving goods directly in return for the goods he receives.
+The production of the community as a whole has become far richer, far
+more perfect. The labour of the organised society produces more than
+the activity of separate individuals.
+
+[Illustration: THE BEARERS OF MAN’S BURDENS: PRIMITIVE AND NATURAL
+METHODS OF CARRYING
+
+ These illustrations show a palanquin borne by horses; the Chinese
+ single-wheel cart and the same assisted by a donkey and a sail;
+ pack mules and camels; and a sledge drawn by Esquimau dogs.
+]
+
+[Illustration: SOME METHODS OF CONVEYANCE IN VARIOUS AGES AND COUNTRIES
+
+ In this plate are illustrated a caravan of yaks; the elephant with
+ a howdah; the African litter; reindeers as pack animals; and the
+ familiar bullock waggon of France--a few of the many methods of
+ carrying used by man.
+]
+
+[Illustration: PRIMITIVE MONEY: SELLING A SLAVE FOR COWRIES
+
+ Cowries, which are small shells, are a very primitive form of
+ money, still used in parts of Africa and in Siam. They were
+ formerly so used in India, where $150,000 worth used to be imported
+ annually. In Africa 5,000 shells are equivalent to $1.
+]
+
+Here, again, is shown the impulse of man to free himself from the
+exigencies of the moment, to lift himself above the fortuitous
+differences that arise between supply and demand. The more varied the
+production, the more difficult it becomes to find men who are able to
+offer the required commodity in exchange for what has been brought
+to them. An escape from this embarrassment lies in the discovery of
+a universal measure of exchange value and medium of exchange--money.
+Money is the means of adjustment which renders traffic between men
+independent of individual requirements.
+
+Mediums of exchange, particularly necessary for the carrying on of
+traffic between different communities, which exist in large quantities
+and can be divided up into parts, make their appearance in very early
+times. At first their values are more or less empirical, dependent
+upon the conditions of individual cases, until gradually a medium
+obtains general recognition and thus becomes money. The same need for
+surmounting the lack of uniformity in individual requirements has led
+the most different peoples in the world to the invention of money.
+Naturally, many different things have been employed as mediums of
+exchange; these vary according to geographical situations, conditions
+of civilisation, and the customs of races. Pastoral tribes at first
+employed cattle; but tobacco, cowries, strings of flat shells, bits of
+mother-of-pearl, rings, and hides are also used. At last it is found
+that metal is stable, durable, divisible, and of generally recognised
+value; and finally the precious metals take precedence of all others.
+Finally this form of money is adopted by all civilised races.
+
+Division of labour originates in the development of the handicrafts, in
+the distinction made between the labour of working up the raw material
+and that of its production. With the help of a currency it leads to a
+complete transformation, not only of economic relations, but also of
+the social conditions of men.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Coin of Alexander the Great
+
+ The earliest inscribed coin, 7th century B.C.
+
+ Coin of Demetrius Poliorcetes, King of Macedonia
+
+ Early British coin
+
+ Coin of Tigranes, King of Armenia
+
+ Early British coin
+
+ Coin of Mithridates the Great, King of Pontus
+
+ A Tetradrachm of the 5th century B.C.
+
+ A Tetradrachm of the 6th century B.C.
+
+ Gold coin of Philip II. of Macedon
+
+ Persian Gold Daric, 5th century B.C.
+
+ Early Roman bar money of the 4th century B.C.
+
+ Iron bar money of South of England
+
+THE BEGINNING OF MONEY: SOME OF THE EARLIEST KNOWN COINS IN EXISTENCE
+
+ Of these coins, chiefly from the British Museum, the South England
+ iron currency bars are perhaps most interesting. Our reproduction
+ of these is one-tenth actual size. It will be noticed that the
+ handles and the sizes vary.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE BEGINNING OF PRINTING: STRADANUS’S PRINTING OFFICE
+AT ANTWERP IN THE YEAR 1600
+
+ From a very rare engraving in the British Museum
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRINTING: THE LARGEST PRESS IN THE
+WORLD
+
+ How great has been the progress in the art of printing is seen from
+ these two pictures. The modern Hoe printing press is a marvel of
+ mechanism. The first editions of this History were printed on a
+ similar machine.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Markets and Prices]
+
+Country becomes city; centres of population which rest upon an
+industrial basis arise; in many cases growth of the various
+manufacturing industries is furthered by unfavourable agricultural
+conditions. Such industrial centres require markets and market-places;
+it is necessary for the producers of raw materials to come to market
+from the country with their goods, in order that they may meet
+together with the craftsmen of the city, and with other producers from
+the country who offer their wares in turn. The market town is the
+point of departure for further culture. Here, too, the endeavour to
+harmonise individual incongruities exists. Fruit is sent to market;
+each man has his choice; an exchange value is determined by means of
+comparison, through analysis of the individual prices which themselves
+do not furnish any rational determination of worth, and therefore
+expose both buyer and seller to chance. Thus a market-price develops.
+The city is the living agency promoting industry and exchange; it
+brings its population into contact with the population of the country
+by means of the market, and prevents men from separating into isolated,
+unsympathetic, or even hostile groups.
+
+Here industry flourishes--arts, crafts, and large manufactures. In
+the latter, division of labour is developed to a maximum degree,
+and production in factories derives a further impulse through the
+introduction of machinery. Machines, in contrast to implements and
+utensils, are inanimate but organised instruments for labour, requiring
+subordinate human activity only (attendance) so that they may impart
+force and motion in a manner corresponding with the designs of the
+inventor. Machinery is originally of simple form, dependent on water or
+wind for motive power--rude mills, and contrivances for the guiding of
+water in canals or conduits belong to its primitive varieties.
+
+[Sidenote: The Use of Natural Forces]
+
+But man’s power of invention increases, and in the higher stage of
+industrial evolution the facilities for labour are enormous. We have
+but to think of steam and of electricity with all their tremendous
+developments of power. Finally the discovery of the unity of force
+leads men to look upon Nature as a storehouse of energy and to devise
+means by which natural forces may be guided, one form of energy
+converted into another and transferred from place to place; and thus
+man becomes almost all-powerful. He is not able to create, it is true,
+but he may at least mould and shape to his desire that which Nature
+has already formed. Thus the discovery how to direct the forces of
+Nature enables us again, according to the principle already cited, to
+escape the disabilities of human differentiation with its attendant
+incongruities.
+
+[Sidenote: Boundless Growth of Commerce]
+
+As already stated, division of labour leads to exchange; exchange leads
+to commerce. Commerce is exchange on a large scale, organised into a
+system with special regard to the production of a store, or supply. The
+latter requires a certain knowledge of trade; the centres of demand
+must be sought out, and the goods transported to these centres. In this
+way a fruitful reciprocal action develops; and as production influences
+trade, so may trade influence production, governing it according to
+the fluctuations of demand, and leading to the creation of stores of
+commodities for which a future market is to be expected. Thus commerce
+presupposes special knowledge and special skill; it develops a special
+technique through which it is enabled to execute its complicated
+tasks. Men who live by trade become distinct from craftsmen; and the
+mercantile class results. Merchants are men whose task is to effect
+an organised exchange of natural and manufactured products. Commerce
+always displays an impulse to extend itself beyond the borders of
+single nations--not to remain inland only, but to become a foreign
+trade also; for the products of foreign countries and climates, however
+valuable they may be, would be inaccessible except for commerce.
+Thus trade becomes both import and export. The first step is for the
+tradesman or his representative to travel about peddling goods, or for
+an owner of wares or money to offer capital to an itinerant merchant
+with the object that the latter may divide the profits with him later
+on. This leads to the sending of merchandise to a middleman, who
+places it on the market in a distant region--commission business. The
+establishment of a branch or agency in a foreign country, in order to
+trade there while in immediate connection with the main business house,
+follows; and, finally, merchants deal directly with foreign houses
+without the intervention of middlemen, thus entering into direct export
+trade. This, of course, presupposes a great familiarity with foreign
+affairs and confidence in their soundness; consequently it is possible
+only in a highly developed state of civilisation.
+
+[Illustration: “THE SHIP OF THE DESERT”: THE CARAVAN IS THE OLDEST
+EXISTING MEANS OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PEOPLES
+
+ From J. F. Lewis’s picture “The Halt in the Desert,” in the South
+ Kensington Museum
+
+ (Photo, Mansell)
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Birth of New Trades and Institutions]
+
+Foreign trade is carried on overland by means of caravans, and,
+in later times, by railways; over sea, through a merchant
+marine--sailing vessels and steamships. The magnitude of commerce, its
+peculiar methods, and its manifold, varying phases combine to produce
+new and surprising phenomena: traffic by sea leads to insurance and
+to different forms of commercial associations; intercourse by caravan
+gives rise to the construction of halting-stations, establishments for
+refreshment and repair, that finally develop into taverns and inns. And
+that which first arose from necessity is subsequently turned to use
+for other purposes: insurance is one of the most fruitful ideas of the
+present day; hotels are an absolute necessity.
+
+Commerce is able to bring further contrivances and institutions into
+being, here, again, overcoming individual incongruity by means of
+combination. Trade cannot always be carried on directly between the
+places of production and of consumption; one district requires more,
+another less; it would be difficult to supply all from one centre
+of distribution. Thus an intermediate carrying trade is developed,
+rendering the surmounting of obstacles less difficult and increasing
+the stability of the market. The demands of the middleman are
+compensated for by these advantages.
+
+[Sidenote: Commerce Brings the World Together]
+
+Thus the world’s commerce develops, and that which is accomplished
+by market traffic in lesser districts is brought about by the
+concentrative influence of bourses, or exchanges, in the broadest
+spheres. Here, as in the smaller markets, the tendency is for all
+prices to seek a level, to become as independent as possible of
+individual conditions; and so commerce between nations, and the
+possibility of ordering goods from the most distant lands, bring with
+them an adjustment: world prices are formed; and to establish these,
+is the business of the exchanges. The exchange is a meeting together
+of merchants for the transaction of business by purchase or sale. It
+has acquired still more the character of a world institution since
+men have been able to interchange advices by means of telegraph and
+telephone; it is possible for the bourses of different countries to
+transact business with one another from moment to moment, so that the
+ruling prices of the world can be immediately known. It has already
+been stated that commerce leads to a taking up of residence in foreign
+countries; it also leads to colonisation, and it is chiefly due to
+commerce that civilisation is introduced into foreign lands.
+
+[Sidenote: Supply of Human Labour]
+
+In earlier centuries the labour question was settled by means of the
+legal subjection of certain classes of men, until complete injustice
+was reached in slavery. The system was rendered still more efficient
+by making slave-ownership hereditary. Slavery, originated in wars and
+man-hunting, in times when there were but few domesticated animals
+and no machines, when utensils, were very imperfect and a more or
+less developed mode of life could only be conducted by means of the
+manual labour of individuals. Therefore, in order to obtain labourers,
+men resorted to force, introducing a slave population of which the
+individuals were either divided among households or kept in special
+slave habitations. The industry of the slave was often increased by the
+promise of definite privileges or private possessions. He was often
+granted a home and family life, and thus he became a bondman--burdened
+and taxed and bound to the soil, it is true, but otherwise looked
+upon as a man possessed of ordinary rights and privileges. Even
+during the days of slavery there were instances of emancipation, and
+the possibility was opened up of rising to the social position of a
+slave-owner.
+
+The evolution of a free working class, with recompense for labour,
+is one of the most important chapters in the history of modern
+civilisation. The chief sphere of development is that of the crafts
+and trades. The power of guilds often induces legislation in their
+favour; thus they become monopolies, and only such individuals as are
+members of an association may adopt its particular trade or craft
+as a profession. Sometimes the unity of a guild is broken, and the
+individual right to form judgments enters in place of the rules laid
+down by the corporation. From this results competition, which finally
+leads up to free competition. Through free competition, the encumbering
+rigidity of the guilds is avoided; it leads to a high development
+of the individual, and is therefore a great source of progress; it
+discloses the secrets of the craft, freeing men from deeply-rooted
+prejudices in regard to different vocations; and it increases man’s
+inventive capacity, producing new methods for carrying on trades and
+new combinations and connections.
+
+[Illustration: THE PROMISE OF PEACE: THE HAGUE CONFERENCE OF THE
+NATIONS OF THE WORLD IN 1907
+
+ Nothing could more effectively illustrate the ideal of
+ international peaceful co-operation to which hopeful historians
+ look forward than this photograph of the representatives of all the
+ leading Powers of the world, met together at The Hague, in the year
+ 1907, to promote the amity of nations and the eventual abolition of
+ war.
+]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: STEPS IN MAN’S DEVELOPMENT II
+
+Professor
+
+JOSEPH KOHLER]
+
+
+
+
+THE HIGHER PROGRESS OF MANKIND
+
+
+Spiritual culture may develop in the directions of knowing and of
+feeling. These two forms of the manifestation of consciousness are
+originally not to be separated from each other; but as time goes on,
+a preponderance of one or the other becomes noticeable. Language is
+the first result of spiritual culture: the communication of thoughts
+by means of words (sound pictures of ideas). Language arises from the
+necessities of life, from the need for communication among the members
+of a social aggregate.
+
+[Illustration: GUTENBERG, THE INVENTOR OF PRINTING
+
+ Nothing has eclipsed the printing press as an agency of man’s
+ intellectual and spiritual advancement.
+]
+
+A much later acquisition, the art of writing, or the fixation of
+language in a definite, permanent form, stands in close connection with
+speech. Writing develops according to two systems: the one based on
+the symbolising or picturing of ideas--picture-writing, hieroglyphics;
+and the other on the breaking up of the speech-sounds of a language
+into a notation of syllables or letters--syllabic or letter writing.
+According to the first method thoughts are directly pictured; according
+to the second, sounds, not ideas, are represented by symbols--that is,
+the sounds which stand for the ideas are transformed into signs. The
+transition from sign to syllabic writing comes about in this manner:
+if, during its development, a language uses the same sound to express
+various conceptions, men represent this sound by one sign; and whenever
+a foreign word is reproduced in writing it is first separated into
+syllables, and the syllables are then pictured by the same signs as
+are employed to represent similar sounds--but different ideas--in the
+native speech. Thus symbols are employed more and more phonetically,
+and less and less meaning comes to be attached to them. This process
+must continue its development if the pronunciation changes as time
+goes on; the old writing, with its national symbol-method, may be
+retained; but with the changing of speech-sounds the new writing is
+altered; syllables are now represented by signs, and combinations
+of syllables are reproduced by means of a combination of their
+corresponding symbols. Thus phonetic writing was not an invention, but
+a gradual development. Together with the phonetic symbols, ideograms or
+hieroglyphs also exist, as in Babylonian. It is especially interesting,
+and indicative of the unity of the human mind, that the transition to
+syllabic writing has been arrived at independently by different races;
+the Aztecs, for example, exhibit a wholly independent development.
+
+[Sidenote: The Spreading of Ideas]
+
+Communication by writing may be either single or private, or general
+and public; in the latter case plurality is attained through such
+methods as the affixing of bills and placards, or by means of
+transcripts or reproductions of the original copy. At first the latter
+are made in accordance with the ordinary methods of writing; and in
+slave-holding communities--Rome, for example--slaves who wrote to
+dictation were employed as scribes. The discovery of a method by which
+to obtain a plurality of copies through a single mechanical process was
+epoch-making. The printing-press has performed a far greater service
+to humanity than have most inventions; for, with the possibility of
+producing thousands of copies of a communication, the thoughts embodied
+in it become forces; they may enter the minds of many individuals who
+are either convinced or actually guided by them. Ideas become active
+through their suggestion on the masses of the population. This may lead
+to a one-sided rule of public opinion; but a healthy race will travel
+intellectually in many directions, and various beliefs supplement one
+another, struggle together, conquer, and are conquered. In this manner
+thoughts awaken popular movements, rousing a people to a hitherto
+unknown degree, and forcing men to think and to join issues. Thus the
+Press becomes a factor in civilisation of the very first importance.
+The necessity for periodic communication, together with curiosity
+that refuses to wait long for information, leads to the establishment
+of regularly recurrent publications; and thus, in addition to the
+book-press, the newspaper-press, that has learned how to hold great
+centres of population under its control, appears. Naturally this method
+of aiding the progress of civilisation has its disadvantages, as have
+all other methods; the conception of the world becomes superficial;
+individuality loses in character; not only a certain levelling of
+education, but also a levelling of views of life and of modes of
+thought, results. But, on the whole, knowledge is spread abroad as it
+never was before.
+
+[Illustration: EXAMPLES OF AZTEC HIEROGLYPHIC SCULPTURE AND WRITING
+
+ The hieroglyphics and script of the Aztecs were independently
+ developed. The first illustration is from a sculpture in Mexico,
+ and the other is a small reproduction of a page of the Maya
+ manuscript at Dresden. In both cases the symbolism is only
+ imperfectly understood at present.
+]
+
+Man, as a thinking being, craves for a conception of life; and in his
+inmost thoughts he seeks for an explanation of the double relationship
+of Man to Nature and of Nature to Man, striving to bring all into
+harmony. This he finds in religion.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Frith
+
+THE GREAT BUDDHA AT KAMAKURA, IN JAPAN
+
+Professor Kohler points out that in the history of the world’s
+religions, although the belief in the omnipotence of God has become so
+widespread, it is not thought inconsistent that a Buddha, claiming to
+incarnate the Supreme Being completely within himself, should appear.]
+
+[Sidenote: Man’s Craving for Religion]
+
+[Sidenote: Beginnings of Nature Worship]
+
+[Sidenote: The Realm of Shadows]
+
+Religion is belief in God; that is, belief in spiritual forces
+inseparable from and interwoven through the universe--forces that
+render all things distinct and separate, yet make all coalescent and
+firm, permeating all, and giving to every object its individuality.
+Man is impelled by Nature to conceive of the universe as divine. This
+idea exhibits itself universally among primitive folk in the form
+of animism--a belief that the entire internal and external world is
+animated, filled with supernatural beings that have originally no
+determinate nature, but which may appear in the most varied of forms,
+may vanish and may create themselves anew, as clouds arise from unseen
+vapour in the air. Spirits are supposed to be not far removed from
+man; families as well as individuals consider themselves to stand more
+or less in connection with them; and men, too, have a share in the
+invisible world when they have cast aside the garment of the body in
+dream or in death. Thus, every man is thought to have his protecting
+spirit, his _manitou_, that reveals itself to him through signs and
+dreams. Special incarnations, objects in which supernatural beings
+are inherent or with which they are in some way connected, are called
+“fetiches”; hence arises fetichism, in regard to which the strangest
+ideas were held in previous centuries when the science of anthropology
+was unknown. Trees, rocks, rivers, bits of wood, images of one’s own
+making--any of these are thought capable of containing beings of divine
+nature. Naturally, the tree or the fragment of wood or of stone is not
+worshipped, as men formerly thought, but the spirit that is believed
+to have entered it. In many cases the belief approaches worship of
+Nature, especially among agricultural peoples. Divinity is recognised
+in the shape of factors essential to agriculture--sun, sky, lightning,
+thunder; these being the beneficent deities, in contrast to whom are
+the earth-spirits who bring pestilences, earthquakes, and other evils
+to mankind. Thus the cult is refined; spirits are no longer attached
+to fetiches, but men worship the heavens, and the earth also. Religion
+accompanies man from birth to death. Spirits both for good and for evil
+are supposed to hover about him at his very birth. The soul of some
+being--perhaps an animal, perhaps an ancestor--enters into the new-born
+child, and from this spirit he receives his name.
+
+Oftentimes there is a new consecration at the time of marriage;
+often when an heir-apparent succeeds to the chieftainship. At his
+decease primitive folk believe that man enters the realm of shadows.
+At first he hovers over the sea or river of death, and often only
+after having passed through many hardships does he arrive in the new
+kingdom, where he either continues to live after the manner of his
+former existence, or, according to whether his life on earth has been
+good or evil, inhabits a higher or a lower supernatural sphere. To
+the dead are consecrated their personal possessions--horses, slaves,
+wives even--that they may make use of them during the new existence;
+men go head-hunting in order to send them new helpmates. On the other
+hand great care is often taken that the spirits of the departed,
+satisfied with their new existence, may no longer molest the world of
+the living: propitiative offerings are made; men avoid mentioning the
+name of the departed, that he may not be tempted to visit them with
+his presence; they seek to make themselves unrecognisable during the
+time immediately following his death, wear different clothes, and adopt
+other dwelling-places. Sometimes the light placed near the deceased for
+the purpose of guiding him back to his old home is moved further and
+further away, so that his ghost, unable to find the right path, shall
+never return.
+
+Thus the belief in spirits encompasses primitive man, following him
+step by step.
+
+[Sidenote: The Belief in Many Gods]
+
+[Sidenote: Happiness found in Religion]
+
+From animism develops worship of heroes and polytheism, with their
+attendant mythological narrations. The idea of the unity of the
+supernatural world becomes lost; and the indefinite forms of spirit
+become separate, independent beings, that are developed more and
+more in the direction of the souls either of animals or of men.
+This splitting up of the deity, which destroys the tendency toward
+unity in religion, is followed by a reaction that comes about partly
+through a belief in creation by a father of the gods, partly through
+acceptance of a historical origin of the mythological world from a
+single source (theogonic myths), and partly through direct banishment
+of the plurality of gods and a new formation of the belief in a unity
+according either to theistic or to pantheistic ideas. In spite of the
+conception of a world permeated and pervaded by God alone, the belief
+that certain persons and places are more powerful in respect to the
+divinity than others is retained; and the appearance from time to time
+of a Buddha who incarnates and manifests the Supreme Being directly and
+completely within himself--in a special manner apart from other natural
+phenomena--is also not looked upon as inconsistent.
+
+[Illustration: A STRANGE RELIGIOUS RITE: FUNERAL SACRIFICE OF THE TODAS
+IN SOUTHERN INDIA
+
+ The elaborate and extraordinary funeral rites of the Todas
+ illustrate admirably the older notions of life and death. A funeral
+ endures for several days; the body is cremated; last of all the
+ buffaloes of the deceased are slaughtered at the grave and thought
+ to enter into mystic reunion with their master. In olden times a
+ whole troop would be slaughtered, but under British influence the
+ number has been limited to one for a common person and two for a
+ chief.
+]
+
+Religion is a thing of the emotions, not merely in the sense of having
+its origin in fear, or in the remembrance of lasting sensations derived
+from visions or dreams, but emotional in so far that it satisfies
+the necessity felt by men for a consistent life-conception--not an
+intellectual but an emotional conception. It is not the matter-of-fact
+desire for knowledge that finds its expression in religion, but the
+joy of the heart in a supreme power, the call for help of the needy,
+and the consciousness of our own insignificance and our mortality.
+Judgment is not yet abstracted from the other psychic functions;
+indeed, it really retires behind the emotions.
+
+[Illustration: NOAH’S SACRIFICE
+
+ From the painting by Daniel Maclise, R.A.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: The Basis of Worship]
+
+[Sidenote: The Growth of the Priesthood]
+
+When men thus believe in divinity, if the belief have an active
+influence on the emotions, it follows that the individual must
+establish some connection between himself and the object of his
+worship. This is brought about through certain actions, or through the
+creation of circumstances in which special conditions of consecration
+are perceived, and therewith the possibility of a close relationship
+with the Supreme Being. The acts through which this relationship may be
+brought about, taken collectively, are embraced in the word “worship,”
+and if performed according to a strict system they are called “rites.”
+Sacrifice has an important place among the ceremonies observed in
+accordance with ritual. It is based on a conception of the wants and
+necessities of the higher beings, and, in later times, is refined
+into a representation of man’s ethical feelings--unselfishness and
+gratitude, which give pleasure to the Deity and thus contribute to
+its happiness. But sacrifice does not retain its unselfish character
+for any great length of time. Man thinks of himself first: he makes
+offerings to the good spirits, but more particularly to the evil
+gods, in order to pacify their fury and appease their evil desires.
+Sacrifices are also offered to the dead, and from such offerings and
+memorials is developed the idea of a “family” or “clan,” which outlives
+the individual.
+
+Thus, emotion is the principal active agent; but intellectual power
+also must gradually lay its hold on the system of belief. The
+principles discovered are formulated into a science and the cultivation
+of this science becomes the special duty of the priesthood, often as
+a secret art--esoteric system--in which concealment is conducive to
+the maintenance of the exclusiveness and peculiar power of the priest
+class. The science becomes partly mythologic-historical, partly
+dogmatic, and partly ritualistic.
+
+[Sidenote: Out of Religion Came Art]
+
+The artistic instinct develops partly in connection with worship,
+partly in the direction of its practical application to life; and
+although no very sharp line of distinction is drawn between the two
+tendencies, the germ at least of the difference between the fine
+and the industrial arts is thus in existence from the very earliest
+times. Worship gives rise to images and pictures, at first of the
+very roughest form. They are not mere symbols; they are the garments
+or habitations with which the spirit invests itself. The spirit
+may take up its abode anywhere according to the different beliefs
+of man--in a plant, an animal, a stone, above all, in a picture or
+effigy that symbolically reflects its peculiarities. Therefore, the
+ghosts of ancestors are embodied in ancestral images. Just as skulls
+were reverenced in earlier times, in later days the images of the
+dead (_korwar_) are worshipped. Such images are the oldest examples
+of the art of portraiture; and the oldest dolls are the rude puppets
+which according to the rites of many races--the American Indians, for
+example--widows must wear about them as tokens, or as the husks or
+wrappers of their husbands’ doubles.
+
+Religion itself becomes poetry. The belief in the identity of spirits
+of the departed with animals, and the myths of metamorphosis, take
+the form of fables and fairy tales; the cosmogonic and theogonic
+conceptions develop into mythologies; hero sagas become epics; the
+myths of life in Nature become a glorification of the external world,
+an expression of unity with Nature, and thus a form of lyric poetry.
+
+[Sidenote: Artistic Expression of Life]
+
+Everyday life, too, demands artistic expression. At first the childish
+passion for the changing pictures that correspond with different ideas
+of the imagination joins with the desire to impress others, and finery
+in dress and ornamentation result. This has developed in every clime.
+Tattooing arises not only from a religious motive, but also from the
+desire for ornament. The painting of men’s bodies, the often grotesque
+ideas, such as artificial deformation of the head, knocking out and
+blackening of teeth, ear ornaments and mutilation of ears, pegs thrust
+through the lips, and various methods of dressing the hair, may be in
+part connected with religious conceptions, for here the most varied of
+motives co-operate to the same end. Yet, on the other hand, there is no
+doubt that they are also the outcome of a craving for variation in form
+and in colour. In the same way the dance is not only an act of worship;
+it is also a means of giving vent to latent animal spirits: thus,
+dances are often expressions of the tempestuous sensual instincts of a
+people.
+
+[Sidenote: The Birth of the Drama]
+
+The dance exhibits a special tendency to represent the ordinary affairs
+of life in a symbolic manner; thus there are war and hunting dances,
+and especially animal dances in which each of the participants believes
+himself to be permeated by the spirit of some animal which throughout
+the dance he endeavours to mimic. In this way dramatic representation,
+which is certainly based on the idea of personification, on the notion
+that a man for the time being may be possessed by the spirit of some
+other creature that speaks and acts through him, originates. Thus
+arose the primitive form of masques, in which men dressed themselves
+up to resemble various creatures, real or imaginary, as in the case
+of the animal masques of old time; for according to the popular idea
+the spirit dwells in the external, visible form, and through the
+imitation or adoption of its outward appearance we become identified
+with the spirit whose character we assume. Among many races not only
+masks proper were worn, but also the hides and hair or feathers of the
+creatures personated. Dramatic representation was furthered by the
+dream plays--especially popular among the American Indians--in which
+the events of dreams are adapted for acting and performed. Even as men
+seek illumination in dreams as to questions both divine and mundane, so
+do they anticipate through dreams the dramatic representations which
+shall be performed on holidays as expressions of life.
+
+[Illustration: SAVAGE DANCES: THE FAR-OFF BEGINNINGS OF THE DRAMA
+
+The dance is an effort to give symbolic expression to affairs and moods
+of everyday life. Thus the Zulu wedding dance is self-evident in its
+purpose. The second illustration depicts a strange religious dance of
+the Australian natives, associated with totemism or animism. The third
+picture shows dancers in Kandy endeavouring to banish evil spirits, and
+the last illustrates an Australian corroboree. From such sources the
+drama has been slowly evolved.]
+
+[Sidenote: Art & Play in the Life of Man]
+
+Play is a degeneration of the dance, and it arises less from
+the instinct for beauty than from a desire to realise whatever
+entertainment and excitement may be got from any incident or
+occurrence. From another special inclination originate those satirical
+songs of Northern peoples, written in alternating verses, in which
+the national tribunal and the voice of the people are given expression
+at the same time. Thus they have a truly educative character. These are
+the preliminary steps to the free satire and humour that gleam through
+the lives of civilised peoples, now like the flicker of a candle, now
+like a purifying lightning flash, freeing men from life’s monotony, and
+illuminating the night of unsolved questions. Capacity for organised
+play is a characteristic that lifts man above the lower animals. The
+expression of individuality without any particular object in view,
+the elevation of self above the troubles of life, and free activity,
+uncoerced by the necessities of existence, are characteristic both of
+play and of art. Thus play, as well as art, exhibits to a pre-eminent
+degree man’s consciousness of having escaped, if only temporarily,
+from the coercion of environing nature; being without definite object,
+it proves that he can find employment when released from the pressure
+of the outer world--that is, when he is momentarily freed from his
+endeavour to establish a balance between himself and the necessities
+of life, with a view to overcoming the latter. Man stands in close
+connection with his environment and with the immutable laws of nature;
+but in play and in art he develops his own personality--a development
+that neither in direction nor in object is influenced by the outer
+world and its constraint.
+
+[Sidenote: Fall of Man and Rise of the Race]
+
+The step that leads to the overcoming of custom is the recognition
+of right. “Right” is that which society strictly demands from every
+individual member. Not all that is customary is exacted by right;
+a multitude of the requirements of custom may be ignored without
+opposition from the community as a whole, although, of course, detached
+individuals may express their displeasure. The aggregate, however,
+grants immunity to all who do not choose to follow the custom. In other
+words, the separation of custom from right signifies the development
+of a sharper line of demarcation between that which is and that which
+ought to be. In primitive times “is” and “ought to be” are fairly
+consonant terms; but gradually a spirit of opposition is developed;
+cases arise in which custom is opposed, in which the actions of men
+run counter to a previous habit. Man is conscious of the possibility
+of raising himself above the unreasoning tendencies toward certain
+modes of conduct, and he takes pleasure in so doing--the good man as
+well as the evil. Whoever oversteps the bounds of custom, even through
+sheer egotism, is also a furtherer of human development; without sin
+the world would never have evolved a civilisation; the Fall of Man was
+nothing more than the first step toward the historical development of
+the human race.
+
+This leads to the necessity for extracting from custom such rules
+as must prove advantageous to mankind, and this collection of
+axioms--which “ought to be”--becomes law.
+
+[Sidenote: Custom, Right, and Morality]
+
+The distinction between right and custom was an important step. The
+relativity of custom was exposed with one stroke. Many, and by no means
+the worst members of communities, emancipate themselves from custom. It
+is the opening in the wall through which the progress of humanity may
+pass. Nor do the demands of right remain unalterable and unyielding.
+A change in custom brings with it a change in right; certain rules of
+conduct gradually become isolated owing to the recession of custom,
+and to such an extent that they lose their vitality and decay. And
+as new customs arise, so are new principles of right discovered.
+In this manner an alteration in the one is a cause of change in
+the other--naturally, in conformity with the degree of culture and
+contemporary social relations. Custom and right mutually further each
+other, and render it possible for men to adapt themselves to newly
+acquired conditions of civilisation.
+
+Together with right and custom a third factor appears--morality. This
+is a comparatively late acquisition. It, too, contains something of
+the “ought to be,” not because of the social, but by virtue of the
+divine authority or order based on philosophical conceptions. Morals
+vary, therefore, as laws vary, according to peoples and to times. The
+rules of morality form a second code, set above the social law, and
+they embody a larger aggregate of duties. The reason for this is that
+men recognise that the social system of rules for conduct is not the
+only one, that it is only relative and cannot include all the duties
+of human beings, and that over and beyond the laws of society ethical
+principles exist.
+
+Naturally conflicts arise between right and morals, and such struggles
+lead to further development and progress.
+
+The late appearance of ideas of morality proves that ethical
+considerations were originally foreign to the god-conceptions. The
+spirits, fetiches, and world-creators of different beliefs are at
+first neutral so far as morals are concerned; myths and legends are
+invented partly from creation theories, partly from historic data, and
+partly through efforts of the imagination. In primitive beliefs there
+is no trace of an attempt to conceive of deities as being good in the
+highest--or even in a lower--sense; and it would not be in accordance
+with scientific ethnology to appraise, or to wish to pass judgment
+on, religions according to the point of view of ethics. Not until the
+importance of morality in life is realised, and the profound value
+of a life of moral purity recognised, do men seek in their religious
+beliefs for higher beings of ethical significance, for morally perfect
+personalities among the gods.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Underwood & Underwood
+
+THE EMBLEM OF A TRIBE: ALASKAN INDIAN TOTEM
+
+ This mysterious “totem” distinguishes a family or tribe of the old
+ Hydah Indians and is erected at Wrangel in Alaska.
+]
+
+Different elements of civilisation vary greatly in their development
+in different civilised districts; one race may have a greater tendency
+toward intellectual, another toward material culture. No race has
+approached the Hindoos in philosophic speculation, yet they are as
+children in their knowledge of natural science. One people may develop
+commerce to the highest extent, another poetry and music, a third the
+freedom of the individual. The language of the American Indians is in
+many respects richer and more elegant than English. Therefore nothing
+is farther from the truth than to say that, in case one institution of
+civilised life is found to exist in a hunting people, another in an
+agricultural race, or the one in an otherwise higher, and the other
+in an otherwise lower nation or tribe, the institution in question
+must have reached a state of perfection corresponding with the general
+development of the people possessing it. According to this, the
+monogamic uncivilised races were further advanced than the polygamous
+Aryans of India and the Mohammedans; and the Polynesians, with their
+skill in the industrial arts and their dramatic dances, perhaps in a
+higher state of civilisation than Europeans!
+
+Development fulfils itself in communities of men. Except in a human
+aggregate it cannot come to pass; for the germs of development which
+are brought forth by the potentiated activity of the many may exist
+only in a society of individuals.
+
+It has therefore been a significant fact that from the very beginning
+men have joined together in social aggregates, partly on account of an
+instinctive impulse, partly because of the necessity for self-defence.
+Thus it came about that primitive men lived together in wandering,
+predatory hordes, or packs. The individuals were bound to one another
+very closely; there was no private life; and the sex-relationships were
+promiscuous. Men not only dwelt together in groups, but the groups
+themselves assimilated with one another, inasmuch as marriages were
+reciprocally entered into by them. So far as we are able to determine,
+one of the earliest of social institutions was that of group-marriage.
+Individuals did not first unite in pairs, and then join together
+in groups--such would soon have fallen asunder; on the contrary,
+group-marriage itself created the bond that held the community
+together; the most violent instinct of mankind not only united the few
+but the many, indeed, complete social aggregates.
+
+[Illustration: THE BEGINNINGS OF MONARCHY: AFRICAN CHIEF SEATED IN
+STATE AMONG HIS HEADMEN
+
+ The tribal state has a fixed form of government. The chiefs or
+ patriarchs of the various families stand at the head of affairs,
+ the position of chief being either hereditary or elective. In most
+ cases, however, it is determined by a combination of both methods,
+ a blood descendant being chosen, provided he is able to give proof
+ of his competence.
+]
+
+Group-marriage is the form of union established by the association of
+two hordes, or packs, according to which the men of one group marry the
+women of the other; not a marriage of individual men with individual
+women, but a promiscuous relationship, each man of one group marrying
+all the women of the other group--at least in theory--and vice versâ;
+not a marriage of individuals, but of aggregates. Certainly with such
+a sex-relationship established, sooner or later regulations develop
+from within the community, through which the marital relationships of
+individuals are adjusted in a consistent manner; but the principle
+first followed was, as community in property, so community in marriage;
+and this must of itself lead to kinships entirely different from those
+with which we are familiar.
+
+Group-marriage was closely bound up with religious conceptions; single
+hordes, or packs, considered themselves the embodiment of a single
+spirit. And since at that time spirits were only conceived of as things
+that existed in nature, the horde felt itself to be a single class of
+natural object--some animal or plant, for example; and the union of
+one pack with another was analogous to the union of one animal with
+another. Each group believed itself to be permeated by the spirit of
+a certain species of animal, borrowed its name thence and the animal
+species itself was looked upon as the protecting spirit. The ancestral
+spirit was worshipped in the animal, and the putting to death or
+injuring of an individual of the species was a serious offence.
+
+Such a belief is called Totemism. “Totem”--a word borrowed from the
+language of the Massachusetts Indians--is the natural object or animal
+assumed as the emblem of the horde or tribe, and correspondingly the
+group symbolised by the class of animal or natural object is called a
+Totem-group.
+
+This belief led to a close union of all who were partakers of the
+spirit of the same animal; it also strictly determined which groups
+could associate with one another. And as the totem-group mimicked the
+animal in its dances, and fancied itself to be possessed by its spirit,
+it also ordered the methods of partaking of food, and all marriage,
+birth, and death ceremonies in accordance with this conception. It
+is said that, the totem being exogamous, marriages were not possible
+within the totem, but only without it. Precisely so; for the original
+conception was not that individuals formed unions, but that the whole
+totem entered the marriage relationship; a single marriage would have
+been considered an impossibility.
+
+To which totem the children belonged--to the mother’s, to the father’s,
+or to a third totem--was a question that offered considerable
+difficulty. All three possibilities presented themselves; the last
+mentioned, however, only in case the child belonged to another group,
+a sub-totem, and in that event its descendants could return to the
+original totem.
+
+[Sidenote: The First Ideas of Kinship]
+
+Descent in the male or in the female line occasioned in later times
+the rise of important distinctions between nations. If a child follow
+the mother’s totem, we speak of “maternal kinship”; conversely, of
+“paternal kinship” in case of heredity through the father. Which of
+these is the more primitive, or did tribes from the very first adopt
+either one or the other system, thus making them of equal antiquity, is
+a much-vexed question. There is reason to believe that maternal kinship
+is the more primitive form, and that races have either passed with more
+or less energy and rapidity to the system of descent through males, or
+have kept to the original institution of maternal succession. There
+are many peoples among whom both forms of kinship exist, and in such
+instances the maternal is undoubtedly the more primitive; from this it
+appears very probable that development has thus taken place, the more
+so since there are traces of maternal kinship to be found in races
+whose established form is paternal.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Marriage]
+
+As time passed, marriage of individuals developed from group-marriage
+or totemism. Such unions may be polygamous--one man having several
+wives--or polyandrous--one woman having several husbands. Both forms
+have been represented in mankind, and, indeed, polygamy is the general
+rule among all races, excepting Occidental civilised peoples. The
+form of marriage toward which civilisation is advancing is certainly
+monogamy; through it a complete individual relationship is established
+between man and wife; and although both individualities may have
+independent expression, each is reconciled to the other through the
+loftier association of both. Nearly associated with monogamy is the
+belief in union after death; it arises from the religious beliefs
+prevalent among many peoples. Among other races there is at least the
+custom of a year of mourning, sometimes for husband, sometimes for
+wife, often for both.
+
+Marriage of individuals has developed in different ways from group
+or totem marriage: sometimes it was brought about through lack of
+subsistence occasioned by many men dwelling together; sometimes it
+arose from other causes. One factor was the practice of wife-capture:
+whoever carried off a wife freed her, as it were, from the authority
+of the community, and established a separate marriage for himself.
+Marriage by purchase was an outcome of marriage by capture and of the
+paying of an indemnity to the relatives of the bride; men also learned
+to agree beforehand as to the equivalent to be paid. The practice of
+acquiring wives by purchase developed in various directions, especially
+in that of trading wives and in the earning of wives by years of
+service. Gradually the purchase became merely a feigned transaction;
+and a union of individuals has evolved--now sacerdotal, now civil in
+form--from which every trace of traffic and of exchange has disappeared.
+
+[Sidenote: Religion Ennobles Marriage]
+
+Thus already in early times marriage had become ennobled through
+religion. It is a widespread idea that through partaking of food in
+common, blood-brotherhood, or similar procedures, a mystic communion of
+soul may be established; and in case of marriages brought about by the
+mediation of a priesthood the priest invokes the divine consecration.
+Marriage is thereby raised above the bulk of profane actions of life;
+it receives a certain guarantee of permanency; indeed, in many cases,
+by reason of the mystic communion of souls, it is looked upon as
+absolutely indissoluble.
+
+[Illustration: THE IDEA OF MARRIAGE: WEDDING CUSTOMS IN MANY LANDS
+
+ In countries where women are subservient to men the idea of
+ marriage by capture or by compulsion prevails. The Bedouin bride
+ (2) makes a pretence of escaping and is pursued by the bridegroom
+ and his kinsmen. Some Africans (4) show their love by knocking
+ down their prospective brides. The Moorish bride (6) shrouded and
+ seated in bed is an object of curiosity. 1, 3, and 5 represent
+ respectively the marriage customs of Persians, Chinese, and
+ Moslems.
+]
+
+The ownership of property also was originally communistic, and the
+idea of individual possession has been a gradual development. The idea
+of the ownership of land, especially when developed by agricultural
+peoples, is of a communistic nature; and, from common possession,
+family and individual ownership gradually comes into being. It is
+brought about in various ways, chiefly through the division of land
+among separate families: at first only temporary, held only until the
+time for a succeeding division arrives; later, owned in perpetuity. Nor
+was it a rare method of procedure to grant land to any one who desired
+to cultivate it--an estate that should be his so long as he remained
+upon it and cultivated the soil, but which reverted to the community,
+on his leaving it. There gradually developed a constant relationship
+between land and cultivator as agriculture became more extended and
+lasting improvements were effected on the soil. Land became the
+permanent property of the individual; it also became an article of
+commerce.
+
+Ownership of movable property even was at first of communistic
+character. Clothing and weapons, enchantments effectual for the
+individual alone, such as medicine-bags or amulets, were, to be sure,
+assigned to individuals in very early times; but all property obtained
+by labour, the products of the chase or of fishing, originally belonged
+to the community, until in later days each family was allowed to claim
+the fruits of its own toil, and was only pledged to share with the
+others under certain conditions. Finally, individuals were permitted
+to retain or to barter property which they had produced by labour; and
+exchange, especially exchange between individuals, attained special
+significance through the division of labour.
+
+The individualisation of the ownership of movable property was
+especially furthered by members of families performing other labour,
+outside the family, in addition to their work within the family circle.
+Although the fruit of all labour accomplished within the family was
+shared by the members in common, the results of work done outside
+became the property of the particular individual who had performed the
+labour. Consequent expansion of the conception of labour led men to
+one of the greatest triumphs of justice, to the idea of establishing
+individual rights in ideas and in combinations of ideas, to the
+recognition of intellectual or immaterial property--right of author or
+inventor--one of the chief incentives to modern civilisation.
+
+[Illustration: THE CHURCH AND MARRIAGE: A WEDDING SCENE
+
+ In very early times marriage had assumed a religious significance
+ and came to be regarded among the sacred as opposed to the secular
+ functions of life.
+]
+
+On the other hand, individual rights in transactions led to conceptions
+concerning obligations and debts. Exchange, either direct or on terms
+of credit, brought with it duties and liabilities for which originally
+the persons and lives of the individuals concerned were held in pledge,
+until custody of the body--which also included possession of the corpse
+of a debtor--was succeeded by public imprisonment for debt, and finally
+by the mere pledging of property, imprisonment for debt having been
+abolished--a course of development through which the most varied of
+races have passed.
+
+[Sidenote: Rights of Property]
+
+The relation of the individual to his possessions led men at first to
+place movable property in graves, in order that it might be of service
+to the departed owner during the life beyond; hence the universal
+custom of burning on funeral pyres, not only weapons and utensils, but
+animals, slaves, and even wives. In later times men were satisfied with
+symbolic immolations, or possessions were released from the ban of
+death and put into further use. The property of the deceased reverted
+to his family, and thus the right of inheritance arose. There was no
+right of inheritance during the days of communism; on the death of a
+member of the family a mere general consolidation of property resulted;
+with individual property arose the reversion of possessions to the
+family from which they had been temporarily separated. Thus property
+either reverted to the family taken as a whole, or to single heirs,
+certain members of the family; hence a great variety of procedure
+arose. Up to the present day inheritance by all the children, or
+inheritance by one alone, exists in Eastern Asia as in Western nations.
+
+In like manner criminal responsibility was originally collective;
+the family or clan was held responsible for the actions of all its
+individual members except those who were renounced and made outcasts.
+Such methods of collective surety still exist among many exceedingly
+developed peoples; but the system is gradually dying away, the tendency
+being for the entire responsibility to rest upon the individual alone.
+
+[Sidenote: Beginning of the Community]
+
+The state is a development of tribal, or patriarchal, society. The
+tribal group is a community of intermarried families, all claiming
+descent from a common ancestor. From tribal organisation the principle
+is developed that participation in the community is open only to such
+individuals as belong to one or other of the families of which it is
+composed; and the political body thus made up of individuals related
+either by blood or through marriage is called a patriarchal, or
+tribal, state. This form of community was enlarged even in very early
+times, advantage being taken of the possibility of adopting strangers
+into the circle of related families, and of amalgamating with them.
+Still, the fundamental idea that the community is composed of related
+families always remains uppermost in the minds of uncivilised peoples.
+The tribal state gradually develops into the territorial state. The
+connection of the community with a definite region becomes closer;
+strange tribes settle in the same district; they are permitted to
+remain provided tribute is paid and services are performed, and are
+gradually absorbed into the community, the strangers and the original
+inhabitants--plebeians and patricians--united together into one
+aggregate. Thus arises the conception of a state which any man may join
+without his being a member of any one of the original clans or families.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of the Idea of a State]
+
+In this way the idea of a state becomes distinct from that of a people
+bound together by kinship, the latter being especially distinguished by
+a certain unity of external appearance, custom, character, and manner
+of thought. This is not intended to suggest that an amalgamation of
+different race elements in a state and an assimilation of different
+modes of thought and of feeling are not desirable, or that a spirit
+analogous to the sense of unity in members of the same family is not
+to be sought for; such a condition is most likely to be attained
+if a certain tribe or clan take precedence of the others, as the
+most progressive, to which the various elements of the people annex
+themselves.
+
+[Illustration: “IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE”: SOME OLD METHODS OF TORTURE
+
+ These pictures represent: 1. Roman gaolers cutting off a
+ Christian’s ears. 2. The cangue as still used in China. 3. A
+ prisoner on the rack in Mediæval England. 4. Torture of the Iron
+ Chair. 5. The ordeal of fire and branding.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Tribes and their Chiefs]
+
+The tribal state has a fixed form of government. The chiefs or
+patriarchs of the various families stand at the head of affairs, the
+position of chief being either hereditary or elective. In most cases,
+however, it is determined by a combination of both methods, a blood
+descendant being chosen provided he is able to give proof of his
+competence. In addition there is often the popular assembly. In later
+times many innovations are introduced. Passion for power united to a
+strong personality often leads to a chieftainship in which all rights
+and privileges are absorbed or united in the person of one individual;
+so that he appears as the possessor of all prerogatives and titles,
+those of other men being entirely secondary, and all being more or
+less dependent upon his will. Religious conceptions, especially,
+have had great influence in this connection. Nowhere is this so
+clearly shown as in “teknonymy,” an institution formerly prevalent
+in the South Pacific islands, according to which the soul of the
+father is supposed to enter the body of his eldest son at the birth
+of the latter, and that therefore, immediately from his birth, the
+son becomes master, the father continuing the management of affairs
+merely as his proxy. Other peoples have avoided such consequences
+as these by supposing the child to be possessed by the soul of his
+grandfather, therefore naming first-born males after their grandfathers
+instead of after their fathers. Another outcome of the institution of
+chieftainship is the chaotic order of affairs which rules among many
+peoples on the death of the chieftain, continuing until a successor
+is seated on the throne--a lawless interval of anarchy followed by a
+regency.
+
+The power of a chieftain is, however, usually limited by class rights;
+that is, by the rights of sub-chieftains of especially distinguished
+families, and of the popular assembly, among which elements the
+division of power and of jurisdiction is exceedingly varied. These
+primitive institutions are rude prototypes of future varieties of
+coercive government, of kingship, either of aristocratic or of
+republican form, in which the primitive idea of chieftainship as the
+absorption of all private privileges is given up, and in its place the
+various principles of rights and duties of government enter.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Military Classes]
+
+Class-differentiation with attendant privileges and prerogatives is
+especially developed in warlike races, and in nations which must be
+ever prepared to resist the attacks of enemies, by the establishment of
+a militant class. The militant class occupies an intermediate position
+between the governing, priest, and scholar classes on the one hand,
+and the industrial class--agriculturists, craftsmen, merchants--on the
+other. Employment in warfare, necessary discipline, near association
+with the chieftain, and the holding of fiefs for material support give
+to this class a unique position. Thus the warrior castes developed
+in India, the feudal and military nobility in Japan, the nobility in
+Germany, with obligations and service to feudal superiors and to the
+Court. This system survives for many years, until at last feudal tenure
+gradually disappears, and its attendant prerogatives are swallowed up
+by all classes through a universal subjection to military service;
+although even yet a distinct class of professional soldiers remains at
+the head of military affairs and operations, and will continue to do
+so as long as there is a possibility of internal or external warfare.
+However, here too the militant class is absorbed into a general body
+of officials. Officials are citizens who not only occupy the usual
+position of members of the state, but to whom in addition is appointed
+the execution of the life functions of the nation, as its organs; in
+other words, such functions as are peculiar to the civic organisation
+in contradistinction to the general functions exercised and actions
+performed by individual citizens as independent units. Officialism
+includes to a special degree duty to its calling and to the public
+trust, and there are also special privileges granted to officials
+within the sphere appointed for them.
+
+[Sidenote: The Birth of Parliaments]
+
+In a society governed by a chieftain, as well as in a monarchy, there
+is a popular assembly or consultative body; either an unorganised
+meeting of individuals, or an organised convention of estates founded
+on class right. A modern development, that certainly had its prototype
+in the patriarchal state, is the representative assembly, an assembly
+of individuals chosen to represent the people in place of the popular
+gathering. The English Government, with its representative legislative
+bodies, is a typical example in modern civilisation.
+
+One of the chief problems encountered not only in a society ruled by a
+chieftain, but also in states of later development, whether governed
+by a potentate or by an aristocracy, is the relation of temporal to
+spiritual power. Sometimes both are united in the head of the state, as
+in the cases of the Incas of Peru and of the Caliphate. Sometimes the
+spiritual head is distinct and separate from the temporal; frequently
+the two forces are nearly associated, a member of the imperial family
+being chosen for the office of high-priest, as among the Aztecs.
+Often, however, the two functions are completely independent of each
+other, as among many African races, the medicine-man occupying a
+position entirely independent of the chieftain. Such separation may, of
+course, lead to friction and civil war; it may also become an element
+furthering to civilisation, a source of new ideas, opening the way
+to alliances between nations, and setting bounds to the tyranny of
+individuals, as exemplified in the relation of the Papacy to the Holy
+Roman Empire.
+
+[Sidenote: State Justice a Momentous Step Forward]
+
+The form of state in which the functions of government are exercised
+by a chieftain contributes greatly to state control and enforcement
+of justice. The realisation of right had been from the first a social
+function; but its enforcement was incumbent on the unit group of
+individuals (families or tribes bound together by friendship). The
+acquisition by the state of the power to dispense justice and to make
+and enforce law is one of the greatest events of the world’s history.
+The idea of all right being incorporated in the chieftain (and social
+classes) played an important part in bringing about this condition of
+affairs; for as soon as this conception receives general acceptance,
+the chieftain, and with him the state, become interested in the
+preservation and enforcement of justice, even in its lower forms in
+the common rights of the subjects. On the other hand, not only the
+interests of chieftainship, but also those of agriculture and commerce,
+are furthered by the preservation of internal peace; and internal peace
+calls for state control of justice and enforcement of law.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mansell
+
+AN EARLY EGYPTIAN REPRESENTATION OF JUSTICE
+
+ “The Judgment of the Dead” as illustrated by innumerable paintings
+ on the walls of Egyptian temples and tombs.
+]
+
+Moreover the religious element worked to the same end. Wickedness was
+held to be an injury to the deity, whose anger would be visited upon
+the entire land--a conception that lasted far into the Middle Ages,
+and according to which the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah was held to be
+typical of the effect of the curse of God. Already in primitive times
+religion led to a strange idea of justice--secret societies consecrated
+by the deity took upon themselves the function of enforcing right,
+instituting reigns of terror in their districts, maintaining order in
+society, and claiming authorisation from the god with whose spirit
+they were permeated. Later, influenced by all these causes, the social
+aggregate took over the control of justice. It was already considered
+to be the upholder of right, the servant of the deity, the maintainer
+of public peace, the dispenser of atoning sacrifices, etc.; and so
+the various elements conceived of as justice, which had previously
+been distributed among the single families, tribes, associations, and
+societies, were combined, and placed under state control.
+
+[Illustration: AN EARLY CONCEPTION OF THE SPIRIT OF JUSTICE: THE
+JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON
+
+ Reproduced from the picture by the French artist, Nicolas Poussin,
+ who flourished in the first half of the seventeenth century.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE MODERN IDEAL OF JUSTICE
+
+ From the fresco by Gerald Moira in the New Central Criminal Court,
+ London. Most of the figures are studies from well-known public men
+ of recent years.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Terror & Tyranny of Religion]
+
+[Sidenote: The Ordeal and the Curse]
+
+Certain forms for the dispensation of justice, judging of crimes, and
+determining of punishments were developed. Thus arose the different
+forms of judicial procedure, which, for a long time bore a religious
+character. The deity was called upon to decide as to right and
+wrong--divinity in the form of natural forces. Hence the judgments
+of God through trial by water, fire, poison, serpents, scales,
+or--especially in Germany during the Middle Ages--combat, or decision
+by the divining eye, that was closely allied to the so-called trial by
+hazard. A peculiar variety of ordeal is that of the bier, according
+to which the body of a murdered man is called into requisition, the
+soul of the victim assisting in the discovery of the murderer.
+Ordeals are undergone sometimes by one individual, sometimes by two.
+An advance in progress is the curse, which takes the place of the
+ordeal, the curse of God being called down upon an individual and
+his family in case of wrongdoing or of perjury. The curse may be
+uttered by an individual in co-operation with the members of families.
+Thus arise ordeals by invocation and by oath with compurgators.
+Originally a certain period of time was allowed to pass--a month, for
+example--for the fulfilment of the curse. In later times, whoever
+took the oath--oath of innocence--was held guiltless. Witnesses
+succeeded to conjurers; divining looks were replaced by circumstantial
+evidence; and, instead of a mystic, a rational method of obtaining
+testimony was adopted. The development was not attained without certain
+attendant abuses; and the abolition of ordeal by God was among many
+peoples--notably the inhabitants of Eastern Asia, the American Indians,
+and the Germans of the Middle Ages--succeeded by the introduction of
+torture. In many lands torture stood in close connection with the
+judgment of God; in others it originated either directly or indirectly
+in slavery. According to the method of obtaining evidence by torture,
+the accused was forced through physical pain to disclosures concerning
+himself and his companions, and, in case he himself were considered
+guilty, to a confession. However barbarous and irrational, this system
+was employed in Latin and Germanic nations excepting England, until the
+eighteenth century, in some instances even until the nineteenth.
+
+[Sidenote: The Slow Building up of Law]
+
+[Sidenote: Evolution of the Modern State]
+
+Judgment was first pronounced in the name of God; in later times,
+in the name of the people or of the ruler who appeared as the
+representative of God. The principles of justice, the validity of which
+at first depends upon custom, are in later times proclaimed and fixed
+as commands of God. Thus systems of fixed right come into being first
+in the form of sacred justice, then as commands of God, and finally
+as law. Law is a conception of justice expressed in certain rules and
+principles. Originally there were no laws; the standard for justice was
+furnished to each individual by his own feelings; only isolated cases
+were recorded. As time advanced, and great men who strove to bring
+about an improvement in justice arose above the generality of mankind;
+when the ruling class became differentiated from the other classes;
+when it was found necessary to root out certain popular customs--then,
+in addition to the original collection of precedents, there arose law
+of a higher form: law that stood above precedent, that altered custom,
+and opened up new roads to justice. Great codes of law have not been
+compilations only; they have led justice into new paths. Originally a
+law was looked upon as an inviolable command of God, as unalterable
+and eternal; its interpretation alone was earthly and transitory.
+As years passed, men learned to recognise that laws themselves were
+transitory; and it became a principle that later enactments could alter
+earlier rules. The relations of later statutes to already established
+law, and how the laws of different nations influence one another, are
+difficult, much-vexed questions for the solution of which special
+sciences have developed--transitory and international law. Judgment and
+law are intimately concerned with justice, the conception of right as
+evolved from the double action of life and custom. To this development
+of justice is united an endeavour of the state or government not only
+to further welfare by means of the creation and administration of
+law, but also to take under its control civilising institutions of
+all sorts. This was originally a feature of justice itself; certain
+practices inimical to civilisation were interdicted and made punishable
+offences. Already in the Middle Ages systems of police played a great
+part among governmental institutions, especially in the smaller states.
+Subsequently the idea was developed that not only protection through
+the punishment of crime, but also superintendence of and promotion of
+the public weal, should be administered by law; and thus the modern
+state developed with its policy of national welfare. With this arose
+the necessity for a sharper distinction to be drawn between justice and
+the various actions of an administration; and thus in modern times men
+have come to the system--based on Montesquieu--of the separation of
+powers and independence of justice.
+
+Justice varies according to the development of civilisation, and
+according to the function that it must perform in this development; in
+like manner every age creates its own material and spiritual culture.
+Every poet is a poet of his own time.
+
+[Sidenote: Right Way to View History]
+
+The notion of natural right, however unhistorical it was in itself,
+characterised a period of transition in so far as it enabled men to
+form a historical conception--a conception of what might be: for, by
+contrasting actual with ideal justice, we are enabled to escape the
+bonds of the opinions of a particular time, and to look upon such
+opinions and views objectively and independently. Yet it is certainly
+a foolish proceeding to consider an ideal, deduced principally from
+conceptions and opinions of the present, to be a standard by which
+to measure the value of historical events of all times, sitting in
+judgment over the great names of the past with the air of an inspector
+of morals. The office of the historian as judge of the dead is quite
+differently constituted. Every age must be judged in accordance with
+the relation which it bears to the totality of development; and every
+historical personage is to be looked upon as a bearer of the spirit of
+his day, as a servant of the ideas of his time. Thus it is quite as
+wrong to pronounce moral censure on the men of history, as it is wrong
+to judge an era merely according to its good or evil characteristics.
+A period must be estimated according to what it has either directly or
+indirectly accomplished for mankind.
+
+[Sidenote: Conception of a United World]
+
+There are common factors of civilisation shared by nations themselves,
+through which many contradictions disappear. The religious
+civilisations of Christianity, Mohammedanism, Judaism, Buddhism and
+Confucianism have been the determining factors of the intellectual and
+emotional life, even influencing the course of events, in vast regions.
+And thus it is also comprehensible that in the judicial life of nations
+there is an endeavour for a closer approach, and also the existence
+of equalising tendencies. In spite of countless variations in detail,
+there is a certain unity of law in the entire Mohammedan world; and
+although the hope of establishing the unity of Roman canonistic law
+over the whole of Christendom has not been realised none the less it
+was a tremendous idea: that of a universal empire founded on the Roman
+law of the imperators, and placed under the rule of the German emperor,
+thus ensuring the continuance of the law of the Roman people--an idea
+that swayed the intellects of the Middle Ages up to the fourteenth,
+even to the fifteenth century, and according to which the emperor
+would have been the head of all Europe, the other sovereigns merely
+his vassals or fief-holders. This idea, once advocated by such a great
+spirit as that of Dante, has, like many others, passed into oblivion;
+and in its place has arisen the conception of independent laws of
+nations. Yet the original idea has had great influence: it has led to
+a close union of Christian peoples; it opened a way for Roman law to
+become universal law, although, to be sure, English law, completely
+independent of that of Rome, has grown to unparalleled proportions as a
+universal system, entirely by reason of the marvellous success of the
+English people as colonists. Likewise international commerce will of
+itself lead to a unification of mercantile, admiralty, copyright, and
+patent law.
+
+Then the idea of an international league must develop, arising from
+the idea of the unity of Christian nations. We have advanced a great
+distance beyond the time when every foreigner was considered an enemy,
+and when all foreign phenomena were looked upon as strange or with
+antipathy. Rules for international commerce are developed; state
+alliances are entered into for the furtherance of common interests and
+for the preservation of peace. Many tasks which in former times would
+have been executed by the empire are now undertaken by international
+associations; and the time for the establishment of international
+courts of arbitration for the adjustment of differences between states
+is already approaching.
+
+[Sidenote: Common Interests of Mankind]
+
+It also seems probable that states will unite to form political
+organisations, wholly or partially renouncing their separate positions.
+Thus nations will be replaced by a federal state, and a multitude of
+unifying ideas which would otherwise be accomplished with difficulty
+will come to easy realisation. Federal states were already in existence
+during the times of patriarchal communities: an especially striking
+example is that of the admirably constituted federation of the Iroquois
+nations.
+
+[Sidenote: Universal Transmission of Culture]
+
+The vision of no man may pierce through to the ultimate end of
+the processes of history, and to advance hypotheses is a vain
+endeavour--quite as vain as it would be to expect Plato to have
+foretold the life of modern civilisation or the imperial idea of
+mediæval times, or Dante to have foreseen modern industrialism or the
+character of industrial peoples. To-day we are more certain than ever
+that no process of development, however simple it may have been, has
+ever taken place according to a fixed model; all developments have had
+their own individualities according to place and to time. Thus we must
+forego discussion of the future.
+
+However, there is another point of view. Development of nations as well
+as of individuals leads either to progress or to decay. No people may
+hope to live eternally; and how many acquisitions already gained will
+be lost in the future it is impossible to say. If a nation declines,
+it either becomes extinct or is annihilated by another state; it
+becomes identified with the newer nation, and disappears with its own
+character; thus its civilisation may also disappear. This is a serious
+possibility. It is the Medusa head of the world’s history which we must
+face--and without stiffening to stone.
+
+[Sidenote: Influence of Peoples on One Another]
+
+There is one truth, however, the knowledge of which fills us with hope
+for the future: it is the fact that the results of development and
+civilisation are often transfused from one people to another, so that
+a given development need not start again from the very beginning. This
+is owing to the capacity which races have for absorbing or borrowing
+civilisations. Absorption of culture is by no means universal; it
+does not prevent the occasional disappearance of civilisation,
+for every civilisation has before it at least the possibility of
+death. Nevertheless the transmission and assimilation of culture is
+constantly taking place. There are various ways in which it may be
+brought about. A conquering nation may bring its own civilisation
+with it to the conquered; culture is often forced upon the latter
+by coercive measures. The conquerors may acquire culture from the
+vanquished; or assimilation of culture may come about without the
+subjection of a people, through the unconscious adoption of external
+customs and internal modes of thought. Finally, culture may be
+borrowed consciously from one nation by another, the one state becoming
+convinced of the outward advantages and inner significance of the
+foreign civilisation.
+
+In this way the problem of development becomes very complicated; many
+institutions of vanished races thus continue to live on. Certainly the
+race that acquires a foreign civilisation must, among other things,
+be so constituted in its motives and aspirations as to lose the very
+nerves of its being, its very stability, in order that, intoxicated
+with the joy of a new life, all traces of its past existence may be
+allowed to break up and disappear. On the other hand, many a promising
+germ of culture possessed by a vigorous people may come to grief, owing
+to the influence of acquisitions from without. But, in return, a race
+that knows how to assimilate foreign culture may obtain a civilisation
+of such efficiency as it would never before have been capable of
+attaining, by reason of the fact that its power is established on a
+recently acquired basis, and because it has been spared a multitude of
+faltering experiments.
+
+[Sidenote: Progress Goes on For Ever]
+
+Civilisation may be mutually obtained from reciprocal action, nations
+both giving and taking. Such a relation naturally arises when states
+enter into intercourse with one another, when they have become
+acquainted with one another’s various institutions and are able to
+recognise the great merits of foreign organisations and the defects
+of their own. Especially the world’s commerce, in which every nation
+wishes to remain a competitor, compels towards mutual acceptance of
+custom and law; no nation desires to be left behind; and each discovers
+that it will fall to the rear unless it borrow certain things from the
+others. Such reciprocal action will be the more effective the more like
+nations are to one another, the better they understand each other, and
+the more often they succeed not only in adopting the outward forms,
+but in absorbing the principles of foreign institutions into their own
+beings.
+
+Thus we may hope that even if the nations of to-day decay and
+disappear, the labour of the world’s progress will not be lost; it will
+constantly reappear in new communities which may rejoice in that for
+which we have striven, and which we have acquired by the exertion of
+our own powers.
+
+ JOSEPH KOHLER
+
+
+
+
+THE SEVEN WONDERS OF ANCIENT CIVILISATION
+
+From the French of Victor Hugo
+
+By HAROLD BEGBIE
+
+
+=The Temple of Diana at Ephesus speaks:=
+
+ The sun standeth in the high places of the mountains,
+ Full of brightness and mirth is the dawn.
+ But my loveliness is not shamed by him,
+ Neither is it dimmed;
+ For, behold and consider well, the sun is not more than thought.
+ That which yesterday I was, to-morrow I shall be:
+ I live: I wear upon my brow the moving ages and the spirit of man,
+ And genius, and art:
+ These things are more wonderful than the sun.
+
+ Senseless is the stone in the earth,
+ And the granite is not more than the formless night;
+ The alabaster knoweth not the dayspring,
+ Porphyry is blind,
+ And marble is without understanding;
+ But let Ctesiphon pass,
+ Or Dædalus, or Chresiphon,
+ And fix his eyes, full of the divine flash,
+ Upon the ground where the rocks slumber,
+ And lo, they awake, they tremble, they are stricken with
+ understanding;
+ The granite, lifting some vague and troubled eyelid,
+ Struggleth to behold his master:
+ The rock feeleth within himself the breathing of the unhewn statue,
+ The marble stirs in the midnight of his darkness,
+ Because that he is aware of the soul of a man.
+ The buried alabaster desireth to rise up from the grave,
+ Earth shudders, it trembleth violently,
+ It feels upon it the will of a man;
+ And behold, beneath the gaze of him who passeth with creation in
+ his eyes,
+ From the deeps of the sacred earth
+ The sublime palace comes forth and mounts upward.
+
+=When she has made an end, the Gardens of Babylon sing their laud of
+Semiramis:=
+
+ Glory to Semiramis,
+ Who reared us up on the arches of the great bridges
+ Whose span outraceth time.
+ This great queen was wont to delight herself beneath our floating
+ branches;
+ In the midst of the ruin of two empires
+ She laughed in our groves,
+ She was happy in our green places;
+ She conquered the kings of far countries,
+ And when the man had humbled himself before her,
+ Lo, she would go upon her way,
+ She would come hither,
+ She would sigh gleefully under our branches,
+ Very pleasantly would she lie down on the skins of panthers.
+
+=And after the Gardens have sung, there is heard the voice of the
+Mausoleum of Halicarnassus:=
+
+ I am the monument of a heart that knew itself infinite;
+ Death is not death beneath my dome of blue,
+ Beneath my dome, death is victory,
+ Death is life.
+ Here hath death so much of gold and of precious stone
+ That he boasteth himself thereof;
+ Behold, I am the burial which is a pageant,
+ And the sepulchre which is a palace.
+
+=Then, like a great thunder, the voice of Jupiter:=
+
+ I am the Olympian,
+ The lord of the muses;
+ All that which hath life, or breath, or love, or thought, or growth.
+ Groweth, thinketh, liveth, loveth, and breatheth in me.
+ The incense of supplication which rises to my feet
+ Trembles with terror and affright;
+ The slope of my brow doth touch the axis of the world;
+ The tempest speaketh with me before he troubles the waters;
+ I endure without age;
+ I exist without pang;
+ Unto me one thing only is impossible--
+ To die.
+
+=After Jupiter, from the island of Pharos sounds the voice of the
+great Lighthouse:=
+
+ In the midst of the mighty waters
+ I tarry for the ceasing of the centuries.
+ Sostratus the Cnidian built me,
+ He built me that there might be thrown
+ Across the rolling waters,
+ And through the darkness where lurketh destruction,
+ A rebuke to the lovely vanity of the stars.
+
+=After the Lighthouse, the Colossus at Rhodes:=
+
+ I am the true Lighthouse.
+ Rhodes lies at my threshold.
+ Before the steadfast gaze of my unsleeping eyes
+ Winter maketh white the mountains.
+ I behold the deep waters in their cavernous mists;
+ I am the sentinel whom none cometh to relieve;
+ I look forth upon the coming of the night,
+ And upon the coming of the dawn
+ I behold the lifting of the mists,
+ I behold the terror of the sea,
+ With the immense dreaming of Colossus.
+
+=And last speaks the Pyramid of Cheops:=
+
+ The desert, spread like a table, lieth beneath my foundations.
+ Lo, from some mysterious gateway of the night
+ I lift unto heaven my stair of terror,
+ And out of the darkness itself seemeth it that I am builded.
+ The sphinxes dropped their broods in the caverns;
+ The centuries went by; the winds passed sighing;
+ And Cheops said again: I am eternal!
+
+=Then, after a profound silence, the creeping worm of the sepulchre
+lifteth up his voice:=
+
+ I say unto you Buildings that ye rise, and arise still more!
+ Set ye up a stone above a stone,
+ Above cities lift yourselves up, O temples!
+ Lift up yourselves, like Babel!
+ Column above column;
+ Higher and yet higher;
+ Let palaces arise upon the hollow places
+ And let nothingness be fastened upon the foundations of night!
+
+ Ye are like smoke,
+ Therefore exalt yourselves with the clouds!
+ Set not an end to your boasting!
+ Mount up, mount up, for ever!
+ Lo, in the dust beneath your feet I crawl and wait.
+ Small am I, O mighty ones,
+ And yet I say unto you,
+ From the going down of the sun to his rising up,
+ From all the corners of the earth,
+ Everything which hath substance and which hath being,
+ The thing which is sorrowful,
+ And the thing which is glad,
+ Descend unto me.
+ And I only have strength, and I only endure for ever,
+ For behold, I am death.
+
+[Illustration: THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON
+
+ The Hanging Gardens have been attributed to Semiramis, although
+ Nebuchadnezzar is also said to have built them to please one of his
+ wives, who, coming from a hilly country to Babylon, in the midst
+ of a vast and barren plain, sighed for some reminder of the leafy
+ beauty of her old home. The gardens, built in the form of a square
+ extending some 700 feet on each side, rose to a great height in
+ terrace upon terrace supported by massive pillars. A remarkable
+ hydraulic system kept their multitudinous plants and trees in
+ almost perpetual verdure.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT
+
+ For six thousand years the Pyramids have thrown their shadow across
+ the sands of Egypt. The stone of which they are built would make a
+ great wall from Cairo to New York; the white marble which covered
+ them would have built more king’s palaces than Egypt has had need
+ of. The building of the Great Pyramid employed 100,000 slaves for
+ 30 years, and the geometrical perfection of it is a marvel to this
+ day. Khufu, or Cheops, who built the Great Pyramid--probably as his
+ tomb--reigned about 4700 B.C., so that the pyramid is more than
+ three times as old as the Roman Empire.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS
+
+ This famous monument of antiquity was erected in the year 354 B.C.
+ to the memory of King Mausolus of Caria by his widow Artemisia,
+ at Halicarnassus, the beautiful Greek city-colony on the shores
+ of the Ægean Sea. Some idea of its size will be gathered from the
+ fact that it was surrounded by an esplanade which measured over
+ three hundred feet on each side, while its total height was nearly
+ a hundred and fifty feet. The statue existed almost intact until
+ the fourth century of our own era, and was finally destroyed in the
+ Middle Ages by the Turks.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES
+
+ This short-lived achievement of ancient art dated from about 300
+ B.C. It was the largest of a hundred statues to the sun-god raised
+ in the island of Rhodes, any one of which, said Pliny, would have
+ made famous the place where it stood. Dedicated to Apollo, who was
+ thought to have delivered Rhodes from Demetrius Poliorcetes, it was
+ made from the engines of war which that besieger left behind. One
+ finger of it was larger than an ordinary statue. An earthquake in
+ 224 B.C. destroyed it, but even in its broken and fallen state it
+ was long the wonder of Rhodes.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS
+
+ “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” Her temple was burned down in
+ 356 B.C., and subsequent to that year the great temple famed in
+ history was erected by the Ionians. It is said to have taken 220
+ years to construct, and measured about 400 feet in length and 200
+ feet in width, while it contained no fewer than 127 Ionic columns
+ nearly 65 feet high. The temple was despoiled by Nero and destroyed
+ by the Goths in 262 A.D., but some of its ruins still remain.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE STATUE OF JUPITER ON OLYMPUS
+
+ The world-famous statue of Jupiter was the work of the great
+ sculptor Phidias. It measured 43 feet in height above the base.
+ The body of the god was carved from ivory, and the drapery was of
+ solid gold. No other statue of such magnitude, of such artistic
+ perfection, or of such precious material, has been known to
+ history. Among the ruins of the temple are still to be seen the
+ remains of the black marble mosaic on which the statue stood.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA
+
+ On the island of Pharos, close to Alexandria, stood the famous
+ lighthouse erected by Ptolemy Philadelphus about 280 B.C.
+ Constructed of white marble, in a series of vast stages of vaulted
+ masonry, it reached the height of 520 feet, and in its summit
+ burned night and day, an immense beacon fire of wood, which could
+ be seen 30 miles at sea. The lighthouse was gradually destroyed
+ by earthquakes and the action of the sea, but existed in some
+ condition to the end of the 13th century.
+]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: BIRTH OF CIVILISATION AND THE GROWTH OF RACES]
+
+THE RISE OF CIVILISATION IN EGYPT
+
+BY PROFESSOR FLINDERS PETRIE
+
+
+In looking back to the beginning of civilisation in any country, we
+have to deal with the physical changes which the land has undergone,
+and to consider the conditions which promoted or hindered the advance
+of its inhabitants. The nature of a country largely rules the nature of
+its people, both bodily and mentally; and it may even be true that, if
+sufficient time be given, the same character and structure will always
+be produced by equal conditions.
+
+[Sidenote: Civilisation 10,000 Years ago]
+
+[Sidenote: How we can Fix the Date]
+
+From historical records, and the cemeteries that have been examined, it
+appears that the beginning of a continuous civilisation in Egypt must
+be set as far back as about 10,000 years ago, or 8000 B.C.
+The question then is how far the condition of the country at that
+age was similar to that now seen? The present state is quite new,
+geographically speaking, as the deposit of mud by the Nile, providing
+a suitable soil, is only a matter of a few thousand years. The
+accumulation of deposit is about 5 in. in a century (4·7 at Naukratis,
+5·1 at Abusir, 5·5 at Cairo); and the depth of it is not less than
+26 ft., and varies in different places down to 62 ft. The lower
+depths are, however, often mixed with sand beds, and do not show the
+continuous mud deposit; hence the average depth of 39 ft. is too large,
+and if we accept 35 ft., it will certainly be a full estimate. At the
+average rate of deposit, this would be formed in 6,000 years. But, on
+the other hand, the deposit may have been slower at the beginning, and
+hence the age would be earlier. Also, the full depth may be greater,
+owing to some borings hitting on ground which was originally above the
+river. Hence the extreme limits of age of Nile deposit in different
+positions are perhaps 7,000 to 15,000 years, and probably about 10,000
+years may be a likely age for the beginning of continuous Nile mud
+stratification. Hence it is clear that the start of the civilisation
+was about contemporary with the first cultivable ground.
+
+[Sidenote: Stone Age in Egypt]
+
+[Sidenote: The First Dwellers in the Land]
+
+Earlier than the Nile deposits there must have been some rainfall,
+enough to keep up the volume of the river, and to prevent its
+slackening, so as to deposit its burden. We must picture, then, the
+country as having enough rainfall for a scanty vegetation in the
+valleys, while the Nile flowed down a mighty stream, filling the whole
+bed as it now does in flood, and bearing its mud out to the sea, except
+in some backwaters which were shoaling up. Such a land would support a
+small population of hunters, who followed the desert game and snared
+hippopotami in the marshes. The Nile had been in course of recession
+for a long period before it began to rise again by filling its bed.
+The gravels high above the present Nile contain flints flaked by human
+work; much as in Sinai such flakes are found, deep in the filling of
+the valleys which belong to a pluvial period. Yet after the Nile had
+retreated down to the present level, man appears to have been still
+in the Palæolithic stage, as freshly flaked, unrolled flints have
+been found at the lowest surface level of the desert. As the country,
+while drying up, and before mud deposits were laid down, would have
+only been suited for occupation by hunters, it seems probable that
+Palæolithic Man had continued in Egypt until the beginning of the
+Nile deposits--that is to say, till the beginning of the continuous
+civilisation as discovered in the cemeteries.
+
+BUSHMAN TYPE. On turning to the remains of the earliest
+burials, we find that in many cases female figures of the Bushman--or
+more precisely Koranna--type, were placed in the graves; while at
+the same time long, slender figures of the European type are also
+found. The inference is that the Palæolithic race of the Koranna
+type was known to the earliest civilised race in Egypt, and that
+they were being expelled and exterminated, as only female figures
+are found--representing captive slave women--and even these soon
+disappear. Thus it would seem that Egypt, as an almost desert region,
+before the formation of the cultivable mud flats, was the last home
+on the Mediterranean of the hunters who continued in the Palæolithic
+stage. The physical type of the figures which we can attribute to this
+earliest population has the Bushman characteristics of fatness of the
+thighs and hips, with a deep lumbar curve; and a line of whisker covers
+the jaws of the female figures, akin to the fur on the bodies of women
+on the Brassempouy and Laugerie-Basse ivory carvings. This indicates
+that they belonged to a cold climate, and had not been developed in
+Egypt. As, however, man had certainly dwelt in the Nile valley for
+long ages, this northern indication points to a comparatively recent
+invasion from a colder to a warmer climate, such as has been the rule
+throughout historical times.
+
+[Sidenote: Time Without Dates]
+
+PREHISTORIC PERIOD. The beginning of the continuous
+civilisation of the country must be placed at about 8000 B.C.
+The written history extends back to the first dynasty, and places that
+at 5500 B.C., and this is checked at the sixth, twelfth, and
+eighteenth dynasties by records of the rising of Sirius, and of the
+seasons in the shifting year, which agree to this dating in general.
+For the length of the prehistoric age before these written records
+there is no exact dating. But, as in a given district of Egypt, where
+all the desert has been searched, the prehistoric graves are about as
+numerous as those made during the six thousand years of the historic
+time, at least 2,000 or 3,000 years must be allowed. The amount of
+change in every kind of production during this age is considerable; and
+as we can trace two cycles of civilisation, which usually occupy about
+1,500 years each in the later times, it is likely that 2,500 years
+is too little rather than too long a period. As no definite scale of
+years can be used, the dating of the graves of this age is treated as a
+matter of sequence. From a careful statistical classing of the pottery,
+it is practicable to put about a thousand of the fullest graves into
+their original order; this series is then divided into 50 equal parts,
+and these are numbered from 30 to 80. Thus, sequence date 30 is the
+earliest type of graves yet found, and S.D. 80 is of the age
+of Mena, the founder of the first dynasty. The sequence dates are given
+below for each stage of the prehistoric times.
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF EGYPT
+
+ As female figures of the Bushman type are found in the very
+ earliest Egyptian graves, it is thought that this race was native
+ to the country and was gradually expelled by the first civilised
+ people. The photograph illustrates one of the figures taken from a
+ grave.
+]
+
+EARLIEST BURIALS. The earliest graves found are shallow
+circular hollows on the desert, about 30 in. across, and a foot deep.
+The body lies closely doubled up, wrapped in goat-skins. There are very
+few objects placed with these burials; a single cup of pottery, red,
+with black top; rarely, a slate palette for grinding face-paint; and,
+in one grave, a copper pin to fasten the goat-skin. Pottery was in a
+simple stage, and weaving was quite unknown. These graves are classed
+as sequence date 30.
+
+[Illustration: POTTERY OF FIRST EGYPTIAN CIVILISATION
+
+ The pottery of the first period of Egyptian civilisation is
+ characterised by raised white lines on a red body, and from the
+ fact that it closely resembles the pottery of the Kabyle people,
+ who live in North Africa to-day, it is thought the first Egyptian
+ civilisation may have come from the west. These examples are before
+ 7000 B.C.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Civilisation Emerging from the Mists]
+
+FIRST CIVILISATION. The next period is that of the white patterns on
+red (S.D. 31 to 34). This use of lines of raised white slip is the
+same as on the present Kabyle pottery, and the patterns are so closely
+alike on the ancient and modern that this forms a strong evidence for
+a Western connection of the people. In this period the main lines
+of the civilisation become clearly marked. The fine flint chipping
+with delicate serrated edges; the polished red pottery, of circular
+and of fancy forms; the tall round-bottomed stone vases; the slate
+palettes for face-paint, of animal forms and of rhombic shape; the
+use of sandals; the ivory combs with animal figures; the disc-shaped
+mace-head--all of these were in use with the white cross-lined pottery,
+and stamp the general type of the beginning of the civilisation. We
+have before us a settled population, with strong artistic taste in
+handicraft, but not in copying Nature; with patience for very long
+and skilful work, and probably organised, therefore, under chiefs who
+commissioned such labour; yet with sufficient general demand for fine
+things to have raised hand pottery to its highest level; with strong
+beliefs about a future life, as shown by the uniform detail of the
+position of the body and the nature of the offerings in the grave; with
+the arts of spinning and weaving; fairly clothed, as shown by the use
+of sandals; fighters, with finely-made and treasured weapons; with the
+use of personal marks for property--altogether much in the stage which
+we now see in the highest races of the Pacific or Central Africa.
+
+EASTERN INVASION. This civilisation had lasted for a few centuries when
+we see a change come over it. On searching the types of pottery we
+see many new forms arising from S.D. 38 to 43, while many older types
+disappear between S.D. 40 and 44. These changes serve to stamp the
+point of the change, but it is in other respects that the differences
+are most visible. The black-topped pottery, red polished, and fancy
+forms of pottery cease to develop after 43, whereas the decorated
+pottery, with brown line patterns on buff ware, is scarcely known till
+40, and the late class of pottery begins at 43. In the stone vases the
+forms of tall tubular shape, with handles, cease at 40, and the barrel
+forms begin at 39, and are dominant by 42. In flint work the various
+new types begin from 39 to 45; the disc mace dies out about 40, and the
+pear-shaped mace begins at 42. In the slate palettes old types vanish
+and new ones arise from 37 to 42. The same is seen in ivories. Foreign
+intercourse was increased, as silver (from Asia Minor?), lazuli (from
+Persia?), serpentine and hæmatite (from Sinai?) all come into use from
+38 to 40. In copying Nature, the steatopygous figures of the Bushman
+type are only found before 38, and human figure amulets are known from
+down to 44. Animal figure amulets begin in 45. Multiple burials in
+graves are common down to 40, and continue till 43; only single burials
+are known later.
+
+[Sidenote: Invasion from the East]
+
+[Sidenote: What Mythology Says]
+
+The racial changes that are thus indicated by these widespread
+differences can only be traced by the different products. The white
+line pottery characteristic of the earliest people is closely like
+that of the Kabyles, and the similarity of the skull measurements
+show that there is no bar to accepting the connection with the North
+African race. But the details of the new people, using animal amulets,
+a face veil, wavy-handled pottery like that of early Palestine, and the
+Asiatic silver and lazuli, all point to their coming in from the East.
+This change may be further linked with the religious traditions. This
+later mythology taught that Osiris had found the Egyptians in a brutal
+existence, and he had taught them agriculture, laws, and worship; this
+appears to be the tradition of the bringing in of cultivation by the
+earliest civilisation at S.D. 30. His worshippers were allied with
+those of Isis, who were a kindred tribe. Hence Osiris is said to have
+married his sister Isis. The myth further shows that this civilisation
+was attacked treacherously by the tribe who worshipped Set, in
+confederacy with an Ethiopian queen, and they succeeded in suppressing
+the worship of Osiris and removing his remains to Byblos in Syria. This
+seems to agree to the influx of Asiatic influence, about S.D. 40, which
+we have noticed above. The correction of the calendar from 360 to 365
+days, is attributed to the beginning of the civilisation (at S.D. 30)
+by the myth that Osiris and his cycle of gods were born on the extra
+five days.
+
+[Illustration: PREHISTORIC SHIPS: THE EARLIEST PICTURES OF EGYPTIAN
+VESSELS
+
+ The pottery of the second period of Egyptian civilisation is
+ rich in representations of prehistoric ships. The vessels are
+ shown with many oars, and the cabins are placed amidship with a
+ gangway between. It is gathered from these crude drawings that in
+ prehistoric times there was a considerable shipping trade along the
+ coast of Egypt.
+]
+
+SECOND CIVILISATION. The second prehistoric civilisation, of
+which we have traced the Asiatic source, is specially marked by the use
+of a hard buff pottery, on which designs are often painted in brown
+outline. The art of these has no connection with that of the early
+white line designs; the habit of covering figures with cross lines, and
+the imitation of basket-work, have entirely disappeared; and, on the
+contrary, the plant, ostrich, and ship designs are quite new.
+
+What, then, were the connections of these people? One indication
+is gleaned from carvings at the close of the prehistoric age. Two
+tributaries of the new king of Egypt are shown bearing stone vases
+of the style of those of the second prehistoric civilisation, S.D.
+45-75. They have large pointed noses, and wear pigtails, and another
+tributary of the same type wears a long robe. Hence we may see that
+they came from a cold region where stone vases were wrought; and that
+by the form of the vase they were probably the same people as the later
+prehistoric stock. Yet, on the other hand, we occasionally find pottery
+vases of that people in the earlier prehistoric age, so that they must
+have been in touch with Egypt throughout. The more likely source for
+them was the mountainous region, where snow sometimes lies, between
+Egypt and the Red Sea; and certainly this was the source of the rare
+igneous rocks used for the prehistoric vases.
+
+The general conclusion would be, then, that a people occupying the
+mountainous region east of Egypt had an independent civilisation, and
+were in touch with the early prehistoric people of the Nile valley.
+Then about S.D. 38 they began to push down into Egypt, and fully
+entered it by S.D. 44, bringing with them various different points of
+their own civilisation, and expelling the Osiris worship in favour of
+Set, who was their god. They probably brought in the Semitic elements
+to the Egyptian language, along with the other Asiatic connections.
+
+[Sidenote: Fleet of Prehistoric Ships]
+
+SHIPPING. Under this new order of things we see much more foreign and
+maritime connection. The introduction of silver from Asia, of lazuli
+from Persia, of hæmatite from Sinai, of serpentine from the Arabian
+desert--all show this. On the vases we see the starfish painted, and
+one of the most usual decorations was the figure of a great galley
+or ship. These ships are shown with oars on the pottery vases, and
+without oars or sails on the tomb paintings. From the proportion of the
+figures they appear to have been as much as 50 ft, long, and this is
+confirmed by the oars, which number up to sixty. Neither indication is
+exact; but the tendency would be to exaggerate the size of the figures,
+and certainly not to diminish them, and so aggrandise the ship. The
+shipbuilding in the early history may prepare us for the earlier rise
+of such work, when we read of Senefru building sixty ships of a hundred
+feet long in one year.
+
+[Sidenote: What the Ships Were Like]
+
+These prehistoric ships were all of one pattern. Amidships were the
+large cabins, and there was no poop or forecastle structure, probably
+because of the want of support fore and aft, the flotation being mainly
+in the middle. The two cabins were separated by a broad gangway across
+the boat, and joined above the gangway by a bridge from roof to roof.
+Lesser cabins projected fore and aft from the main cabins. On the roofs
+were rails at the corners, so as to secure top cargo without getting
+in the way of loading it up. In a large ship there was an upper cabin
+on the hinder main one, a light shelter shaded with branches. From the
+back of the hinder cabin stood up a tall pole bearing a solid object as
+a standard, which we shall notice below. At the stern was the steersman
+seated by an upright post, to which was probably lashed the steering
+oar, as in the historical boats. In the bows was a low platform, with a
+rail round it, for the look-out, shaded with branches. The cabins were
+narrower than the beam, and left free space for rowers on each side.
+
+[Sidenote: Trade in Those Days]
+
+FOREIGN IMPORTS. Vessels of this large size certainly imply a
+corresponding importance of commerce. We have noted already the foreign
+imports into Egypt; and others imply more distinctly a sea intercourse.
+From S.D. 33 down to S.D. 68 there is found black pottery with incised
+basket-work patterns [page 238] filled in with white. It is always
+rare, only occurring in less than 1 per cent. of the graves, and in
+only one case was there more than a solitary example. It is entirely
+disconnected from the Egyptian types, but it is closely akin to pottery
+found on the north of the Mediterranean, in Spain (Ciempozuelos),
+in Bosnia, and in the earliest town of Troy. At the close of the
+prehistoric age the black pottery of the late Neolithic city of Knossos
+is found in the lowest levels of the temple at Abydos. And in the
+royal tombs of the first dynasty there many vases and pieces have
+been found which are clearly of the earliest age of painted Ægean
+pottery. Considering that the bulk of the trade must have been for
+perishable goods--oil and skins from Crete and Greece, corn and beans
+from Egypt--it is not to be expected that a great amount of breakable
+pottery would pass and be preserved in burials. There are, moreover,
+some tallies left to us besides the northern pottery. Throughout the
+later prehistoric age emery was regularly in use for all the grinding
+and polishing of stone vases and of carnelian beads; and so common that
+one excelsior spirit in search of a tour de force had even cut a vase
+out of block emery, as being the hardest known material. This emery,
+so far as we know, must have come from Smyrna. Again, the gold of the
+first dynasty contains a large amount of silver. This points to its
+source from the Pactolus region, where electrum was found, rather than
+from Nubia, where the gold is free from silver.
+
+CONNECTION OF THE SHIPPING. When we look at the evidence of the ships
+themselves we see that it points to their having been used at sea
+rather than on the Nile. It is impossible to row a ship up against the
+Nile stream, which runs at three miles an hour, and sailing or towing
+is the only way to go southward in Egypt. But in only one instance is a
+ship with a sail represented, while there are many dozens of figures of
+rowing vessels. The galley has always been the type of business ship on
+the Mediterranean. All through the classical wars the rowing galley was
+the mainstay of power. The Homeric catalogue of ships, the Phœnician
+coinage, the Assyrian sculptures, the Greek fleets, the Carthaginian
+navy and its destroyers of Rome, the pirates of Liburnia and Lycia,
+down to the Venetian fleet and the French galleys of a couple of
+centuries ago, all show the dominance of the oar.
+
+[Illustration: ARTICLES ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE EARLY CIVILISATION OF EGYPT
+
+ (1) Slate palettes on which paint for rubbing round the eyes was
+ ground; (2) adze heads and harpoons, the harpoons at the sides
+ being of bone, the others of copper; (3) beautifully flaked flint
+ knife; (4) serpent amulet of stone; (5) maces of quartzose rock,
+ very effective weapons; (6) forked lances of flint; (7) combs of
+ ivory; (8) vases carved from hard stone; (9) black incised pottery,
+ a foreign import into early Egypt.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Port Ensigns Carried]
+
+The nature of the standards upon poles carried by the ships has been
+variously interpreted. We can distinguish the elephant, bird on a
+crescent, and fish; the two or four pair of horns, the bush, and the
+branch; the rows of two, three, four, or five hills; the crossed
+arrows, and the harpoon, besides other forms which we cannot identify.
+The question is, what view will account for these most completely?
+Some have thought they were emblems of gods, and that the boats
+were sacred to divinities; but there are many which cannot be thus
+explained. Others have thought that they indicated tribes; but the
+rarity of repetitions, and the absence of any duplicates together, are
+against this. Marks of personal ownership have been suggested; and this
+is not impossible, as they might be well dedicated to special gods. But
+the prominence of the groups of hills as signs agrees best with their
+being marks of the ports from which they hailed; the divine emblems
+would naturally be those of the god of the port, the number of hills
+would be very likely to distinguish different ports, the elephant, the
+bush, or the fish might well be the mark of a port. And the parallel
+in later times of such being distinctive ensigns for ports--as in
+the ensign of Gades found in the Red Sea--agrees to this usage. The
+carrying of a port ensign in an age of independent city-states was
+equivalent to a national flag in later times; and it was essential for
+showing friends or foes.
+
+We have dwelt at length on the detail of this shipping, as it is the
+most important subject for showing the extent and character of the
+early civilisation. It takes two to trade as well as to quarrel; and
+these large ships were not rowed about the Mediterranean unless there
+was a paying trade to be done on those coasts, a people civilised
+enough to produce goods that were wanted and to require foreign stuff
+in exchange, and a society stable enough to enable goods to be stocked
+in bulk and traded without any serious risk of fraud or force.
+
+[Sidenote: Ingenuity of the Hunters]
+
+[Sidenote: Mode of Ostrich Hunting]
+
+HUNTING. The main occupation represented in the prehistoric paintings
+is hunting. The bow and arrow was used. The bow was a single piece of
+wood, painted red and covered with zigzag white lines; the arrow was of
+reed, with a point several inches long of hard wood. The forked lance
+of flint was also a favourite weapon [p. 238]; it was inserted at the
+end of a wooden shaft, which was controlled by a long thong of leather
+ending in alabaster knobs which kept it from entirely flying from
+the fingers. Thus the lance could be thrown by a man in ambush to cut
+the legs of a gazelle, while, if it missed, it was jerked back by the
+elastic thong, and so saved from breaking the delicate edge of flint.
+These forked lances are found throughout nearly all the prehistoric
+time; and they continued in use in North Africa till the Roman Age,
+when Commodus borrowed thence their use for hunting the ostrich.
+This lance retained by a thong was the parallel to the favourite
+harpoon used in fishing. Another mode of hunting was the trap. This
+is represented as being formed of pointed splints or stakes, lashed
+together like spokes of a wheel, with the points around a central
+hollow. Such traps to catch the legs of animals are used now in Africa,
+and an example was found at the Ramesseum, dating perhaps from the
+twentieth dynasty. Sticks or clubs were used in hunting and in fighting.
+
+[Illustration: STANDARDS OF EGYPTIAN SHIPS
+
+ There has been much speculation as to the significance of the
+ standards carried by the most ancient of the Egyptian vessels, as
+ recorded on pottery and elsewhere. Some examples of these standards
+ are here given. The most reasonable supposition is that these
+ devices indicated the port from which the vessel sailed.
+]
+
+FIGHTING. The earliest representation of fighting is on a vase of the
+white slip on red, at the beginning of the prehistoric age. On that
+a man with long, wavy hair appears to be spearing another man in the
+side. Later, there are the fighters on the Hierakonpolis tomb, at about
+S.D. 63. On this hooked sticks are used, and the fighters are clad
+with a spotted animal’s hide on the back. One man has been killed, and
+another is hard pressed, fallen on one knee. To save himself from blows
+he has taken off the hide and is holding it up, thus anticipating the
+use of the shield. It seems likely that the Egyptian shields of hide
+stretched on a frame of sticks were directly copied from this use of
+the hide that was otherwise worn on the body. In another group a black
+man is holding three red captives bound with a black cord, while two
+red men approach him to deliver their kindred.
+
+[Sidenote: Fighting with Maces]
+
+The weapons mostly found are the stone maces [page 238]. These were
+sharp-edged discs in the earlier age, a form which is very effective
+in a mixed fight, as it cannot be turned aside like a battleaxe, but
+must cut in whatever direction it falls. These maces were usually made
+of porphyry and other quartzose rocks. The mace used in the later age
+was of a pear shape, and this form was continued into the historic
+times, and perpetuated in the conventional scene of the king striking
+an enemy, even in the latest times. The handle holes in these maces are
+very small, and this shows that probably the handles were dried thongs
+of hide. Nothing else would be sufficiently tough and elastic. The
+flint dagger was probably also used, and certainly the copper dagger.
+A very fine example of this, dated to S.D. 55 or 60, is wrought with a
+quadrangular blade, giving the utmost strength and lightness, a better
+design than that of any daggers of the historic times.
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST PICTURES OF FIGHTING
+
+ The earliest representation of fighting, at the beginning of the
+ prehistoric age, shows a man with long, wavy hair, spearing another
+ man in the side. Later, are fighters on the Hierakonpolis tomb,
+ using hooked sticks and clad in piebald hides of animals.
+]
+
+TOOLS. Tools of metal begin with small, square chisels of copper at
+S.D. 38. The intermediate examples have not been found till we reach
+a fine large chisel of copper at the close of the prehistoric. Adzes
+of copper [p. 238] begin at S.D. 56, or earlier, and increase in size
+down to historic times; they continued to be the favourite tool of the
+Egyptians for both wood and stone working until Greek times. Borers are
+usually tapered, to work in soft material. Needles of copper appear as
+early as S.D. 48, and the fastening pins of copper begin with the very
+earliest graves of S.D. 30.
+
+Flint working was the greatest artistic industry of the prehistoric
+age. The surfaces were not merely reduced by haphazard flaking, but
+the flints were ground into form, and then reflaked in a marvellously
+regular manner with uniform parallel grooves [page 238]. The finishing
+of the edges by deep serrations of the fineness of forty to the inch,
+and the chipping out of delicate armlets of flint, show also the same
+astonishing skill and perfection of hand work. The Scandinavian flint
+chipping used to be regarded as the most perfect, but the Egyptian work
+entirely surpasses it in regularity and boldness.
+
+STONE VASES. Hard stones were largely employed for making vases [page
+238]. In the earlier age tall, cylindrical forms were used, and in the
+later age barrel forms. The earlier material was usually basalt, but
+syenite, porphyry, alabaster and limestone were also used. The later
+materials included slate, grey limestone, breccia, serpentine, and
+diorite. The hollowing out of these vases was by grinding, but the
+outside was entirely formed by chipping and polishing without rotary
+motion. The perfect regularity of the forms, and the fine taste shown
+in the curves of the outlines, as well as the hardness of the material,
+place the vase working higher than any work of the historic times.
+
+[Sidenote: 1,000 Forms of Pottery]
+
+POTTERY. Pottery was greatly developed, although the wheel was not
+used, and all the forms were entirely modelled by hand and eye without
+mechanical guidance. The outlines are true and fine, the circularity
+is astonishingly regular, although all the trimming and polish runs
+vertically; and it was as easy in such a mode of building to make oval,
+doubled, or square forms, all of which are found. The specially later
+pottery is the decorated, with brown-red lines on a hard buff body.
+The forms are clearly copied from those of the stone vases; and the
+patterns are derived from the fossils and veins in the stone, or from
+the cordage net in which the vases were slung for carrying. Next appear
+aloes and other bushes, and figures of ships, which we have already
+noticed. Rows of ostriches and of hills are also favourite designs.
+
+Other pottery of this ware, but not decorated, has a curious type
+of projecting ledge, wavy up and down, for handles. Beginning at
+S.D. 40 as a globular vessel, the type narrows to an upright jar;
+by S.D. 60 the handles dwindle, becoming united around it as a wavy
+band of pattern; by S.D. 70 the jar at last becomes a cylinder; by
+S.D. 75 the band becomes a mere line; and then after S.D. 80--in the
+first dynasty--the jar dwindles to a rough tube like a thumbstall.
+The contents of such jars similarly deteriorate. At first, perfumed
+ointment was put in them, then it was covered with a layer of mud to
+retain the scent; the mud increased until it was merely scented mud,
+then only plain mud was used, and lastly they were left empty. Beside
+many other forms of this hard ware there was also a long series of
+types in a rough brown pottery, which passed on into the ordinary
+pottery of the first dynasty. As there are over a thousand different
+forms of this prehistoric pottery known, and their study has been the
+key to the whole arrangement of that age, this subject is a very wide
+one, which we have barely noticed here.
+
+[Illustration: PREHISTORIC POTTERY OF EGYPT
+
+ The later pottery of the prehistoric period is characterised by
+ brown-red lines on a hard buff body. The forms and decorations have
+ been copied from earlier stone vases, and from the nets in which
+ they were carried.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: A Constant Personal Possession]
+
+SLATE PALETTES. A constant personal possession was the slab of slate
+upon which the green malachite or red ochre was ground for colouring
+around the eyes. Usually a brown pebble crusher accompanies it; and the
+dead often have a little leather bag of malachite in the hands. These
+slate palettes begin with a plain rhomb form, probably derived from
+the natural cleavages of the slate rock. Well-formed animal figures
+were also carved as slate silhouettes; the deer, hippopotamus, and
+turtle are the oldest, and the fish also comes into the earlier age.
+The double bird type begins with the second age, and all the types
+continuously degrade by repeated copying until their original form is
+quite indistinguishable at the close of the prehistoric age [page 238].
+
+PERSONAL OBJECTS. Ivory carving is common, mainly for long combs to
+fasten up the hair. These usually have an animal on the top of them;
+but they only belong to the earlier age, suggesting that the hair was
+worn shorter in the second period. Decorated tusks of ivory are also
+early; they were fastened on to leather work, probably to close the
+openings of water skins. Ivory spoons belong only to the second period,
+as likewise do the forehead pendants of shell.
+
+Amulets of animal forms were frequent in the second period. They are
+generally cut in stone, carnelian, serpentine, porphyry, and coloured
+limestones. The forms are the bull’s head (which continued in use into
+historic times), the hawk, serpent [p. 238], frog, fly, scorpion, claw,
+vase, and spear head. The meanings attached to them are quite unknown.
+
+Games are found, as shown by the ivory draughtsmen, the small balls
+or marbles, the stone gateway and ninepins [page 242], the figures of
+lions and hares, and the throwing slips for obtaining a count as with
+dice.
+
+[Sidenote: What the People Wore]
+
+CLOTHING. The clothing of men was, at most, the kilt of linen, or an
+animal’s hide put over the body. Often only a belt was worn, with
+three narrow strips hanging down in front. A usual covering was a
+belt with a sheath attached to it to hold up the genitals. With the
+pleated kilt was also worn a belt having apparently a jackal tail hung
+behind. On some figures there is merely a double rope round the waist.
+These various forms may belong to different peoples and periods; but
+there are hardly enough examples to prove any distinctions, as the
+varying circumstance of the figures, captive and conquered, resting and
+working, rich and poor, in heat and in cold, may easily have led to the
+different dress that we see. Women are represented with a white linen
+petticoat from the waist to the feet. Leather was a favourite material
+for clothing, as well as for bags. It was painted with patterns, and
+decorated with beads, reminding us of the North American work.
+
+[Sidenote: The Oldest Capital of Egypt]
+
+DECAY OF CIVILISATION. All of this civilisation gradually decayed;
+the pottery is seen becoming coarser, good work dying out in rougher
+copying, new types seldom appearing, cheaper and poorer objects being
+more usual. There is ground, however, for supposing that at some time
+in this age there was a central rule at Heliopolis. There are many
+traditions of a principality there, which must certainly have been
+before the dynasties. The sacred emblem preserved in the temple was the
+shepherd’s crook, _haq_, which served for the title of “prince” in all
+later times; the other sacred emblem was the whip, and these two were
+the royal emblems of Osiris. The title of the nome was “the princes’
+territory,” and this capital retained in later ages the reputation of
+being the centre of learning and theology. And on the fragment of the
+early annals known as the “Palermo Stone” there is shown a long row of
+kings of Lower Egypt before the dynasties; these cannot have ruled at
+Memphis, as that was a new foundation by Menes.
+
+[Illustration: THE EARLIEST GAME OF NINEPINS
+
+ These ninepins, the gate to play through, and the porphyry balls
+ were all found in a child’s grave.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: History as Reflected in Mythology]
+
+[Sidenote: End of Prehistoric Times]
+
+HISTORY IN MYTHOLOGY. Of the breakup of this civilisation we may trace
+some relation in the mythology. After Isis had recovered the body of
+Osiris, and the worship of the Osiris and Isis tribes had revived
+again from the Semitic invasion of Set worshippers, Set again attacked
+the Osiris worship, and scattered the body of Osiris into fourteen
+parts in different places. This refers probably to the distribution of
+parts of the body to different districts, when it was cut up in the
+funeral ceremonies, according to prehistoric usage. These parts of
+Osiris were kept at sixteen nomes in Egypt in historic times, six in
+the Nile valley and ten in the Delta, probably the original nomes of
+the country. The civil discord implied in this persecution must have
+weakened the land; and then came the attack by the hawk worshippers
+from the south. In the legend of Horbehudti, or Horus of Edfu, we read
+that the crocodiles and hippopotami (animals of Set), attacked him,
+and his servants, armed with metal weapons, smote and conquered them,
+slaying 381 before the city of Edfu. Then the worshippers of Horus
+allied themselves with the sun worshippers, and “Horbehudti changed his
+form into that of a winged sun disc,” and “took with him Nekhebt the
+goddess of the South and Uazet, the goddess of the North, in the form
+of two serpents, that they might destroy their enemies in the bodily
+forms of crocodiles and hippopotami.” That is to say, the Horus, Ra,
+and serpent goddess tribes were all allied to attack the domination of
+the Set tribe. They gradually drove them back, and “Set went forth and
+cried out horribly”; he was finally struck down at _Pa-rehehu_. “Thus
+did Horbehudti, together with Horus, the son of Isis, who had made his
+form like unto that of Horbehudti.” That is to say, the rest of the
+Horus worshippers joined the Horus-Ra party.
+
+The final battle and expulsion of Set was at Zaru on the eastern
+frontier of Egypt. This, in mythological form, seems to give the
+history of the driving out of the Semitic population of the later
+prehistoric age, by the dynastic race descending from Upper Egypt, at
+the close of the prehistoric period. An actual result of this war,
+all through later times, was the multitude of towns named Samhud, or
+“United to Behudti,” marking the allies of the Horus party.
+
+HISTORICAL SLATE PALETTES. Of the period of the conquest by the
+dynastic races, which closed the prehistoric age, there is an
+invaluable series of monuments carved on slate. These carved slates
+are the elaborated outcome of the slate palettes used for grinding
+the face paints throughout the prehistoric age. A similar elaboration
+of a simple article is familiar in modern times in the snuff-box. A
+plain receptacle of bone or wood was decorated, plated, made of silver
+and of gold, inlaid with diamonds and painted with the costliest
+miniatures, and yet--it was but a snuff-box. So the plain slip of
+slate was carved into animal outlines, had animals scratched on it,
+then signs in relief upon it, and at last was covered with the most
+elaborate carvings, and yet--it was but a paint grinder, and had always
+the pan for colour carved on it, exactly of the shape of the pans on
+the painters’ palettes of that age. Every stage can be shown, from a
+formless slate to an artistic scene in relief. There are many stages to
+be seen in the artistic development.
+
+ A. In the prehistoric age are the scratched outlines.
+
+ B. The well-incised elephant is as early as S.D. 33-41;
+ and with it are those signs in low relief.
+
+ C. The high relief sign is of S.D. 60-63.
+
+ D. On the boat slate, the drawing is much more detailed than on the
+ boats of the Hierakonpolis tomb of S.D. 63. We can hardly
+ separate this from the work of the artistic new-comers, and it may
+ well be about S.D. 70-75.
+
+ E. The animal slate seems to be next, as the treatment of the
+ lion’s hair is unlike the following.
+
+ F. The four-dog slate, being a coarser but more elaborated design
+ of the same type, may well be next.
+
+ G. The hut slate shows for the first time the arrangement of lion’s
+ mane as on the ivory lions of King Zer.
+
+ H. The gazelle slate shows the same treatment more advanced.
+
+ J. The towns slate shows the wiry detail of muscles, beginning to
+ appear in archaic manner.
+
+ K. The bull slate has the same style carried out fully and finely.
+
+ L. The Narmer slate has a less forcible and smoother treatment of
+ the bull, and brings us down to touch with the historic times.
+
+The figures can be seen in Capart’s “Primitive Art in Egypt,” where
+they may be identified by these letters, corresponding to the
+paragraphs above: A, B, figures 61, 62; C, 63; D, 169; E, 171-2; F,
+173-4; G, 170; H, 177-80; J, 175-6; K, 181-2; L, 183-4.
+
+RACIAL TYPES. These slate carvings not only show the art of the time,
+but they present the different races and the details of their life,
+more fully than we find them for many centuries later. We see six
+different types of physiognomy in the early remains, and learn how
+complex the racial history must be at the most remote period accessible
+to us.
+
+A. The _aquiline_ type is that of the principal prehistoric race,
+closely like the Libyan on the west and the Amorite on the east.
+When mixed with negro it produced the exact type of a European-Negro
+mulatto. Probably equal to the Libyan. [See Heads 1 to 4 on next page.]
+
+[Illustration: EGYPT IN THREE PERIODS OF ITS CIVILISATION
+
+ This map of Egypt shows Egypt in three of its early periods. (1)
+ The earliest centres of culture were at the places where parts of
+ Osiris were preserved in the prehistoric age, here named. (2) The
+ second period is shown by other centres being placed in the right
+ geographical order, all here numbered I to XIX, following down each
+ branch of the Nile. (3) The third period is when other centres were
+ inserted in the lists in the wrong order, here numbered 8 to 20.
+ These three stages of Egypt’s history are all before the monarchy.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE EARLIEST PORTRAITS OF VARIOUS RACES IN EGYPT
+
+ Numbers 1 and 2 are the aquiline type, similar to 3, the Libyan,
+ and 4 the Amorite. 5 is the curly hair type, 6 the sharp-nosed
+ type, 7 the short-nosed type, 8 the forward beard type, 9-11 the
+ straight-faced type of dynastic conquerors. 12 is King Khafra of
+ the Pyramid age, reverting to the original type of 1 and 2.
+]
+
+B. The _sharp-nosed_ type, firstly, with the hair in a pigtail,
+bringing stone vases as tribute, and sometimes dressed in long robe;
+secondly, with bushy hair and armed with spear, throw-stick, mace, bow
+and arrows. Probably the Arabian mountain race mixed with Libyan. See
+figure 6 on this page.
+
+C. The _curly hair_ type, with plaited beard, conquered and destroyed
+by type B. Probably from North Syria, by sculptures there. See figure 5
+on this page.
+
+D. The _forward beard_ type, with close-cut hair; much like the
+figures on early Naukratite vases. Probably a coast people of Libyan
+connection. See figure 8 on this page.
+
+E. The _short-nosed_ type, a variety of D, apparently belonging to the
+Fayum. Fig. 7.
+
+F. The _straight-faced_ type of the dynastic conquerors. See figures
+9-11 on this page.
+
+All of these different peoples were in continual mixture and struggle
+during the few centuries before the first dynasty. Looking to the
+tribal hints given by the mythology, it seems probable that:
+
+ A represents the early Osiris and Isis worshippers; B the first
+ dominance of Set; C the second irruption of Set; D and E the allied
+ Osiris and Isis worshippers of the Delta and coast who helped to
+ expel Set; and F the hawk Horus worshippers, who took the lead in
+ driving out B and C by alliance with A, D and E.
+
+[Sidenote: Earliest Promise of Greatness]
+
+DYNASTIC RACE. The most essential difference between the prehistoric
+and the dynastic people is in their artistic capacity. The earlier
+peoples, though highly skilled in mechanical detail and handling, were
+yet very crude in their copying of any natural forms. But as soon as
+we reach the dynastic race we find that there is an artistic sense and
+power in their work, which puts even the roughest of it far above all
+that had gone before. The earliest examples of their sculpture appear
+to be the colossal figures of the god Min, found at Koptos. These are
+of the most primitive style possible, the limbs scarcely marked off
+from the trunk, and no details of form attempted. But on the side of
+each there is a patch of hammer-work outlining some figures, perhaps
+a copy of embroideries on a skin pouch hung at the side. These are
+figures of a deer’s head and pteroceras shells on one, swordfish,
+shells, and standards of the god on another, and the same objects,
+together with an ostrich, elephant, hyena, and calf on the third. All
+are but roughly hammered round, yet the spirit and correct forms of
+the animals are of an entirely different order from anything that had
+yet appeared in Egypt. The promise of all the artistic triumphs of
+thousands of years to come is clearly seen in these decorations of the
+rudest statues known.
+
+[Sidenote: Mystery of Dynastic Race]
+
+The source of this dynastic race can only be inferred. Though marked
+off from the earlier inhabitants by their artistic taste, and by their
+use of hieroglyphic writing, we know so very little of the early
+history of any other lands near Egypt that we cannot yet trace any
+link to their original source. On looking in various directions, it
+seems at least clear that they do not belong to the southern tribes, to
+which they have no resemblance; nor can we suppose that the Libyans,
+who appear to be one with the prehistoric people, would also supply
+a race so different in face and in habits. The north and Syria seem
+barred by the earliest centres being at Abydos and Hierakonpolis in the
+south of Egypt, from which they conquered the north.
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST PROMISE OF THE ARTISTIC TRIUMPHS OF EGYPT
+
+ These animal figures were wrought by hammering around on the
+ surface of the colossal statue of the god Min, found at Koptos, and
+ show the beginning of the wonderful art of Ancient Egypt. It is the
+ work of the earliest dynastic people, who have passed beyond the
+ stage of making rude scratches on walls and on pottery, and have
+ arrived, as the figures of the ox and the hyæna prove, at a real
+ conception of the methods of sculpture.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: The Way the Conquerors Came]
+
+Lastly, no source seems open except the East, the road from which
+joined the Nile at Koptos. It is there that the earliest statues have
+been found, and the decoration on those comprises the swordfish and
+pteroceras shell belonging to the Red Sea. Such seems to have been
+the road of the dynastic race into Egypt; but the origin of that race
+yet awaits research. There are undoubtedly some Babylonian elements
+in their culture, and somewhere at the south end of the Red Sea lay
+Punt--the “divine land” of the Egyptians. Thus we are tempted to
+look to some migration from Southern Arabia, whence also may have
+proceeded the kindred Sumerian culture, a few centuries later. From
+this centre in Pūn, or Punt, it may have conquered and colonised Egypt,
+and then later passed on up the Red Sea to the coast of the Pœni and
+their later Punic colony--Phœnicia and Carthage. Such is a pleasing
+co-ordination, but whether we shall ever recover the evidence to prove
+or disprove it hangs upon the chance of the past and the activity of
+the future.
+
+CONQUEST OF EGYPT. The conquest of Egypt spread down from the south to
+the north. The earliest centres were Abydos and Hierakonpolis. Probably
+Edfu was as important, or more so; but the great Ptolemaic temple
+there being still complete, the remains of the earliest kingdom are
+sealed beneath its pavements. The conquest must have been a gradual
+process; it is described as such in the myth, many times and in many
+successive places was Set defeated and repelled. And the probability is
+that tribal war of such a kind would only gradually transfer district
+after district from one holder to the next. We know how in England the
+conquest occupied three centuries, from the Saxon landing to the first
+Saxon king of all the land. So it may well have been in Egypt.
+
+[Sidenote: Kings Before History]
+
+We read in Manetho of ten kings of Thinis (Abydos) who ruled for 350
+years before the first dynasty of kings of all Egypt. And we know, from
+the fragment of the Palermo Stone, that at least thirteen kings of
+Lower Egypt were recorded before the first dynasty. It is obvious from
+this, and from the probabilities of the conquest, that there were Kings
+of Upper Egypt before the first dynasty; and there is no reason for not
+accepting this statement of Manetho as being equally correct with his
+account of the first dynasty, which we can verify. Of the actual course
+of the conquest, one fragment of carved slate has preserved the record.
+Seven towns are represented upon it, each attacked by one animal of
+the standards of the allies. These towns may be tolerably identified
+by comparing the hieroglyphics placed within them with the names known
+in historic times. The upper row of four towns seem to be Mem in the
+Fayum, Hipponon, Pa-rehehui, and possibly Abydos; and the lower three
+towns were probably in the delta, though there are the uncertainties
+of two northern similar names.
+
+[Sidenote: Graves of Unknown Kings]
+
+DYNASTY O. The contemporary remains that appear to belong to this age
+of the Kings of Abydos (which we may call Dynasty O) are the tomb
+chambers and funeral objects in the royal cemetery at Abydos. The plan
+of that cemetery shows a sequence of each later tomb being placed next
+to the previous tomb, and generally a receding further back into the
+desert as time went on. Now, in front of the tomb of Zer, the second
+king of the first dynasty, there are three large tombs alike, and four
+lesser ones. As objects of Mena, the first king, were found here, the
+other tombs are presumably those of six kings before the first dynasty,
+by their position. The actual objects found in these tombs are all of
+a more archaic style than those of Mena or any later king. The tombs
+themselves are all lesser and simpler than those of Zer and later
+kings. And the names of kings found here are all without the vulture
+and uræus title, but with only _neb neb_, the double lordship of Egypt.
+The whole of the evidence, therefore, goes to show that we have six
+tombs of the Thinite kings before Menes.
+
+The names of these earlier kings, so far as we trace them, are Ka,
+Ro, Zeser, Zar, Nar, and Sma. Of these, Nar, or Narmer, has the most
+important remains--part of an ebony tablet, and an alabaster jar
+from his tomb, and the great slate palette, a great mace head, with
+scene of a festival, and an ivory cylinder, from Hierakonpolis. The
+next in importance is Zar, or the “Scorpion King,” of whom there is
+a great carved mace head, and also some vases. The objects of the
+carvings appear to be celebrations of the _sed_ festival; this appears
+originally to have been the slaying of the king every thirty years,
+making him Osiris, one with the god, while his daughter was married
+to the new king. By the time of these carvings, it appears that the
+king took the place of Osiris in the ceremonials, and his successor
+masqueraded as the new king, and was henceforth the crown prince--the
+heir to the kingdom.
+
+[Illustration: A FESTIVAL SCENE OVER 7,000 YEARS AGO, IN THE REIGN OF
+KING NARMER, 5,500 B.C.
+
+ A record of the festival of Narmer, a king of Abydos, who reigned
+ before the first dynasty of kings of all Egypt. It indicates that
+ when the festival of his own death was celebrated, in accordance
+ with the ancient custom of killing the king every thirty years to
+ make him one with Osiris the god, no fewer than 120,000 captives,
+ 400,000 oxen, and 1,422,000 goats were offered. The numerical
+ system is here seen to be complete up to millions.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Planting and Building]
+
+There were brought to the festival of Narmer 120,000 captives, 400,000
+oxen, 1,422,000 goats; and the system of numeration was as complete
+before Menes as it was in any later time. The other mace head of
+King Zar shows part of the festival, and also the ceremony of the
+king hoeing the bank of a canal, probably at the inundation. We see
+the reclamation of the land, with men busy embanking the canals, and
+cultivating a palm tree in an enclosure of reeds, while they lived in
+reed huts with plaited dome tops, and used boats with a very high,
+upright stem. The carved slate palette of Narmer shows him grasping the
+chief of the Fayum, prepared to smite him, a scene which was repeated
+for five thousand years in all the Egyptian triumphs. The metal
+water-pot and sandals are carried behind the king by his body servant.
+On the other side of the palette is the king going to a triumphal
+ceremony, preceded by the scribe, _thet_, and four men of different
+types bearing the standards of the army, possibly connected with the
+four territorial divisions of the army found under Ramessu II. Before
+them lie ten slain enemies, with their heads cut off and put between
+their legs. The carving of the detail, and particularly the muscular
+anatomy of the king’s figure, is extraordinarily fine and firm, and as
+true as any work of later time.
+
+WRITTEN HISTORY. Having now dealt with the history as drawn from the
+remains which have come to light, we now enter from this point on the
+continuous written history, which has come down from hand to hand
+without a break to our own times, during over seven thousand years.
+This history was compiled by the high-priest and scribe Manetho of
+Sebennytos in the Delta, and only a fragment of his work has been
+preserved on its full scale; but three later writers have given
+epitomes of it, and it is on their lists that we have to depend. These
+are Julius Africanus (221 A.D.), Eusebius (326 A.D.), and George the
+Syncellus (792 A.D.).
+
+[Sidenote: The Men Who Handed Down the Story]
+
+[Sidenote: An Ancient Historian and His Figures]
+
+Unfortunately, much confusion has been caused by scholars not being
+content to accept Manetho as being substantially correct in the main,
+though with many small corruptions and errors. Nearly every historian
+has made large and arbitrary assumptions and changes, with a view to
+reducing the length of time stated. But recent discoveries seem to
+prove that we must accept the lists as having been correct, however
+they may have suffered in detail. A favourite supposition has been that
+the dynasties named were arbitrary divisions of later times; but the
+earlier lists also show such divisions as far back as the eighteenth
+dynasty, and kings founding a dynasty used to copy the titles of the
+founder of the previous dynasty, showing that the change was recognised
+at the time.
+
+Another idea has been that the dynasties were contemporary. But, on the
+contrary, in the overlapping of the tenth and eleventh and also the
+twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth dynasties, we can trace that Manetho was
+very careful to cut off from one dynasty all the time which he allows
+to another. As regards the general character of the whole length of
+time, we can show that Manetho’s version in 271 B.C. at Sebennytos
+was the same as that given to Herodotus two hundred years earlier at
+Memphis. Herodotus was told that from Menes to his time were 330 kings,
+and the totals of Manetho are 192 + 96 + 50 to Artaxerxes = 338, so
+that, in spite of corruption in detail, the totals seem to have been
+correctly maintained.
+
+In earlier times we can compare Manetho with the fragments of the
+Turin papyrus, written in the eighteenth dynasty; and here, in one of
+the most disputable points--the kings of the thirteenth dynasty--the
+average of eleven reigns legible in the papyrus is 6½ years, and
+Manetho states sixty kings in 453 years, or 7½ years’ average. The
+general character of a great number of short reigns in this age is
+quite supported. Then in the eighteenth dynasty there is a rising of
+Sirius in the movable calendar, in the twelfth dynasty another rising
+of Sirius, and some seasonal dates, and in the sixth dynasty are two
+seasonal dates. [Owing to the ignoring of leap year, the Egyptian
+months shifted round the seasons in 1,460 years; hence any seasonal
+date can only recur once in 1,460 years, and fixes an absolute date in
+that cycle.] All of these agree with Manetho; and though the seasonal
+dates are vague, they at least show that there is not an error of
+several centuries in the total. In the earliest times there is the
+account of the first dynasty, the names and succession of which are
+verified by the sculptured lists in the nineteenth dynasty and by the
+actual graves of the kings. Every accurate test that we can apply shows
+the general trustworthiness of Manetho, apart from minor corruptions.
+
+[Illustration: THE EARLIEST DETAILED SCULPTURE
+
+ This carved slate palette of King Narmer shows him grasping the
+ chief of the Fayum, prepared to smite him, a scene which was
+ repeated for five thousand years in all the Egyptian triumphs. The
+ sculpture shows anatomical treatment for the first time in art.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Material for History of Early Times]
+
+It is naturally a question what sort of material existed for an
+accurate history of the early times. The fragment of annals known as
+the Palermo Stone was engraved in the fifth dynasty, and it recorded
+the principal events of all the years back to the beginning of the
+kingdom, a thousand years before, the height of the Nile for every
+year, the length of every king’s reign and of interregnum to the exact
+days. With such a record of the most remote times carefully maintained
+we have every reason to suppose that the high-priests and sacred
+scribes had adequate information as to the general course of their
+history. And we can see by the Turin papyrus how in the eighteenth
+dynasty there was a full historical list of all the kings, with their
+length of reigns, dynasties, and summations of numbers and years
+at each of the large divisions. Thus it is proved that there were
+historians at various periods who compiled and edited the history, and
+so provided a solid groundwork for later writers, such as Manetho.
+
+[Illustration: A RECORD OF EVENTS IN 4750 B.C.
+
+ A part of early annals known as the Palermo Stone. Each compartment
+ contains the events of one year, with the height of the Nile in
+ cubits stated below it. The lower right division records: “Building
+ of a ship 170 feet long, and of 60 ships 100 feet long. Conquest
+ of negroes, bringing 4,000 men, 3,000 women, and 200,000 cattle.
+ Building a wall of the palaces of King Sneferu. Bringing 40 ships
+ of cedar (from Syria).” The left division reads: “Making 35 hunting
+ lodges and 122 tanks for cattle. Building a ship of cedar 170 feet
+ long, and two other ships of 170 feet. 7th census of cattle.”
+]
+
+[Sidenote: The Witness to Early Civilisation]
+
+The materials that we have for studying the civilisation of the early
+dynasties are the royal tombs and steles, the tablets of the annals,
+the sealings of officials, the inscribed stone bowls, glazed pottery,
+ivory, and wood, the rock steles of Sinai, fragments of buildings of
+the second dynasty and onward, the steles of private persons and their
+graves.
+
+[Sidenote: In the Kings’ Tombs]
+
+ROYAL TOMBS. The tombs show that brickwork was familiar on a large
+scale. The prehistoric houses and tomb chambers were by no means
+slight. The town at Naqada has house-walls about two feet thick,
+and a town wall nearly eight feet thick. The brick-lined tombs are
+sometimes as large as 8 ft. by 12 ft. The kings’ tombs of Dynasty O
+are about 10 ft. by 20 ft. Those of Narmer, Sma, and Mena are about
+17 ft. by 26 ft., with walls 5 ft. to 7 ft. thick. Under Zer there is
+a great extension; the brick pit is 39 ft. by 43 ft.; it contained a
+wooden chamber 28 ft. by 34 ft., and it was surrounded by many rows
+of graves--318 in all. The later tombs of the first dynasty are less
+imposing. At the end of the second dynasty the tomb of Khasekhemui
+consisted of fifty-eight chambers covering a ground 223 ft. long and
+40 ft. wide. The sizes of bricks were between 9 in. and 10 in. long,
+half as wide, and under 3 in. thick, in the prehistoric and through the
+first and second dynasties. Wood was used on a large scale. The royal
+tombs show beams for framing of about 10 in. wide and 7 in. deep, and
+18 ft. or 20 ft. long, and these beams supported chamber sides and
+floors formed of planks 2 in. or 3 in. thick. The roof was made of
+similar beams, covered with boards and mats, which sustained 3 ft. or
+4 ft. of sand laid over the tomb. Such was an extension of the roofs
+of poles and brushwood which were laid over the prehistoric tombs, and
+over the lesser tombs of the officials of the early kings. The sign for
+royal architect in the earliest inscriptions is that of a carpenter,
+the “two-axe man.”
+
+The stone steles were of limestone in the first dynasty, and in the end
+of the first dynasty the steles of Oa are of black quartzose stone.
+Those of Perabsen in the second dynasty are of very tough syenite.
+The carving of all these is in high relief, finely and boldly cut in
+a simple, clear style. At the end of the second dynasty a stone-built
+chamber appears for the first time; the blocks have naturally cloven
+surfaces so far as possible, and the rest of the faces are dressed
+with a flint adze. Of the same reign of Khasekhemui there is a granite
+door-jamb with signs in high relief. Granite had already been wrought
+flat for pavements in the previous dynasty, at the tomb of Den.
+
+[Sidenote: Egypt’s Annual Record]
+
+[Sidenote: The Honour that Kings Died for]
+
+TABLETS OF ANNALS. The greater part of the inscriptions of this age
+are on small square tablets of ebony and of ivory, which were found
+in the royal tombs. These each have a hole in the top corner, and the
+sign of a year--the palm stick--down the side, as there is by the side
+of the entries of the events of each year on the early annals. They
+thus appear to be each the record of a year, and to have been strung
+together by the corner holes. There has not yet been any authoritative
+study of the meaning of these earliest inscriptions, which are
+very difficult to understand, owing to the transitory condition of
+ideographs having not yet yielded to syllabic usage. We can, however,
+glean many points about the civilisation from them. The towns were
+fortified with battlemented walls. The shrines were small sanctuaries,
+with a large court in front, like the temple courts of later times. At
+the entrance to the court were two tall poles, apparently with flags,
+which later developed into the row of masts with streamers in front of
+the pylon. The great festival at the close of each thirty years was one
+of the most important, already noticed here under Narmer. The sanctuary
+for it had two shrines back to back, each with a flight of steps,
+apparently for Upper and Lower Egypt. The dancing of the new king, or
+the crown prince as king, before the old Osirified king in the shrine,
+was one of the main events of the feast. The types of temple furniture
+were already fixed in the forms which lasted for several thousand
+years; the barks of Harakhti are shown with the same hangings at the
+prow, and are double--for the E. and W.--as in the temple of Sety I.
+Large bowls of electrum were offered in the temples by the king. Wild
+cattle were hunted by trap nets, as was done much later in Greece. And
+there is shown a long road, with resthouses and palm-trees, leading up
+to the great temple in the reign of King Zer.
+
+[Illustration: A RECORD OF A YEAR’S EVENTS: EBONY TABLET OF KING MENA,
+5500 B.C.
+
+ The greater part of the inscriptions of the first dynasty are on
+ small square tablets of ebony and of ivory. These each have a hole
+ in the top corner, and the sign of a year--the palm stick--down the
+ side. They thus appear to be each the record of a year, and to have
+ been strung together by the corner holes. They were found scattered
+ in the tombs.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Officers of the Empire]
+
+SEALINGS. The clay sealings of officials show much of the organisation
+of the country. The oldest titles, under Zer, are the “Commander of the
+Inundation” and “Commander of the Cattle.” In the reign of Zet we find
+a “Commander of the Elders” and “Archon,” or chief of the city; also
+the temple property, or “Inheritance of the Chief God,” is named. Under
+Merneit and Den there is a prince (_ha_). The vizier was “Commander of
+the Centre,” probably the major domo of the Court, and also “Over-head
+of the Commanders.” There are further named a “Royal Sealer of the Vat
+of Neit,” the “winepress of the north,” and a “Deputy of the Treasury.”
+In later reigns there is an “Over-head” of a city. And under the second
+dynasty the titles are “Royal Sealer of all Deeds,” “Scribe of Accounts
+of Provisions,” “Sealer of Northern Tribute,” “Collector of Lotus
+Seed,” and “Chief Man Under the King.” These titles are from but a very
+small part of the bureaucracy, only those whose seals were affixed to
+the royal provision which was placed in the tomb; but they suffice to
+show the regular organisation of the government at that age.
+
+[Illustration: THE SEAL OF AN EGYPTIAN OFFICIAL
+
+ Much exact knowledge of the life of ancient Egypt is derived from
+ the clay seals of high officials. The oldest known titles are those
+ of “Commander of the Inundation.” The seal here is that of the
+ “Southern Sealer of all Documents of King Sekhem-ab,” 5100 B.C.
+]
+
+STONE VASES. The stone vases for the royal palaces were cut in many
+kinds of hard rock. The rarer kinds are rock crystal, serpentine, and
+basalt; limestones, porphyry and syenite were more usual; and the
+commonest materials were metamorphic rocks formed from volcanic ash
+verging into slate, dolomite, marble, and alabaster. These materials
+were mostly selected for their beauty. The red porphyry is the rarest,
+being only known in a bowl of the time of Mena, and two prehistoric
+pieces. Black porphyry with very large detached white crystals belongs
+only to the age of Mena. Pink granite, blue-grey volcanic ash, the
+quartz crystal, and the pink limestones are all very beautiful
+materials. The hardness does not seem to have been aught but an
+attraction, as the finest work is always put on the best materials;
+whereas the soft alabaster and slate did not seem to challenge any
+great amount of care. The working of the inside was always done by
+grinding with blocks, sometimes having first removed the axis by a tube
+drill hole. The outside was dressed by chipping, hammer-dressing, and
+hand polishing; sometimes done by circular motion on a block, but often
+by crossing work by hand. The readiness with which oval forms were made
+shows how little depended on circular motion.
+
+[Illustration: TOMBS OF KING ZER OF THE FIRST DYNASTY, 5400 B.C.
+
+ Brickwork was common in the houses and tomb-chambers of the
+ prehistoric period, and in the time of the kings of Abydos the
+ building of the tombs was greatly extended. Here are seen the
+ brick partitions to contain offerings, around a wooden chamber
+ now destroyed. Beyond this all round were 318 graves of the royal
+ servants.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Two-Colour Glazing]
+
+The use of glazing had been already invented early in the prehistoric
+age, as far back as S.D. 31; but it was only applied to beads and small
+amulets. The earliest glazed pottery vase known is of Mena, and this
+has his name in violet glaze inlaid in the green glazed body. Glazed
+vases continued to be made throughout the first and second dynasties,
+but became rarer, and they have not been found revived till much
+later times. But ivory and wood were largely used for carved objects,
+sometimes of elaborate design. One of the most distinguishing points
+of the age of the early kings was the minute carving in imitation of
+leafage and basket-work, which was mainly done in slate, but also in
+wood. The fragments which remain show most elaborate patterns worked
+out with minute attention to detail. Nothing of the same kind is known
+in any other age.
+
+[Sidenote: Remains of the Oldest Sculpture]
+
+MONUMENTS. There are but few monumental remains from these early
+dynasties. The great rock-cut scene of Semerkhet conquering a Bedawy
+chief in Sinai is the main example. The figures are only summarily cut
+in the natural face of the sandstone; but the truth of the outline is
+better than in any of the more pretentious work of later times in that
+region. The scene of Sanekht--early third dynasty--is much poorer, and
+that of his successor, Zeser, is scarcely legible, the work is so rude
+and slight. The private tablets which were put over the graves around
+the royal tombs show that the fine work was limited to a small number
+of royal artists in the first dynasty, and that there was no general
+school of able men such as arose in later times. The figures and
+hieroglyphics are rudely hammered out, and the drawing is but clumsy.
+There is seldom more than just the name of the deceased. By the time of
+Den many are distinguished as the _Akhu-ka_, the “glorious soul”; while
+there is also a class apparently named “people of King Setui, daughter
+of the captive”--_i.e._, slaves born of captives taken in his wars.
+
+[Illustration: THE EARLIEST SCULPTURE
+
+ There are but few monumental remains from the early dynasties. The
+ great rock-cut scene of Semerkhet, of which this shows a part, is
+ the main example. The figures are only summarily cut in the natural
+ face of the sandstone; but the truth of the outline is better than
+ in any of the more pretentious work of later times in the same
+ region.
+]
+
+It appears that the use of fine materials was at its height under
+Mena and Zer. Zer has the largest and best-built tomb, Zet shows the
+greatest delicacy in work, and Den seems to have had the most showy
+objects. The changes in about five generations here were much like
+those in an equal time from Amenhotep I. to III. in the eighteenth
+dynasty. Then decay markedly set in, and there was no revival until the
+Pyramid kings. But some development in the use of materials went on;
+and Zeser, of the third dynasty, is said to have built a stone palace;
+while Khasekhemui, a generation earlier, had a limestone chamber for
+his tomb, and carved granite for the door-jambs of his temple, at
+about 4950 B.C. These instances are the earliest use of stone for
+construction that are yet known; though as early as the middle of the
+first dynasty King Den had a pavement of red granite in part of his
+tomb.
+
+[Sidenote: Age of the Pyramid Builders]
+
+PYRAMID BUILDING. We now approach to the well-known age of the pyramid
+builders, when the civilisation appears at its highest development in
+most respects. We shall not deal with this in detail, as it falls into
+the ordinary historical period which appears elsewhere in this work
+[see Egypt]. But it may be useful to give the most essential facts of
+the material civilisation, which may otherwise be lost sight of in the
+mass of the history.
+
+In stonework the accuracy reached its highest point in the fourth
+dynasty, when the Pyramid of Khufu was constructed with an average
+error of less than 1 in 15,000 of length, and even less in angle. The
+later work fell off from this accuracy; but in the twelfth dynasty
+the granite sarcophagus of Senusret II. was wrought with an average
+error in straightness and parallelism of under seven-thousandths of
+an inch, and an error of proportions between different parts of less
+than three-hundredths of an inch. There was no attempt to reach this
+high degree of accuracy in the later work. In sculpture the main
+character of the work of the Pyramid kings is its dignity and grandeur,
+representing individualism on the highest plane of abstraction.
+
+[Illustration: THE BUILDING OF THE PYRAMIDS IN THE ZENITH OF EGYPTIAN
+CIVILISATION
+
+ The age of the Pyramid builders may be regarded as the height of
+ Egyptian civilisation. The greatest accuracy in stonework was
+ reached during the fourth dynasty, when the Pyramid of Cheops, or
+ Khufu, was constructed with an average error of less than 1 in
+ 15,000 of length, and of even less in angle. In the twelfth dynasty
+ the granite sarcophagus of Senusret II. was wrought with an average
+ error in straightness and parallelism of under seven-thousandths of
+ an inch.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: The Great Navy of Egypt]
+
+Under the twelfth dynasty the personality is weaker and the style that
+of a formal school, highly trained but dependent upon training. In the
+eighteenth dynasty the vivacity of expression is directed to a purely
+personal appeal, more of emotion than of character. After that there
+is nothing but copying, good or bad. The growth of shipping at the
+early date of Sneferu, the end of the third dynasty, is surprising;
+and the record that we happen to have shows how much probably went on
+at other times, there being built, in one year sixty ships of 100 ft.
+long, in the next year two of 170 ft. long.
+
+METALS. The use of copper is as remote as the beginning of the
+continuous civilisation in the prehistoric age, about 8000 B.C. It
+increased in quantity down to the eighteenth dynasty, and it was
+hardened by using arsenical copper ores, and leaving oxide in it; this,
+with hammering made it equal to soft steel for working purposes. Rare
+instances of tin, probably derived from natural mixture in the ore, are
+known from the third dynasty; but there was no regular use of it until
+we find pure tin, also known about 1500 B.C. Thence bronze was the main
+material until Roman times. Iron had been sporadically found in the
+fourth, sixth, twelfth, and other dynasties, and was known for about
+4,000 years before it came into general use in Greek times. This agrees
+with its having been obtained from native masses rarely discovered, as
+has been the case in North and South America. Such native iron is the
+result of volcanic action on iron ore in contact with carboniferous
+strata. All these conditions exist in Sinai, and hence native iron
+might be found there. By about 800 B.C. iron was used for knives, but
+with a handle of bronze cast upon it to save the rarer metal. The iron
+tools in Egypt from the seventh to fifth century B.C. are all Assyrian
+or Greek, and it is not till Ptolemaic or Roman times that bronze tools
+disappear.
+
+[Illustration: TOOLS OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS
+
+ The plain strip of copper used for an adze in the early prehistoric
+ age became in historic times widened at the edge, and had a slight
+ contraction at the top; but the straight strip was kept up for
+ 7,000 years without any attempt at a haft, simply lashed on to a
+ bent handle. It is not till about 800 B.C. that any use of a haft
+ occurs in Egypt, and then only for a hoe. The different dynasties
+ are indicated in the examples here given.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Oldest Rock Drills]
+
+The forms of tools varied very little. The plain strip of copper, which
+was used for an adze in the early prehistoric age, became in historic
+times widened at the edge, and had a slight contraction at the top to
+assist in binding it on; but the straight strip was kept up for 7,000
+years without any attempt at a haft, simply lashed on to a bent handle.
+It is not till about 800 B.C., or later, that any use of a haft occurs
+in Egypt, and then only for a hoe; while in Babylonia axes cast with
+a strong haft were used before 3000 B.C. Nor was a haft used for a
+hammer--a smooth stone in the hand was the only beating tool; while for
+striking tools a wooden mallet was used, cut out of a block. The axe
+began as a plain rectangle of copper, sharp on one edge; projections
+at the back were added, until they were half as long as the breadth
+of the axe, but no haft was attempted. The saw was used before the
+pyramid period; and also the saw and tube drill set with hard stones
+for cutting granite. Drills for boring vases were usually blocks of
+stone fed with sand and water, or probably emery for cutting the harder
+stones. Socketted chisels were an Italian invention in the later Bronze
+Age, about 900 B.C., and were copied by the Greeks, in iron, about 500
+B.C.; but they were never used except under Greek influence in Egypt.
+Shears are also Western, and were unknown till Greek times in Egypt.
+
+[Illustration: ONE OF THE WORLD’S OLDEST MONUMENTS: THE GREAT STEP
+PYRAMID AT SAKKARA
+
+ This pyramid was built by King Neterkhet of the third dynasty,
+ about 4900 B.C.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE BEGINNING OF THE ALPHABET
+
+ The signary which was used in various early ages is here shown,
+ as it has been gathered from examples of over 100 signs found in
+ Egypt. Closely related to these are the early alphabets of Karia
+ and Spain, the latter alphabet containing over 30 signs. It is from
+ this prehistoric signary that the present Roman alphabet has been
+ gradually selected during past ages.
+]
+
+GLAZING AND GLASS. The very ancient art of glazing, already used
+in two colours under Mena, did not take any new form till the
+eighteenth dynasty, when it was greatly varied by new colours and
+new applications. Large objects, five feet high, were covered with a
+single fusing of glaze; minute ornaments, for stitching on garments,
+blazed with the brightest red, green, blue, or yellow; while whole
+inscriptions were executed in coloured glaze hieroglyphs, inlaid in the
+white stone walls. Glass, however, was not made separately until about
+the time of Tahutmes III., 1500 B.C. There is no earlier example of
+true glass, nor any representation of working glass. All the truly
+Egyptian glass was wrought pasty, and never blown.
+
+Blown vases belong entirely to the Roman age and later times. The large
+blown glass lamps of Arab age, covered with fusible enamel designs, are
+highly skilled pieces of work. The uses of glass to the Egyptian were
+mainly for beads, for coloured inlays in wood of shrines or coffins,
+and for variegated glass vases. The beads were made by winding a thread
+of glass on a wire; the vases, likewise, were made by modelling on an
+infusible core, held on a mandrel, and winding coloured glass threads
+on the body. The inlays were often of one colour, generally deep blue
+imitating lazuli; but often mosaics were used, made of a bundle of
+glass threads fused together, drawn out, and then cut off in slices.
+Such are all of Greek or Roman age. An important use of glass in Roman
+and Arab times was for weights, and for stamps impressed on glass
+bottle measures, inscribed with the names of the ruler and the maker.
+
+[Sidenote: Taste of the Times]
+
+Lastly we may note the variations in the nature of the Egyptian
+literature, as reflecting the civilisation. The earliest tales are
+those of magical powers, belonging to the pyramid age. Next, in the
+Middle Kingdom, comes the contrast between town and country, and the
+tales of adventure in foreign lands. In the New Kingdom the contrasts
+of character are the main interest, and, in the late tales, the
+pseudo-historical romance of the great tournament of the Delta, or the
+antiquarian interests of a priest. These subjects of romance varied as
+much or more than the actual grammar and language.
+
+[Illustration: THE WANDERERS OF THE DESERT, AMONG WHOM EGYPTIAN
+CIVILISATION GREW UP]
+
+[Illustration: PYRAMID OF MEIDUM: BUILT BY SENEFERU, LAST KING OF THE
+THIRD DYNASTY
+
+ This tomb was begun as a square block of masonry, and was enlarged
+ by successive coats, which are here seen. Then one smooth coating
+ of sloping blocks was put over all from bottom to top, and so the
+ first real pyramid appeared in 4700 B.C. The pyramid coating has
+ been destroyed and only the base remains under the rubbish mounds.
+]
+
+ALPHABET. One subject of great European interest should be noted here,
+as Egypt has thrown much light upon it. The origin of the alphabets of
+the Mediterranean has been disputed, without historical knowledge of
+the examples of such signs in early ages. The Egyptian hieratic and
+the archaic Babylonian signs may have, perhaps, added a few to the
+Mediterranean signary, but neither source can at all account for it.
+The alphabet is by no means a clean cut series of 22 signs; it is a
+very complex tangle of parallel groups of signs in different lands,
+more or less alike. Of these groups two of the largest are those of
+Karia and Spain, comprising over 30 signs, and these have many points
+of peculiarity in common. This is sufficient to show that the fuller
+alphabet is the original form, from which the shorter lists have been
+selected. Now, in Egypt there are found scratched on pottery and
+woodwork over 100 signs, and these comprise the forms of the fuller
+alphabet. Moreover, these Egyptian examples are found at about 1200
+B.C., or only a few centuries before the Karian and Spanish alphabets,
+again in 3000 B.C., in 5500 B.C., and before 7000 B.C. Of 41 alphabetic
+signs, 19 occur in 1200-1400 B.C., 32 in 3000 B.C., 27 in 5500 B.C.,
+and 31 in 7000 B.C. As we have not a very large amount of material,
+the occurrence of from 19 to 32 out of 41 signs is as much as we
+could expect, as all the 41 occur in one period or another. The early
+date of these puts all derivation from the subsequent hieroglyphics
+entirely out of the question. We can as yet only say that a large
+signary of 40 or more linear forms was in continuous use from before
+7000 B.C. downwards, and that these furnish all the forms of the fuller
+alphabets, those of the short Phœnician and Greek list of later time.
+
+We have now outlined the rise of civilisation in Egypt, apart from the
+history of the country, which is dealt with separately; and we turn
+to the other great valley of early civilisation, in Mesopotamia, to
+compare the resemblances and the differences between the two lands.
+
+ W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE
+
+
+NOTABLE DATES OF ANCIENT CIVILISATION
+
+
+EGYPT
+
+ B.C.
+
+ 8000 Continuous civilisation of prehistoric age began S.D. 30
+ 7000 Asiatic invasion S.D. 40
+ 5800 Invasion of dynastic race
+ 5500 Mena rules all Egypt S.D. 80
+ 4700 Khufu builds Great Pyramid
+
+ 4000 Invasion from north
+ 3400 Middle Kingdom, twelfth dynasty
+ 2500 Hyksos invasion, fifteenth dynasty
+ 2250 Second Hyksos movement
+
+ 1580 New Kingdom, eighteenth dynasty
+ 1380 Tell el Amarna letters
+ 701 Taharqa (Tirhakah)
+ 570-26 Aahmes (Amasis)
+
+
+BABYLONIA
+
+ B.C.
+
+ Before
+ 6000 Susa founded
+
+ 5000 Ea founds Eridu and civilises the land
+ 4700 Earliest monuments of Kings
+ 4500 Urnina
+ 3800 Sargon and Naramsin, Semitic rule
+ 3300 Gudea
+
+ 2280 Elamites conquer Babylonia
+ 2129 Hammurabi
+ 1572 Kassite dynasty
+ 1380 Burnaburiash
+ 690 Sennacherib
+ 556-38 Nabonaid, fall of Babylon
+
+
+
+
+ THE RISE OF CIVILISATION
+ IN MESOPOTAMIA
+
+BY PROFESSOR FLINDERS PETRIE
+
+
+The first impression that strikes the reader in passing from the
+Egyptian to the Mesopotamian civilisation is the lack of that unity and
+conciseness which makes history in the Nile valley so intelligible, and
+its problems so well defined.
+
+[Sidenote: Disunion of Early Babylonia]
+
+In place of the well ordered history of Manetho, with its numbered
+dynasties, and totals stated throughout, there is practically nothing
+stated before Nabunasir in 747 B.C. The mythological extracts from
+Berosus, and the list of Ktesias, which cannot be identified with any
+known facts, give no help in arranging the outlines of the history. In
+place of the uniform language and writing, which develops without a
+break during the whole history of Egypt, there is the entire break from
+Sumerian to Semitic. In place of the continuous importance of Egyptian
+capitals, there is the change from the principalities to Babylon, and
+thence to Nineveh. In place of the unified kingdom of the Nile valley,
+through the whole written history, the greater part of the documentary
+period is filled with rival principalities, within thirty or forty
+miles of each other, the tops of whose temples must have been visible
+over the entire territory of their respective states.
+
+As the general scale of Egypt is so familiar to the modern reader and
+traveller, it will be well to compare Mesopotamia with that. Babylon
+was twice as far from the sea as Cairo; and from Babylon to Nineveh
+was the distance from Cairo to Sohag. Or in other terms, starting from
+the sea, Babylon was as distant as Oxyrhynchos, Nineveh in place of
+Thebes, and the highlands of Carchemish, Commagene, and Lake Van were
+the equivalent of Nubia. The old land of Shumer was just the size of
+the Delta, and Akkad as large as Middle Egypt. The principalities of
+Eridu, Lagash, Ur, Erech, and others, were as far apart as those of the
+Delta--Bubastis, Benha, Sais, or Sebennytos. Indeed, it seems as if
+this were a natural unit-size of early dominions in a fertile plain.
+
+[Sidenote: The Nile and the Euphrates]
+
+Though the relative age of the beginning of civilisation on the Nile
+and the Euphrates is yet an uncertain matter, still it is clear
+that the unification of Egypt long preceded that of Babylonia. The
+earliest date of the scattered Sumerian kings is about that of the
+fourth dynasty; the earliest Semitic dynasty--Sargon and Naramsin--was
+contemporary with the ninth dynasty, and the rise of the dynasties of
+Babylon is of the later Hyksos age of the sixteenth dynasty.
+
+[Sidenote: Sea-shore Moved 47 Miles]
+
+EUPHRATES VALLEY. The conditions of the Euphrates valley are very
+different from those of the Nile. On the Egyptian coast the river
+runs into a strong current in the Mediterranean, which sweeps away
+its sediment and prevents any continuous growth of the coast. But the
+Mesopotamian rivers reach the sea-level at the head of a deep bay,
+the Persian Gulf, and hence there has been a continuous formation of
+new land at the estuary. The Mesopotamian valley and the Persian Gulf
+form one long drainage valley gently sloping down to a distance about
+twenty miles outside Hormuz, where the valley bottom drops suddenly
+three miles into the floor of the Indian Ocean. The slope of this
+valley so far as submerged, is about 1 ft. to the mile, and it is
+probably even less in the Babylonian plain, where sea-shells are found
+as far up as Babylon. This valley has been filled, and the sea-shore
+pushed downward, 47 miles in 2,200 years, or 115 ft. yearly, since
+Spasinus Charax--now Mohammerah--was founded on the shore in the time
+of Alexander. The account of a sea expedition to Elam by Sennacherib
+is usually interpreted as showing a more rapid growth; but in the
+uncertainty how far he went down a channel before entering the Persian
+Gulf, it is not decisive.
+
+How far back the extension of land has been going on, and whether
+it was continuous to above Babylon, has not yet been proved. The
+appearance of the map much suggests that the original drainage bed
+ended--_i.e._, the valley was submerged--at about the nearing of the
+two rivers by Sippara, and that all below this is the filling up of the
+estuary. Should this growth have extended uniformly back so far, it
+would give limits to the possible ages of cities--5000 B.C. for Eridu,
+8000 B.C. for the whole plain of Shumer, 10,000 B.C. for Nippur, and
+earlier for the site of Babylon. This would bar the southern region
+from being as old as Memphis, and Eridu was probably open sea when
+Menes laid out his capital.
+
+[Illustration: THE PLAIN OF BABYLONIA: ITS EXTENT AT DIFFERENT PERIODS
+IN HISTORY
+
+ This map shows how the Plain of Babylonia has been extended down
+ by silting since 10,000 B.C. The dotted lines, marked 330 B.C. and
+ 1830 A.D., show the known positions of the coast, as it shifted
+ by silting up. These give an approximate scale of dating for the
+ coast-line of earlier ages, which is marked here at each thousand
+ years.
+]
+
+RANGE OF CIVILISATION. In looking for the earliest movements of people
+that we can trace, it seems that the Semites must have extended from
+Northern Arabia into Upper Mesopotamia and Assyria. In short, Semitica
+stretched up to the mountain ranges of Armenia and Media. But the
+culture was barbaric, and probably they were nomads who had no fixed
+centres of life or stable organisation which could resist any united
+movement. At this period the Persian Gulf probably extended as far as
+Babylon. On their eastern flank were the mountain tribes, in what is
+known as Parthia and Media, south of the Caspian. How remote is the
+beginning of civilisation in this region has been found in the last
+few years. On the north-east extremity of Parthia, in the far end of
+Hyrcania, stands a group of mounds, near the modern Askabad, not far
+from the celebrated Turkoman stronghold of Geok Tepe. Here are 14 ft.
+of town ruins with iron, 15 ft. with copper and lead, about 70 ft. of
+ruins with wheel-made pottery and domesticated animals, and 45 ft. of
+remains with only rude hand-made pottery. What ages these represent we
+cannot judge until the full account by Prof. Pumpelly is issued. But
+in any case a very long period is involved. If the accumulation is at
+the rate found in Palestine, 4½ ft. per century, the periods would be
+perhaps 1,500 years for the wheel pottery, and 1,000 years for the
+rough pottery, before the beginning of the age of copper.
+
+At the other side of these countries stands the great mound of Susa,
+with over 80 ft. of ruins. The inscriptions show that about 26 ft.
+of the height was accumulated between about 4500 and 500 B.C., or in
+about 4,000 years. Yet before that there is a depth of about 50 ft.
+comprising three periods. In the upper of these is elementary cuneiform
+writing on tablets. Below that is a period of rather rough, thick
+pottery, painted with chequer patterns and closely-crossed lines, of
+the style common in early Syria and Cyprus. And at the bottom of all is
+a great quantity of very fine, thin wheel-made pottery of buff tints,
+with decoration of thin diagonal lines, rows of ostriches, and various
+patterns all derived from basket-work.
+
+[Sidenote: Measuring the Depths of Time]
+
+If the scale of accumulation of the historic times were to apply here,
+it would reach back to 12,000 B.C.; but if the far quicker scale found
+in Palestine applied, it would hardly reach 6000 B.C. In any case we
+have here evidence of a civilisation apparently much earlier than that
+of Babylonia, and none of this earliest fine pottery has been found in
+the great plains. The highland civilisation may have begun as early,
+or earlier, than that of Egypt; but that of Babylonia started probably
+later than the North African culture on the Nile. Seeing, then, that
+there was a very early civilisation at Susa on the west of Media,
+and that further east on the limits of Parthia we meet another early
+centre, it is not surprising that the inhabitants of these regions
+united to spread down into the fertile plain which was created by
+the growing delta of Mesopotamia. These people belonged neither to
+the Semite of Arabia nor to the Aryan of Persia and India, but used
+an agglutinative language of entirely different structure from these
+others, and most akin to Turkish or Finnish. Having descended from
+their mountain homes, the people were known as Akkadu, probably meaning
+“highlanders,” though there are other open derivations. And hence the
+northern part of the Babylonian plain, next to the Semitic Assyrians,
+was the land of Akkad; while the southern part, next to the sea, was
+known by the native Babylonian name of Sumer, or Shumer.
+
+[Sidenote: China’s Links with Babylon]
+
+SUMERIANS. The civilisation of the Sumerians was more akin to that of
+the Chinese than to western types, especially in its art, its picture
+writing and devotion to literature, its capacity for town life, and its
+religious ideas. The cognate origins of the people may well account for
+this, and some more precise resemblances led Terrien de Lacouperie to
+the view that Chinese civilisation was an offshoot from the Sumerian
+stock in its old Parthian home.
+
+The elements of life were well developed by the Sumerians. They were
+great agriculturists, and wrote works on the main industry of man, much
+as the Carthaginians wrote standard works prized later by the Romans.
+They fermented the grape and corn, and had alcoholic drinks. Cattle of
+all kinds were raised, and prized as stock, which was fed on grass or
+grain or oilcake. The horse is mentioned first in Semitic times, Abut
+2000 B.C. Dates and figs were the principal fruits grown; and, indeed,
+the date palm seems to have had a far more important place in the
+civilisation than it did in that of Egypt. Both wool and leather were
+used for clothing, as might be expected.
+
+[Sidenote: Materials for the Great Buildings]
+
+BUILDING. The main structural industry of the country was that of
+brickmaking and building. Immense piles of brickwork were made to
+support the temples, marking clearly the custom of the highlander
+Akkadi worshipping on the hilltops. The brick _ziggurat_, or
+five-stepped pyramid, at Nippur was 190 ft. by 128 ft., and about a
+hundred feet high. The earliest baked bricks are 8·7 in. by 5·6 in. by
+2·2 in., and they were enlarged to 12 in. by 7·8 in. by 1·9 in. within
+the Sumerian age. Toward the close of that time large square bricks
+were used. Sargon made baked bricks 18 in. square and 3½ in. thick.
+From the time of Ur-Engur (3200 B.C.) onward the baked bricks were
+11 in. or 12 in. square. Beside the baked brick used for pavements,
+drains, facings, and important work, the great bulk was made up of
+crude brick as in Egypt. For important purposes, such as store-rooms,
+the inside of chambers was lined with a coat of bitumen, rendering them
+damp-proof; and such a lining was used on tanks. Pottery is abundant
+in all ages, but we still need a study of the pottery such as has
+been made in Egypt, so that it can be used to date excavations in
+general. Stands for jars, framed of wood, were used as in Egypt; and
+also the clay sealings were of the same type in both lands. Stone vases
+were made to imitate pottery; and this suggests that the highlanders
+were only using basket-work when they descended into the plain, and
+therefore did not possess any types of stonework.
+
+[Illustration: THE ANCIENT BABYLONIANS AND THEIR WEAPONS OF WAR
+
+ There is a fine study of weapons on a carving of Eannatum (4400
+ B.C.), where spears about 7 ft. long, with blade heads, are
+ figured. Shields are shown reaching from the neck to the ankles,
+ straight-sided, used edge to edge as a shield wall by a phalanx of
+ soldiers. The heads of the men are covered by well-formed peaked
+ helmets reaching down to the nape of the neck, with nose pieces.
+]
+
+TOOLS AND WEAPONS. The common tools were used, such as knives and
+drills; and great skill was developed in seal engraving upon hard
+stone cylinders. Of weapons there is a fine study on a carving of
+Eannatum (4400 B.C.), where spears of about 7 ft. long, with blade
+heads, are shown; also shields reaching from the neck to the ankles,
+straight-sided, and used edge to edge as a shield wall by a phalanx of
+soldiers; while the heads are covered by well-formed peaked helmets,
+with nose pieces, and reaching down to the nape of the neck. Bows
+and arrows and daggers were also used; and stone mace-heads, of the
+pear shape used in Egypt, were important ceremonially, and often bear
+inscriptions. Woodwork was elaborated with carving, and used for
+bed-steads and stools, as seen in the seats of the gods figured on
+seals and tablets.
+
+CLOTHING. Clothing varied a good deal. A primitive custom of nudity
+when offering to the gods was continued down to the close of the
+Sumerian age, as shown on the tablet of Ur-en-lil. The kilt was worn
+with a fringe, not reaching the knee; or it was worn from the waist to
+the ankles, as by shepherds. A robe over the left shoulder reaching to
+the knee was used with a deep fringe all down the front edge and round
+the bottom. A long robe reaching to the ankles is shown on the figures
+of Gudea. But the most characteristic dress was that of ribbed woollen
+stuff, much like that of the fifth century B.C. in Greece, as on the
+Running Maiden. This stuff was worn as a flounced petticoat (Urnina
+4500 B.C.), or in a longer form over the left shoulder and down to the
+ankles, as by Eannatum and Naram-Sin. A splendid flounced cape and long
+robe of this stuff is shown as worn by Ishtar on the Anubanini rock
+stele, about 3600 B.C.
+
+SCIENCE AND ART. The system of number, weight, and measure was
+peculiarly Babylonian. Some people have theorised about all later
+standards having been derived in various intricate ways from those of
+Babylon. But it is very unlikely that standards should not arise in
+different centres, and still more unlikely that the complex derivations
+should be formed when the whole object would be to maintain a system in
+common.
+
+[Sidenote: Science in Sumeria]
+
+But there is no question of the great advance of the Sumerian in these
+matters. The sexagesimal system, which is far more convenient for many
+purposes than the decimal, and which we still retain for time and
+for angle, was due to the Sumerian intellect, while the standards of
+weight, the talent, maneh, and shekel, were also from the same source.
+And we cannot doubt that the cubit was already in use by a people
+living in cities and carrying on business.
+
+The style of art was clumsy, owing to the habit of crowding together
+as much as possible into the space, in order to form the record. The
+human forms are thick and short, and detail is firmly and perseveringly
+repeated. It entirely lacks, in its early stages, the spontaneous truth
+of the early dynastic work in Egypt. At the close of the Sumerian age,
+under Naramsin, there is a fine bold design in groups of figures, well
+proportioned, and with good action, recalling curiously the spirit of
+late Greek work from Praxiteles to the Pergamene warriors. The stages
+of change cannot yet be distinguished, owing to the scarcity of the
+dated examples that we have.
+
+[Sidenote: Loss of History]
+
+LITERATURE AND WRITINGS. It is in literature that we know the Sumerian
+best. Unhappily, other branches of archæology have been neglected,
+and even destroyed, in the eager search for tablets, and yet more
+tablets. By the thousand they are found, and hurriedly removed, while
+the architecture, crafts, and art-history are thrown aside in the
+process. The hunter for tablets in Babylonia, and for papyrus in Egypt,
+is a heartless wrecker, without any interests beyond his own line.
+When so much has been sacrificed for the written record, we must glean
+all we can from it for the history of the civilisation, as most of the
+other material that might have been preserved has been sacrificed.
+The Sumerian language was the sole language of civilisation, until,
+at about 4000 B.C., the Semite began to conquer and to take part
+in the advance of the world. Yet the older tongue was by no means
+extinguished; it held its place as the official religious and literary
+language, like Latin in Europe. The literature of the world was in
+Sumerian, and only gradually did the new Semite intruders translate the
+older works or rise to writing a literature of their own.
+
+The Sumerian literature was for long accompanied by a Semitic
+translation, like Latin and Saxon gospels; and syllabaries,
+vocabularies, and grammatical lists were written to teach the Semite
+the old religious language. Legal documents were drawn up in Sumerian,
+and it only gradually lost its precedence from 4000 B.C. down to 1600
+B.C., when it was almost extinct, being only revived as a literary
+curiosity in the seventh century B.C.
+
+[Sidenote: How the Semite Made His Notes]
+
+The writing was a pictorial system like the Egyptian hieroglyphics. And
+so long as the Sumerian used it he clung to the pictorial origin even
+though obscured by the lineal style of drawing. On papyrus or parchment
+it is easy to make curved forms, and such were adopted in drawing the
+signs originally. But on clay, which was the all-available material in
+the Babylonian plain, impressing lines is far neater than scratching
+them up; and the handy tool for making impressions was a slip of wood
+with a square end. Hence all the curves tended to become four or
+five-sided outlines, and all the detail became built up of little lines
+tapering off to one end, or “digs” with the corner of the stylus. Yet
+down to the close of the Sumerian age the forms of the objects can
+still be discerned, and they are still pictures rather than mere
+immaterial symbols.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mansell
+
+THE FINEST EARLY BABYLONIAN ART: TRIUMPH OF KING NARAMSIN, 3750 B.C.
+
+ This work, found in Susa, is curiously free and pictorial; it is
+ unrivalled by any early carvings, and most resembles the action and
+ spirit of late Greek sculpture. It marks the great period of the
+ fusion of the Sumerian and Semite.
+]
+
+The Semite, however, changed all this. He learned merely the sound
+values of certain forms, their meaning could not appeal to him, and
+he built up his words out of these sounds or syllables. He found it
+inconvenient to write in vertical columns, which was the constant
+Sumerian habit, and turned his tablet sideways to his hand, so as to
+make his signs along a horizontal line of writing. Hence these signs
+became familiar to him on their sides, and as they had to him no
+pictorial values, the position was indifferent. Lastly, he produced a
+syllabary of signs written with combinations of four forms of impress,
+a long line wider at one end, a short line, a tall triangle, and a
+small equilateral triangle, written in horizontal lines; and each sign
+was standing on what had originally been its side. The wedge-shaped
+form of these lines has given rise to the name of wedge-writing, or
+cuneiform writing for this system.
+
+[Sidenote: The Story of a Language]
+
+The knowledge of this writing survived Greek influence for some four
+centuries after Alexander, only becoming extinct at the close of the
+first century of our era. In its long history, double that of the Roman
+alphabet at present, it had been used for very diverse languages. The
+Sumerian inventor had handed it on to the Semitic intruder, and he had
+passed it to the Syrian, the Mitannian, the Hittite, and the Vannic
+peoples. Probably it had kept its hold in its first home in Elam, where
+it is found in historic times, and thence it became the writing of
+Persia, and even of the Parthian, before it became extinct. The variety
+of languages and the extent of country which it covered is much like
+the scope of the Roman alphabet in Europe to-day.
+
+LAW AND RELIGION. In matters of law the Sumerian was well advanced. The
+needs of city life which he had developed necessarily required a full
+definition of rights and duties. The first law book was that of Ea,
+the god of civilisation, the Oannes of the later legends of Berosus.
+The decisions of judges were kept in abstract, and such case-made law
+served as a body of precedent to guide decisions. The position of women
+was on a level with that of men; in the Sumerian hymns the woman takes
+precedence, and one of the great Sumerian divinities was Ishhtar, who
+became Ashtaroth of Syria, Athtar of Arabia, and hence Hathor of Egypt.
+In the Semitic system the goddess is but a feeble companion of a god;
+but Ishtar was the great divinity of war, to whom the kings owed their
+triumphs, as well as the queen of love, who ruled the course of nature.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ _VASES_
+
+ _FORK_ _COMB_ _HARP_ _BOW AND ARROW_ _ARROWS_
+
+ _STONE_
+ _CLAY_
+ _EARLY_
+ _FISH_ _BIRD_ _AXE_ _VASE_ _LATE_
+
+ _EARLY_
+ _FISH_ _MAN_ _MONTH_ _REED_ _LATE_
+
+
+THE DECAY OF PICTURE-WRITING
+
+ This illustrates the decay of pictures into signs, and shows very
+ clearly how the cuneiform writing was developed from the earlier
+ hieroglyphics. It will be noticed that the word originally rendered
+ by a crude drawing of the object--“fish,” for example--retains even
+ in its final cuneiform style some resemblance to the tail of a
+ fish. The cuneiform lettering was necessary to the Babylonians, as
+ clay was the most abundant material in their land and could best be
+ marked upon in lines without curves.
+]
+
+The religion of the Sumerians was like that of other Turanian races.
+These peoples have an aversion to the idea of a personal god, to
+which the Semitic peoples cling. The Samoyede believes in a multitude
+of local spirits, the Chinese have their impersonal Heaven and the
+host of gnomes or earth spirits. Thus also the Sumerian thought of
+all objects as having a _zi_ or spirit, good or evil, which needed to
+be appeased by the weak or commanded by the sorcery of the strong.
+Shamanism was the type of religion; and books of exorcisms and magic
+spells were in permanent use. The importance of the principalities
+naturally led to their local spirits being of general importance; and
+hence the political changes brought Sin the moon god of Ur, or Utuki
+the sun god of Sippar and Larsa, or Marduk of Babylon, into a leading
+position, and led toward the Semitic type of deities. How far this
+change was due to the beginning of Semitic influence we cannot now say.
+Other native gods were less personal, such as Ana the sky, Enlila the
+earth, and Ea the sea.
+
+[Illustration: THE SUMERIAN TYPE OF BABYLONIAN
+
+ The fact that the shaven type of face appears in all the monuments
+ back to 4500 B.C. indicates that the Sumerians were shaven as they
+ were the older of the two main races in Babylonia.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE SEMITIC TYPE OF BABYLONIAN
+
+ Men with full beards are not represented on Babylonian monuments
+ until 3750 B.C.; hence it is clear that such figures represented
+ people of the Semitic type. This portrait is from a sculpture of
+ King Hammurabi.
+]
+
+TYPES OF RACES. The physical type of the people is shown to us by the
+early monuments, though we hardly yet know enough of the early history
+to understand them fully. Two main types stand out entirely apart,
+the shaven and the full-haired. And when it is seen that the shaven
+type is that of all the earliest human figures, dating from 4500 B.C.
+and extending down to even 2100 B.C., while the full-haired type is
+not found on men before 3750 B.C., it is clear that the shaven is the
+Sumerian and the bearded is the Semitic type. The remarkable point is
+that the gods are represented with long hair tressed up and long beards
+from 4400 B.C.; and as early as we can go back there is never a figure
+of a beardless god. The reason probably is that personal gods were of
+Semitic origin, their worship was borrowed, and hence their forms.
+If so, we must see a large Semitic influence already acting on the
+earliest known Sumerian art. The variations of type may perhaps lead to
+some further distinctions. The full, curly, square-ended beard and long
+hair are usual for the gods, as seen under Eannatum (4400), Urenlil
+(4000), Gudea (3300), and Hammurabi (2100). The same beard, but with
+the hair done up into a disc (as on the Tello heads and Hammurabi), is
+worn by the King Anubanini (3600). The long and rather pointed beard is
+seen on Naramsin (3750), and Hammurabi (2100). The short, square beard
+is seen on the god, under Eannatum (4400), and on men about Naramsin’s
+age [see the seal of Ubilishtar]. The shaven type has a wide face, with
+a large prominent aquiline nose, best seen in the head from Tello. This
+type is that of all the human figures on the scenes of Urnina (4500),
+Eannatum (4400), and Urenlil (4000); and in the figures of the Scribe
+Kalhi (cylinder, 3750), Gudea (stele, 3300), the heads of the same age
+from Tello, and the later head of beautiful work at Berlin. The general
+conclusions may be that the beard was worn and admired by Semites, who
+elaborated a very full type for the gods; and that the Semitic influx,
+though ruling under Naramsin at Sippara, north of Babylon, was yet
+subordinate at the later date of Gudea, in the Sumerian south.
+
+[Illustration: THE FAMILIAR BEARDED TYPE OF ASSYRIAN GODS AND MEN
+
+ Although the full-haired faces are later in appearing on the
+ monuments of Babylonia, all figures of gods are shown as possessed
+ of full beards and a wealth of hair. A familiar example is here
+ reproduced. It is supposed that the Semitic race in Assyria was the
+ first to personalise the deities, and hence the resemblance of the
+ images to the features of the Semites.
+]
+
+SEMITIC AGE. We now turn to the later stage of the civilisation, as it
+flourished under the mixed race of Sumerians and Semites, partaking of
+the culture of the older race and the higher moral tone of the less
+advanced people. The Sumerians, as we have noted, had pushed down
+from the Median highlands into the growing plain of Babylonia, while
+the earlier Semites remained to the north in Assyria, and to the
+west in Naharaina and Syria. Sooner or later a fusion was inevitable;
+as we have seen already, the gods were of a Semitic type at a very
+early time, and gradually the union took place during three thousand
+years, until in the later times the product was unified in one strong
+civilisation which spread its strength far and wide to the Crimea, to
+Egypt, and to the deserts of Central Asia.
+
+BUILDING. The old skill and abilities found a wide scope in this larger
+frame of life. The fundamental craft of brickwork was carried on to a
+vast extent. Every city had its great pile of an artificial hill of
+bricks, built in stages to support the temple of its god high above
+all. Immense walls surrounded the cities; those of Babylon were some
+nine miles around, and are stated to have been 85 ft. high and 340 ft.
+thick, surrounded by a moat lined with burnt brick laid in bitumen.
+Not only was brickwork used on this great scale in the Babylonian
+plain where stone was a luxury, but the force of example was so strong
+that the Assyrian, in his highland home, kept up the same scale of
+brickbuilding as his teachers, and used brick for his palaces and
+temples when stone would have been much more easily available.
+
+In Babylonia, as in Egypt, the supply of material for brickmaking on
+a large scale is a serious question. For the great walls of cities,
+obviously a surrounding ditch was an advantage; but for the materials
+of houses, temples, and ziggurats, great pits had to be dug, or older
+buildings pulled down. At Nippur it was found that the later builders
+had torn down a long piece of the disused city wall and dug out a great
+pit below and around it. So in Egypt the outskirts of every village has
+its perilous hole where the bricks are made, which, in course of time,
+becomes a stagnant pond, and every ancient temple, with its fortifying
+wall, was built out of a large pit at its side which became the sacred
+lake of the temple.
+
+[Illustration: A TEMPLE PLATFORM, OR ZIGGURAT, OF BABYLONIA
+
+ This restoration of the Temple of Bel at Nippur, from the designs
+ of Hilprecht and Fisher, gives a good idea of the massive character
+ of Assyrian architecture. The portion marked (1) consists of a
+ stage tower with a shrine at top and a long stairway leading
+ thereto; (2) is the temple proper; (3) house for “honey, cream and
+ wine”; (4) “place for the delight of Bur-sin”; (5) is the inner
+ wall and (6) the massive outer walls.
+]
+
+A higher branch of building was the use of glazed bricks. In Egypt
+the use of glazed tiles for coating walls was boldly carried out in
+the earliest dynasties, before 5000 B.C.; but there was no glazing
+of the bricks, because in so dry a climate the Egyptian was never
+induced to burn his bricks. In the wet and damp of Babylonia, on
+the contrary, burnt bricks were usual, and all the facings and main
+divisions of structure were in the indissoluble material, which held
+together and protected the mass of crude brickwork within it. It was,
+however, mainly, or only, in the later times--from the ninth century
+onwards--that bricks glazed on the outer face were used for building.
+It seems that this was done not so much for utility--like our modern
+use of glazed bricks--as for the artistic effect of colours and
+designs. The grandest example of such work that is known is the façade
+of coloured glazed brick in relief, representing the royal archers,
+from Susa of the Persian age, now in Paris, restored from the fragments.
+
+Beside baked brick, pottery was used on a large scale. Great jars
+occur in the earliest times, and cylindrical drains of large size,
+sufficiently wide for a man to descend in them for repair. In later
+times coffins of baked pottery of the Parthian age, and glazed coffins
+of slipper shape, dating from the Sassanian period, are very common on
+most of the city ruins. Unfortunately, sufficient attention has not yet
+been given to the pottery of any age.
+
+[Illustration: A KING’S EMBROIDERIES
+
+ This illustrates the richness of the decoration on the breast of an
+ Assyrian king, whose complete attire is seen in the other picture
+ on this page.
+]
+
+Wood was largely used in the more wealthy ages, but it was always
+valuable, as large timber had to be brought from a distance. The great
+halls of the palaces were all roofed with timber beams, and panels of
+cedar lined the walls where stone was not used. Probably palm trunks
+and palm leaves served for ordinary roofing, as in Egypt at present.
+
+CLOTHING. Clothing became far more elaborate than in earlier ages,
+and the dominance of the more northern people brought a fuller dress
+into customary use. The Assyrian covered the whole body with a tunic
+down to the knees, and the upper classes wore a robe to the feet.
+Rich embroideries were usual among both Babylonians and Assyrians,
+and the splendour of Babylonian garments was spread far in other
+lands by trade. The cap was either cylindrical or conical, and the
+royal head-dress in Assyria was practically the modern tarbush, which
+has again been imposed on the East by the Turk. Sandals were used in
+Assyria, and the boot so characteristic of the Hittite was also brought
+in from the cold mountainous country. Women wore a long, thin robe
+to the feet, covered sometimes by a tunic and a cape. But Ishtar is
+always shown in a ribbed dress flounced from top to bottom. This is the
+regular women’s dress of the western Semites; and its use, like that of
+the beard for the male deities, points to the strong Semitic influence
+on the appearance and character of the divinities.
+
+[Illustration: DRESS IN ASSYRIA’S GOLDEN AGE
+
+ Rich embroideries were usual among Babylonians and Assyrians, and
+ the splendour of Babylonian garments was spread far in other lands
+ by trade. The royal head-dress in Assyria was practically the
+ modern tarbush, which has again been imposed on the East by the
+ Turk.
+]
+
+The armour of the Assyrian was much the same as that in the early
+Sumerian days. The pointed helmet became rather taller, and did not
+cover the back of the head. The spear, and the bow and arrow, were
+the main weapons as before. The old straight-sided shield was also
+used in Assyrian times, but was partly superseded by the round shield
+considerably coned. The extension of the kingdom brought in various
+auxiliaries, who differed from the older Babylonians. Slingers,
+northern horsemen clad in leather, and mountaineers with woodman’s
+axes, all added new branches to the army.
+
+[Sidenote: Sculpture 5,000 Years Ago]
+
+ART. The arts were carried to great perfection by the mixed population.
+Broadly speaking, the best work is that of the early age of Naramsin
+(3750 B.C.), and that of the late age of Ashur-bani-pal (640 B.C.).
+Though not so fine, yet probably the Hammurabi sculptures are the
+highest between the early and late schools. This would give intervals
+of 1,650 and 1,460 years between the successive waves of art, and about
+1,450 years more to the glories of Baghdad, a period much like that
+found on the Mediterranean, though not coincident with it.
+
+The finest work of Naramsin (3750 B.C.) is his great stele from Susa,
+now in Paris. It is remarkably pictorial in style, agreeing in this
+with the pieces of a limestone stele representing rows of combatants
+from Tello, also in Paris. The figure of the king is lithe, active,
+romantic in attitude, the enemies and his soldiers are full of
+animation. No Oriental sculpture has had quite the same life in it; and
+it recalls the pictorial style of Crete and the later Greek sculpture.
+The art of Gudea (3300 B.C.) is more cold and formal, and has not the
+same fine sense of proportion; it is distinctly a period of survival
+and not of artistic instinct, as seen, for instance, on the limestone
+relief in Berlin. The age of Hammurabi (2100 B.C.) shows careful
+portraiture, but not the spirit of the earlier age; the work is well
+finished, and there was no hesitation in handling materials boldly, as
+on the great black stele of the laws, now in Paris. There was a fine
+sympathetic treatment in private sculpture, as shown in the beautiful
+limestone head of a Sumerian in Berlin [see page 266].
+
+[Sidenote: Fine Later Art]
+
+The last great age was that of the Assyrian Empire. Under
+Ashur-nazir-pal (885) the work is fine and severe, but without much
+expression. Shalmaneser III. (860) troubled more about history than
+about art, and his principal remains are the long records of the black
+obelisk and the Balawat gates, which are but clumsy in the forms. Under
+Sennacherib (705) there is a breadth of composition, as in the siege
+of Lachish, which is worthily aided by a more pictorial style, while
+under Ashur-bani-pal (668-626) the art reaches both grace and vigour,
+as in the splendid natural scenes of the wild-ass hunt, in the lion
+hunt, and in the garden feast with the queen.
+
+[Illustration: GUDEA LED BY A GOD
+
+ This shows the Babylonian art at 3300 B.C., inferior to the earlier
+ style of Naramsin. The original is in Berlin Museum.
+]
+
+MECHANICS. The mechanical arts were also greatly developed. The large
+size of the buildings, the great quantities of stone transported for
+the sculptures, and the immense size of many blocks--the bulls weigh
+nearly 50 tons each--all show that there was not only considerable
+skill, but also large ideals and directive ability. Layard found that
+three hundred men were wanted for drawing his cart bearing the great
+bull; and the sledge used by the Assyrians for the transport must have
+needed as many, or more. Long levers are represented as having been
+used in a very effective manner; but the placing of such great blocks
+exactly in the right position required far more ability than the mere
+transport. The forms of tools were much in advance of those used by
+the Egyptians. As far back as Naramsin, the copper axes were all well
+hafted, generally with rings raised round the edges of the haft hole to
+strengthen the band and prevent it splitting.
+
+[Illustration: AN ARTISTIC TRIUMPH OF ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE
+
+ Under Ashur-bani-pal (668-636 B.C.) Assyrian art reached both grace
+ and vigour, as is manifest in the splendid natural scene of the
+ wild-ass hunt, which is here reproduced from the original in the
+ British Museum.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Modern Tools of Ancient Workers]
+
+The forms of the iron tools are also excellent; and iron seems to have
+been common in Assyria at an earlier date than in any other country,
+probably from the tenth or twelfth century B.C. Certainly the set of
+Assyrian tools left at Thebes by an armourer of Esarhaddon in 670 B.C.,
+show that the principles, and even the exact forms, of modern tools
+had already been reached. The chisels and rasp have not been improved
+since; the saw is the same as the modern Oriental pull-saw, but the
+teeth have not an alternate set; the centre-bits and files anticipate
+our forms, but have not reached the complete stage. The material of
+most of the edge tools is steel, showing that the hardening was then
+understood. The cutting of seals in hard stones was an early art, but
+it was well maintained, and some of the most beautiful specimens are
+the chalcedony cylinders such as that of Sennacherib in London. The
+engraving of the inscriptions also shows that cutting in hard stones
+was freely done on a great scale; but the writing, being entirely in
+straight lines, was much easier to engrave than the figures of natural
+objects of the Egyptian signs. Probably emery powder or copper was the
+means used, as in Egypt.
+
+[Sidenote: The Books of Babylonia]
+
+The use of an official stamp of guarantee on uniform pieces of silver
+was adopted by the time of Nebuchadnezzar, but as this is two centuries
+later than Greek coinage it was probably copied from that. In one
+respect the Mesopotamian never equalled the Egyptian. The Memphite
+school of work had attained to a mechanical accuracy which we can
+scarcely gauge; their errors on large pieces of work were only a
+matter of thousandths of an inch. But the Mesopotamian never did a
+piece of passably square or regular stonework; the inequalities and
+skew angles are glaring, even in highly elaborated works of art. The
+sense of accuracy was quite untrained, and neither Semite nor Sumerian
+show any ability in this line. Egypt, on the contrary, started with
+a prehistoric race which excelled in exquisitely true handwork and
+dexterous flint flaking, and with the artistic sense of the dynastic
+people added, the combination was one of the highest that the world has
+seen.
+
+LITERATURE. To give any adequate idea of the literature of Babylonia is
+far beyond our scope, and only the main classes of it can be named in
+this outline. These were:
+
+ 1. Theology and Omens. 2. History. 3. Despatches and
+ Correspondence. 4. Language and Translation. 5. Mathematics. 6.
+ Astronomy. 7. Geography and Natural History. 8. Medicine.
+
+[Illustration: HOW THE GREAT STATUES WERE MOVED: A CONTEMPORARY RECORD
+FROM THE MONUMENTS OF NINEVEH
+
+ The large size of the buildings of Assyria, the great quantities
+ of stone transported for the sculptures, and the immense size of
+ many blocks--the bulls weighing nearly 50 tons each--all show
+ that there was not only considerable skill, but also large ideals
+ and directive ability. Layard found that 300 men were wanted for
+ drawing his cart bearing the great bull; and the sledge used by the
+ Assyrians for the transport must have needed as many or more. The
+ tools used were much in advance of those of the Egyptians.
+]
+
+The striking omission is that of literature in the form of tales or
+poetry of actual life; there seems, amid all the myriads of tablets,
+to be nothing similar to the tales of the various periods of Egypt. We
+look in vain for the tales of the magicians, the romances of adventure,
+of love, or of history, which restore to us the living view of Egyptian
+thought. The Babylonian was severely commercial or scientific, and his
+poetical ideas were only developed in his theology; he seems to have
+had no play of fancy or taste for the excitement of story-telling.
+Similarly in the Middle Ages the “Thousand and One Nights,” though
+often referring to Baghdad, are yet tales of entirely Egyptian source
+and idea.
+
+[Sidenote: Wonderful Training of Babylonians]
+
+But for his own purposes the Babylonian was well educated from a
+literary point of view, and, considering the complexity of his
+writing, he was probably better trained than any modern people except
+the Chinese. The hundreds of signs which he had to remember had long
+lost their pictorial significance, and needed an attentive memory and
+long training; yet not only in public documents, but also in private
+letters, mistakes are but rarely found. Classification of the signs,
+classified lists of words of Sumerian and Semitic, grammatical works,
+and reading books were the apparatus used. Even the peasantry and
+sometimes the slaves learned to write, and there was hardly more
+need of a professional scribe than there is in England to-day. But
+this general education belonged to the Sumerian stock, and was much
+diminished where the Semite was in the majority, so that in Assyria
+only the upper classes could write, and nail-marks of contracting
+parties are common. The feeling for literature kept the names of great
+writers in remembrance, and the authors of the main religious pieces,
+such as the Epic of Gilgames, are still known. The Egyptian, on the
+other hand, has not preserved the name of a single author; even Pentaur
+was probably only a scribe. The honouring of literature led to the
+Assyrian kings amassing great libraries, and to the princes becoming
+librarians and secretaries. The copying of ancient tablets for the new
+libraries was a large business, carefully planned; and the scribe was
+required to exactly state where his original was defective and what
+uncertainties existed in the reading. Even private persons sought to
+obtain favour by presenting copies of works to the temple libraries.
+
+[Sidenote: Shall We Find an Assyrian State History?]
+
+Of the classes of writings, the religious works are noticed later; the
+historical writings are mainly Assyrian, recording the constant wars
+with other lands, and the tribute and booty brought from them. That
+there was a complete State history is shown by the ready allusions to
+the time since certain events had happened. Ashur-bani-pal recounts
+1,635 years since the Elamite king had carried off an image. Nabonidus
+searched for and found the tablet of Naramsin, which he says had
+not been seen for 3,200 years; he recites that there were 800 years
+from his time to Shagarakti-buriash, and 700 years from Burnaburiash
+to Hammurabi. These references show that we may hope to recover a
+complete State history from Assyria, as we may hope yet for a complete
+historical papyrus from Egypt.
+
+The despatches and correspondence give full light on detail of politics
+and affairs, showing the conditions of various countries; and where
+a sufficient number have been preserved together it is possible to
+build up a continuous history of a period, as in the case of the
+Tellal-Amarna letters. The yearly annals of a reign belong more to the
+historical division, and such records of Sennacherib, Ashur-bani-pal,
+and others are of the highest value. The private letters give a full
+view of the current life; and the business documents, especially
+receipts, are the commonest of all records, showing the trade, the law,
+and the business of the country in all its fulness.
+
+[Sidenote: Beginning of Astronomy]
+
+The tablets dealing with the Sumerian and Semitic languages together,
+and the translations from one to the other, we have noted already. The
+mathematical tablets are multiplication tables, lists of multiples of
+measures, tables of squares and cubes, and plans with measurements
+along the sides, which show the practical use of the science. The
+astronomical records were already tabulated in the time of the early
+Semitic Empire, Sargon having compiled for his library a work in
+seventy-two books, the title of which is rendered “The Observations
+of Bel.” The purpose of this was astrological, like the great mass of
+short tablets reporting observations of a later date. But the inquiries
+involved a considerable familiarity with astronomical movements, and
+a mass of records which became of great value to the student. The
+astronomical tablets of the Seleucid period are of special value, as
+they often contain valuable historical matter.
+
+[Illustration: A KING’S LETTER OF 1400 B.C.
+
+ A clay tablet letter from Tushratta, King of Mitani, to Amenophis
+ III., King of Egypt, announcing the despatch of valuable gifts and
+ begging Amenophis to send him a large quantity of gold as payment
+ for expenses incurred by his grandfather in sending gifts to the
+ King of Egypt, and also as a gift in return for his daughter, a
+ princess of Mitani, whom Amenophis had married.
+]
+
+LAW. In the domain of law the Babylonian had early formulated a code
+from the actual working of decisions. Case-made law was his basis, as
+in most countries, and abstracts of important cases were carefully
+preserved as precedents. No torture was used upon witnesses, and
+ample investigation of the right of a case seems to have been usual,
+with full cross-examination. High penalties were stipulated for the
+infringement of sales or contracts. The status of women was equal to
+that of men in the Sumerian, but became inferior in the Semitic law.
+Slavery was rather an assignation of labour than a control of the
+person, as a slave family could not be separated. Slaves could hold
+property, own other slaves, give witness, and were sometimes well
+educated. The family union was strong, as inherited land could not be
+sold without assent of relatives, and boys and girls alike inherited
+intestate property.
+
+The detail of the laws form a long study, but we may here note the main
+sections of the great code of Hammurabi, showing the scope of the laws,
+and stating the number of enactments.
+
+ Witchcraft 2
+ Legal falsehood 3
+ Theft 3
+ Loss 5
+ Child and slave stealing 7
+ Robbery 5
+ Royal messengers and officers 16
+ Agriculture 24
+ Accounts 8
+ Licensed traders 6
+ Marriage property 19
+ Women 32
+ Votaries property 7
+ Adoption 10
+ Assault 20
+ Doctors 13
+ Builders 6
+ Shipping 7
+ Cattle 12
+ Hire 25, and
+ Slaves 5
+ Distraint & deposit 13
+
+Thus the whole scope of an agricultural and commercial community was
+well safeguarded, and little doubt left as to general principles and
+penalties. All this must have been the product of innumerable cases and
+difficulties for two or three thousand years, before such a complete
+code was set up.
+
+HISTORY IN MYTHOLOGY. The religion has usually occupied a large part of
+the attention and interest given to Mesopotamia; it is comparatively
+well known owing to the quantity of documents and representations. Here
+we need only mention such points as bear on the general civilisation.
+We have already noticed how the purely Sumerian Shamanism, or belief
+in the spirit of every object, which needed to be appeased, had been
+tinctured by the worship of personal deities of the Semitic neighbours,
+and how this influence was shown by borrowing the Semitic beard for
+the gods and flounced robe for the goddesses, and occasionally for the
+gods. Thus the Semite was the missionary of theism as against animism.
+
+[Illustration: SIR A. H. LAYARD’S EXCAVATORS LOWERING ONE OF THE GREAT
+WINGED BULLS FOUND IN NINEVEH
+
+ These bulls weighed fifty tons each. Layard found that three
+ hundred men were necessary to pull the cart on which the bulls were
+ placed.
+]
+
+[Illustration: A CAMP SCENE IN THE DAYS OF NINEVEH’S POWER
+
+ The interior of a castle, indicated by a kind of ground-plan with
+ towers and battlements, is divided into four compartments. In each
+ is a group of figures, either engaged in domestic occupations or in
+ preparations for a religious ceremony. The pavilion is supported by
+ columns, probably of painted wood, and the canopy is adorned with
+ a fringe of alternate flowers and buds, like the usual Egyptian
+ border. Beneath the canopy is a groom cleaning a horse with a
+ curry-comb. A eunuch at the entrance is receiving four prisoners.
+ Above are two mummers dressed in the skins of lions, while a figure
+ with a staff appears to be the keeper of these monsters.
+]
+
+On the other hand, the civilisation of Babylonia is expressly stated to
+have been given by Ea, or Oannes, who rose from the sea of the Persian
+Gulf; he passed the day among men, and taught letters and sciences
+and arts--the building of cities and temples, and the use of laws and
+geometry. Also he showed the uses of seeds and fruits, and softened
+and humanised the people, who had lived in a lawless manner like wild
+beasts. This full ascription of civilisation to sea immigrants shows
+that it cannot be set down as an indigenous growth, or as due to the
+Sumerian, or still less to the Semite. The date of this movement is
+roughly indicated by Ea, belonging to the city of Eridu; and 5000 B.C.
+is the earliest date at which we can suppose the ground of that city
+to have been dry land. Such must be taken as the extreme limit of the
+early civilisation, and what we find of the early kings of about 4700
+B.C. is the first efficient rise of monumental history in the land. All
+this is parallel to the early civilisation in Egypt. That also came
+in apparently from the Red Sea at about 5800 B.C., as the civilising
+movement which changed the prehistoric age to the dynastic. And it
+came only a few centuries earlier than the mission of Ea. It may be
+possible that there is one common source of a seafaring people for both
+civilisations, and, if so, we might look to Hadhramot as being in the
+most likely common centre. At least, it is always convenient to explain
+the unknown by the unknown.
+
+The nature gods of Apsu and Tiamat, the ocean and the chaos, described
+in the first tablet of the Creation series, belong to the primitive
+Sumerian. “The waters of these mingled in union, and no fields were
+embanked, no islands were seen; when the gods had not come forth, not
+one; when they neither had being nor destinies.” And afterward “Evil
+they plotted against the great gods.” After an attempt of Anshar
+(perhaps the same as the Egyptian Anher, the sky god) to subdue Tiamat
+(tablet 2), Marduk, the sun god, gains the victory; and in tablets 3
+and 4, the supremacy of Marduk is finally confirmed by all the gods. In
+this we seem to have the echoes of a tribal history as in the Egyptian
+theology. The Shamanistic worship of a confused host of warring and
+malignant spirits, is at last subdued by the worshippers of personal
+gods under Semitic influence, and of these the people of the sun god
+take in the end the leading place. All of these changes were, however,
+long before the political domination of the Semite, which began about
+3800 B.C., with Sargon.
+
+[Illustration: A CHASE IN THE DESERT, RECORDED ON THE MONUMENTS OF
+NINEVEH
+
+ The series of which this bas-relief formed a part appears to
+ have recorded the conquest by the Assyrians of an Arab tribe or
+ nation who made use of the camel in war as a beast of burden. This
+ sculpture belongs to a later period than the bas-relief from the
+ North-West Palace at Nineveh reproduced below.
+]
+
+[Illustration: ROYAL SPORT IN THE DAYS OF ANCIENT NINEVEH
+
+ This bas-relief probably formed part of a subject representing the
+ King of Nineveh in his chariot hunting the wild bull. The warrior
+ rides on one horse and leads a second, richly caparisoned, for the
+ use of the monarch. Numerous small marks on the body of the animal
+ probably denote long and shaggy hair.
+]
+
+[Illustration: BABYLON: THE WONDER CITY OF ANCIENT CIVILISATION AT THE
+HEIGHT OF ITS POWER]
+
+[Illustration: NIMRUD: ALL THAT IS LEFT OF ONE OF THE WONDER CITIES OF
+ANCIENT BABYLONIA
+
+ A view of Birs Nimrud, the traditional site of the Tower of Babel.
+ On the plain below are the silent ruins of the ancient city, once
+ filled with a teeming population.
+]
+
+[Illustration: A VIEW OF HILLAH, THE MODERN BABYLON]
+
+We have now reviewed the questions of the rise of civilisation, as
+apart from the ordinary history of the countries, which is dealt with
+in its proper place in this work. Though it is difficult, and rather
+misleading, to look at civilisation and the political history apart,
+yet, so much has come to light in recent years to clear our view of the
+origins of culture that we may be allowed to focus our attention on
+that view of man, apart from his better known history. We seem at last
+to have reached back to a definite beginning of arts and capacities on
+both the Nile and the Euphrates, and to have touched a condition of
+things that seems to point in both lands to some external source of a
+yet pre-existing culture, which yet has to be traced. I am happy to add
+that one of our greatest Babylonian scholars, Dr. Pinches, concurs in
+the view of his subject which is here presented.
+
+ W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE
+
+[Illustration: THE EXILES IN BABYLON
+
+ “By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down; yea, we wept.” From
+ the painting by Bendemann.
+]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE RISE OF CIVILISATION IN EUROPE
+
+By DAVID GEORGE HOGARTH, M.A.]
+
+
+[Sidenote: “Out of the East came Light”.]
+
+“Out of the East came Light” has been the text on which all great
+historians of civilisation have preached, from the authors of the
+Mosaic literature down through Greek and Roman times to our own. Hebrew
+writers have looked back to Mesopotamia; Greek writers to Egypt; Roman
+writers to Greece; writers of Western and Northern Europe and the
+New World to Rome, Greece, and Palestine. Their belief is justified
+in so far as it is based on two great facts. Man first found in the
+warm, alluvial valleys of Southern Asia and North-Eastern Africa the
+conditions of climate and soil most favourable to his upward progress
+from the savage state; and from these regions, so soon as with increase
+of numbers he was moved to migrate, his steps were turned by the
+geographical conditions surrounding his early homes, in a general way,
+westward. He knew not yet how to cross broad seas; deserts, sandy
+steppes, high mountains and tropical forests and swamps were equally
+deterrent. The Polar ice-sheet, which had extended in Pleistocene
+times to the Caspian, Black Sea, and Danube basins, and still lay,
+in the dawn of human civilisation, far south of its present limits,
+probably rendered, with its wide fringe of impassable moraine, forest,
+and tundra country, all the lands included in the present Empire of
+Russia singularly inhospitable. Whoso looks at the map of the Western
+Hemisphere, bearing these facts in mind, will see at once that the
+line of least resistance, and, indeed, the only possible line, led
+the men of the great sub-tropic river valleys towards and along the
+Mediterranean coasts.
+
+[Sidenote: Civilisation from Without]
+
+In so far, therefore, as European civilisation is a state of things
+due to influences from without, it is due to the East; but that is
+very far from the whole explanation of its origin. The impulse to rise
+above savagery has not always--not, indeed, usually--come to peoples
+from without; and probably in primitive time, when communications
+were slow and difficult to a degree which we can hardly realise, the
+origin of local culture was seldom or never to be accounted for thus.
+In modern days there have been obvious instances to the contrary; but
+even now it remains to be seen how far civilisations originated among
+absolutely barbarous peoples by contact with higher races are real and
+living growths. Examples of the modification and possible elevation
+of ancient indigenous societies by incoming aliens, such as have been
+seen in Mexico or Peru, India or Japan, Egypt or Barbary, are not
+in point; for in these cases local civilisations certainly existed
+long before the foreign influence. We must look to the history of the
+relations of white and negro, or other savage, races in the homes of
+the latter, and the results of such inquiries are far from conclusive.
+Does civilisation so originated grow and thrive? Do even the races
+thus civilised themselves any longer thrive and grow? Our antipodean
+colonies, and the story of the native races of North America, if there
+were no other instances, would not admit a categorical affirmative.
+Nay, rather, the evidence so far available tends to discount the
+permanence of transferred civilisation, and to throw doubt on the
+continued vitality of races so civilised.
+
+[Sidenote: The Escape from Savagery]
+
+[Sidenote: Conditions Essential for Civilisation]
+
+It is necessary to raise this question at the outset of the present
+essay because it has been too often assumed, both implicitly and
+explicitly, by historians of our civilisation, that all the cultural
+development of Central, Western, and Northern Europe has been due to
+alien influence, exerted from the south and south-east, and mainly by
+the agency of the Greek, Græco-Roman, and Græco-Romano-Semitic (the
+Christian) systems. Maine’s famous dictum that “Nothing moves in the
+world which is not Greek in origin” has long dominated our thoughts.
+Yet that magnificent generalisation is contrary not only to inherent
+probability, but to known fact. Escape from the savage state, as Buckle
+showed, depends in the first place on the existence of such conditions
+of geographical environment as favour the accumulation of wealth and
+the development of a leisured class--that is, such as conduce to the
+production of a good deal more than the minimum necessary for life.
+It can, therefore, have taken place wherever man found comparatively
+genial climate and remunerative soil, and, in process of time, made for
+himself, by clearing forests or draining swamps, an arable area which
+would feed him and his more abundantly than was absolutely necessary.
+
+Where these conditions were presumably present it is unreasonable to
+suppose that the beginnings of civilisation were deferred age after
+age, until late in time some stimulus chanced to be imparted by an
+alien race or races which had, after all, advanced towards their
+own civilisation, albeit earlier, through the operation of similar
+conditions elsewhere. In the European areas inhabited by the Celtic
+and Germanic peoples, for instance, long before we have the slightest
+reason to believe that these can have come into intimate relation with
+the civilisations of the South and East, both climate and soil were
+unquestionably favourable, and local civilisations cannot but have been
+originated independently. As has been well said, “Man everywhere has
+the same humble beginnings”; and, up to a certain point, which is found
+to be, in fact, far later than the inception of some kind of culture,
+he will satisfy his primitive needs and desires in very much the same
+ways.
+
+[Sidenote: Spontaneous Civilisation in Europe]
+
+Under certain conditions, known to have arisen independently in
+many different regions of the earth, articles of luxury and art,
+irrefragable witnesses to incipient civilisation, begin to be produced
+spontaneously. To what remote periods have not cave deposits thrown
+back the history of artistic effort in the valleys of Gaul? And what
+credit, in reason, can be given to Greece, or even to Rome, for the
+elaborate social order of the Teutonic tribes, which was of ancient
+standing when first the Romans penetrated beyond the Danube and Rhine?
+So well rooted in the soil, so potent and so widely diffused were
+the Teutonic and Celtic social systems, that in the history of our
+actual civilisation they are factors as worthy of consideration as the
+influences of Rome, Greece, or Palestine. If Græco-Roman Christianity
+came greatly to modify them in the end, they had, perhaps, ere that,
+modified Christianity itself hardly less; and the social superiority
+of the northern and western adherents of the now dominant religion is
+probably as much due to character and habits developed before ever its
+creed was formulated, as the dominance of the Turkish peoples in the
+Islamic system is undoubtedly due to social characteristics evolved in
+the oases and steppe-lands of Central Asia far back in the “Times of
+Ignorance.”
+
+Let it, therefore, be understood that in the following pages it is not
+necessarily the whole origin of European civilisation that is being set
+forth, but the modification and heightening of probably pre-existent
+European culture by the first influences of the Nearer East which
+can be supposed to have reached it. Of these influences the effect
+is to some extent a matter of inference only. We cannot always, or,
+indeed, often, point with any assurance to actual results of their
+action. In great part we must still be content with little more than a
+demonstration that directly along certain lines of communication, or
+indirectly through certain intermediaries, the civilisations of the
+South could, or did, come into relation with European areas at an early
+age.
+
+[Sidenote: The Two Great Sea Routes]
+
+The sea routes which were most likely to be used in ruder ages by
+Levantine mariners, after leaving the Nile estuaries or the Syrian
+ports--which, as a matter of fact, are known to have been most
+used--are: that which followed the littoral of Asia Minor to Rhodes,
+whence it bifurcated, to Crete on the one hand, and to the Ægean isles
+and coasts on the other; or that striking across the narrow strait
+to Cyprus, and thence by way of Rhodes, or directly, to Crete. In
+connection with both these routes, the importance of Crete and Rhodes,
+and especially the former, must be obvious. Thence the Cyrenean and
+Carthaginian projections of Africa were reached with greater ease than
+by way of the littoral to west of Egypt, which, for some hundreds of
+miles, is desert, reef-girt, almost harbourless, and pitilessly vexed
+by an on-shore wind. From Carthage, Sicily and the Italian peninsula
+were readily accessible, or the Gibraltar strait and the Iberian shores
+could be made after coasting a littoral much kinder to navigation than
+that between Egypt and the western bight of the Syrtis.
+
+[Illustration: THE GREAT SEA ROUTES OF ANCIENT CIVILISATION
+
+ Along the routes marked in this map lay the course of Ægean and
+ Phœnician civilisation. The importance of Crete and Rhodes in the
+ spreading of civilisation is clearly seen; they may be called the
+ “half-way houses” between Mesopotamian culture, with its seat in
+ the valley of the Euphrates, and Egyptian culture, in the valley of
+ the Nile.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: The Two Great Land Routes]
+
+The land routes in chief were also two. The Nile valley, closed by
+desert on the western side, had comparatively easy access to the great
+natural road which, leading northwards through Syria, passes at first
+along the Palestinian littoral, and then through the central cleft
+between the Lebanons to the Orontes valley. Mesopotamian traders,
+following up the Euphrates till they had left the desert part of its
+course behind them, fell into this same road in the region of Aleppo
+and Antioch. Thence by the easy passes which turn the southern end of
+Mount Amanus, the combined caravans reached Tarsus, penetrated Taurus
+by the gap of the Cilician Gates, and found themselves on the plateau
+of Asia Minor with a choice of easy routes leading either to the rich
+western littoral, or the north-western straits, and from any and
+every point offering safe passage to South-eastern Europe. This was
+the only land route for Egyptian civilisation. But the Mesopotamian
+had an alternative one, leading by way of the upper Tigris valley to
+the north of Taurus and the Cappadocian plateau, whence it descended
+the Sangarius and debouched, like the first route, on either the
+north-western or the western coast of Anatolia.
+
+[Sidenote: The Royal Road up into Asia]
+
+In speaking of such land routes, we do not, of course, mean to imply
+the existence of any made road, nor even of a single track. When most
+definite, they probably resembled the Syrian Pilgrim Way--a skein of
+separate paths now spreading widely, now running into and across one
+another; and doubtless the early tracks diverged far more than this,
+and making great elbows, followed now one valley, now another, to meet
+again only after many days. One of the great lines from Mesopotamia to
+the western Anatolian coast, that described last in our enumeration,
+came to be defined more strictly than the rest, perhaps by the Kings
+of Nineveh and their “Hittite” rivals and allies in Cappadocia, and
+was known in the Persian era to the Greeks as the Royal Road “of all
+who go up into Asia.” But at the much earlier time with which we are
+most concerned, the influences of the East did not rush westward
+torrent-wise in one bed, but soaked slowly, finding a way now here, now
+there, in one general westward direction, and sending offshoots far out
+to right and left of the main streams.
+
+[Illustration: LAND ROUTES OF ANCIENT CIVILISATION
+
+ The great natural roads along which lay the path of Egyptian and
+ Mesopotamian culture are marked in white lines on this map. A study
+ of the map, with a careful reading of this chapter, will make clear
+ the way in which civilisation spread in Egypt and Babylon. It is
+ along these lines that there are found evidences of the influence
+ exerted upon Europe by the civilisation of the valley of the Nile
+ and the Euphrates.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Half-way Houses of Civilisation]
+
+It has been said that there is evidence of the routes just indicated
+having been, in fact, those most used. It is upon these lines, and
+no others, that we find certain remarkable focuses of early culture
+disposed as half-way houses between the Mesopotamian and Egyptian
+civilisations on the one hand, and continental Europe on the other.
+These are, in relation to the sea routes, first, the prehistoric
+Ægean civilisation, focused from the first in Crete, but extended
+to all isles and peninsulas of South-eastern Europe from Cyprus to
+Sardinia and Spain; and, secondly, the Phœnician, originated on the
+Syrian coast, but focused also at a later time at a second point
+much farther west--namely, on that Carthaginian projection, whence
+lay easy sea-ways to Sicily and Italy and all the western seas. Hard
+by the Egyptian land route lay this same Phœnician society; while
+all about its point of junction with the Euphrates road, on both its
+continuations north-westward, and on the northern road from Mesopotamia
+so soon as this had passed Euphrates, was established the singular
+but as yet little understood civilisation which we call Hittite. How
+early we may assume the latter’s existence in North Syria is still
+doubtful; but since the discoveries of Winckler at Boghaz Keui,
+there is little question that it was focused in prehistoric time in
+Northern Cappadocia, whence its influence seems to have radiated
+southward to the confines of Palestine, and westward to Lydia and
+almost the shore of the Ægean Sea. It is to this North Cappadocian
+region that the Tigris route from Assyria and Babylonia, which was
+afterwards the Persian “Royal Road,” tended. Among these civilisations
+the most important for our present purpose is the Ægean, because its
+geographical area touched at some point all the westward roads, whether
+by sea or land; and, moreover, because it is the one which actual
+evidence both dates from the remotest antiquity and most clearly proves
+to have been operative on Europe, especially on the most expansive of
+its early cultures, the Hellenic. The recent exploration of Crete, due
+in the main to Messrs. Arthur Evans and Federico Halbherr, has enhanced
+enormously the significance of the civilisation revealed to the modern
+world at Hissarlik and Mycenæ by the faith and fervour of Henry
+Schliemann.
+
+[Sidenote: Far-back Evidences of Culture]
+
+We are now assured of certain facts of much moment to our inquiry.
+Firstly, that this civilisation was developed originally from its
+rudest beginnings within the Ægean area itself. This is proved by
+evidence of the uninterrupted evolution of fabrics and decoration,
+especially in ceramic ware, produced at Cnossus from the dawn of the
+historic Hellenic period right back to Neolithic time. At various
+points in this long retrocession we can place the Cnossian culture
+in synchronic relation with the Egyptian by the presence both of
+Egyptian objects in the Ægean strata, and Ægean in the Egyptian. These
+points correspond with the highest developments respectively of the
+New, Middle, and Old Pharaonic Empires--moments at which we should
+naturally expect to find evidence of international communication. The
+earliest point indicated by these synchronisms lies possibly as far
+back as the First Dynasty, if certain vases, exported apparently from
+the Ægean as vehicles for colouring matter, and found by Dr. Petrie at
+Abydos, are accepted as of the remote date to which their discoverer
+attributed them; but in any case the contemporaneity of some part of
+the Old Empire period with the Ægean civilisation is assured, and that,
+moreover, when the latter was already far advanced beyond its rudest
+origins, as represented by the contents of the thick strata of yellow
+clay which underlie the earliest structures at Cnossus.
+
+[Sidenote: The Ægean Civilisation is Native]
+
+Thus is the indigenous origin of Ægean civilisation assured. So also
+is the independence of its after development. The typical Cretan
+pottery, known as the “Kamares” style and lineally descended from
+Neolithic ware, which attained, about the acme of the Pharaonic
+Middle Empire a perfection both of fabric and ornament worthy of the
+highest ceramic products of any age, remained absolutely distinct.
+The same independence characterises a later ceramic product of the
+Ægean, a glazed ware with monochrome decoration, which went into Egypt
+abundantly under the Eighteenth Dynasty, and especially when Amenhotep
+IV., “Khuenaten,” was reigning in his new capital at Tell-el-Amarna.
+Nor is Ægean art distinctive only in its humbler products. The
+frescoes, the plaster reliefs, the chased work in precious metals,
+the ivory carvings, and the gem intaglios of the Ægean area, of which
+Sir Charles Newton said thirty years ago that they were not to be
+confounded with products of any other glyptic art, show the development
+and retention of an individual naturalistic style--a style which
+reacted on the fresco paintings of Egypt itself under Khuenaten.
+Finally, to clinch the proof of its independence with the strongest
+possible argument, the Ægean civilisation, as soon as it became
+articulate, evolved for itself, in Crete at any rate, a system of
+writing, displayed to us on some thousands of surviving clay documents,
+which was purely its own, and cannot be interpreted by comparison with
+any other known script.
+
+[Illustration: THESEION TEMPLE, ATHENS: DORIC ORDER OF ARCHITECTURE
+
+ The perfection of the Hellenic style, derived from Ægean
+ architecture. 5th century B.C.
+]
+
+[Illustration: TEMPLE OF WINGLESS VICTORY: IONIC ORDER
+
+ The perfection of the second Hellenic style, refined from the
+ Doric, probably in the first place by Asiatic Greeks. Fifth century
+ B.C.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: The Contact of Early Civilisations]
+
+Secondly, it is now known that this civilisation, of remote indigenous
+origin and independent development, reached a very high point of
+achievement in many respects which afford the best-known tests of
+culture--namely, in its artistic products, extant examples of which
+offer ample evidence of wonderfully close study of natural forms, of
+mastery of decorative principles and their execution, and of a sort
+of idealistic quality, which has been rightly called “a premonition
+of the later Hellenic”; also, in architectural construction and
+the organisation of domestic comfort, as displayed in the palaces
+at Cnossus and Phæstus, with their superposed stories, their broad
+stairways of many flights, their rich ornament, their arrangements
+for admitting air and light, and their astonishing systems of
+sanitation and drainage. The written documents found, though still
+undeciphered, plainly attest an advanced knowledge of account-keeping
+and correspondence. The frescoes and gem scenes, as well as many
+surviving objects of luxury, attest the existence of a leisured and
+pleasure-loving class; and, lastly, the tribute-tallies of Cnossus
+support the inference which is legitimately drawn from the uniformity
+of certain material objects all over the Ægean area at certain
+periods--notably that contemporaneous with the earlier part of the
+Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty--and also from the wide range of certain
+place-names, that there was an extensive imperial organisation.
+The centre of this empire, as well as the original focus of the
+civilisation, was almost beyond question in Crete. The prejudice in
+favour of other focuses raised by the priority of Ægean discoveries
+elsewhere, especially those made in the Argolid, has been greatly
+weakened by demonstration of the superior catholicity and quality of
+Cretan culture, and by recognition of the failure of Mycenæ to offer
+evidence of anything like the same antiquity. And no more need be
+said here to counteract it than that, if Buckle’s statement of the
+climatic and geographical conditions necessary to the first development
+and upward progress of culture be sound, those conditions were never
+present in plenitude anywhere in the Ægean area except in Crete. There
+are found in the most conspicuous degree the combination of these
+geographical features--large tracts of fertile and deep lowland soil;
+mountains so situated as to cause abundant precipitation, and so high
+as to store snow against the early summer; absence of both swamps and
+desert areas; and a climate not prone to extremes.
+
+[Sidenote: What Crete has Taught us]
+
+Like all other high civilisations the Ægean both borrowed and lent.
+Since its debts could be contracted only with contemporary cultures as
+high as its own, they were owed mainly to Egypt and Babylonia, while
+its loans went out chiefly to lower civilisations further removed
+than itself from the eastern centres, those, namely, of the European
+continent. As regards Egypt, something has been said already of its
+intercourse with the Ægean in all ages of the latter’s prehistoric
+period. The evidence of that intercourse, known even before the
+exploration of Crete, was fairly abundant, though limited almost
+entirely to later ages of Ægean culture, often called particularly
+“Mycenæan.” The “pre-Cretan” case was set forth very concisely in a
+paper read before the Royal Society of Literature in 1897 by Professor
+Flinders Petrie, who enumerated the objects of Egyptian fabric or style
+found on Ægean sites, notably at Mycenæ, and in Cyprus and Rhodes; and
+of objects of Ægean style or fabric found in Egypt, notably at Thebes,
+Memphis and Tell-el-Amarna and in the Fayum. One word of warning only
+may be added--that the occurrence of such imported objects, especially
+if they be of the amulet class, on a site of a certain date does not
+necessarily imply exact contemporaneity with the period at which the
+objects were actually produced; for they may well have been carried
+hither and thither in the stream of trade for some time ere coming to
+rest, and been long preserved afterwards. Some of the Cypriote and
+Rhodian tombs, for example, in which scarabs and other Egyptian objects
+of the Eighteenth Pharaonic Dynasty have been found, are probably
+considerably later than that dynasty.
+
+Crete has largely reinforced this evidence, not only by throwing it
+back to a much earlier time than that of the Eighteenth Dynasty, but by
+proving that in its later periods Ægean art had come to be considerably
+modified, both in forms and in motives and treatment of decoration,
+by the art of Egypt. We have then to do, not merely with mutually
+imported objects, but, much more than was previously understood, with
+the mutual action of influences--the strongest possible proof of close
+intercourse. On the Ægean side, our sole concern at present, are now
+found scenes represented in fresco-painting or metal-work--for example,
+the mural scene with a river and palms at Cnossus, and the well-known
+cat-hunting scene inlaid on a Mycenæan poniard--and also decorative
+motives which are of obvious Egyptian parentage. Other motives proclaim
+their alien origin by more or less mistaken treatment. The best
+instance in point is the use made of the lotus motive in Greece and the
+isles, where the flower was never domiciled.
+
+[Illustration: PALLAS ATHENA, THE MAIDEN GODDESS OF ATHENS
+
+ One of the chief glories of the art of ancient Greece left to the
+ modern world. Athena was the goddess and protectress of Athens, and
+ her statue stood at the height of the Acropolis, dominating the
+ city.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE SUPREME MONUMENT OF ANCIENT GREECE LEFT TO THE
+MODERN WORLD
+
+ The Venus of Milo, one of the noblest examples of Greek art, and
+ one of the most famous statues extant. Found at Milo, in Crete,
+ about 100 B.C., and now in the Louvre, Paris.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Influence of Egypt and Mesopotamia]
+
+For influences of the Mesopotamian civilisation we have to look in the
+main to the early civilisations of Syria and Asia Minor; but evidence
+is not wholly wanting on Ægean sites. A Babylonian cylinder came to
+light at Cnossus; the fashion of dress, especially female, as shown in
+Ægean frescoes and gems, is very like the Babylonian, from whatever
+primitive garments it had been developed; and in other respects also
+the intaglio class of Ægean art products shows at least as much
+Mesopotamian as Egyptian influence. It has borrowed the decoration of
+both cylinders and scarabs; but it proves its essential independence
+all the time by never adopting the forms of either of those
+characteristic alien vehicles of glyptic art.
+
+[Sidenote: Religious Ideas of Early Times]
+
+Lastly, in the most important of all aspects of early civilisation--the
+religious--we now know that the Ægean approximated very closely to the
+old civilisations to south and east of it. The main idea of its cult
+was that which seems to have been the oldest and the most dominant in
+such cults--namely, the worship of the reproductive force of Nature.
+This idea was embodied, as soon as divinities were imagined in human
+shape, in feminine form, the desired relation of divinity to humanity
+being expressed by the addition of a son-consort. How far other
+features of this cult, common to the south-eastern lands--such as the
+descent of the son to the human race, his periodical death at the hands
+of the latter, and his joyful resurrection--were present, we do not yet
+know. It would probably be false to ascribe the presence of this cult
+idea in Ægean civilisation to any foreign influence, for it seems to
+be a necessary expression of the religious sense of many peoples, and
+is as likely to have been as indigenous in the case of Rhea and Zeus
+(to give the Divine pair their possible Ægean names) as in those of
+Isis and Osiris, or Ashtaroth and Tammuz-Adon. But we may note first
+that here was a vital bond of affinity between the Ægean folk and their
+mainland neighbours on east and south, and second, that long before
+historic Hellenic times, the former had arrived at that essential
+condition of progressive civilisation, an anthropomorphic conception of
+divinity.
+
+[Sidenote: The Greek Debt to Ægean Civilisation]
+
+Enough has now been said to show that Ægean civilisation was both a
+broad channel through which influences of Asiatic and Egyptian culture
+could and did flow, and also in itself of such importance as to be
+likely to exert influence on nascent civilisation in Europe. To see
+whether it did so, we look first to the culture which succeeded it in
+its own area, the Hellenic culture of the historic age, about whose
+action, exerted indirectly on all subsequent civilisation, there is
+no possible doubt. And at the outset stress must be laid on the fact
+that we are dealing, in respect of the two civilisations in question,
+with one and the same geographical area. There is here no question of
+alien influences dependent on short or long communications by sea
+or land. The Hellenic race, if indeed to be distinguished from all
+elements in the earlier Ægean, came into the very domain of the latter,
+and experienced by actual contact the full force of the pre-existent
+culture. This being so, the probability of heavy debts having been
+contracted by the later culture to the earlier is enormous; and it
+becomes all but certainty when the few facts which we know about the
+early history of the Hellenic peoples proper come to be considered
+in the light of ascertained general laws governing the relations of
+intermingled races.
+
+[Sidenote: Emerging of Historic Hellenism]
+
+It is clear that the Hellenic tradition of a great descent of peoples
+from the north into mainland Greece and the western isles, about
+1000 B.C., enshrines substantial fact. These peoples, possessed of
+iron weapons, were superior to the Ægean folk in war, but evidently
+inferior in the softer social arts. The Greeks called them Dorians, a
+name afterwards associated with the most distinctive, but the least
+cultivated, of the historic races of the peninsula--a race, however,
+possessed in its full form of the conception of the city-state; which
+implied the subordination of the individual to the corporate body, and
+was the chief social message to be taught thereafter by the Greek to
+the world.
+
+Without calling these invaders by any one name, or supposing Northern
+folk to have made then their first appearance in the Ægean area, we may
+safely see in this Greek tradition the record of a cataclysmic change
+out of which historic Hellenism was to issue at the last. In proof of
+the invader’s inferiority in the useful arts we have the undoubted
+fact that the command of the Greek seas, formerly held by Cretans and
+other Ægean folk, passed for some centuries into Semitic hands--the
+hands of those Sidonian Phœnicians whose coming, but as yet incomplete,
+“thalassocracy,” is reflected in the most important of contemporary
+documents, the Homeric lays, and, under the lead of the Tyrians, was to
+grow greater yet. To illustrate their inferiority in the luxurious arts
+we have the dry, uninventive style of artistic decoration known as the
+“Geometric,” which also lasted for some centuries. It is evident that
+the newcomers were conquering soldiers, who destroyed, but could not of
+their own virtue create.
+
+[Illustration: A GREAT CITY OF ANCIENT CIVILISATION: THE BUILDING OF
+CARTHAGE BY DIDO
+
+ From the painting by Turner, in the National Gallery.
+]
+
+Now, the course of events after all such conquests, if permanent but
+not exterminative, is the same. The rude military invaders, finding
+themselves deficient in woman-folk, take not only slaves but wives from
+the civilised people of the soil. The resultant children tend more
+and more, as time goes on, to be influenced by their native mothers.
+In them previous culture begins to revive, and ere many generations
+are past, so completely is the new race assimilated by the old that
+the language in general use is that not of the conquerors but of the
+conquered.
+
+[Sidenote: Hellas and its Conquerors]
+
+[Sidenote: The New Civilisation in Greece]
+
+For a crucial instance we need look no further than to the after
+history of the Norman invaders of Britain; and we might almost assume,
+were there no actual memorials of the fact, that the civilisation which
+arose anew in the Ægean area, after the tumultuous period reflected in
+the Homeric lays and the Greek tradition of early Asiatic colonisation,
+was largely influenced by what had been there in the Ægean Age. There
+is, however, proof that such was indeed the fact. As will presently
+be pointed out, the long period of unrest had allowed other alien
+influences to enter Hellas notably the Semitic from Phœnicia. But
+beside what appears to be Asiatic, and also beside what was new and
+distinctively Hellenic in the historic culture, which became prominent
+from the ninth century onwards (and this includes such all-important
+features as the conceptions of a supreme Father-God, and of the
+city-state--an idea of social order as obdurate to southern influences
+as our own Germanic social order has proved)--beside all this, the
+“non-Hellenic” elements in the civilisation are almost entirely such
+as may be referred to Ægean prototypes. Hellenic art, which flourished
+pre-eminently among the non-Dorian inhabitants, is distinguished from
+Eastern art by just those distinctive qualities of both realism and
+idealism which distinguished the highest art of the Ægean Age. Hellenic
+religion has for its oldest, most universal, and most popular deities
+various feminine impersonations, indistinguishable from the earlier
+Mother-Goddess. The chief of these is the unwedded Artemis-Aphrodite,
+supreme patroness of life all through the historic period of pagan
+Greece, the essential features of whose cult are still dominant in the
+observance of the Greek peasant-worshippers of the Christian Virgin.
+Hellenic cult is full of interesting survivals of the Tree and Stone
+ritual amply attested in Ægean cult. Hellenic custom retained many
+traces of a matriarchal system, appropriate to a society exclusively
+devoted to the Great Mother, whom Hellas took in name and actual
+primitive form to her pantheon under the names of Rhea and Kybéle. The
+Dorian and Ionian styles of architecture can be directly affiliated
+to the Ægean as revealed in Mycenæan tombs and Cnossian frescoes, and
+the Greek house is a development of the earlier domestic plan. Certain
+notable exceptions go far to prove the rule. The dress of the upper
+class, and the fashion of body-armour and weapons, seem to have been
+determined henceforth by the new folk. These are just the features
+in civilisation which conquering invaders would naturally introduce
+and retain. It is hardly necessary to add that if Ægean civilisation
+seriously influenced that of historic Hellas, it seriously influenced
+at second hand that of Western and Central Europe.
+
+[Illustration: ATHENS IN THE HEIGHT OF HER CIVILISATION: THE MARKET
+PLACE RECONSTRUCTED WITH THE ACROPOLIS IN THE BACKGROUND]
+
+[Sidenote: Other Ægean Influences in Europe]
+
+[Sidenote: Commercial Communication with Europe]
+
+Hellenic civilisation, however, was perhaps not the only medium
+through which Ægean influence affected inner Europe. In Scandinavian
+tomb-furniture certain presumably foreign decorative motives, notably
+the returning spiral and the _triquetra_, which are identical with
+characteristic Ægean types, make their appearance in the first part of
+the local Bronze Age; and these have been noticed also, at a slightly
+later period, in the art of early Ireland, at that time the most
+civilised of the British Isles. In point of form also some Northern
+weapons in bronze resemble those of the Far South. If the spiral motive
+stood alone, the affiliation of this distant decorative art to the
+Ægean would be very doubtful, since Nature, whether through the forms
+assumed by vegetable tendrils or animal horns, or through those of
+shavings of wood or metal, might easily have suggested the ornament
+independently. But taken together with other related motives, and
+the evidence of assimilation of weapon-forms, these spirals raise a
+presumption in favour of an early obligation of North Europe to Ægean
+civilisation. A possible explanation of this fact, if fact it be, has
+been found in the communication which appears to have been created
+by the Ægean demand for Baltic amber; and early ways for this traffic
+have been traced by Dr. Arthur Evans up the Adriatic, and also overland
+from the Ægean shores to the Danube basin, whence, from a point near
+the later Carnuntum, a combined route ran up the Moldau to the Elbe
+system. Further, it is the opinion of Professor Montelius and some
+other archæologists that not only certain bronze forms and decorative
+motives, but the usage of this metal itself was derived in Scandinavia
+from the south, somewhere before 1000 B.C. Since pure copper and pure
+tin hardly occur in Sweden among objects of this age, it has been
+held that the bronze was imported ready made in the mass. But Sweden
+contains large natural copper deposits, and tin is also found; and,
+therefore, this opinion is not universally accepted. Indeed, some
+authorities reverse the debt, and actually derive Ægean knowledge of
+bronze from Europe. If, however, the first derivation be ever proved,
+we shall have to refer the first use of metal weapons--an enormous step
+forward in social progress--in North and Central Europe to the Southern
+civilisations, such as the Egyptian, which had certainly known and used
+bronze for at least a thousand years before we find it in Sweden. It
+is sometimes maintained that Cyprus was the first, and long the sole,
+source of copper, which travelled north by way of Asia Minor and the
+Ægean to Hungary and inner Europe; but this is not proved. In any case,
+for some reason, bronze seems to have become known to the Scandinavians
+and Danes earlier than to the Gallic peoples.
+
+[Sidenote: Influences in Western Europe]
+
+Yet more evidence is there of possible Ægean communication with Central
+Europe after the introduction of iron, which seems not to have reached
+Scandinavia till almost the Christian Era. Transylvanian, Russian,
+and Balkan graves have yielded to recent explorers abundance of both
+weapons and decorated articles of personal use and adornment, closely
+resembling fabrics in the later periods of Ægean civilisation. Further
+into the European continent we have again the various evidence of
+the early Iron Age graves of the Salzkammergut on the south-eastern
+fringe of the Bavarian plain. This “Hallstatt” culture, as it is
+called, from the location of the chief cemetery, presents both in
+character and development an extraordinarily close parallel to that
+of the Ægean Geometric Age. About the same period we know also that a
+civilisation was in progress in the fertile lands round the head of
+the Adriatic, which is called Veneto-Illyrian, and shows even stronger
+evidence of Ægean influence than the Hallstatt culture; as, indeed,
+might be expected, if it be remembered that in Southern and Central
+Italy, as well as Sicily, forms and decoration, obviously learned from
+Ægean civilisation, as well as actual imported Ægean objects, had been
+plentiful ever since the bloom of the Ægean age. A visit to the local
+collections in Syracuse, Bari, and Ancona, will establish this fact to
+the satisfaction of any archæologist. These two civilisations, that of
+the Salzkammergut and that of the North Adriatic lands, have important
+bearing on the development of all Western Europe; for we know that
+the Celtic peoples, who penetrated south of the Alps in the sixth and
+fifth centuries B.C., learned much from both, and especially from the
+second; and graves, furnished after they had been pressed back again
+into Switzerland and Gaul, show abundant evidence of what is called
+“sub-Ægean” influence--that is, of form and ornament probably derived
+ultimately from Ægean culture, but indirectly, or after undergoing
+considerable degradation. Through various subsequent intermediaries,
+notably the Belgic tribes, these derivatives passed ultimately to our
+own islands, and we find their influence operative on early English art.
+
+[Sidenote: Civilisations Help One Another]
+
+At the same time it is necessary to add that this derivation of the
+higher developments of mid-European and Scandinavian culture in the
+Bronze and Early Iron ages from the influence of Ægean civilisation
+is far from certain, whatever be the case for the Adriatic lands.
+Knowledge obtained since Dr. Evans and Dr. Montelius first expressed
+their views, especially in regard to the so-called Neolithic or
+“Butmir” pottery, which has a very wide range in South-Eastern Central
+Europe, has not strengthened their case, but rather tended to suggest
+that the continental culture developed independently to, though in a
+parallel direction with, that of the southern peninsulas and isles. If
+this view ultimately prevail, it will illustrate the opinion, to which
+we personally incline, that the derivation of civilisations, one from
+another in early times, is the exception and not the rule, except in
+respect of minor matters.
+
+[Sidenote: The Vigorous Hittite Civilisation]
+
+Two other intermediary civilisations of the South-east remain to
+be considered--the Hittite and the Phœnician. The first is still,
+unfortunately, very little known to us, and we are hardly in a position
+to say much about its influence on Europe until more small objects of
+use and ornament have been discovered on Hittite sites. The general
+facts so far ascertained, which make such influence probable, are
+these. This civilisation, characterised and distinguished from all
+others by a very individual art, and by a system of writing apparently
+independent of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian systems, but in its later
+development showing kinship to Mediterranean systems, lay across all
+the mainland routes from inner Asia and Egypt to South-eastern Europe.
+Its monuments have been found scattered thickly from the valley of the
+Syrian Orontes northwards, to within 150 miles of the Black Sea, and
+westward to the last passes which lead down from the Anatolian plateau
+to the Ægean littoral. So far as we can judge at present, its place
+of origin was Cappadocia, but its later focus was possibly in North
+Syria; while its period of florescence ranges back from about the sixth
+century B.C. for at least a thousand years.
+
+It was, as we know from many written records, in frequent collision
+with both Egypt and Assyria, and in its southern home and latest period
+came under Mesopotamian domination. As is to be expected, therefore,
+its monuments show very strong Mesopotamian, and less strong Egyptian,
+influence. At the last, indeed, those of North Syria approximate very
+closely indeed to the contemporary Assyrian of the Sargonid Age. At the
+same time, however, they retain sufficient individuality never to be
+mistaken for other than Hittite; they represent facial types, dress,
+and fashion of arms which are peculiar; and the inscriptions they bear
+are always couched in a script having no relation to cuneiform writing.
+
+[Sidenote: Europe and Hittite Influence]
+
+This vigorous civilisation, occupying the great land bridge from Asia
+into Europe in the dawn of the historic Hellenic period, and eminently
+receptive of Mesopotamian influences, cannot but have been a medium
+through which these reached the Ægean Sea, and so told on Europe. But
+this did not take place to any appreciable extent in what is known as
+the prehistoric period. The Cretan products, and those of the other
+Ægean Isles and mainland Greece, betray very little Mesopotamian
+influence, and none that we can reasonably trace to the Hittites. So
+far as we can see, the Ægean culture was much more ancient than the
+Hittite, and if there was kinship between them we are bound, on the
+evidence, to derive the latter from the former, and not vice versa.
+There is a certain relation between late Ægean art and products
+of inland Asia Minor, but it indicates influence passing eastward
+rather than westward; and even on the remoter Ægean sites of Asia
+Minor--Hissarlik, for instance--non-Ægean traces are but slight, and do
+not suggest the influence of a strong civilisation focused inland.
+
+[Sidenote: The Hittite Pathway of Civilisation]
+
+[Sidenote: Part Played by the Phœnicians]
+
+In the early Hellenic Age, on the other hand, we have to note
+considerable Mesopotamian influence on Greek culture, and, at the
+same time, certain evidence of counter influence, both sub-Ægean and
+Græco-Lydian, on Mesopotamia, which is as yet not fully understood.
+But whether both or either of these respective influences were
+transmitted through the Hittite civilisation is still very doubtful.
+The Egyptian influence on archaic Anatolia, especially on Rhodes, and
+even on the Greek mainland, seems clearly to have come by way of the
+sea; and considering the part which the Phœnicians had been playing
+for some time previously as transmitters of things eastern, there is a
+probable alternative westward route for Mesopotamian influence also.
+In Cyprus, at any rate, this influence, which at a certain period
+has left strong traces, certainly came for the most part through the
+western Semites. The claim of the Hittites, however, is not to be
+denied altogether. Their script seems undoubtedly to have been the
+parent of the Lycian and other local Anatolian systems. Phrygian art
+and writing attest Græco-Lydian influence inland; Ionian culture was
+certainly not unaffected by the Lydian in which many students recognise
+a western offshoot of the Hittite; and there are a few features in
+Ionian cult and in cult representations which seem to be owed rather
+to the religious system of the central plateau than to that native to
+the Ægean area. In this state of suspense we must leave the question,
+adding only these final remarks, that Greek tradition itself ascribed
+some of the arts and luxuries of its civilisation--for example, the
+coining of money--to Lydian invention, and also affiliated to Lydia a
+whole western culture, that of Etruria; while it is an undoubted fact
+that a Mesopotamian standard of weight-currency travelled to the Ægean,
+and thence affected all western commerce, but by what channel we do not
+certainly know. There is an unknown quantity in all this problem--viz.,
+Lydia. We have reason to suspect the latter of a considerable influence
+on early Hellenic civilisation, both as creator and transmitter, but
+must await further evidence.
+
+The part played by the Phœnicians in transmitting influences of
+civilisation from East to West is far more certain, and is now much
+better understood than it was a few years ago. Much vague exaggeration
+of it has been swept away by recent demonstration that there is
+practically nothing of probable Phœnician origin in the remains of
+the Ægean culture. The script of the latter is wholly independent;
+the typical Phœnician vehicles of glyptic art, the cylinder and the
+scarab, were never naturalised in the early Ægean; the whole path of
+the latter’s artistic development was distinct; and the Ægean religious
+representations, once regarded as Semitic, are now seen to be native.
+On the other hand, decadent and derived Ægean forms and motives appear
+among the earliest Phœnician known to us. Influence, if it passed at
+all, between the Ægean and the Syrian coast lands, in the prehistoric
+age, moved from west to east.
+
+[Sidenote: Origin of Our Written Language]
+
+[Sidenote: Semitic Influence in Greek Art]
+
+In short, we now know that the Phœnicians did not begin to spread
+over the western sea and influence Europe till the break up of the
+Ægean civilisation. The Homeric lays and Hellenic myths reflect the
+inception of a Semitic expansion, which must be placed after 1100 B.C.
+Even in Homer there is more mention of Greek ships than of Sidonian,
+and the Tyrian power is yet to come. The latter pushed westward later,
+and the founding of Carthage, usually dated in the eighth century,
+marks its first great achievement along those distant sea-routes,
+which certainly the Semites had been coming to know during a couple of
+centuries of huckstering trade, even if the dependence of the early
+Hellenes on Phœnician knowledge of these waters has been overrated.
+But, in any case, during the interval between the fall of Ægean power
+and the rise of the Hellenic maritime cities these Semites counted
+for much. Even in the light of Cretan discovery, we need not question
+their responsibility for the Greek alphabet, and thus, indirectly, for
+the ultimate medium of written communication used throughout European
+civilisation; nor need it be doubted that Hellenic writers, who trace
+early instruction in trade and barter to visits of Semitic ships to
+their coasts, show real, though limited, knowledge of fact. Phœnician
+factories were certainly established on Greek shores, and left Semitic
+forms among later Greek place-names; and it is quite possible that
+political power was exercised at one time by Semitic colonists in parts
+of Hellas. Sufficient Phœnician art products have been found on archaic
+Hellenic sites, to prove that, in the period between 1000 and 500 B.C.,
+the Ægean coasts were often visited by these Semites. Such objects are
+especially numerous in Rhodes, a convenient stage on the westward sea
+route, and they radiate over not only Ionia and the Hellenic lands, but
+also into the further Mediterranean, to Sicily and its neighbouring
+islands, to Italy and South Gaul, and to Sardinia and Spain. Carthage
+probably had much to say in their western distribution.
+
+[Illustration: ÆNEAS AND DIDO: THE QUEEN OF CARTHAGE LISTENING TO THE
+STORY OF THE SIEGE OF TROY
+
+ From the Painting by P. Guerin, in the Louvre.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: No Phœnician Influence in Britain]
+
+Of Semitic influence on archaic Greek art there is considerable
+evidence. After the Geometric Age, we find in the Greek lands pottery
+and metal-work showing certain motives and arrangement of decoration
+foreign to Ægean art, and referable ultimately to the Mesopotamian and
+Egyptian. Such are the animals and monsters disposed in concentric
+friezes and zones on Cypriote bowls, Corinthian vases, and the Cretan
+shields of the Idaean Cave. But this influence, strong and undoubted
+as it was, must not be over estimated. As the Hellenes rose to power,
+their instinct of sincerity and naturalism, inherited from Ægean
+civilisation, revolted against, and triumphed over, this parasitic
+Semitic art, and already in the ninth or eighth century we find a
+Græco-Lydian influence, which owes nothing to Phœnician, breaking
+back to the east and creating the ivories of the Sargonid Age at
+Nineveh. Phœnician objects thenceforward become fewer and fewer in
+Hellenic strata, and in the sixth century B.C. they virtually vanish.
+By this time Phœnicia had become a subject country, about to give up
+the last ghost of its independence to the Greeks themselves, as its
+western offshoot, Carthage, was also to surrender a little later to
+another civilisation near akin to the Greek. But, needless to say, the
+Semite has had his full revenge for the short tenure of his earliest
+predominance in European waters. The fall of Phœnicia cleared the way
+for another Semitic family to capture international trade, and, first
+with one creed and then another, to conquer the Greeks, the Romans, and
+the World.
+
+There are, of course, possibilities of direct Phœnician intercourse
+with non-Mediterranean Europe--for example, with England’s
+south-western coasts; but they need not detain us. For whether certain
+Semites came to Cornwall in quest of tin or no, it is certain that
+by these no lasting influence of civilisation passed in to England.
+Neither the religion, the speech, nor the script of Britain owed them
+anything. Recent scholarship tends to discredit any Semitic element
+even in English south-western place-names.
+
+[Sidenote: The Origins of our Civilisations]
+
+Such, in brief outline, are the channels through which the
+civilisations of the South-eastern river-valleys could communicate
+with primitive Europe. It is easier to point them out than to say
+exactly what flowed along them. Seldom can so definite a debt be
+recorded as that under which we lie to the Semites of Phœnicia, for the
+names and the forms of the written characters which, presumably, they
+themselves had borrowed from Egypt, and modified ere they passed them
+westwards. Usually the obligation must be stated much more vaguely,
+being confined, as in the case of Ægean influences, to little more than
+a general responsibility for the spirit, and for many forms of the
+expression, of the first great artistic growth on the mainland soil of
+Europe, as well as for certain persistent and dynamic features in South
+European cults.
+
+Thus, it becomes even more apparent at the end of our discussion than
+it was at the beginning that when all has been said about influences of
+Egypt and Mesopotamia, and influences of the intermediate civilisations
+of the Ægean, Syria, and Asia Minor, only a very small part of the
+whole story of incipient European civilisation has been told. Nor is
+it to be expected that the origin of our culture should be capable
+of being adequately expressed in terms of other cultures, developed
+at a great distance and under different geographical conditions.
+Civilisations, destined to be living growths, spring, it seems, of
+themselves, and the debts which they can incur at the first are very
+small and mostly in small things. It is only when they are come to
+adult estate, have bred men of wealth and leisure with open and
+receptive minds, and have broken through the geographical barriers
+about them, that they begin to borrow at large.
+
+[Sidenote: In the Childhood of Europe]
+
+One of the intermediate civilisations of which we have treated, the
+Ægean, the only one whose own origins are fairly well known, offers
+proof in point. Its remains indicate but trifling obligations to
+neighbouring Egypt till a very late period, that which, in Crete,
+we call the Third Minoan. Thereafter, in the space of two or
+three generations, the evidence of its debt increases at a wholly
+disproportionate rate. So too, no doubt, in the misty period of the
+childhood of Central and Western Europe, little was borrowed from
+abroad that was essential to civilisation; and the heavy obligations
+which we owe to the Eastern lands fall in ages much more recent.
+They fall, in fact, in those times which saw the Anatolian cult of
+Kybéle and Attis, the Egyptian cult of Isis and Horus-Harpocrates,
+the Mesopotamian cult of Mithra, and, far more momentous, of course,
+than these, Christianity--Hebrew in origin if modified by Greek
+conceptions--brought by a greater intermediary civilisation than any
+with which we have had to deal, to the knowledge of inner European
+races already long emerged from savagery, and able and eager to borrow.
+
+ DAVID GEORGE HOGARTH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE TRIUMPH OF RACE
+
+WHY ONE NATION CONQUERS ANOTHER
+
+BY DR. G. ARCHDALL REID]
+
+
+It is a familiar fact that offspring resemble their parents on the
+whole, but differ from them in details. For example, the child of a
+human being is always another, but never an exactly similar, human
+being.
+
+These differences in detail are of two sorts, _inborn_ and _acquired_.
+Inborn or innate differences arise “by nature”; the child is inherently
+unlike the parent--taller or shorter, fairer or darker, and so forth.
+Acquired differences, on the other hand, are due to the conditions
+under which parents and children have lived. Thus, owing to better or
+worse surroundings, the child may develop better or worse than the
+parent and so be taller or shorter, or a greater exposure to weather
+may render him darker or fairer.
+
+[Sidenote: Things We Cannot Inherit]
+
+It was formerly believed by scientific men, and is still believed by
+the public, that traits acquired by the parent tended to be inherited
+by the child--that is, reproduced as inborn traits. Thus it was
+supposed that if a man were made strong by exercise, or injured by
+accident, his child would tend to inherit, in some degree at least, the
+acquired benefit or injury, and as a result be naturally stronger or
+more defective than the parent was at the start.
+
+[Sidenote: Acquired Traits not Hereditary]
+
+But very prolonged and careful investigation has proved that this is
+certainly an error. For example, though for æons human beings have been
+learning to speak and walk, and make a multitude of other acquirements,
+yet none of these are ever inherited. In fact, owing to the evolution
+of memory and the retrogression of instinct, man, of all animals,
+acquires the most and inherits the least. Every child has to begin
+afresh and learn what its ancestors learnt; all are born ignorant;
+none speak or walk “naturally.” Each starts where the parent began,
+not where he left off. The parental traits, if reproduced at all, are
+always of the same kind in the child as in the parents, and appear
+in the same way. That is, the inborn traits of the parent are always
+inborn in the offspring; the acquired traits are never anything but
+acquirements resulting from the same causes as they did in the parent.
+In brief, the acquirements of the parent are never transmuted into
+inborn characteristics in the child. They are never inherited. It is
+admitted on all hands that inborn differences--_variations_, as they
+are termed technically--tend to be inherited.
+
+Thus, if the parent is naturally darker than the grandparent, the
+child tends in colour to resemble the former more than the latter.
+Since the child may vary from the parent in the same direction as the
+latter varied from the grandparent, these inborn differences may be
+accentuated in subsequent generations. It is due to this fact that
+plant and animal breeders have improved domesticated species. They are
+able to benefit the individual by improving his surroundings, but the
+race they can improve only by breeding from the best. In other words,
+when they have the latter end in view, they must build on natural
+variations, not on acquirements.
+
+[Sidenote: A Great Problem of Science]
+
+[Sidenote: Differences among Kindred]
+
+One of the most important problems in the whole range of science is the
+question as to what causes offspring to differ in this inborn, natural
+way from their parents. Many theories have been formulated, and the
+subject is still to some extent under discussion; but the evidence is
+overwhelming that variations--natural differences--are not generally
+caused, as most people believe, by anything that happens to the parent
+before the birth of the child, but are “spontaneous.” The subject is
+a large and intricate one, and we have not space to discuss it at
+length. One or two facts, however, may be mentioned. The members of
+a litter of puppies, kittens, or pigs, may differ naturally amongst
+themselves and from their parents in all sorts of ways--in colour,
+shape, size, hairiness, disposition, and so on. One puppy may present
+points of resemblance to the father, another to the mother, a third to
+some ancestor, while a fourth may be unlike any of its predecessors.
+Since, practically speaking, the puppies were all conditioned alike
+before birth, it is evident that these great differences must be
+“spontaneous.” They cannot have been caused by such things as the good
+or ill health of the parents, their food, or the life they led, for, in
+that case, the puppies would all have varied in the same way.
+
+Again, malaria is, in effect, a universal disease on the West Coast
+of Africa. Individuals differ naturally in their powers of resisting
+it, some taking it lightly and some severely; but almost every negro
+suffers, and many children perish of it. If the sufferings of the
+parents caused children to be born weaker “by nature,” it is evident
+that every individual would start life inferior to his predecessor at
+the start, and the race would thus degenerate and ultimately become
+extinct. On the other hand, if variations are “spontaneous,” if, quite
+unaffected by the sufferings of the parents, some children are born
+naturally different, naturally more or less resistant to malaria than
+their predecessors, it is plain that the weeding out of the unfittest,
+the weak against the disease, would ultimately make the race resistant
+to it. In the one case the race would drift to destruction; in the
+other it would undergo protective evolution. Obviously, the latter is
+what has happened. Negroes show no signs of any kind of degeneration,
+but they are of all races the most resistant to malaria.
+
+[Sidenote: Suffering Produces Strength]
+
+Similarly, Englishmen who have been much exposed to consumption and
+measles, natives of India who have been much afflicted by enteric
+fever and dysentery, Esquimaux who have suffered from cold, Arabs who
+have endured heat, Chinamen and Jews who have long dwelt under that
+complex of ill conditions found in slums and ghettos, are none of them
+degenerate, but, on the contrary, have become resistant, each race
+to its own particular ill-conditions in proportion to its sufferings
+in the past. In fact, it may be laid down as a general rule that
+races strengthen only when exposed to ill conditions, and deteriorate
+only when the conditions are so favourable that the unfit are not
+eliminated. An example of the latter is seen when prize breeds of
+animals and plants, however well nourished and cared for, are no longer
+bred with care. It follows that races, if not exterminated, are not
+injured but strengthened by ill conditions, by the elimination of the
+unfittest, as gold is refined by fire.
+
+[Sidenote: Survival of the Fittest]
+
+It is a remarkable fact that many people are able to accomplish the
+surprising feat of knowing that races have become inured to ill
+conditions, and of believing at the same time that the offspring of
+people exposed to such conditions tend, as a rule, to be degenerate.
+It is as if they believed that two and two make four, and two more
+six, but that if a great number of two’s are added together the total
+result is a minus quantity. Obviously the two beliefs are incompatible.
+A race cannot degenerate in every generation and yet emerge in the end
+strengthened from the struggle. The confusion has arisen because the
+two diametrically opposite propositions are seldom considered together,
+and in part also from a mistaken interpretation of what is observed in
+such situations as the slums of cities. Here puny children are seen to
+be derived from puny parents, and it is assumed that the children are
+degenerate because the parents have suffered.
+
+As a fact we have no reason to doubt that the children are affected in
+precisely the same way as the parents. On the one hand, slums are sinks
+into which descend people naturally inferior, people who have varied
+spontaneously from their ancestors in such a way as to be feeble,
+physically or mentally, and who reproduce their like. On the other
+hand, the conditions are such that even the naturally strong, both
+parents and children, develop badly. Doubtless, owing to the constant
+elimination of the unfit, the latter--the naturally strong--are by far
+the more numerous. There is nothing to show that, if they were removed
+in early life to better surroundings, they would not develop just as
+well as the offspring of country folk.
+
+[Sidenote: An Evolution that has now Ceased]
+
+The fact that races grow resistant to the ill conditions to which
+they are exposed, and degenerate when placed under particularly good
+conditions, is decisive proof that offspring are not, as a rule,
+innately affected by the surroundings of their parents. No doubt
+exceptions occur, but these are amongst the most unfit, and the race
+is soon purged of them. Thus European dogs are said to degenerate when
+taken to India. But the existence of old-established native races of
+dogs is proof that the degenerative process is not perpetual. Malaria
+and many other ill conditions are quite normal parts of the environment
+of the races exposed to them, and have been so for thousands of years.
+Except for occasional unfavourable variations, which are quickly
+eliminated, they have long purged the races of those strains that
+tended to become degenerate under their influence.
+
+After man--through the evolution of the structures and faculties
+which distinguish him from the lower animals, the large brain, with
+its accompanying memory, the organs of speech, the hand, the erect
+attitude--had achieved the conquest of the earth, his selection and
+evolution along the ancestral lines gradually diminished, and has now
+almost ceased. At the present day clever, strong, or active people do
+not on the average have an appreciably more numerous progeny than those
+who are not exceptionally endowed. No modern race is intellectually
+superior to the Greeks who flourished more than two thousand years ago.
+The brains, the hands, the organs of speech, the erect attitude, have
+not altered. Apparently nothing more than traditional knowledge has
+improved.
+
+The gradual accumulation of traditional knowledge during prehistoric
+times enabled man to cultivate animals and plants, and so to increase
+and regulate his supply of food. As a consequence his numbers
+multiplied. Areas of country which formerly supported only a few
+wandering hunters now afforded sustenance to growing multitudes of
+agriculturists, who often dwelt together for mutual protection in
+villages. Commerce followed agriculture, towns and cities arose, and
+civilisation dawned.
+
+Civilisation implies a dense and settled community, protected from
+most of the dangers which beset wild animals, and in which, therefore,
+the elimination of the unfit is no longer of the kind that weeded out
+the brute and the utter savage. Some sort of elimination does occur,
+however, for, even in the most civilised states, multitudes of people
+perish in youth, before they have contributed their full quota of
+offspring to the race.
+
+[Sidenote: Natural Selection at Work]
+
+We have excellent opportunities of studying this elimination and noting
+whether it results in evolution. Indeed, man presents the only instance
+in Nature in which we are able to observe natural selection actually
+at work. In all modern states statistics are compiled which set out
+the causes of death, the mortality from each cause, and the ages of
+its victims. By comparing races which have been much afflicted by this
+or that cause of mortality with races that have been little or not at
+all affected, we are able to ascertain the resulting racial change, if
+any. As may be noted by everyone, _civilised people perish, with rare
+exceptions, of disease_.
+
+
+MANKIND’S LONG BATTLE AGAINST BACTERIA
+
+[Sidenote: Resistance of Races to Disease]
+
+We have just seen that every race is resistant to every disease
+precisely in proportion to its past experience of it. It follows that
+the evolution of civilised peoples is against disease. If any other
+kind of evolution is now occurring, no one as yet has been able to
+demonstrate it, though many unproved guesses have been made. Mere
+alterations in traditional knowledge is not evolution. Children may
+derive it just as well from other people as from their parents.
+
+The vast majority of deaths from disease are of zymotic origin. A
+zymotic or microbic disease is caused by the entrance into the body of
+minute animals or plants (microbes), which find their nutriment there.
+There are many species of microbes, each disease being due to one. Some
+species are mainly air-borne, and infect through the breath; others are
+water-borne; others earth-borne; yet others insect-borne; while a few
+pass by actual contact from an infected to a healthy person.
+
+[Sidenote: The Way Disease is Spread]
+
+Some diseases--for example, consumption and leprosy--are of indefinite
+but always prolonged duration; others, like measles, are short and
+sharp. In the case of the latter, for reasons we need not dwell on
+here, the body after an attack becomes, for a longer or shorter time,
+an unfit habitation for the microbes of that particular species. The
+rapid recovery which occurs in these “acute” diseases, indeed, implies
+the banishment of the microbes. The air-borne diseases--measles,
+influenza, smallpox, and the like, all of that acute type which confers
+immunity against subsequent attacks--are very infective, spreading
+through a susceptible population with great rapidity. Under favourable
+conditions the water-borne diseases also--cholera, dysentery, enteric
+fever, and the like--may spread very quickly. Chief amongst the
+earth-borne diseases is consumption. It is contracted chiefly in
+such dark, ill-ventilated, and crowded houses as are built by the
+inhabitants of cold and temperate climates.
+
+The disease-producing microbes are an infinitesimal proportion of the
+total number of bacterial and protozoan species. In Nature it is not
+easy to find a speck of earth or a drop of water from which these
+minute living beings are absent. All decay, by means of which the dead
+bodies of plants and animals are returned to the soil, is due to them.
+
+[Sidenote: The Immense Antiquity of Diseases]
+
+It is a safe assumption that the microbes of human diseases have
+evolved from non-parasitic species. The niche they now occupy in
+Nature is the human body. Two things formed essential parts of
+this evolution--first, the microbes became capable of existing and
+multiplying for a shorter or longer period in the body; secondly,
+they evolved means of passing from one living body to another. The
+latter must have been the more difficult process. Under favourable
+circumstances several species of microbes--for example, those of
+putrefaction, which are ordinarily non-parasitic--are capable of
+entering the human body and becoming virulent; but, since they cannot
+secure passage from one individual to another, they die out, and
+their virulence is lost. Historical evidence renders it probable that
+all known human diseases are of immense antiquity, the so-called new
+diseases being merely newly-observed diseases. It appears probable,
+therefore, that, owing to constant persecution by disease, by continued
+survival of the fittest, humanity has grown so resistant that no
+species of microbe which has not undergone concurrent evolution is now
+able to establish itself as a regular parasite.
+
+Obviously, since the microbes of human diseases draw their nutritive
+supplies from man, they cannot persist except amongst populations
+so crowded that they are able to pass from one individual to another
+in unending succession. When the succession fails, the disease dies
+out, and is not renewed, except from foreign sources. Microbic disease
+is never contracted in desert places far from human settlements, and
+even in modern times it is comparatively rare amongst nomadic tribes,
+and, seemingly, was quite unknown in Arctic regions and in many
+Pacific islands before its introduction by Europeans. These maladies,
+therefore, must have made their appearance only after men had peopled
+certain regions in considerable numbers.
+
+[Sidenote: Progress of Sanitary Science]
+
+On the other hand, we have no certain evidence that any
+well-established parasitic disease has ever completely died out. The
+chances are all against such an occurrence in the past. When once
+established as parasites, the microbes, owing to the constant growth
+of human population, found a constantly augmented food supply, and
+therefore constantly increased opportunities of reaching fresh fields
+of conquest. Sanitary science is still in its infancy. Preventive
+measures, and perhaps other agencies, have caused the disappearance
+of leprosy from several countries, but it is still prevalent in many
+quarters of the globe. Contagious diseases have spread very widely.
+Earth and air borne diseases have become endemic instead of merely
+epidemic. Consumption is always with us, and almost every child
+contracts measles, whooping-cough, chicken-pox, and common cold.
+Small-pox has been replaced by vaccination, which is merely modified
+small-pox. Malaria has spread but little during the historic epoch, but
+only because its microbes were already present in almost every place
+where the mosquitoes that convey it are able to exist.
+
+[Illustration: THE DAYS OF THE PLAGUE IN LONDON
+
+ Dr. Archdall Reid, in his essay on race supremacy, explains that
+ the evolution of civilised peoples is against disease, and the age
+ of pestilence and plague is passing. This picture of an incident
+ in the greatest plague that has affected London in historical
+ times--in the year 1665--is from the painting by F. W. Topham, R. I.
+]
+
+All our information indicates the Eastern Hemisphere as the place of
+origin both of man and of his microbic diseases. Parts of it have been
+inhabited by a dense and settled population from a time immensely
+remote. “Behind dim empires ghosts of dimmer empires loom.” Beyond
+the traces of the oldest civilisations we find evidences of primitive
+agricultural communities, and far beyond these the remains of the
+cave-men and hunters of the Stone Age. Even a race of hunters tends
+to increase faster than the food supply. Doubtless the pressure of
+population in the Old World led to the colonisation of the New. But
+even in the New World there are signs of a civilisation so ancient that
+some authorities have placed its beginnings as far back as a score
+or more of thousands of years. With the exception of malaria, it is
+extremely doubtful whether any zymotic disease existed in the whole of
+the New World at the time of its discovery by Columbus.
+
+The subject is involved in obscurity; but, while it is evident that
+the European adventurers introduced many diseases, there is no clear
+indication that they found and brought back one. Apparently all the
+diseases which have been prevalent in Europe and America during the
+last four hundred years were prevalent in the former continent before
+the fifteenth century. Venereal disease and yellow fever have sometimes
+been regarded as exceptions. But the former was well known to the
+Roman physicians, and was common during the Middle Ages. Moreover, the
+inhabitants of the New World take the disease in a very acute form, and
+it is not found in remote communities to which Europeans have had no
+access. Yellow fever was first noted with certainty in the West Indies
+in the middle of the seventeenth century. The records of the time “tell
+of the importation of the disease from place to place, and from island
+to island.”
+
+[Sidenote: Origins of Rare Diseases]
+
+Not till more than a century later was it observed on the West Coast
+of Africa. There can be no doubt, however, that the earlier observers
+confused yellow fever with bilious malaria, and that it was present
+both in the West Indies and Africa long before a differential diagnosis
+was made. The fact that of all races negroes are most resistant to the
+disease would seem to indicate West Africa as the place of origin. In
+any case, it is certain that, with the exception of malaria, zymotic
+diseases, if not entirely absent, were extremely rare in the New World.
+
+
+THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE NATIVE RACES
+
+[Sidenote: The Age of Pestilence is Passing]
+
+Zymotic disease, then, arose amongst the slowly-growing populations of
+the Old World. Air and insect borne diseases may have arisen amongst
+the early hunters and nomads. Similar forms of disease, murrains
+as they were anciently termed--for example, distemper, rinderpest,
+the horse sickness in South Africa, the rabbit plague in Northern
+Canada, and the cattle fever in Texas--occur among lower animals,
+when these are present in considerable numbers. With the exception of
+tuberculosis and leprosy, endemic disease was probably almost unknown
+in the sparsely-peopled ancient world. The facts that air and water
+borne diseases spread very rapidly, that the illnesses caused by them
+are comparatively short and sharp, and that recovery is followed by
+immunity, must have caused rapid exhaustion of the food supply of the
+microbes. Under such conditions the persistence of the pathogenic
+species was maintained among the scanty populations by a passage to new
+and perhaps very distant sources of supply.
+
+Introduced by travellers, or spreading from tribe to tribe, they
+appeared suddenly in epidemic form as plagues and pestilences, and,
+disappearing as suddenly, were not known again till a fresh generation
+furnished a fresh supply of food.
+
+When, however, in spite of war, famine, and pestilence, the human race
+increased to such an extent that the number of fresh births furnished a
+perennial supply of food, while at the same time a rising civilisation
+and improved means of communication lessened the isolation of various
+communities, then many diseases slowly passed from an epidemic to an
+endemic form. Pestilence grew rare, but every individual was exposed
+to infection, and, during youth, either perished from, or acquired
+immunity against, the more prevalent forms of disease.
+
+[Sidenote: Measles a National Scourge]
+
+When endemic, zymotic disease--at any rate, disease against which
+immunity can be acquired--is far less terrible than when epidemic.
+Modern examples of ancient epidemics may be seen in isolated regions.
+In Pacific islands, for example, air-borne disease spreads like a
+flame. The whole community is stricken down. The sick are left untended
+and perish in multitudes. The entire business of the community is
+neglected, and famine frequently follows. Under such conditions measles
+or whooping-cough, diseases which we in England are accustomed to
+regard as scarcely more than nuisances, may rise to the level of a
+great national disaster. Thus, in 1749, 30,000 natives perished of
+measles on the banks of the Amazon. In 1829 half the population died in
+Astoria. In 1846 measles committed frightful ravages in the Hudson Bay
+territory. More recently a quarter of the total inhabitants was swept
+away in the Fiji group of islands.
+
+[Sidenote: Sanitation is Sometimes Powerless]
+
+At the dawn of history, long after the evolution of zymotic disease,
+the population of the Eastern Hemisphere was still sparse and
+scattered. Even as late as the Norman Conquest that of England was
+barely two millions--about one-third of the number now present in
+London. Means of communication were poor and beset by dangers. A
+journey from York to London was then a more serious affair than a
+journey from London to San Francisco to-day. Water and air borne
+diseases were, therefore, absent during long periods of time. When
+they came they spread as epidemics. Accordingly we read of plague and
+pestilence; of diseases suddenly becoming epidemic and sweeping away a
+fourth or half of entire communities. Historians are apt to attribute
+these immense catastrophes partly to the bad sanitation of the period
+and partly to diseases which have died out of the world, or, at any
+rate, out of Europe. Doubtless they are right in a few instances.
+But, apart from diseases which spread under special circumstances
+from tropical centres, had sanitation, under modern conditions of
+intercommunication and crowding, tends to render water-borne disease
+endemic, not epidemic. Over air-borne disease it has no effect.
+Measles, whooping-cough, chicken-pox, influenza, common cold, and
+small-pox (in a modified form) are as common as ever.
+
+[Sidenote: Plagues “the Wrath of God”]
+
+The character of these ancient epidemics, their special symptoms as
+indicated in old literature, their sudden and portentous appearance,
+which men attributed to the wrath of God, their tremendous infectivity
+and rapid spread, their equally sudden and complete departure as of
+Divine anger assuaged, point rather to air and water borne diseases of
+the types now endemic and comparatively harmless among us, but still
+so fearful in their effects on isolated communities. Like the light
+flashed from a child’s mirror on a darkened wall, so they flickered and
+swept forwards and backwards from end to end of the Old World--from
+the Malay Peninsula to the North Cape of Norway, from Kamschatka to the
+south point of Africa. A parallel may be found in the recent epidemic
+of rinderpest amongst the herbivorous animals of Africa. Years might
+pass, old men might remember, the peoples might sacrifice to their
+gods; but when a fresh generation of those who knew not the disease
+had arisen, when the harvest of the non-immune was ripe and ready,
+the diseases would return to the dreadful reaping. Behind them the
+earth was heaped with the dead, and the few and stricken survivors
+grubbed for roots to satisfy their hunger. To-day sanitation has nearly
+abolished water-borne diseases, and, in a population largely immune,
+epidemics of air-borne disease, like a light thrown on a sunlit wall,
+are but faint shadows of that which they were in their old days of
+awful power.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Resisting Power]
+
+The progress of consumption was different; it was never truly epidemic.
+Owing to its low infectivity, to its lingering nature, to the fact that
+no immunity could be acquired against it, it did not spread suddenly
+when first introduced, but when once established its virulence did
+not abate within measurable time. In other words, it was endemic from
+the beginning. It made its home in the hovels of the early settlers
+on the land. In such situations--as in Polynesian villages--modern
+Englishmen do not take the disease. But their remote ancestors were
+more susceptible; they could be infected by a smaller dose of the
+bacilli. Gradually, as civilisation advanced, the conditions grew
+more stringent; men gathered into larger and denser communities, into
+hamlets and villages in which they built houses ill lighted and worse
+ventilated.
+
+With the rise of towns, and ultimately of great cities, the stringency
+of selection continually increased; and with it, step by step, the
+resisting power of the race. To-day Englishmen dwell under conditions
+as impossible to their remote ancestors as to the modern Red Indians.
+In fact, no race, especially in cold and temperate climates, is now
+able to achieve civilisation, to dwell in dense communities, unless it
+has previously undergone evolution against tuberculosis. But of this
+more anon.
+
+So during the long sweep of the ages microbic diseases strengthened
+their hold on the inhabitants of the Eastern Hemisphere, who in turn
+slowly evolved powers of resistance. In like manner antelopes grew
+swift and wild sheep active when persecuted by beasts of prey. Then,
+when the germs of disease were rife in every home and thick on the
+garments of every man, there occurred the greatest event in human
+history, the vastest tragedy. Columbus, sailing across an untracked
+ocean, discovered the Western Hemisphere. The long separation between
+the inhabitants of the East and West ended. The diseases of the Old
+World burst with cataclysmal results on the New.
+
+[Sidenote: 3,500,000 Destroyed by Small-pox]
+
+The ancient condition of the Eastern Hemisphere was reproduced in
+the West. Again we read of plague and pestilence, of water-borne and
+air-borne diseases coming and going in great epidemics, and of the
+famines that followed. Measles and cholera piled the earth with the
+dead. The part played by small-pox was even greater. When taken to the
+West Indies in 1507 whole tribes were exterminated. A few years later
+it quite depopulated San Domingo. In Mexico it destroyed three and a
+half millions of people. Prescott describes this first fearful epidemic
+as “sweeping over the land like fire over the prairies, smiting down
+prince and peasant, and leaving its path strewn with the dead bodies of
+the natives, who--in the strong language of a contemporary--perished
+in heaps like cattle stricken with murrain.” In 1841 Catlin wrote of
+the United States: “Thirty millions of white men are now scuffling for
+the goods and luxuries of life over the bones of twelve millions of red
+men, six millions of whom have fallen victims to small-pox.”
+
+But the principal part was played by tuberculosis. Air-borne and
+water-borne diseases generally left an immune remnant, but against
+tuberculosis no immunity could be acquired. Red Indians and Caribs
+could not in a few generations achieve an evolution which the
+inhabitants of the Old World had accomplished only after thousands of
+years, and at the cost of hundreds of millions of lives. Civilisation,
+which implies a dense and settled community with cities and towns,
+had suddenly become a necessity, but remained an impossibility to all
+the inhabitants of the temperate parts of the West. It is a highly
+significant fact that throughout the New World no city or town has its
+native quarter, whereas every European settlement in Asia and Africa
+has its native suburbs. The aborigines of the New World are found only
+in remote or inaccessible parts.
+
+[Sidenote: A Plague that Spread like Fire]
+
+The following is an example of the manner in which tuberculosis went to
+work: “The tribe of Hapaa is said to have numbered some four hundred
+when the smallpox came and reduced them by one-fourth. Six months
+later, a woman developed tubercular consumption; the disease spread
+like fire about the valley, and in less than a year two survivors, a
+man and a woman, fled from the newly-created solitude.... Early in the
+year of my visit, for example, or late in the year before, a first case
+of phthisis appeared in a household of seventeen persons, and by the
+end of August, when the tale was told to me, one soul survived, a boy
+who had been absent on his schooling.”
+
+The Caribs of the West Indies are almost extinct. The Red Indians
+are going fast, as are the aborigines of cold and temperate South
+America. The Tasmanians have gone. The Australians and the Maoris are
+but a dwindling remnant. As surely as the trader with his clothes, or
+the missionary with his church and schoolroom appears, the work of
+extermination begins on Polynesian islands. Throughout the whole vast
+extent of the New World the only pure aborigines who seem destined to
+persist are those which live remote in mountains or in the depths of
+fever-haunted forests, where the white man is unable to build the towns
+and cities with which he has studded the cooler and more “healthy”
+regions of the north and south.
+
+[Sidenote: Races that Decline before the Whites]
+
+Many explanations, or pseudo-explanations, have been offered to
+account for the disappearance of the natives. We are told that they
+cannot endure “domestication,” that they “pine like caged eagles”
+in confinement, that the change produced by civilisation makes them
+infertile, as the change produced by captivity makes some wild animals
+infertile, and so forth. But the only peoples who are disappearing
+are those of the New World, some of whom were by no means savage. In
+Asia and Africa are many tribes far lower in the scale of civilisation
+who have persisted in constant communication with dense and settled
+communities from time immemorial. Notwithstanding all that has been
+written, the people of the New World do not wither away mysteriously
+when brought into contact with the white man. They die as other men
+do of violence, or famine, or old age, or disease. But deaths from
+all these causes, except the last, are now comparatively rare amongst
+them--much rarer than formerly during the time of their perpetual wars.
+The vast majority die of imported diseases--exactly the same diseases
+as white men die of. But their mortality is invariably much higher than
+that of white men, and they perish on an average at a younger age.
+
+[Illustration: THE EVE OF “THE VASTEST TRAGEDY IN HISTORY”: COLUMBUS
+SIGHTING AMERICA
+
+“The greatest event and the vastest tragedy in human history” is Dr.
+Archdall Reid’s striking description of the discovery of America by
+Columbus. It ended the long separation between the inhabitants of East
+and West, and the diseases of the Old World burst with cataclysmal
+results upon the New. The picture, by George Harvey, shows Columbus
+approaching America, his rebellious crew pleading for pardon.]
+
+All this is not mere hypothesis. It can be proved by reference to
+carefully collected and tabulated statistics published by every
+department of Public Health in America, Australasia, and Polynesia. The
+cause of the sterility cannot be demonstrated with the same precision;
+but it is hardly necessary to invent fanciful causes when a reasonable
+one is to hand. The high mortality indicates a high sick-rate, and
+presumably illness is as much a cause of sterility in the New World as
+in the Old, among savages as among civilised people.
+
+The Spanish conquest of the West Indies was followed by the swift
+disappearance of the natives. To that end the Spaniards unconsciously
+adopted the most effectual means possible. They satisfied their greed
+by forcing the natives to labour in plantations and in mines, and
+their religious enthusiasm by compelling attendance in churches and
+cathedrals. In other words, they placed the natives under conditions
+the most favourable for acquiring the diseases which they imported by
+every vessel. When the native population dwindled, it was replaced by
+negro slaves from West Africa.
+
+[Sidenote: Africans Die in our Civilisation]
+
+The history of negro migrations is extremely interesting and
+illuminating. There are no accounts of negro conquest outside the
+limits of Africa, but from very ancient times a constant stream of
+slaves has passed to Southern Europe and Asia, where they have been
+employed mainly in domestic service, and in more modern times to
+America, where their occupation has been mainly agricultural. The
+invasion of Asia has continued to our own day. But one may search
+from Spain to the Malay peninsula and, except in recent importations,
+find scarcely a trace of a negro ancestry. Yet slaves, like cattle,
+are valuable property, more cheaply bred than imported. In Eastern
+countries they have often been kindly treated, and many have attained
+to wealth and power. Like the African soldiers in Ceylon, of whom it
+is recorded that, though many thousands were imported by the Dutch
+and English, hardly a descendant survives, all perished in a few
+generations, the elimination of the unfit being so stringent as to
+cause extinction, not evolution. A permanent colony of native Africans
+in the midst of an ancient consumption-infested civilisation is
+impossible.
+
+[Sidenote: Fate of Natives of America]
+
+The fate of the negro migrations into America has been different. The
+race had undergone some evolution against consumption in Africa, and,
+therefore, was more resistant than the vanishing aborigines. In its
+new home, employed in agriculture in a hot climate where white men
+and tubercle bacilli, also recent importations, were as yet few in
+numbers, it was placed under the best conditions possible. Gradually,
+as the stringency of selection waxed, it evolved resisting power.
+To-day, American negroes are able to dwell even in Northern cities,
+though it is said “every other adult negro dies of consumption.” After
+the discovery of America the principal maritime races of Western
+Europe competed for its possession. Spain and Portugal, then powerful
+nations, had the first start in the race, and chose the seemingly
+richer tropics. But the forests of the centre and south were defended
+by malaria, which raised a barrier against immigration, and by heat
+and light, which raised a barrier against tuberculosis. Moreover, the
+Spaniards and the Portuguese intermarried freely with the aborigines,
+and the mixed race which resulted inherits in half measure the
+resisting power of both stocks. At the present day this mixed race,
+with a leavening of mulattoes, pure Spaniards, Portuguese, and negroes,
+inhabits the cities and more civilised parts. Even in tropical America
+the pure aborigines are found, speaking generally, only beyond the
+verge of civilisation. Farther south the disappearance of the natives
+has been more complete, and the cooler, healthier, and more open pampas
+are settled by a race more purely European.
+
+
+THE TRIUMPH OF THE ANGLO-SAXON PEOPLES
+
+[Sidenote: Expansion of the Anglo-Saxon]
+
+The weaker British and French were shouldered into the seemingly
+inhospitable north. But the British won the battle of Quebec, and
+the French immigration soon ceased. That little fight is half
+forgotten, but it is doubtful if any battle in history had results
+half so important. It placed all North America in the grasp of the
+Anglo-Saxon, and gave his race enormous space for expansion. Unchecked
+by malaria, the new-comers gathered into communities and built towns
+and cities such as those which across the Atlantic were the homes of
+tuberculosis. The cold forced them to admit little air and light into
+their dwellings. The aborigines melted away from the borders of the
+settlements. Under the conditions there was little intermarriage. In
+that climate Indian women, and even half-caste children, could not
+exist within stone walls. The few white men who took native wives
+preserved them only while living a wild life remote from their kin.
+
+The British conquest of North America and Australasia resembles the
+Saxon conquest of Great Britain. The natives have been exterminated
+within the area of settlement. It is in sharp contrast to their
+conquests in Asia and Africa. Both in the Old World and in the New
+the subjugation of the natives was accompanied by many wars and much
+bloodshed, and probably the conflicts in the former were more prolonged
+and destructive than those in the latter. But in no part of the Old
+World have the British exterminated the natives. They do not supplant
+them; they merely govern them. Southern Asia and East and West Africa
+are defended by malaria. The British cannot colonise them, and the
+natives have undergone such evolution against tuberculosis that
+they are capable of resisting the hard conditions imposed by modern
+civilisation. In South Africa, where there is little malaria, Europeans
+share the land with the natives, but the latter are likely to remain in
+an overwhelming majority.
+
+[Illustration: WHERE THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE OBTAINED POSSESSION OF NORTH
+AMERICA
+
+ On the Plains of Abraham, outside Quebec, the British and French
+ troops fought in 1759, and the battle placed all North America in
+ the grasp of the Anglo-Saxon, giving his race enormous space for
+ expansion. It is doubtful, says Dr. Archdall Reid, if any battle in
+ history had results half so important as this, although it is half
+ forgotten.
+]
+
+If history teaches any lesson with clearness it is this--that conquest,
+to be permanent, must be accompanied with extermination, otherwise in
+the fulness of time the natives expel or absorb the conquerors. The
+Saxon conquest of England was permanent; of the Norman conquest there
+remains scarcely a trace. The Huns and the Franks founded permanent
+empires in Europe; the Roman Empire, and that of the Saracens in Spain,
+soon tumbled into ruins. It is highly improbable, therefore, that
+the British will retain their hold on their Old World dependencies.
+A handful of aliens cannot for ever keep in subjugation large and
+increasing races that yearly become more intelligent and insistent
+in their demands for self-government. But no probable conjunction of
+circumstances can be thought of that will uproot the Anglo-Saxons from
+their wide possession in the New World. The wars of extermination are
+ceasing with the spread of civilisation. We have ransacked the world,
+and now know every important disease. Diseases cannot come to us as
+they came to our forefathers and to the Red Indians, like visitations
+from on high. All the diseases that are capable of travelling have
+very nearly reached their limits; the rest we are able to check. Even
+in the unlikely event of a new disease arising, it would affect other
+races equally. Canada and Australasia, like the United States, may
+separate from the parent stem, but the race will persist. If ever a
+New Zealander broods over the ruins of London, he will be of British
+descent.
+
+[Sidenote: The Natural History of Mankind]
+
+The natural history of man is, in effect, a history of his evolution
+against disease. The story unfolded by it is of greater proportions
+than all the mass of trivial gossip about kings and queens and the
+accounts of futile dynastic wars and stupid religious controversies
+which fill so large a space in his written political history. In the
+latter, as told by historians, groping in obscurity and blinded by
+their own preconceptions, men and events are often distorted out of all
+proportions. A clever but prejudiced writer may pass base metal into
+perpetual circulation as gold. Luther and the Reformation are accepted
+as Divine by many people; they are reviled as diabolical by more.
+Cromwell was long regarded as accursed; to-day he is half-deified. How
+many of us are able to decide, on grounds of fact, not of fiction,
+whether the Roman Empire perished because the Romans, becoming
+luxurious, sinned against our moral code, as ecclesiastic historians
+would have us believe, or because a disease of intolerance and
+stupidity clouded the clear Roman brain and enfeebled the strong Roman
+hand, as Gibbon would have us think? But the natural history of man
+deals, without obscurity and without uncertainty, with greater matters.
+Study it, and the mists clear away from much even of political history.
+We see clearly how little the conscious efforts of man have influenced
+his destiny. We see forces unrecognised, enormous, uncontrolled,
+uncontrollable, working slowly but mightily towards tremendous
+conclusions--forces so irresistible and unchanging that, watching them,
+we are able even to forecast something of the future.
+
+The mere political results of man’s evolution against disease are of
+almost incalculable magnitude. The human races of one half of the world
+are dying, and are being replaced by races from the other half. Not
+all the wars of all time taken together constitute so great a tragedy.
+A quite disproportionate part in this great movement has been borne
+by our own race. It has seized on the larger part of those regions in
+which the aborigines were incapable of civilisation, because incapable
+of resisting consumption, and were undefended by malaria. In the void
+created by disease it has more room to spread and multiply than any
+other race.
+
+[Sidenote: Disease Mightier than the Sword]
+
+Other races may dream of foreign conquests, but the time for founding
+permanent empires is past. There remains for them only temporary
+conquest, in a few malarious parts of the world in which Europeans
+cannot flourish and supplant the natives. Spain and Portugal lost their
+opportunity when they turned from the temperate regions and chose the
+tropics. France lost her opportunity on the Heights of Abraham. Germany
+is more than a century too late in the start. Russia can conquer
+only hardy aliens who will multiply under her rule and ultimately
+assert their supremacy. In times now far remote in the history of
+civilised peoples, the sword was the principal means for digging deep
+the foundations of permanent empires. Its place was taken by a more
+efficient instrument. A migrating race, armed with a new and deadly
+disease, and with high powers of resisting it, possesses a terrible
+weapon of offence. But now disease has spread over the whole world and
+so is losing its power of building empires. The long era of the great
+migrations of the human race, of the great conquests, is closing fast.
+
+[Sidenote: Possibilities of the Black Races]
+
+It is generally supposed by historians and others that races that
+disappear before the march of civilisation are mentally unfitted for
+it. The assumption is not supported by an iota of real evidence. To be
+mentally incapable a race must be of very defective memory. Recently
+a school of Australian natives, who belong to one of the “lowest”
+of races, took the first place in the colony. Negroes occupy a very
+inferior position in America, especially in Anglo-Saxon territories.
+But they are stamped by glaring physical differences, are treated with
+great contempt and jealousy by the whites, and their acquired mental
+attitudes, therefore, do not develop under good conditions. It is very
+possible that they are mentally inferior to the whites; but not so
+inferior as is commonly believed.
+
+Russian peasants, though not sharply differentiated by physical
+peculiarities from the governing classes, are equally scorned by
+them, and show a mental development hardly, if at all, superior
+to the negroes of United States. The Latins of South America seem
+very incapable of orderly government, but they are the heirs of a
+civilisation older than our own. At any rate, while it is conceivable
+the American negroes and some other races are incapable of building
+up a highly-enlightened society by their own efforts, it is manifest
+that they are able to persist and multiply when civilised conditions
+are imposed on them. Not so the aborigines of the New World, some of
+whom--for example, the Maoris and the Polynesians--are admittedly
+of good mental type. They perish swiftly and helplessly of _bodily_
+ailments.
+
+Very clearly, then, human races are capable or incapable of
+civilisation, not because they are mentally, but because they are
+physically, fit or unfit.
+
+ G. ARCHDALL REID
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: AN ALPHABET OF RACES
+
+BEING A HANDY DICTIONARY OF MANKIND
+
+BY W. E. GARRETT FISHER]
+
+
+An attempt is made in these pages to compile a dictionary of the main
+existing races of the world, arranged in alphabetical order. The
+accompanying Ethnological Chart on page 352, will enable the reader
+to see at a glance the relationship of the various main divisions,
+families, and stocks under which these races are distributed. The
+Dictionary and the Chart, if used in conjunction, will thus supply
+information about any race named in the list, and will tell the
+inquirer to what branch of the human race it belongs. It is obviously
+impossible to make the Dictionary inclusive of every tiny and
+out-of-the-way tribe of Africa or South America, but all important
+races are included. If the reader wants to know something about the
+Abyssinians, he will look them up in the Dictionary, and find that they
+are partly Semitic Himyarites, partly Hamitic Gallas, etc. The Chart
+will then show him that the Hamitic and Semitic families belong to the
+great Caucasic Division of mankind, that the Himyarites are one of the
+main stocks of the Semitic family, and that the Gallas belong to the
+Eastern branch of the Hamitic family. The student should familiarise
+himself with the names and places of the families and chief stocks of
+mankind, as given in the Chart, and so greatly facilitate the task of
+reference. The intention of both Chart and Dictionary is, of course, to
+serve as a kind of index to the History proper, which must be consulted
+for further information. As far as can be discovered, no previous
+attempt has been made to summarise the conclusions of modern ethnology
+in this convenient form. The illustrations depict some of the most
+interesting races.
+
+
+ =Ababua.= A tribe of Sudanese negroes in Central Africa. See
+ WELLE GROUP.
+
+ =Abaka.= See NILITIC GROUP.
+
+ =Abkhasians.= A Western Caucasian tribe occupying the Black
+ Sea coast from Pitzunta to Mingrelia, akin to CIRCASSIANS
+ (_q.v._).
+
+ =Abo=, or =Ibo=. See NIGERIAN GROUP.
+
+ =Abors.= An Assamese tribe in the Brahmaputra Valley,
+ belonging to the Tibetan branch of the Southern Mongolic family.
+ Wild jungle-dwellers.
+
+ =Absarakas.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Abukaya.= A negro tribe in the Sudan. See NILITIC
+ GROUP.
+
+ =Abunda.= A settled and fairly civilised race of Bantu
+ Negroes, occupying the seaboard and inland districts of Portuguese
+ West Africa, south of Ambriz.
+
+ =Abyssinians.= A mixed race of Hamitic, Semitic, and Negro
+ stock, inhabiting Abyssinia (from Arabic _habashi_--mixed). The
+ main racial element--Abyssinians proper--consists of brown-skinned
+ Semitic Himyarites, who probably emigrated from Arabia in
+ prehistoric times, and profess themselves descended from the
+ Queen of Sheba. Since the sixteenth century Abyssinia has been
+ over-run by the Hamitic Gallas (_q.v._), who have largely mingled
+ their blood with this older element. There is also a considerable
+ admixture of Sudanese Negro blood. Since the fourth century the
+ religion of Abyssinia has been a corrupt form of Christianity; the
+ mediæval myth of Prester John perhaps relates to this fact.
+
+ =Acadians.= French settlers of seventeenth century in Nova
+ Scotia.
+
+ =Achcæans.= See ARGIVES.
+
+ =Achinese.= A warlike Malay race of Sumatra, long at war with
+ the Dutch colonists.
+
+ =Accras.= See GA.
+
+ =Achuas=, or =Wochua=. A pygmy Negrito race,
+ well-proportioned, though dwarfish, inhabiting the forests of
+ the Welle and Aruwimi districts in Central Africa, and living by
+ hunting.
+
+ =Adamawa Group.= A group of Sudanese Negro tribes inhabiting
+ the district of the Upper Benue in Northern Nigeria.
+
+ =Adansis.= Negro tribe on Guinea coast. See TSHI.
+
+ =Æolians.= See HELLENES.
+
+ =Aetas.= A Negrito race of the Philippine Islands, belonging
+ to the Oceanic family of Ethiopic Man. Short of stature,
+ black-skinned, with woolly hair, they present many points of
+ resemblance to the Negritoes of Central Africa. There are many
+ crosses between Aetas and Malays.
+
+ =Afars.= A nomadic Turki tribe of Persia. See also
+ DANAKILS.
+
+ =Afghans.= A race of Iranian stock, belonging to the great
+ Aryan family, who form about half the population of Afghanistan.
+ They are divided into various tribes, of which the Duranis are the
+ dominant one, the Ghilzais the most warlike, and the Yusufzais the
+ most turbulent. There are also large tribes known as Pathans, who
+ are of the same stock as the Afghans, but are classed separately.
+ The Afghans are a handsome and athletic race, inured to war from
+ their childhood, lawless and treacherous, but sober and hardy.
+ Throughout the nineteenth century they were a constant source of
+ trouble to British India, but a new era seems to have opened under
+ the present Amir. For non-Afghan inhabitants of Afghanistan, see
+ HAZARAS, KIZIL-BASHIS, and TAJIKS.
+
+ =Afridis.= A warlike and turbulent Pathan race, occupying the
+ neighbourhood of the Khyber Pass, and often at war with the English.
+
+ =Afrikanders.= Persons of European descent born and living in
+ South Africa.
+
+ =Agaos.= An indigenous Hamitic race of Northern Abyssinia.
+
+ =Ahoms.= Primitive inhabitants of Assam, belonging to the
+ Indo-Chinese stock of the Southern Mongolic family.
+
+ =Ainus.= An aberrant family of Caucasic Man in the Far East.
+ They were probably the aboriginal inhabitants of Japan, but are
+ now few in number, and confined to Yezo, the Kurile Islands, and
+ part of Sakhalin. They have regular and often handsome features
+ of Caucasic type, but are of low stature, and characteristically
+ marked by an abundance of coarse, black, wavy or crisp hair on
+ head, face, and body, whence they are commonly called the “Hairy
+ Ainus.”
+
+ =Akawais.= See CARIBS.
+
+ =Akkas.= A pygmy Negrito race of the Welle district in Central
+ Africa, akin to the Achuas (_q.v._), who are specially interesting
+ because they are represented on Egyptian monuments of 3400
+ B.C., with their existing racial characters.
+
+ =Akkads=, or =Akkadians=. An extinct Mesopotamian
+ race, founders of the oldest known civilisation in Babylonia,
+ who belonged to the Northern Mongolic family, and probably to
+ the Turki or Finno-Ugrian stock. They invented the cuneiform
+ alphabet, which was adopted by their Semitic successors--see
+ BABYLONIANS--and it is thought that they may have been the
+ ancestors of the Chinese.
+
+ =Akpas.= See NIGERIAN GROUP.
+
+ =Alani.= A warlike nomadic race, probably belonging to the
+ Turki stock of the Northern Mongolic family, and allied to the
+ Tartars (_q.v._). In the fifth century they made settlements in
+ Gaul and Spain, where they were absorbed by the Vandals and the
+ Visigoths respectively. The remnant left in the East of Europe were
+ conquered in the thirteenth century by the Golden Horde, and their
+ name disappeared from history.
+
+ =Albanians=, or =Arnauts=. The warlike race of
+ mountaineers who inhabit Albania, on the western coast of the
+ Balkan Peninsula. They are semi-civilised, live in a perpetual
+ state of tribal warfare, and make admirable soldiers, forming the
+ best part of the Turkish Army. They are probably the oldest of the
+ Balkan races, and represent the earliest Aryan immigrants into
+ Europe [see ILLYRIANS]. They are partly Christian, partly
+ Mohammedan.
+
+ =Albigenses.= A heretical sect, mostly of Provençal descent,
+ who appeared in the South of France about the eleventh century, and
+ were rigidly persecuted until they became extinct in the middle of
+ the thirteenth century.
+
+ =Alemanni.= An ancient German tribe on Upper Rhine, of
+ Teutonic stock, from whom the modern Swabians and Swiss are in
+ great part descended.
+
+ =Aleutians.= Natives of Aleutian Islands, belonging to Eskimo
+ stock of Northern American family.
+
+ =Alfuros.= A half-breed race between Malays and Papuans: in
+ Malaysia, a term given by Malays to their rude non-Mohammedan
+ neighbours.
+
+ =Algonquian.= A group of North American Indian tribes,
+ formerly inhabiting the Central and Southern States of America,
+ east of the Rocky Mountains, and as far south as South Carolina,
+ now gathered into Indian Reservations. They include the Algonquin,
+ Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Delaware, Fox, Illinois, Massachusett,
+ Mohican, Ojibway, Sac, Shawnee, and many smaller tribes.
+
+ =Alibamus.= See MUSKHOGEAN.
+
+ =Ali-Elis.= See TURKOMANS.
+
+ =Alsatians.= Natives of Alsace, of High German stock, allied
+ to the Swabians (_q.v._).
+
+ =Amadis.= See WELLE GROUP.
+
+ =Ama.= Prefix of many Bantu racial names, as Ama-Zulu,
+ Ama-Xosa. See ZULU, etc.
+
+ =American.= One of the four main divisions of the human race,
+ comprising three families, occupying North, Central, and Southern
+ America respectively. Typically red-skinned, with lank, black hair,
+ retreating foreheads, high-bridged noses, and either long or broad
+ skulls--dolichocephalic or brachycephalic.
+
+ =Americans.= The English-speaking white inhabitants of the
+ United States, mainly of Anglo-Saxon descent. See also LATIN
+ AMERICANS.
+
+ =Amharas.= Natives of Central Abyssinia, of Hamitic descent.
+
+ =Amorites.= A branch of the ancient Libyan race, of Semitic
+ origin, inhabiting Canaan before the arrival of the Israelites from
+ Egypt.
+
+ =Anatolian Turks.= See TURKS.
+
+ =Andamanese.= Natives of Andaman Islands, a race belonging to
+ the Oceanic Negrito family, possibly representing the primitive
+ type from which both Negroes and Papuans have sprung. They exhibit
+ the lowest stage of civilisation.
+
+ =Andis.= See LESGHIANS.
+
+ =Angles.= A Teutonic race of Low German stock, who formerly
+ inhabited the country round Schleswig, in North Germany. In the
+ fifth century they migrated in large numbers to Britain, and with
+ the Jutes and Saxons formed the stock of the Anglo-Saxon or English
+ people.
+
+ =Anglo-Saxons.= A general name now given to the
+ English-speaking races of English, Scotch, and even Irish and Welsh
+ descent, who inhabit the British Empire; in a wider sense, to all
+ people of British descent.
+
+ =Annamese.= Natives of Annam, or Cochin-China, belonging to
+ the Indo-Chinese stock of the Southern Mongolic family; now under
+ French rule.
+
+ =Apaches.= See ATHABASCAN.
+
+ =Appalachis.= See MUSKHOGEAN.
+
+ =Arabs.= One of the main branches of the Semitic family,
+ inhabiting the Arabian peninsula. They are usually divided into
+ two branches, the Ishmaelites of the north and the Joktanides of
+ the south. The latter probably represent the oldest Arab stock,
+ and may be of African origin. The primitive Arabs were nomadic
+ horse-breeders and shepherds, very warlike, and of fine physical
+ development. Under Islam they reared an enduring religious
+ civilisation, which has had the greatest influence on the world
+ after Christianity.
+
+ =Arakanese.= Natives of Arakan, in Lower Burma, of
+ Indo-Chinese stock.
+
+ =Aramæans.= One of the main groups of the Semitic family,
+ Syro-Chaldeans, who anciently inhabited Syria, Palestine, and the
+ Euphrates Valley. The modern Syrians (_q.v._) belong to it.
+
+[Illustration: A LITTLE GALLERY OF RACES
+
+REPRODUCED FROM THE FAMOUS DRAWINGS
+
+BY SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A.]
+
+
+[Illustration: A NATIVE OF BRITISH INDIA]
+
+[Illustration: A CIRCASSIAN LADY]
+
+[Illustration: A SPANISH CHILD WITH HER NURSE]
+
+[Illustration: A PERSIAN PRINCE AND HIS NUBIAN SLAVE]
+
+[Illustration: A DRAGOMAN AT BEYROUT]
+
+[Illustration: A TRAVELLING TARTAR]
+
+[Illustration: AN ARAB SHEIK]
+
+[Illustration: A LETTER-WRITER OF CONSTANTINOPLE]
+
+ =Araucanians.= The chief Indian race of Chili, possessing an
+ ancient civilisation like those of Peru and Mexico, though less
+ advanced. The Araucanians are probably the finest native race of
+ the New World. They are a fierce and warlike people, who have
+ always preserved their independence.
+
+ =Arawaks.= A group of South American Indian tribes in the
+ Guianas, including Maypuris, Wapisianas, Atorais and others.
+
+ =Arcadians.= A race of ancient Greece, inhabiting the central
+ highlands of the Peloponnesus, whose seclusion from the world
+ caused them to be identified with the quality which we still call
+ Arcadian simplicity.
+
+ =Arecunas.= See CARIBS.
+
+ =Argentines.= White natives of the Argentine Republic in South
+ America, mainly of Spanish descent.
+
+ =Argives.= Natives of Argos, the most important state of
+ Homeric Greece: hence a generic term for Greeks or Hellenes in the
+ Homeric Age. Achæans is another term similarly used.
+
+ =Armenians.= Natives of Armenia, the mountainous country round
+ Mount Ararat, now divided between Russia, Persia, and Turkey.
+ They belong to the Iranian stock of the Aryan family, blended
+ with Semitic blood, and with a still older unknown but probably
+ non-Aryan element. They are not warlike, but of quick intelligence
+ and specially successful in commerce.
+
+ =Arnauts.= See ALBANIANS.
+
+ =Aryans.= The most important family of Caucasic Man, to
+ which all the chief civilisations of modern times belong. A
+ tall, fair-skinned, long-headed race, whose origin is still
+ doubtful--though it was probably in Central Asia--and who
+ spread in prehistoric times over the whole of Europe and parts
+ of Asia and Africa. Almost all modern Europeans are of Aryan
+ descent. The family is also called INDO-EUROPEAN or
+ INDO-GERMANIC, but these names are open to objections from
+ which the term Aryan is free.
+
+ =Ashantis.= See TSHI.
+
+ =Assamese.= Natives of Assam, between India and Burma,
+ belonging to the Hindu stock of the Aryan family.
+
+ =Assinaboins.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Assyrians.= One of the main branches of the Semitic family.
+ The Assyrians founded a great empire in the northern part of
+ Mesopotamia, of which Nineveh was the capital, and afterwards
+ conquered the older Babylonian state (710 B.C.) and Egypt
+ (671 B.C.), thus forming the first world-empire known to
+ history. Within a century Assyria had become a Median province, and
+ its people ceased to have an independent existence.
+
+ =Athabascan= or =Tinney=. A group of North American
+ Indian tribes, formerly inhabiting Alaska and the greatest part of
+ Canada. It includes the Apaches, Chippewayans, Hupas, Kutchins,
+ Navajos, Tacullis, and Umbquas.
+
+ =Athenians.= The most important race of ancient Greece, whose
+ city of Athens was the earliest centre of civilisation in the
+ historical age of Europe.
+
+ =Australians.= The aborigines of Australia, a branch of the
+ Oceanic Negro family. Their numerous tribes present a general
+ uniformity of physical and mental development, under which two main
+ types may be recognised. The earlier of these is probably that
+ shown by the extinct Tasmanians (_q.v._), one of the lowest races
+ in point of culture yet discovered, who were probably still in
+ the earliest stage of the Stone Age. The other type was perhaps
+ akin to the Dravidians of India, or to a very low Caucasic race.
+ The Australians are among the lowest of savage races, and present
+ many features which have thrown light on the manners, customs and
+ beliefs of primitive man.
+
+ =Australians.= White inhabitants of Australia, mostly of
+ Anglo-Saxon descent.
+
+ =Austrians.= Inhabitants of the Austrian empire, including
+ a great diversity of races. The name is properly applied only to
+ the German-speaking people, of High-German Teutonic stock, who
+ predominate in Austria proper.
+
+ =Auvergnats.= Natives of Auvergne, in Central France. A short,
+ sturdy, dark, round-skulled race, formerly regarded as typical
+ Aryan Celts, but possibly descended from an older non-Aryan people.
+ Much employed in Paris as porters.
+
+ =Avars.= See LESGHIANS.
+
+ =Avars.= A Tartar tribe, belonging to the Turki stock of the
+ Northern Mongolic family, who appeared in the district round the
+ Caspian Sea about the fourth century, and later made predatory
+ raids over a large part of Eastern Europe. They were subdued by
+ Charlemagne, and disappeared from history in the ninth century.
+ They seem to have been closely allied to the Huns, whom they
+ resembled in physical characteristics and warlike qualities.
+
+ =Awawandias.= Bantu Negroes of the Nyassa plateau in British
+ Central Africa.
+
+ =Aymaras.= A race of South American Indians in Bolivia,
+ probably related to the Incas (_q.v._) and perhaps their ancestors.
+
+ =Azandeh=, or =Niam-Niam=. Sudanese Negroes of the Welle
+ group. Notorious cannibals.
+
+ =Aztecs.= The dominant Indian race in Mexico at the arrival
+ of the Spanish invaders. They entered the country about the end of
+ the thirteenth century, and founded the city of Mexico in 1325.
+ Around it they reared a remarkable civilisation and a sanguinary
+ religion. They were warlike, ferocious and cruel, but had a
+ considerable aptitude for the arts of peace. Their empire was
+ destroyed by Cortes in 1521, and annexed to Spain. Every trace of
+ Aztec nationality was suppressed, but their name still lingers
+ among the Nahuan Indians, and their blood is mixed with that of
+ the conquerors. Many attempts have been made to find an Old World
+ origin for Mexican culture, but they are not convincing.
+
+ =Babylonians.= The Semitic race which founded one of the
+ greatest of ancient civilisations in the rich alluvial plains of
+ Chaldæa and on the arid plateau of Mesopotamia. Their history is
+ too long to summarise here, but it may be stated that the Semitic
+ peoples, variously known as Babylonians, Chaldæans, Elamites,
+ Medians, and Assyrians, invaded and dispossessed at different times
+ the primitive Mongolic race of Akkads (_q.v._). Their earliest
+ settlement seems to have been at Ur of the Chaldees, on the right
+ bank of the Euphrates. Babylon and Nineveh were afterwards the
+ seats of the Babylonian and Assyrian powers, whilst Elamite and
+ Median conquerors intervened at various times. These powerful
+ Semitic races made great advances in art, science, literature,
+ religion, and social policy. Their first incursion, probably
+ from Arabia, into the Euphrates Valley dates back to about 3800
+ B.C.
+
+ =Baggaras.= A fierce and warlike race settled in the
+ Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and formerly dominant under the Mahdi.
+
+ =Baghirmis.= See LAKE CHAD GROUP.
+
+ =Bakairi.= See CARIBS.
+
+ =Bakatla=, =Bakwena=. Bantu Negroes of Bechuana stock.
+
+ =Bakwiri.= Bantu Negroes settled in the Cameroons.
+
+ =Balinese.= A Malayan race of the East Indian Archipelago.
+
+ =Balolo.= Bantu Negroes of the Middle Congo; one of the finest
+ negro races.
+
+ =Balong.= Bantu Negroes of West Africa.
+
+ =Baltis.= A hardy Tibetan race, inhabiting the Alpine valley
+ of the Upper Indus.
+
+ =Baluba=, or =Basonge=. A dominant Bantu Negro race of
+ the Kassai basin in Equatorial Africa.
+
+ =Baluchis=, or =Beluchis=. Natives of Baluchistan, south
+ of Afghanistan, of Iranian (Aryan) descent, with a mingling of
+ Tartar (Mongolic) blood. The dominant race of the country is the
+ Brahui, aboriginals who are probably of Mongolic descent, allied to
+ the Dravidians (_q.v._) of India. The Brahui are of Mongolic type,
+ short, with round flat faces, hospitable and generous. They are the
+ more settled portion of the inhabitants. The Baluchis are chiefly
+ nomads, taller, with more Aryan features, a warlike and predatory
+ people.
+
+ =Balunda.= Bantu Negroes of South Central Africa, occupying
+ the Congo-Zambesi divide.
+
+ =Bamangwato.= Bantu Negroes of north Bechuanaland; Khama’s
+ semi-civilised people.
+
+ =Bambaras.= See MANDINGAN.
+
+ =Banandi.= Bantu Negroes of apish type, in the Semliki forests.
+
+ =Bangalas.= Bantu Negroes of Middle Congo, on the Ubangi river.
+
+ =Bantus.= One of the two subdivisions of the African Negro
+ family of Ethiopic Man, occupying the southern half of the African
+ continent, south of the Cameroons and Albert Nyanza. A Negro race
+ modified from the Sudanese type by Hamite influences.
+
+ =Banyai.= Bantu Negroes, south of the Middle Zambesi.
+
+ =Banyoro.= See WANYORO.
+
+ =Bapedi.= Bantu Negroes of Bechuana stock.
+
+ =Bareas.= Sudanese Negroes inhabiting the Abyssinian slopes.
+
+ =Barguzins.= See BURIATS.
+
+ =Baris.= See NILITIC GROUP.
+
+ =Barolongs.= Bantu Negroes of Bechuana stock, between Vryburg
+ and Molopo river. Mafeking is their capital.
+
+ =Barotse.= Bantu Negroes of Bechuana stock, about headwaters
+ of Molopo river.
+
+ =Barrés.= South American Indians in Venezuela and Guiana.
+
+ =Basés.= Sudanese Negroes of Abyssinian slopes, a very low
+ negroid type.
+
+ =Bashkirs.= A branch of the Turki stock of the Northern
+ Mongolic family. They are first mentioned in the tenth century as
+ a warlike and idolatrous race, noted for their large, round, short
+ heads, from which their name is derived. They now inhabit the
+ Orenberg and Perm districts of Russia, on the western slopes of the
+ Ural. Some are settled agriculturists, others pastoral nomads.
+
+ =Bashukulumbwe.= Bantu Negroes of Kafue basin in Zambesia.
+
+ =Basimba= or =Cimbebas=. Aboriginal Negroes of South
+ Angola; a low Bantu type, or possibly Negrito, allied to Bushmen.
+
+ =Basonge.= See BALUBA.
+
+ =Basques.= One of the few non-Aryan races still existing
+ in Europe, where they inhabit the districts on the French and
+ Spanish sides of the Western Pyrenees. They originally occupied a
+ much wider area in this neighbourhood, and preserve their ancient
+ costume and language. Their ethnological affinities are still in
+ dispute, but the best opinion is that they represent the ancient
+ Iberians (_q.v._), a Western Hamitic race, related to the Berbers
+ of North Africa on the one hand and to the Picts of Scotland and
+ the ancient Irish on the other. Probably they have occupied their
+ present home since Neolithic times. They are mainly agriculturists,
+ with all the rustic virtues, and make excellent soldiers and
+ servants.
+
+ =Bassas.= See LIBERIAN GROUP.
+
+ =Bastaards.= See GRIQUAS.
+
+ =Bastarnæ.= See GOTHS.
+
+ =Basutos.= The most civilised race of Bantu Negroes, of the
+ Bechuana stock, who inhabit the rugged uplands of Basutoland, a
+ British Crown Colony. They have long been subjected to European
+ and Christian influence, under which they have presented the
+ sole instance of a pure negro community, which has made itself
+ self-supporting and approximately civilised. They have succeeded in
+ assimilating Western culture, and their little State--which always
+ preserved its independence against other natives and Boers--is a
+ very flourishing example of what the negro can do under favourable
+ auspices.
+
+ =Batanga.= Bantu Negroes of the Cameroons.
+
+ =Batavi.= An ancient German race inhabiting the island formed
+ by the Meuse and an arm of the Rhine. Ancestors of the modern Dutch.
+
+ =Bateke.= Bantu Negroes of Congo, above Stanley Pool.
+
+ =Batjans.= See INDONESIAN.
+
+ =Batlapi.= Bantu Negroes of Bechuana stock, near Vryburg.
+
+ =Batonga= or =Batoka=. Bantu Negroes of Zambesia,
+ Manicaland and Tongaland.
+
+ =Battaks.= A pre-Malay race of North Sumatra, probably allied
+ to the Polynesians (_q.v._).
+
+ =Batwas.= A pygmy (_q.v._) Negrito race south of Congo, allied
+ to Bushmen.
+
+ =Batwanas.= Bantu Negroes of North Bechuanaland.
+
+ =Bavarians.= A branch of the High German stock of the Teutonic
+ family, in Bavaria.
+
+ =Bayansis.= Bantu Negroes of Middle Congo, on Kwa River.
+ Strong negro element.
+
+ =Bechuanas.= A main stock of Bantu Negroes, occupying what
+ is known as British Bechuanaland. The name is of European origin,
+ and has no native significance as applied to the race, but is a
+ convenient general term.
+
+ =Bedawi= or =Bedouins=. Nomadic Arabs (_q.v._) who
+ inhabit the deserts of Arabia and the neighbouring countries,
+ and live by stock-breeding and robbery. Their breed of horses is
+ world-famous. They are independent, chivalrous and hospitable. They
+ correspond to the Biblical Ishmaelites, whose race and customs they
+ preserve practically unchanged.
+
+ =Bejas.= A race of Eastern Hamites, of splendid physique,
+ occupying the eastern seaboard of Africa north of Massowah,
+ including Bisharis, Hadendowas, and other tribes.
+
+ =Belgae.= The northernmost of the three races occupying Gaul
+ in Cæsar’s time, probably of Low German stock, with perhaps a
+ Celtic element.
+
+ =Belgians.= The inhabitants of Belgium, formerly the Spanish
+ or Austrian Netherlands, of very mixed origin. The natives are
+ either Flemings of Teutonic stock, or Celtic Walloons (_q.v._).
+ Mingled with these are large numbers of German, French and Dutch
+ immigrants; and constant crossing of blood has tended to produce a
+ truly Belgian type out of all these fluctuating elements. They are
+ among the most patient and productive of agriculturists, mostly
+ small proprietors; and they possess flourishing manufactures and a
+ rich commerce through the great port of Antwerp.
+
+ =Beluchis.= See BALUCHIS.
+
+ =Bengalis.= The majority of the natives of Bengal belong to
+ the Hindu stock of the Aryan family, which was probably the first
+ to develop a true civilisation and a great literature (in the
+ ancient Sanscrit tongue). The typical Bengali is quick-witted,
+ versatile, and successful in the arts of peace, but not
+ warlike--though the native army of the old East Indian Company
+ was largely recruited from Bengal. The Bengali Babu, of the
+ professional or lower official class, is well known.
+
+ =Beluchis.= See BALUCHIS.
+
+ =Benin.= See NIGERIAN GROUP.
+
+ =Berbers.= A Western Hamitic race occupying the Atlas
+ Mountains and the Northern Sahara, of predatory and warlike habits.
+ They are known in Algeria as Kabyles, and in Sahara as Tuaregs.
+ Largely dark-haired and swarthy, with prominent noses, they belong
+ to the Melanochroid branch of Caucasic Man. They correspond to the
+ ancient Numidians.
+
+ =Betsimisarakas.= One of the three main divisions of the
+ Malagasy, or Malayo-African race which inhabits Madagascar. They
+ occupy the east coast.
+
+ =Bhils.= Primitive and still wild non-Aryan inhabitants of
+ Central India, of Kolarian family (_q.v._).
+
+ =Bisharis.= See BEJAS.
+
+ =Blackfoot Indians.= See ALGONQUIAN.
+
+ =Bœotians.= A branch of the Æolian race in ancient Greece. The
+ Bœotians were supposed to be peculiarly dull, and were the typical
+ rustic clowns of Greek literature.
+
+ =Boers.= White inhabitants of Cape Colony, the Transvaal, and
+ the Orange River Colony, mainly of Dutch descent, with a French
+ Huguenot element and a sprinkling of Negro blood. They were the
+ original colonists of South Africa, which they entered in 1652. A
+ race of farmers (Boer is derived from the Dutch boor, peasant),
+ they also proved themselves to be hardy pioneers and admirable,
+ though not at all romantic, fighters, learning in long native
+ wars the arts of strategy, which they exercised so well against
+ the English in the South African War of 1899-1902. They have
+ now accepted the English rule, and promise to be among our most
+ flourishing African subjects.
+
+ =Bohemians.= See CZECH.
+
+ =Bolivians.= White natives of Bolivia in South America, of
+ Spanish descent, with a considerable admixture of Indian blood.
+
+ =Bongos.= See NILITIC GROUP.
+
+ =Botocudos.= South American Indians on eastern seaboard of
+ Brazil.
+
+ =Brahui.= See BALUCHIS.
+
+ =Brazilians.= White natives of Brazil, mainly of Portuguese
+ descent, but with a considerable admixture, in many districts, of
+ Indian and negro blood.
+
+ =Bretons.= Natives of Brittany, descended from a short,
+ round-headed, dark race, generally called Celtic, but perhaps
+ pre-Aryan.
+
+ =Bribris.= South American Indians of Costa Rica.
+
+ =Britons.= (1) The ancient Britons were a Celtic race, whose
+ remnants are still to be found in the Welsh (_q.v._). They attained
+ a considerable degree of civilisation under the Roman conquerors,
+ and adopted Christianity. The Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain
+ drove most of them back into Wales, Cornwall, and other outlying
+ portions of the island, whilst the remainder were either destroyed
+ or assimilated. (2) In the wide modern sense, Britons are the white
+ citizens of the British Empire.
+
+ =Bugis= or =Buginese=. Natives of Boni in Celebes; a
+ primitive Malay race.
+
+ =Bulalas.= See LAKE CHAD GROUP.
+
+ =Bulgars.= A branch of the Finns (_q.v._), who were originally
+ settled on the banks of the Volga. In the sixth century they
+ crossed the Danube and conquered the modern Bulgaria, then occupied
+ by the Slavonic Slovenians (_q.v._). A speedy fusion took place
+ between the Slovenians and the Bulgars, who adopted the language
+ and customs of the former, and rose to greatness as a Slav power.
+ In the ninth and tenth centuries they ruled the greater part of
+ the Balkan Peninsula, and warred successfully with the Byzantine
+ Empire, which, however, subjected them in 1019 under Basil II.,
+ “the slayer of the Bulgarians.” Later they passed under the Turkish
+ rule, and ceased to have an independent national existence down to
+ the nineteenth century.
+
+ =Bulgarians.= Inhabitants of the modern Balkan state of
+ Bulgaria, descended from the Bulgars (_q.v._) with considerable
+ admixtures of Greek and Turkish blood.
+
+ =Bulloms.= See TEMNÉ GROUP.
+
+ =Burgundians.= An ancient people of Teutonic race (High
+ German), who were originally settled between the Oder and Vistula.
+ In the fifth century they invaded Gaul, where they formed the first
+ kingdom of Burgundy, between the Aar and the Rhone. There were many
+ later Burgundian kingdoms and duchies, of which the last and most
+ famous was that of Charles the Bold, annexed to France in 1477. The
+ Burgundians are now French subjects, but still show traces of their
+ Teutonic origin.
+
+ =Buriats.= The Western or Siberian branch of the Mongol stock
+ of the Northern Mongolic family. They occupy the vicinity of Lake
+ Baikal The majority are nomad pastors, but some have taken to
+ agriculture. A peace-loving, but lazy and drunken people; they
+ include various tribes, such as the Barguzins, Selengese, Idinese,
+ Kudaras and Olkhonese.
+
+ =Burmese=, or =Burmans=. A short-statured, thick-set and
+ flat-featured people, approaching the Chinese type, the principal
+ race of the Indo-Chinese stock of the Southern Mongolic family.
+ They inhabit Burma--now a British possession--and are excitable,
+ turbulent, and given to dacoity, or highway robbery. They make
+ good farmers and shopkeepers, but are not warlike or methodical.
+
+ =Burus.= See INDONESIANS.
+
+ =Bushmen.= A nomadic Negro race of South Africa, who stand at
+ the lowest stage of human culture. They are probably the aborigines
+ of South Africa, where they have been dispossessed by Hottentots
+ and Bantus from the north. They are thin and wiry, of small
+ stature, not unlike the Hottentots in colour and features. They
+ live by hunting, and possess a curious mythology. Their artistic
+ powers, comparable to those of Palæolithic Man, are shown in the
+ remarkable rock-drawings on the walls of their caves.
+
+ =Calchaquis.= South American Indians, in Plate River district.
+
+ =Cambojans.= Natives of Cambodia, Mongoloid approaching
+ Caucasic type.
+
+ =Canaanites.= One of the main branches of the great Semitic
+ family, inhabiting Palestine and the Mauritanian sea-coast in
+ ancient times, including Jews, Phœnicians, Carthaginians, Moabites,
+ Amorites, Idumæans and Philistines (_q.v._). A fierce and warlike
+ people, with a remarkable genius for religion, which has greatly
+ influenced the modern world.
+
+ =Canadians.= White natives of Canada, of mixed French and
+ Anglo-Saxon descent.
+
+ =Caribs.= South American Indians, formerly occupying the West
+ Indian Islands, and now the shores of the Caribbean Sea, including
+ Macusi, Bakairi, Akawai, Arecuna, and Rucuyenne tribes. They are
+ strongly built, warlike and fierce, but honourable. The term
+ cannibal is supposed to be a corruption of their name based on
+ their habits.
+
+ =Carthaginians.= Natives of one of the great empires of the
+ ancient world, which was founded at Carthage, near the modern
+ Bizerta, by Phœnician colonists in the ninth century B.C.,
+ and was destroyed by Rome in 146 B.C. Carthage was the
+ great rival of Rome as a Mediterranean power. Its inhabitants
+ belonged to the Canaanite stock of the Semitic family, and were a
+ nation of traders, cruel and gloomy in temperament, worshippers of
+ Moloch with human sacrifices. Though in Hannibal they produced one
+ of the greatest of generals, they were not warlike, and trusted
+ chiefly to mercenaries, wherefore they fell.
+
+ =Catalans.= Natives of North-east Spain, mostly of Gothic
+ descent, and still distinct from other Spaniards in language and
+ costume. Honest and enterprising, turbulent, and intensely devoted
+ to liberty.
+
+ =Caucasians.= One of the families of Caucasic Man, inhabiting
+ the mountainous region of the Caucasus, and divided into
+ southern, western, and eastern branches [see GEORGIANS,
+ CIRCASSIANS, CHECHENZES, LESGHIANS].
+ They include a great number of different tribes, who seem to have
+ settled there from the earliest historical times. Some of these,
+ the Melanochroid highlanders, like the Georgians, Circassians, and
+ Lesghians, present an almost ideal standard of physical beauty,
+ whilst others are squat and ungainly. Some ethnologists see in the
+ Caucasus the primitive home of the Aryan family, from whom the
+ Caucasians would, on this view, be an offshoot. The Ossets (_q.v._)
+ are certainly Aryan. The Caucasians are very warlike, and struggled
+ till quite recently with success against the Russian domination.
+
+ =Caucasic.= One of the four great divisions of the human race.
+ Type, white-skinned, square-jawed (orthognathous), skull between
+ broad and long (mesocephalic), hair soft, straight, or wavy; in
+ intelligence, enterprise, and civilisation, much superior to other
+ divisions.
+
+ =Cayugas.= See IROQUOIAN.
+
+ =Celts.= See KELTS.
+
+ =Chakhars.= A branch of Eastern Mongols, settled on the
+ south-east boundary of the Desert of Gobi.
+
+ =Chaldæans.= See BABYLONIANS.
+
+ =Chamorros.= Aborigines of the Ladrone Islands, so named from
+ their thievish propensities. A branch of the Oceanic Mongolic
+ family, probably allied to the Formosans (_q.v._).
+
+ =Chancas.= See INCAS.
+
+ =Chaudors.= A nomad tribe inhabiting the steppes east of the
+ Caspian and south of the Oxus. See TURKOMANS.
+
+ =Chapogirs.= See TUNGUSES.
+
+ =Charruas.= An extinct race of South American Indians in South
+ Brazil, peculiar for their extremely black colour with lank hair.
+
+ =Chechenzes.= A branch of the Eastern stock of the Caucasian
+ family, inhabiting the northern slopes of the Eastern Caucasus.
+ Their chief tribes are Ingushis, Kishis, and Tushis.
+
+ =Cheremisses.= See FINNS.
+
+ =Cherokees.= A brave and warlike tribe of North American
+ Indians. See IROQUOIAN.
+
+ =Cheyennes.= See ALGONQUIAN.
+
+ =Chibchas.= South American Indians of Bogota.
+
+ =Chichimecs.= See NAHUANS.
+
+ =Chickasaws.= See MUSKHOGEANS.
+
+ =Chilians.= White natives of Chili, of Spanish descent, with a
+ mixture of Araucanian Indian blood.
+
+ =Chinese.= One of the most numerous races of the world,
+ inhabiting the Chinese Empire. They are a stock of the Southern
+ Mongolic family, and it is thought by some ethnologists that they
+ are descended from the Mongolic Akkads (_q.v._) of Mesopotamia.
+ There is a remarkable uniformity in the physical type presented by
+ the Chinese in all climates and environments; they are the most
+ homogeneous of great peoples. They are yellow-skinned, short in
+ stature, with obliquely set eyes, high cheek-bones, long skulls,
+ and broad faces, with slight prognathism. They possess an ancient
+ and highly organised civilisation, which is characterised by
+ its conservatism and slowness to accept new ideas--so different
+ in this from the Japanese. The Chinese are naturally frugal,
+ industrious, and patient; they are excellent agriculturists, and
+ very gregarious; they despise war, but make excellent soldiers when
+ drilled by Europeans or Japanese. They are eminently literary, and
+ have a high system of morality. There are many local varieties,
+ such as the Puntis of the Canton districts, the Hakkas of Swatow,
+ the Hoklas of Fohkien, the Dungans (_q.v._), which need not be
+ farther particularised.
+
+ =Chinooks.= A nearly extinct tribe of North American Indians
+ on the Columbia River, on whose language is based the Chinook
+ jargon, or traders’ Lingua Franca of British Columbia.
+
+ =Chins.= See SINGPHOS.
+
+ =Chippewayans.= See ATHABASCAN.
+
+ =Chiquitos.= South American Indians of Upper Paraguay basin.
+
+ =Chiriguanos.= South American Indians of Bolivia.
+
+ =Chitralis.= Natives of Chitral, in the Hindu Khush, rough,
+ hardy hillmen, closely allied to the Kafirs (_q.v._) of Kafiristan.
+
+ =Chocos.= A tribe of South American Indians of Matto Grosso.
+
+ =Choktaws.= See MUSKHOGEAN.
+
+ =Chontals.= Central American Indians of Nicaragua.
+
+ =Chols.= See MAYA-QUICHÉ.
+
+ =Chorasses.= See KALMUKS.
+
+ =Chorotegans.= Central American Indians of Nicaragua.
+
+ =Chukchis.= A Northern Mongolic race of North-east Siberia,
+ closely akin to the American Eskimo in features and customs. They
+ are of high character and very independent, but at a low stage of
+ civilisation, and live by reindeer-breeding and hunting. A branch
+ of the Chukchis, differing mainly in language, is known as the
+ Koryaks.
+
+ =Chunchos.= South American Indians on tributaries of Beni
+ River in Peru.
+
+ =Cimbebas.= See BASIMBA.
+
+ =Circassians=, or =Tcherkesses=. A race of Caucasian
+ mountaineers, formerly inhabiting the Black Sea coast between Anapa
+ and Pitzunta, of high physical type, who maintained an unavailing
+ struggle against Russia till 1864, when their subjugation was
+ followed by a wholesale emigration of the Circassian tribes to
+ the Turkish Empire. Allied to them are the Abkhasians and Kabards
+ (_q.v._).
+
+ =Colombians.= White natives of Colombia, in Central America,
+ mostly of Spanish descent, with an admixture of Indian and negro
+ blood.
+
+ =Comanches.= See SHOSHONEAN.
+
+ =Conibos.= South American Indians of Peru.
+
+ =Copts.= Christian descendants of the ancient Egyptians
+ (_q.v._), of middle stature, slender limbs, and pale complexion,
+ who inhabit Egypt, and preserve the language and customs of the
+ last period of ancient Egyptian civilisation. They are essentially
+ townsmen, clerks, or artisans.
+
+ =Coras.= See OPATA-PIMA.
+
+ =Cornish.= A race of Brythonic or P Celts, akin to Welsh
+ and Bretons, inhabiting Cornwall in earlier times; now absorbed
+ in English stock. Their language became extinct in seventeenth
+ or eighteenth century. The crossing of the Cornish Celts with
+ Anglo-Saxons has given birth to a singularly fine race of hardy
+ fishermen and miners.
+
+ =Corsicans.= The aborigines of Corsica were probably a Western
+ Hamitic race, allied to the Ligurians (_q.v._). They were followed
+ by Ionian invaders, and in turn by Carthaginian, Roman, Vandal,
+ Hun, Gothic, Saracenic, and Italian conquerors, each of whom has
+ added something to the mixture of blood in the modern Corsicans,
+ a turbulent, lawless, and warlike race (now belonging to France),
+ whose greatest son was Napoleon.
+
+ =Costa Ricans.= White natives of Costa Rica, in Central
+ America, mostly of pure Spanish descent.
+
+ =Crees.= See ALGONQUIAN.
+
+ =Creek Indians.= See MUSKHOGEAN.
+
+ =Creoles.= Persons born in past or present French, Spanish, or
+ Portuguese colonies, of pure European descent.
+
+ =Cretans.= An ancient race of prehistoric culture [see
+ MYCENÆANS]; in modern times chiefly Greek, mixed with Turk.
+
+ =Croats.= Inhabitants of Croatia, now mainly of Slavonic race,
+ mingled with an earlier short, dark race of non-Aryan descent.
+ One of the motley races of the Austrian Empire. They are warlike,
+ turbulent, and eager for independence.
+
+ =Cro-Magnon.= A prehistoric race settled in the Vezere
+ district of France, which may be taken as the primitive type of
+ Caucasic Man. It is only known by a few skulls and other relics,
+ and probably dates back to the Glacial Period.
+
+ =Crow Indians.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Cymry.= See WELSH.
+
+ =Czechs=, or =Bohemians=. The most westerly branch of the
+ Slavonic stock of the Aryan family, now occupying Bohemia, Moravia,
+ and other parts of Austria. They are closely allied to the Slovaks
+ of Hungary. They migrated from the Upper Vistula district to the
+ modern Bohemia in the fifth century. Long an independent kingdom,
+ and a bulwark of Christendom against the Turks, Bohemia passed to
+ Austria in 1526. During the last century there has been a great
+ recrudescence of the Czech nationality and language. The Czechs as
+ a race are very musical and artistic.
+
+ =Daflas.= A Tibetan race inhabiting the northern border of
+ Assam.
+
+ =Dahomans.= See EWE.
+
+ =Dakotas.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Dalmatians.= A Southern Slavonic race, crossed with Gothic
+ blood. A fine race of hardy seamen, they manned the Venetian
+ fleets, but now belong to Austria.
+
+ =Damaras=, or =Hau-Khoin=. See HEREROS.
+
+ =Danakils=, or =Afars=. An Eastern Hamitic race settled
+ in the vicinity of Obock, between Abyssinia and the Red Sea. They
+ are nomad pastors and fishermen, well-built, and slender.
+
+ =Danes.= Natives of Denmark, belonging to the Scandinavian
+ stock of the Aryan family. Denmark was originally inhabited by
+ the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who colonised England. On their
+ departure, the Danes from Zealand settled on the deserted lands,
+ and there reared the kingdom which still exists. The early Danes
+ were brave warriors and skilled seamen, who for a time ruled Saxon
+ England under Canute. Their descendants, of comparatively pure
+ blood, preserve these characteristics, and are also industrious
+ agriculturists.
+
+ =Dards.= A warlike and hardy race of Aryan descent, inhabiting
+ the mountainous country around Gilgit, in North-west India, of whom
+ the Hunzas and Nagars are the chief tribes.
+
+ =Dargos.= See LESGHIANS.
+
+ =Delawares.= A North American Indian race with whom William
+ Penn dealt in the 17th century: now fairly civilised. See
+ ALGONQUIAN.
+
+ =Didos.= See LESGHIANS.
+
+ =Dinkas.= See NILITIC GROUP.
+
+ =Dogras.= An Aryan race in the Punjab, between the Chinab and
+ the Ravi, who contribute excellent soldiers to the British Native
+ Army.
+
+ =Dorians.= See HELLENES.
+
+ =Dravidas=, or =Dravidians=. Indigenous non-Aryan
+ inhabitants of South India, including the Telingas or Telugu of the
+ Nizam’s Dominions, the Tamils of Karnatic and Ceylon, the Kanarese
+ of Mysore, the Malayalim of Malabar Coast, those wild hunters the
+ Gonds of Vindhya Hills, the Sinhalese of Ceylon, and perhaps the
+ Veddahs (_q.v._). A Mongoloid race originally, which has been
+ assimilated to the Caucasic type by long intermixture of blood.
+
+ =Druses.= A brave, handsome and industrious white race, who
+ have been settled in the Lebanon district of Syria for at least 800
+ years, and owe their unity to the possession of a special religion.
+ Their origin is uncertain, but they are probably of a mixed stock,
+ to which Arabs, Kurds, and Persians have all contributed. They are
+ fair-haired and of light complexion. They are very warlike, have
+ always preserved their independence against the Turks, and are the
+ inveterate enemies of the Maronites (_q.v._).
+
+ =Dungans.= Southern Mongolic inhabitants of Zungaria, between
+ Tian-Shan and Altai. Allied to Chinese (_q.v._).
+
+ =Durbats.= See KALMUKS.
+
+ =Duranis.= See AFGHANS.
+
+ =Dyaks.= The aborigines of Borneo, probably akin to the Malays
+ (_q.v._), whom they resemble physically, though of greater average
+ stature. They are active and warlike, and formerly indulged in
+ the practice of head-hunting, now dying out. The Sea-Dyaks were
+ bold and inveterate pirates. They possess a considerable degree of
+ indigenous civilisation, and their moral character is very fine.
+
+ =Easter Islanders.= (1) See POLYNESIANS. (2) Easter
+ Island once possessed an older race of inhabitants, now extinct,
+ who have left very remarkable traces in the shape of numerous
+ colossal statues, thin-lipped and disdainful, standing on platforms
+ of Cyclopean masonry, as well as many stone houses with thick
+ walls, painted on the inside. Nothing farther is known of their
+ race or history.
+
+ =Ecuadorians.= White natives of Ecuador, in South America, of
+ Spanish descent; noted for their laziness and political instability.
+
+ =Edomites.= See IDUMÆANS.
+
+ =Egbas.= See YORUBAS.
+
+ =Egyptians.= (1) The ancient inhabitants of Egypt--known
+ to them as Khem, the Biblical Mizraim--who reared one of the
+ oldest and most important civilised states of the ancient world.
+ The aborigines of Egypt were apparently a Palæolithic branch of
+ Ethiopic Man, allied to the modern Bushmen. They were dispossessed
+ and practically exterminated, probably about 7000 B.C.,
+ by a slender, fair-skinned race of European type, belonging to
+ the Hamitic family, and resembling the modern Berbers (_q.v._) in
+ many respects. These were probably the same as the ancient Libyans
+ (_q.v._). Later this race was modified by the introduction of a
+ Semitic element, partly from Syria, partly from the Phœnician
+ conquerors who founded dynastic rule in Egypt under Menes, between
+ 5000 and 4000 B.C. Their later history is written on their
+ imperishable monuments, and need not be summarised here. In later
+ times the Egyptian racial type was modified by Greek and Roman
+ influence. The ancient Egyptians were highly skilled in agriculture
+ and engineering, warlike but not aggressive, and with a highly
+ developed literature and religion. (2) The modern Egyptians are
+ partly descended from the ancient Egyptians, whose racial type
+ as represented on the monuments is still to be found in purity,
+ mingled with Bedouin Arabs, Turks, Syrians, and other races. See
+ COPTS and FELLAHIN.
+
+ =English.= Natives of England; used in a wider sense as
+ equivalent to citizens of the British Empire [See BRITONS,
+ ANGLO-SAXONS]. The English people are a Low German branch
+ of the Teutonic stock of the Aryan family, with a faint Celtic
+ element derived from the primitive Britons, a strong Scandinavian
+ element (especially in the north-east), derived from the invading
+ Danes and Norsemen in the ninth to eleventh centuries, and a
+ considerable Norman element--Norse modified by French culture. The
+ typical Englishman is white-skinned and fair-haired, belonging to
+ the Xanthochroi, but there are many deviations due to modifying
+ influences. The race is eminently warlike and aggressive, and makes
+ the most successful colonisers known to the world.
+
+ =Erie Indians.= See IROQUOIAN.
+
+ =Erse.= See IRISH.
+
+ =Eshi-Kongo.= A semi-civilised race of Bantu Negroes,
+ belonging to the ancient Kongo Empire, now Portuguese West Africa.
+
+ =Eskimos=, or =Innuits=. An Arctic aboriginal race,
+ now inhabiting Greenland and the northern coasts of the American
+ continent. They are nomadic, live by hunting and fishing, and are
+ inured to extremes of cold. They are very broad-headed, fat, and
+ of short stature, with flat quasi-Mongolic features. They seem
+ to occupy a place midway between the North American Indian and
+ the Mongolic type, and there is some reason to suppose that they
+ represent a prehistoric Mongoloid incursion from Northern Asia, or
+ perhaps from Indo-Malaysia.
+
+ =Esthonians.= A branch of Baltic Finns (_q.v._) settled in
+ Esthonia, and possessing an ancient ballad literature and mythology.
+
+ =Ethiopians.= An ancient Berber tribe, settled in Egypt at
+ least 5,000 years ago, now represented by the fair Berbers of
+ Mauritania. Homer called them “blameless,” because he knew so
+ little about them. See NUBIANS.
+
+ =Ethiopic.= One of the four great divisions of the human race,
+ occupying Africa, Australia, and many islands of the Eastern Ocean.
+ Its members are typically black-skinned and woolly haired, with
+ projecting jaws and broad skulls.
+
+ =Etruscans.= An ancient Italian people, inhabiting Etruria
+ in North Italy in pre-Roman times. They probably consisted of an
+ aboriginal Pelasgian (_q.v._) race, modified by a dominant race of
+ invaders, who may have been of Mongolic type, or perhaps akin to
+ the Hittites (_q.v._). The Etruscans may be classed as Hamitic.
+ They had a distinctive civilisation, and made great progress in
+ art, of which many monuments remain. The Etruscan confederation,
+ of which Veii was the chief city, long warred with the rising
+ power of Rome, under whose dominion it fell in the fourth century
+ B.C. Families of undoubted Etruscan descent are still
+ found in North Italy.
+
+ =Europeans.= Natives of Europe, mainly Aryan.
+
+ =Ewe.= A group of Sudanese Negro tribes of Guinea Coast. The
+ best known are the Dahomans, or natives of the ancient kingdom
+ of Dahomey, on the Slave Coast. Of small stature, but robust and
+ warlike, they are noted for their great human sacrifices and their
+ employment of female warriors or “Amazons.” Now under French rule.
+ The Togos are also an Ewe tribe.
+
+[Illustration: AN ARAB VILLAGE ON THE BORDERS OF EGYPT]
+
+ =Fans.= A race of powerful and aggressive warriors, who
+ intruded into Gaboon-Ogoway district about the middle of the
+ nineteenth century; possibly related to Azandeh or Fulahs
+ (_q.v._). Cannibals, but otherwise of higher intellect and morality
+ than the average Negro, from whom they differ in physical type.
+
+ =Fantis.= See TSHI.
+
+ =Fellahin.= The labouring peasantry of modern Egypt,
+ industrious but not warlike, descendants of ancient Egyptians, with
+ a mixture of Syrian and Arab blood.
+
+ =Felup.= A group of Sudanese Negro tribes on Casamanza and
+ Cacheo estuaries.
+
+ =Fertits.= See NILITIC GROUP.
+
+ =Fijians.= Natives of Fiji, belonging to the Melanesian stock
+ of the Oceanic Negro family. Formerly ferocious cannibals, they are
+ now civilised.
+
+ =Filipinos.= See PHILIPPINES.
+
+ =Fingus=, or =Ama-Fingu=. Bantu Negroes of the Kafir
+ division in South-east Africa, regarded by Zulus and Ama-Xosa as an
+ inferior race.
+
+ =Finno-Ugrian.= A stock of the Northern Mongolic family,
+ including (1) Ugrian or Siberian Finns, of which the chief races
+ are Soyots, Ostyaks, Samoyedes, Voguls, Permian Finns, Siryanians,
+ and Magyars (_q.v._); (2) European Finns, divided into: (_a_) Volga
+ Finns, (_b_) Baltic Finns.
+
+ =Finns.= The Finns proper are the inhabitants of Finland,
+ between Russia and Norway. They are a Northern Mongolic race, of
+ Finno-Ugrian stock, who are supposed to have originated beside
+ the head waters of the Yenisei River. They entered Finland about
+ the end of the seventh century and established themselves there,
+ being afterwards annexed, first by Sweden and then by Russia.
+ They are a strong, hardy race, who make excellent seamen, with
+ round faces, fair hair and blue eyes. They are honest, highly
+ moral and religious, and possess a remarkable ballad and folk-tale
+ literature, of which the Kalevala is the chief example. The
+ Baltic Finns of allied race include Esthonians, Karelians, Lapps,
+ Livonians and Tavastians (_q.v._). The Volga Finns are another
+ branch of the same people, whose chief tribe was the ancient
+ Bulgars (_q.v._). The Mordvins and Cheremisses, still settled on
+ the banks of the Volga in small communities, belong to the same
+ race.
+
+ =Flathead= or =Salish Indians=. A mixed race of North
+ American Indians, in British Columbia and Montana.
+
+ =Flemings=, or =Flemish=. The inhabitants of Flanders,
+ now divided between Belgium and Holland, descended from Belgic
+ tribes settled there in Cæsar’s time. They are a Low German branch
+ of the Teutonic stock. They are an industrious and honest, though
+ phlegmatic, people, who played a great part in mediæval commerce.
+
+ =Formosans.= Natives of Formosa, of mixed Malayan and Negrito
+ descent. They were divided into three classes by the Chinese
+ invaders: the Pepohwan, civilised agriculturists, under Chinese
+ rule; Sekhwan, settled tribes who acknowledged Chinese rule; and
+ Chinhwan, the wild savage tribes of the mountains, who waged
+ unceasing war against the invaders. The island has now passed under
+ Japanese dominion. The Formosans in general approximate to the
+ Malay type, but are more sturdily built.
+
+ =Fox Indians.= See ALGONQUIAN.
+
+ =Franks.= A confederation of Germanic tribes, dwelling on the
+ Middle and Lower Rhine in the third century. They belonged to the
+ High German branch of the Teutonic stock. In the third and fourth
+ centuries they began to invade Gaul, where they established a
+ Frankish kingdom under Clovis (481-511), who adopted Christianity.
+ This later developed into the modern State of France. The Franks
+ were a brave and stalwart race of warriors, with blue eyes and long
+ flowing hair, well-built and large-limbed. They were a nation of
+ democratic fighting men, who practised agriculture in the intervals
+ of war.
+
+ =French.= The inhabitants of modern France, a race of
+ mixed origin. Among their ancestors are the Celtic Gauls, the
+ Teutonic Belgae and Franks, the Hamitic Iberians, the Romans,
+ and the Scandinavian Normans (_q.v._). They are probably the
+ quickest-witted and most intelligent race of modern Europe.
+ Extremely warlike and aggressive in earlier days, they are now
+ displaying greater devotion to the arts of peace, especially
+ agriculture. Paris has long been the chief centre of ideas in
+ Europe.
+
+ =Frisians.= A Teutonic race of Low German stock, living
+ between Scheldt and Weser in Roman times, now belonging to the
+ Netherlands.
+
+ =Fuegians.= Natives of Tierra del Fuego in South America,
+ savages of a very low physical and mental type.
+
+ =Fulahs.= A warlike and predatory race of Saharan Hamites,
+ formerly occupying small communities throughout the West and
+ Central Sudan, who over-ran the native Hausa States about
+ 1800-1810, and founded the empire of Sokoto.
+
+ =Furs.= See NUBA GROUP.
+
+ =Ga.= A Sudanese Negro group in Guinea, including Accras and
+ Krobos.
+
+ =Gaels.= See HIGHLANDERS.
+
+ =Gaikas= and =Galekas=. See XOSAS.
+
+ =Galchas.= Highlanders of Hindu Kush and Turkistan, of Iranian
+ descent.
+
+ =Gallegos.= Natives of Galicia, in Spain, of Gothic descent.
+
+ =Gallas.= A branch of Eastern Hamites, occupying Gallaland,
+ south of Abyssinia. The finest people in all Africa, strongly
+ built, of a light chocolate colour. They are distinguished for
+ their energy and honesty. They are divided into numerous tribes,
+ and are inveterate foes of the Somalis.
+
+ =Gallinas.= Sudanese Negroes of Sierra Leone.
+
+ =Garamantes.= An ancient Hamitic race inhabiting the
+ neighbourhood of Tripoli in Roman times.
+
+ =Garhwalis.= Tibetan natives of Garhwal, on the border of
+ Tibet.
+
+ =Gascons.= Natives of Gascony, of Basque descent, modified
+ by Frank and French blood. They are notorious for their lively
+ imagination and boasting “Gasconades.”
+
+ =Gauchos.= A mixed race of Spanish and Indian descent,
+ admirable horsemen, who are the chief herdsmen of Uruguay and the
+ Argentine Republic. See PUELCHES.
+
+ =Gauls.= In Cæsar’s time the Gauls occupied the central part,
+ and formed the chief race, of modern France, which, after them,
+ was called Gaul. They probably belonged to the Brythonic division
+ of the Celtic stock, being closely allied to the ancient Britons,
+ as well as to the modern Welsh and Bretons, who respectively
+ represent the remnants of the primitive Celtic population of
+ England and France. It is possible that there was a still earlier
+ Celtic element in France, corresponding to the Goidelic division of
+ the Celtic stock. Mingled with the Celtic element in the Gauls were
+ traces of the earlier Iberian and Ligurian aborigines (_q.v._). The
+ Gauls were blue-eyed, fair-haired and long-headed, in distinction
+ to the older dark-eyed, black-haired, round-headed type, which is
+ more commonly known as Celtic, but is probably characteristic of
+ an older race. Under Roman rule the Gauls acquired a considerable
+ degree of civilisation. They were dispossessed in the decline of
+ the empire by Franks, Burgundians and Visigoths (_q.v._), but
+ became in part ancestors of the modern French.
+
+ =Georgians.= The chief race of the Southern Caucasus, a fine
+ athletic race of pure Caucasic type, noted for the personal beauty
+ of its individuals. The Georgians were formerly fierce and warlike,
+ but under Russian rule have become industrious in the arts of
+ peace. They are noted for a passionate love of music. They first
+ appear in history in the time of Alexander the Great, when they
+ were already settled in their mountains. The Georgian kingdom had
+ an independent existence for about seven centuries, but suffered
+ much from Mongolian and especially Turkish invasions. Georgia
+ and Circassia furnished the majority of white slaves for Turkish
+ harems. In 1801 Georgia was annexed to Russia. Other important
+ South Caucasian races are the Imerians and the Mingrelians, who
+ closely resemble the Georgians in physical characteristics, but
+ have displayed less aptitude for civilisation.
+
+ =Gepidæ.= See GOTHS.
+
+ =Getæ.= An ancient race of Thracian (_q.v._) descent, who
+ settled in Wallachia in the fourth century B.C. They
+ were warlike and turbulent, but were conquered by Trajan and
+ incorporated in the Roman Empire. In later centuries they appear to
+ have been fused with the Goths (_q.v._).
+
+ =Germans.= The Germans first appear in history as a multitude
+ of independent and warlike tribes living amongst the dense forests
+ which stretched in Roman times from the Rhine to the Vistula.
+ They belonged to the Teutonic stock of the Aryan family. They
+ were a tall and vigorous race, with long, fair hair and fierce
+ blue eyes, who delighted in war and the chase. Their democratic
+ social organisation has greatly influenced all Teutonic history;
+ their love of liberty was a passion. At an early period they were
+ divided into High and Low Germans, differing in type, according as
+ they inhabited the central and southern portions of modern Germany
+ or the low-lying lands towards the North Sea and the Baltic. The
+ chief races of the former were the Goths, Franks, Burgundians,
+ Swiss, Swabians, Austrians; of the latter, Saxons, Angles, Jutes,
+ Frisians, Flemings, Batavi--from whom the modern English and
+ Dutch are descended, whilst the High Germans represent the modern
+ Germans. These are a very enterprising, thorough, and industrious
+ race, alike in war and peace, and have thus given birth to one of
+ the greatest Powers of the modern world.
+
+ =Ghilzais.= See AFGHANS.
+
+ =Gilyaks.= A Siberian Mongolic race of Saghalien.
+
+ =Gipsies.= A nomadic race, which was first described as
+ appearing in Europe in the fifteenth century, and is now found in
+ nearly all civilised countries. At first they were believed to come
+ from Egypt, and their name is a corruption of “Egyptians.” They
+ have a dark, tawny skin, black hair and eyes, are small-handed
+ and often very handsome, and live by tinkering, basket-making,
+ fortune-telling, and other arts which can be practised on the
+ road. Their chief characteristic is independence and love of a
+ wandering life. Their origin is still uncertain; though their
+ language, Romany, is known to be a corrupt dialect of Hindi, which
+ supports the older theory that they are of Indian descent. A later
+ and well-supported theory is that they are the descendants of the
+ prehistoric race which introduced metal-working into Europe. On
+ this view they must have existed in Europe from time immemorial,
+ without being noticed in literature. The gipsy problem still awaits
+ solution.
+
+ =Goajiris.= See TUPI-GUARANI.
+
+ =Golden Hordes.= See KIPCHAKS.
+
+ =Gonaquas.= Hottentot Negro half breeds on Kafirland frontier.
+
+ =Goads.= See DRAVIDAS.
+
+ =Goths.= One of the chief Teutonic races of ancient times,
+ who played a great part in European history from the third to
+ the eighth century, but have left no descendants as a distinct
+ race. They first appear in history in the third century, as a
+ confederation of German tribes who had made a settlement in the
+ district north of the Lower Danube. They soon split up into two
+ distinct peoples, the East Goths or Ostrogoths, and the West Goths
+ or Visigoths. There was a third and unimportant race of Mœsogoths,
+ settled in Mœsia, for whom Ulfilas made his famous translation of
+ the Scriptures. The Goths were extremely warlike and aggressive,
+ a typical race of German warriors. The Ostrogoths remained north
+ of the Danube, where they were subjugated for a time by the Huns
+ of Attila. Recovering their independence, they invaded Italy,
+ destroyed the Western Empire, and established a new kingdom under
+ Theodoric. This was conquered by the Byzantine Narses in 552,
+ after which the Ostrogoths disappear from history. The Visigoths,
+ unwilling to submit to the Huns, crossed the Danube and settled in
+ the Roman Empire, where they furnished many recruits for the army.
+ In 395 they rebelled, and under Alaric invaded Italy and besieged
+ Rome. Afterwards they founded kingdoms in the south of Gaul and in
+ Spain, where the Visigoths ruled till the invasion of the Saracens,
+ and where their blood is still found incorporated with that of
+ the older races. A branch of the Ostrogoths which settled in the
+ Crimea preserved its nationality and language down to the sixteenth
+ century, or even later. The Bastarnæ, Gepidæ, and perhaps the
+ Vandals (_q.v._), were branches of the Gothic race.
+
+ =Greeks.= (1) For ancient Greeks, see HELLENES. (2)
+ The modern Greeks are partly descendants of ancient Greeks, with a
+ large admixture of Albanian, Wallachian and Slavonic elements. They
+ are great in commerce, but not warlike.
+
+ =Griquas.= A race of Hottentot-Dutch half-breeds, also known
+ as Bastaards, in Griqualand.
+
+ =Guaicuris.= Central American Indians of Lower California.
+
+ =Guanches.= Aborigines of Canary Islands: so-called “White
+ Africans,” probably of Berber Hamitic stock.
+
+ =Guatemalans.= White natives of Guatemala, in Central America,
+ of Spanish descent.
+
+ =Guatusas.= Central American Indians of Costa Rica.
+
+ =Guebres.= See PARSEES.
+
+ =Gujeratis.= Natives of Gujerat in Western India, Aryans of
+ Hindu stock.
+
+ =Gurkas.= The dominant race of Nepal, who claim a Hindu
+ (Aryan) origin, but have probably acquired a Mongoloid tinge from
+ inter-marriages. They are of small stature, yet eminently warlike,
+ and supply some of the best troops to our Indian Army.
+
+ =Gypsies.= See GIPSIES.
+
+ =Hadendowas.= See BEJAS.
+
+ =Haidas.= North American Indians in British Columbia.
+
+ =Hamites.= A family of Caucasic Man, belonging to the
+ Melanochroid or dark type, ranging in colour from white to brown,
+ and even black; hair soft, straight or wavy; skull, medium
+ (mesocephalic); square-jawed (orthognathous); generally of fine
+ physical development. Divided into Eastern Hamites--_e.g._, Somali,
+ and Western Hamites--_e.g._, Berbers and Basques. Closely related
+ to Semites.
+
+ =Hau-Khoin.= See HEREROS.
+
+ =Hausas.= The most important Sudanese Negro race of Northern
+ Nigeria. Keen traders, physically well developed, they make
+ excellent soldiers, and are largely utilised for this purpose by
+ their British rulers. The Hausa States were over-run by the Hamitic
+ Fulahs (_q.v._) about 1800-1810, and now form part of the Empire of
+ Sokoto. The Hausa language is the common medium of commerce in the
+ Central Sudan.
+
+ =Hawaiians.= Natives of Hawaii, of brown Polynesian stock,
+ akin to Maoris. A remarkably fine and handsome race, steadily
+ decreasing since contact with European civilisation and diseases.
+ Peculiarly subject to leprosy.
+
+ =Haytians.= Natives of the negro republic of Hayti, descended
+ from negro slaves imported by the earlier Spanish and French
+ owners, who freed themselves at the time of the French Revolution.
+ The Spanish portion afterwards formed the Dominican Republic in
+ the eastern part of the island. Of mixed Bantu and Sudanese Negro
+ descent, with a cross of white blood.
+
+ =Hazaras.= Mountaineers of N.W. Afghanistan, a vigorous and
+ turbulent race of Mongolo-Persian descent, often troublesome to
+ British India.
+
+ =Hebrews.= See JEWS.
+
+ =Hellenes.= Inhabitants of ancient Greece, which they called
+ Hellas. The Proto-Hellenes, or aborigines, were probably of
+ Pelasgian origin, belonging to the Western Hamitic family, of
+ whom the ancient Cretans and Mycenæans (_q.v._) may represent the
+ ancestral type. These were followed by the true Hellenes--Achæans
+ or Argives--divided into three main branches--Dorians, Ionians, and
+ Æolians. Later they were divided into many local states, such as
+ Athens and Sparta. The modern Greeks are in part descended from the
+ Hellenes, crossed with Albanian, Wallachian, and Turkish blood. It
+ is to the Hellenes that we owe the first important developments of
+ civilisation in Europe.
+
+ =Helveti.= Ancient inhabitants of Switzerland in Cæsar’s time,
+ probably a German tribe, from whom the modern Swiss are in part
+ descended.
+
+ =Hereros=, or =Ovaherero=. Bantu Negroes inhabiting the
+ plains of Damaraland, or German South-West Africa. The Damaras or
+ Hau-Khoin are a cross between Hereros and the Hottentot aborigines.
+ A pastoral nation who migrated thither about two centuries ago from
+ the inland districts, and dispossessed the aboriginal Hottentots,
+ now represented by the Namas of Namaqualand, with whom they
+ are perennially at war. Recently they rose against the German
+ authorities, and have given them much trouble. A fine, warlike race.
+
+ =Highlanders.= The Gaelic-speaking inhabitants of Northern
+ Scotland, a branch of the Goidelic or Q Kelts, also known as Gaels.
+ They are descended from the ancient Scots (_q.v._), who originally
+ migrated from Ireland in the fifth century. One of the finest races
+ of the British Islands, who give them their finest soldiers.
+
+ =Himyarites.= A branch of the Semitic family (“Red Men,”
+ whence the Red Sea), formerly occupying Arabia Felix and Abyssinia;
+ they form the main stock of the Abyssinian race. They included the
+ kingdoms of the Minæans and Sabæans, the latter being identified by
+ some with the Biblical Sheba.
+
+ =Hindus.= A stock of the Aryan family, comprising a large
+ proportion of the natives of India, described under the headings
+ of Kashmiris, Punjabis, Rajputs, Marathas, Bengalis, Sindis,
+ Gujeratis, Assamis, etc. The original Hindus entered India--hence
+ called Hindustan--from the north-west at some prehistoric time, and
+ soon became the predominant race in the peninsula.
+
+ =Hittites.= A forgotten but once mighty people of Semitic
+ race, who contested the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, and
+ waged war with Egypt and Assyria for many centuries. Little is
+ known about them, but they seem to have reared a mighty empire
+ between Lebanon and the Euphrates, which endured for more than a
+ thousand years, and was destroyed by the Assyrian Sargon II. in 717
+ B.C.
+
+ =Hondurans.= White natives of Honduras, of Spanish descent;
+ few in numbers, the population being mostly of mixed blood.
+
+ =Hor-Soks.= A primitive Mongol-Turki race of the Tibetan
+ plateau.
+
+ =Hottentots=, or =Khoi-Khoin=. The aboriginal Negro
+ inhabitants of South Africa, which they shared with the Bushmen
+ (_q.v._). Possibly the Bushmen are degraded Hottentots, or the
+ Hottentots are a cross between the Bantus from the north and the
+ Bushmen, who would on this view be the true aborigines. The only
+ surviving race of pure Hottentots are the Namas of Namaqualand: the
+ Damaras, Griquas, Gonaquas, and Koranas, are other races in which
+ Hottentot blood is mixed with that of Bantu Negroes or of Europeans
+ (mostly Boers). The Hottentots are a distinct branch of the Negro
+ family, marked by extremely long heads and high cheek-bones, a
+ brownish-yellow complexion, with other physical peculiarities
+ exemplified in the so-called “Hottentot Venus,” and also found in
+ the Bushmen. Their language is peculiar for its unique “clicks,”
+ which no European can pronounce, and which seem to stand between
+ articulate and inarticulate speech.
+
+ =Hovas.= The dominant Malagasy race of Madagascar, of Malay
+ descent, mixed with Bantu Negro blood from Africa. They stand
+ nearest to pure Malays of all Malagasy peoples. The existing French
+ Protectorate was only established after much fighting with the
+ warlike Hovas, who had conquered all the other native tribes.
+
+ =Huastec.= See MAYA-QUICHÉ.
+
+ =Hungarians.= See MAGYARS.
+
+ =Huns.= A nomad race of the Northern Mongolic family,
+ probably of Turki stock, who settled in the neighbourhood of the
+ Volga and the Urals about the dawn of the Christian era. In the
+ fourth century they conquered and dispossessed the Ostrogoths and
+ Visigoths on the Danube. Under Attila, in the fifth century, they
+ invaded Greece and Gaul, and pushed their arms as far as Rome,
+ which was only saved by the diplomacy of the Pope. Their cruel
+ fierceness in war caused their great leader to be known as the
+ Scourge of God. Like the Mongols, they were essentially a race of
+ horsemen, and their “deformed figures and hideous Mongolic faces”
+ added to the terror which they inspired. After Attila’s death in
+ 453 the Huns fell to pieces, and soon were absorbed into other
+ nations--especially, perhaps, the Bulgars.
+
+ =Hunzas.= See DARDS.
+
+ =Hupas.= See ATHABASCAN.
+
+ =Hurons=, or =Wyandots=. A North American Indian race of
+ Iroquoian stock, formerly inhabiting the shores of Lake Huron.
+
+ =Hyksos.= A Northern Mongolic race who invaded Egypt
+ and established the dynasty of the Shepherd kings about 2000
+ B.C.
+
+ =Ibeas.= A Negro race which recently invaded the Cameroons
+ from the East: they bring down ivory from the unexplored interior.
+ Either Bantu, or Sudanese--perhaps connected with the Azandeh
+ (_q.v._).
+
+ =Iberi=, or =Iberians=. An ancient race of Western
+ Hamites, related to the fair Berbers of Mauritania. The Basques
+ are probably descended from them, and there is good reason
+ for identifying them with the Picts of Scotland and the Irish
+ aborigines.
+
+ =Ibo.= See ABO.
+
+ =Icelanders.= Inhabitants of Iceland, originally Norwegians,
+ who settled there about the end of the ninth century. A typical
+ tall, fair-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavian race. The Icelandic Sagas
+ form the chief part of ancient Scandinavian literature.
+
+ =Idumæans= or =Edomites=. A warlike Semitic race of
+ Canaanite stock, thought to be descended from Esau, who were
+ conquered by the Israelites under Saul and David, and again by
+ Judas Maccabæus in 165 B.C., after which they disappear
+ from history.
+
+ =Ife.= See YORUBAS.
+
+ =Igorrotes.= An industrious agricultural race of the
+ Philippine Islands. Indonesians of Malay descent, with a possible
+ Chinese or Japanese element.
+
+ =Illinois Indians.= See ALGONQUIAN.
+
+ =Illyrians.= A savage piratical race of the eastern Adriatic
+ sea-board, who were conquered by the Romans, and were the last of
+ the Balkan peoples to be civilised. Probably the modern Albanians
+ are descended from them, and they were among the first Aryan
+ immigrants to Europe.
+
+ =Ilocanos.= A Malay race of the Philippine Islands.
+
+ =Imerians.= See GEORGIANS.
+
+ =Incas.= The chief of the six Indian races, including the
+ Quichuas and the warlike Chancas, which formerly occupied the
+ central mountain-region of Peru. The Incas became the dominant
+ race about 1000 A.D., and built up a vast and peaceful
+ civilisation, in which a purely socialistic government was
+ successfully administered. This Inca Empire was destroyed by the
+ Spanish under Pizarro in 1533, but the Inca Indians still survive
+ as a race in Central Peru, where they are known as industrious and
+ honest agriculturists.
+
+ =Indians.= Native races (1) of India; (2) of North, Central,
+ and South America.
+
+ =Indo-Chinese.= A section of the Southern Mongolic family,
+ inhabiting the countries between India and China.
+
+ =Indo-European, Indo-German.= See ARYAN.
+
+ =Indonesians.= The light-coloured, non-Malay inhabitants of
+ the Eastern Archipelago and South Sea Islands, who are of Caucasic
+ type, and are mostly brown-skinned Polynesians (_q.v._). They also
+ include the Batjans of Batjan I., the Burus, Korongui, and Suvu of
+ the Malay Archipelago, and the Mentawey Islanders (_q.v._).
+
+ =Ingushis.= See CHECHENZES.
+
+ =Innuits.= See ESKIMOS.
+
+ =Ionians.= (1) One of the three main Hellenic races of ancient
+ Greece. (2) Greek inhabitants of the coast districts and islands of
+ Western Asia Minor, forming the Ionian League, who passed in the
+ sixth century B.C. under the Persian sway.
+
+ =Iowa Indians.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Iranians.= Ancient inhabitants of the Asian plateau bounded
+ by the Indus, the Tigris, and the Hindu Kush. A stock of the Aryan
+ family, now including Persians, Afghans, Baluchis, Kurds, and
+ Armenians (_q.v._).
+
+ =Irish.= (1) The aborigines of Ireland, probably Iberians
+ (_q.v._). (2) The later Erse-speaking inhabitants of Ireland,
+ a branch of the Goidelic or Q Celts. (3) Modern inhabitants of
+ Ireland, mostly Celtic, but largely mixed with Teutonic elements in
+ the north.
+
+ =Iroquoian.= One of the families of North American Indians,
+ including the Iroquois, or “Six Nations,” who comprised the
+ Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, Tuscaroras and Cayugas;
+ the Hurons, or Wyandots, including the Eries, and the Cherokees.
+ Their territory was Upper Canada, round the great lakes, New York,
+ and the Virginian Highlands, and they played a large part in the
+ Franco-British warfare of the eighteenth century. They are now few
+ in numbers and confined to Indian Reservations in the U.S. and
+ Canada.
+
+ =Israelites.= See JEWS.
+
+ =Italians.= (1) Ancient inhabitants of Italy, of Ligurian
+ stock, probably Eastern Hamites, related to the Pelasgians [see
+ LATINS and ROMANS]. (2) Modern Italians, mostly
+ of Latin stock, crossed with Teutonic (Gothic and Lombard) blood.
+
+ =Italic.= A stock of the Aryan family, including ancient and
+ modern Italians (with ancient Romans), modern French, Spanish,
+ Portuguese, and Roumanian, with Latin (Spanish and Portuguese)
+ Americans.
+
+ =Jallonké.= See MANDINGAN.
+
+ =Jangalis.= An aboriginal Indian tribe, inhabiting the forest
+ district north of Cuttack--the most primitive race in all India.
+ Perhaps an early Dravidian (_q.v._) stock.
+
+ =Japanese.= A race of the Northern Mongolian family, probably
+ originating in Korea, whence they spread to Japan and dispossessed
+ the Ainu aborigines, about the dawn of the Christian era. The
+ most enterprising and civilised people in Asia, often called “the
+ English of the Far East.” They possess a singularly high standard
+ of honour and patriotism, which was the main factor in their recent
+ victory over Russia, and they are eminently warlike, besides
+ producing industrious agriculturists and enterprising traders.
+ Of short but sturdy stature, white skin and yellow or sallowish
+ complexion, oblique eyes, black hair.
+
+ =Jats.= A numerous agricultural race of the Punjab in
+ North-west India. They are probably of an Aryan stock, but
+ ethnologists disagree as to their history, assigning them ancient
+ Scythian invaders, the Rajputs, or the Gipsies, for ancestors.
+
+ =Javanese.= A Malay race inhabiting Java, where they
+ dispossessed the Negrito aborigines [see KALANGS] in
+ prehistoric times. The Sundanese and Madurese are allied tribes,
+ possessing parts of the island of Java, now under Dutch rule.
+
+ =Jebus.= See YORUBAS.
+
+ =Jews=, =Hebrews=, or =Israelites=. The most
+ important of Semitic races, of the ancient Canaanite stock. The
+ Israelites descended from Abraham, who came from Mesopotamia to
+ Canaan about 2000 B.C.; thence they migrated to Egypt, and
+ returned to take possession of Palestine. Their history is familiar
+ to all from the Bible. After the Roman capture of Jerusalem under
+ Titus, 70 A.D., the Jews--as they were now called--were
+ dispersed through the world, but they have retained their racial
+ characteristics in remarkable purity through long persecutions, and
+ now play a great part in the commerce and finance of nearly all
+ civilised countries, though they have no national unity or racial
+ home.
+
+ =Jivaros.= South American Indians, in Peru, on the head-waters
+ of the Amazon.
+
+ =Jolofs.= See WOLOFS.
+
+ =Jutes.= Early inhabitants of Jutland, a Low German branch of
+ Teutonic stock, who invaded England in the fifth century and made
+ the first Teutonic settlement in that country, in Kent.
+
+ =Kabards.= A Western Caucasian race, allied to the Circassians
+ (_q.v._) and presenting a high standard of physical beauty.
+
+ =Kabyles.= See BERBERS.
+
+ =Kacharis.= Natives of the Terai at the foot of the Himalayas,
+ belonging to the Tibetan stock of the Southern Mongolic family.
+
+ =Kafirs=, or =Kaffirs=. Generic name of the fierce and
+ warlike Bantu Negro races which occupied the south-eastern seaboard
+ of South Africa when Europeans first colonised that country. They
+ then held all the coast lands from the Gamboos to the Limpopo.
+ The southern part (Kaffraria) belonged to the Kafirs proper, and
+ the northern (Zululand) to the Zulus, an allied race, but usually
+ distinguished from the Kafirs, or Ama-Xosa, whose chief tribes are
+ Galekas, Gaikas and Tembus (_q.v._). Throughout the greater part
+ of the nineteenth century the English settlers were engaged in
+ constant Kafir wars, which resulted in the gradual subjugation of
+ both Kafirs and Zulus.
+
+ =Kafirs.= Fair-skinned mountaineers of Kafiristan, between
+ the Kabul River and Hindu Kush. An offshoot of the Aryan family,
+ thought by some to be descendants in part of the Greek troops with
+ which Alexander the Great invaded India.
+
+ =Kakhyens.= A race of freebooters, inhabiting the northern
+ frontiers of Burma, whence they raid the more civilised
+ agriculturists of the plains and levy blackmail. A Southern
+ Mongolic race of Indo-Chinese stock.
+
+ =Kalangs.= A recently extinct Negrito race of Java, remnants
+ of the aborigines of that island; small, black and woolly-haired,
+ with very retreating forehead and projecting jaws. The most
+ ape-like of human beings, and the nearest approach yet found to the
+ “missing link” between man and ape. They belonged to the Oceanic
+ Negro family.
+
+ =Kalmuks.= The Western Mongol stock of the Northern Mongolic
+ family, scattered through Central Asia, and extending into Southern
+ Russia. Nomadic pastors, owning large flocks and herds, and living
+ in tents on the great steppes, they include the tribes of the
+ Chorasses, Turguts, Khoshots, and Durbats. A large horde of Kalmuks
+ invaded Russia in 1650, and settled there for a century, but in
+ 1771 most of them were expelled, and endured great sufferings on
+ the march to China, so brilliantly described by De Quincy. These
+ were mainly Khoshots and Durbats.
+
+ =Kamchadales.= A Siberian branch of the Northern Mongolic
+ family, inhabiting Kamchatka; a hardy race of hunters and fishers.
+
+ =Kanakas.= A name given to South Sea Islanders, generally
+ by sailors and traders, and especially to Polynesian labourers
+ imported to Queensland.
+
+ =Kanakas=, or =Bakanaka=. Negro aborigines of Angola,
+ probably akin to the Bushmen. Other similar tribes are the Korokas,
+ Kulabes, Kwandes and Kwisses.
+
+ =Kanarese.= Mongoloid aborigines of Mysore in India. See
+ DRAVIDIANS.
+
+ =Kanembu, Kanuris.= See LAKE CHAD GROUP.
+
+ =Kara-Kalpaks=, or =Black Bonnets=. A branch of the Turki
+ stock of the Northern Mongolic family, dwelling on the south-east
+ of the Aral Sea and in the Oxus basin. A pacific pastoral race,
+ dominated by their warlike relatives, the nomadic Kirghiz, and now
+ subject to Russia.
+
+ =Kara-Kirghiz.= See KIRGHIZ.
+
+ =Karelians.= An Eastern branch of Baltic Finns dwelling in
+ the eastern parts of Finland and adjoining provinces of Russia.
+ Probably a Slavo-Mongolic mixture in which the original Mongolic
+ element has been largely eliminated.
+
+ =Karens.= Inhabitants of Burma, of the Indo-Chinese branch
+ of the Southern Mongolic family. Largely Christianised. Formerly
+ oppressed by the Burmans, than whom they are less clever, but more
+ industrious. Agriculturists.
+
+ =Karons.= A Negrito race of New Guinea, of very degraded type,
+ and addicted to cannibalism.
+
+ =Kargos.= See NUBA GROUP.
+
+ =Kashmiris.= Natives of Kashmir, belonging to the Hindu
+ branch of the Aryan family. Of fine physique, but corrupt and
+ untrustworthy.
+
+ =Kassonké.= See MANDINGAN.
+
+ =Kazaks.= See KIRGHIZ.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ A RED INDIAN CHIEF AND HIS FAMILY Underwood & Underwood
+]
+
+ =Kelts=, or =Celts=. A stock of the Aryan family which
+ settled in France and the British Islands in prehistoric times. The
+ Gauls and Belgæ of Cæsar’s time and the early Britons represent
+ them. They are divided into two branches, Goidelic and Brythonic
+ Celts, respectively known also as Q and P Celts, from a linguistic
+ peculiarity. The former are represented in modern times by Irish,
+ Manx, and Scottish Highlanders; the latter by Welsh, Cornish,
+ and Bretons. The typical Celt was probably a tall, broad-headed
+ individual, with prominent nose, high cheek-bones, light hair and
+ eyes. The small, round-headed, dark race which is also classed as
+ Celtic, is more probably an earlier Hamitic type, allied to the
+ Basques (_q.v._).
+
+ =Khulkas.= A nomadic race of Eastern Mongols, occupying the
+ Gobi desert.
+
+ =Khamtis.= An Assamese race--Indo-Chinese stock of Southern
+ Mongolic family--in the Brahmaputra Valley.
+
+ =Khasis.= An Indo-Chinese hill tribe of Southern Mongolic
+ family, in Khasi Hills of Assam.
+
+ =Khoi-Khoin.= The name given to themselves by the Hottentots
+ (_q.v._).
+
+ =Khoshots.= See KALMUKS.
+
+ =Kickapoos.= See ALGONQUIAN.
+
+ =Kiowas.= A North American Indian race in Oklahoma.
+
+ =Kipchaks.= A Turki race of Northern Mongolic family, settled
+ in eleventh century between Urals and Don. In the middle of the
+ thirteenth century, Batu Khan, a son of Genghiz Khan, led them
+ to conquer all Central and South Russia, where they founded the
+ Empire of the Golden Horde. It was broken up by Tamerlane about
+ 1390, and from its fragments arose the Khanates of Astrakhan, the
+ Crimea, etc., now absorbed by Russia. From the Eastern Kipchaks
+ are descended the Kirghiz (_q.v._), one of whose hordes is still
+ known as Kipchak. The modern Kipchaks are nomadic, and live by
+ stock-feeding in the steppes of western Turkestan.
+
+ =Kirantis.= A Tibetan race of East Nepal, of Southern Mongolic
+ family.
+
+ =Kirghiz.= A nomadic people of Central Asia, where they occupy
+ the vast steppes which lie to the north of Turkestan. They are
+ descended from the Kipchaks (_q.v._) of the Golden Horde. They
+ form a group of the Turki stock of the Northern Mongolic family.
+ The Kara-Kirghiz, who inhabit the uplands between the Issik-Kul
+ and the Kuen-Lun, are the oldest Turki nomads of whom there is any
+ historical record, and are divided into On and Sol--right and left
+ wings. The Kirghiz proper, who call themselves Kazaks, or “riders,”
+ roam from Lake Balkash to the Volga, over the vast level steppes,
+ where they dwell in skin tents and support themselves by breeding
+ camels, horses, oxen, sheep and goats. They live in the saddle, and
+ were formerly a warlike people, who once could put 400,000 fighting
+ men in the field. They are divided into four hordes--Great, Middle
+ or Kipchak, Little, and Inner. They are all now under Russian
+ dominion.
+
+ =Kishis.= See CHECHENZES.
+
+ =Kissis.= See TEMNÉ GROUP.
+
+ =Kizil-Bashis.= Persianised Turkis of Afghanistan, belonging
+ to Turki branch of Northern Mongolic family, who supply the chief
+ commercial classes of Afghanistan.
+
+ =Kolajis.= See NUBA GROUP.
+
+ =Kolarians.= One of the three non-Aryan races to which the
+ primitive inhabitants of India belonged, of the Indo-Chinese stock
+ of the Southern Mongolic family. They entered Bengal from the
+ north-east, and are now represented by a few scattered tribes, like
+ the Santals, Mundas, Kurkus, and Bhils.
+
+ =Koranas.= See HOTTENTOTS.
+
+ =Koreans.= Natives of Korea, belonging to the Koreo-Japanese
+ stock of the Northern Mongol family. They stand midway between
+ Chinese and Japanese, the latter being probably their descendants,
+ and are taller, with lighter complexion and more regular features,
+ than the typical Mongol. Their civilisation is of Chinese origin.
+ They are not warlike, but are prosperous agriculturists.
+
+ =Korokas.= See KANAKAS.
+
+ =Korungas.= See WADAI GROUP.
+
+ =Koryaks.= An Arctic race of North-east Siberia, allied to the
+ Chukchis (_q.v._).
+
+ =Krej.= See NILITIC GROUP.
+
+ =Krim-Tartars.= See TARTARS.
+
+ =Krus=, or =Krooboys=. Sudanese Negroes of Liberian
+ Group. Bold and skilful boatmen, employed for that purpose all
+ along the West African Coast.
+
+ =Kulabes.= See KANAKAS.
+
+ =Kulfans, Kunjaras.= See NUBA GROUP.
+
+ =Kurds.= Native of Kurdistan, partly nomad and pastoral,
+ partly settled and agricultural. A fierce and warlike people, they
+ are much given to raiding, and were utilised by the Sultan to
+ oppress the Armenians. They have settled in Kurdistan from time
+ immemorial, and belong to the Iranian stock of the Aryan family.
+
+ =Kurile Islanders.= See AINUS.
+
+ =Kurinis.= See LESGHIANS.
+
+ =Kurkus.= A broken Kolarian tribe, allied to the Santals of
+ Central India, belonging to the Indo-Chinese branch of Southern
+ Mongolic family.
+
+ =Kutchins.= See ATHABASCAN.
+
+ =Kwandes, Kwisses.= See KANAKAS.
+
+ =Ladakhis.= Natives of Ladakh in the Upper Indus Valley,
+ belonging to the Tibetan stock of the Southern Mongolic family,
+ conquered by Kashmir in seventeenth century.
+
+ =Lake Chad Group.= A group of Sudanese Negro tribes,
+ inhabiting the districts round Lake Chad, including Kanembus,
+ Kanuris, Baghirmis (warlike slave-raiders), Mandaras, Yedinas,
+ Logons, Mosgus, Bulalas, Saras, etc.
+
+ =Lampongs.= Malay inhabitants of Southern Sumatra.
+
+ =Lamuts.= See TUNGUSES.
+
+ =Landumans.= Sudanese Negroes of Senegambia.
+
+ =Laos.= See SHANS.
+
+ =Lapps.= A branch of the Finno-Ugrian stock of the Northern
+ Mongolic family, inhabiting the parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland,
+ and Russia collectively known as Lapland. They are the shortest and
+ broadest-skulled people in Europe. Most of them are nomads, who
+ live by their vast reindeer herds, though some have become settled
+ and live by fishing and hunting. They are closely allied to the
+ Baltic Finns, and like them show traces of a mixture of Caucasic
+ blood.
+
+ =Lascars.= A term applied to sailors of Indian and Malay
+ seafaring races, employed on British vessels.
+
+ =Latins.= The ancient inhabitants of Latium, the district
+ of Central Italy which lay between the Tiber and the Liris, and
+ included the Roman Campagna. They absorbed the earlier allied races
+ of Oscans, Sabines, Samnites and Umbrians, and formed a league
+ of thirty cities, which warred for some generations with Rome and
+ then fell under the Roman dominion. Rome itself was originally a
+ Latin city. The ancient population of Italy was divided into three
+ grades: Roman citizens--not necessarily residents in Rome--Latins,
+ and Italians. The Latins are a branch of the Italic stock of the
+ Aryan family.
+
+ =Latin= or =Romance Races=. A name often given to the
+ modern races which speak a Romance language derived from Latin, and
+ belong in whole or part to the Italic stock of the Aryan family.
+ They include Italians, French (including Provençals), Spaniards,
+ Portuguese, and Roumanians.
+
+ =Latin Americans.= The white inhabitants of South America, of
+ Spanish or Portuguese descent, and speaking these languages.
+
+ =Lazes.= See GEORGIANS.
+
+ =Lencan.= A group of semi-civilised Central American Indian
+ tribes, including Chontals, Ramas, Payas, Wulwas, and Guatusas.
+
+ =Lepchas.= Natives of Sikkim and Bhutan, belonging to the
+ Tibetan stock of the Southern Mongolic family.
+
+ =Lesghians.= A branch of the Eastern stock of the Caucasian
+ family, inhabiting the Eastern Caucasus. Wild mountain tribes,
+ who long offered an unavailing resistance to the Russian arms
+ under Shamyl (1859). Their chief tribes are the Avars (the most
+ cultivated and powerful), Andis, Dargos, Didis and Kurinis.
+
+ =Lettic.= A stock of the Aryan family, including Letts,
+ Lithuanians and the extinct Pruczi, Borussians, or Old Prussians,
+ from whom modern Prussia takes its name. The Letts and Lithuanians
+ in the fifteenth century formed a united people, inhabiting the
+ south-west of Russia, from Courland to Odessa. Afterwards they
+ passed under Polish and then Russian dominion. They are now mostly
+ peasant agriculturists. They are fair and well-built, with fine
+ features and blue eyes.
+
+ =Letts.= See LETTIC.
+
+ =Liberian Group.= Sudanese Negro tribes, inhabiting the Grain
+ Coast of West Africa. The Krus or Krooboys (_q.v._), Queahs and
+ Bassas are their chief tribes.
+
+ =Liberians.= Natives of the negro republic of Liberia on the
+ Guinea Coast, partly descended from freed slaves of all races, but
+ mainly belonging to the Liberian group.
+
+ =Libyans.= An ancient fair-haired and light-skinned race of
+ Northern Africa, akin to the modern Berbers, belonging to the
+ western stock of the Hamitic family. They are depicted on Egyptian
+ monuments of fifteenth century B.C.
+
+ =Ligures=, or =Ligurians=. An ancient race of the western
+ stock of the Hamitic family, probably the aborigines of North-West
+ Italy round Genoa, to whom the Siculi, Sards and Corsicans were
+ apparently akin.
+
+ =Limbas.= See TEMNÉ GROUP.
+
+ =Lithuanians.= See LETTIC.
+
+ =Livonians.= A branch of Baltic Finns, belonging to the
+ Finno-Ugrian stock of the Northern Mongolic family; a dwindled
+ remnant now inhabits the Baltic provinces of Russia.
+
+ =Logons.= See LAKE CHAD GROUP.
+
+ =Lolos.= A fair-complexioned aboriginal race on the frontiers
+ of China and Tibet, belonging to the Chinese stock of the Southern
+ Mongolic family.
+
+ =Lombards.= A race of Teutonic stock, formerly settled in the
+ district of the Lower Elbe, who invaded Italy in 568, and there
+ founded a powerful Lombard kingdom under Alboin and his successors.
+ The Lombards were at first fierce warriors and little more; but
+ they soon fell under the influence of Italian civilisation, and
+ were merged into the Italian race when Charlemagne destroyed their
+ independence in 774. Their name and some traces of their racial
+ character still remain in Lombardy, between the Alps and the Po.
+
+ =Luchuans.= Natives of the Luchu or Liu-Kin Archipelago,
+ between Japan and Formosa, resembling the Japanese, but with
+ differences which are attributed to a cross of the aboriginal Ainu
+ blood. They belong to the Koreo-Japanese stock of the Northern
+ Mongolic family.
+
+ =Lushais.= A warlike race of Tibetan stock inhabiting the
+ Lushai Hills on the confines of Assam, Bengal and Burma.
+
+ =Mabas.= See WADAI GROUP.
+
+ =Macedonians.= A warlike people of ancient Greece, who
+ attained their greatest power under Alexander the Great. They were
+ not true Hellenes, but a race of wild mountain tribes probably
+ of Hamitic origin. Modern Macedonia is peopled by an extremely
+ mixed race of Greeks, Bulgarians, Turks, etc., among whom some
+ descendants of the ancient Macedonians may no doubt be found.
+
+ =Macusis.= See CARIBS.
+
+ =Madis.= See NILITIC GROUP.
+
+ =Madurese.= A Malay race inhabiting Java, and allied to the
+ Javanese (_q.v._).
+
+ =Magars.= A Tibetan tribe of Western Nepal.
+
+ =Magwangwaras.= A fierce predatory race of Bantu Negroes,
+ occupying the head-waters of the Rovuma River in East Central
+ Africa.
+
+ =Magyars.= A warlike and now highly civilised race belonging
+ to the Finno-Ugrian stock of the Northern Mongolic family. They
+ first appeared in Europe about a thousand years ago, being
+ probably Scythian (_q.v._) immigrants from the Caspian district.
+ They conquered the Roman provinces of Pannonia and Dacia, and
+ there founded the Kingdom of Hungary in the year 1000. They are
+ still the dominant race in Hungary, which now forms part of the
+ Austro-Hungarian Empire, and preserve their Finno-Ugrian speech.
+ They are a chivalrous and highly intelligent race, whose Mongolic
+ descent is no longer perceptible in their white skins and regular,
+ often handsome features. Probably this is due to frequent crossing
+ of blood with German, Slav and Roumanian neighbours.
+
+ =Mahrattas.= See MARATHIS.
+
+ =Makololos.= A warlike branch of the Basuto race of Bantu
+ Negroes who, in 1835, moved north and conquered the Barotses, only
+ to be reduced by them to vassalage about 1864.
+
+ =Makuas.= A savage cannibal race of Bantu Negroes, living
+ north of the Zambesi in Portuguese East Africa.
+
+ =Malagasy.= A Malayo-African people of mixed blood, inhabiting
+ Madagascar. The Hovas (_q.v._) are the dominant tribe.
+
+ =Malays.= The dominant native race of Malaysia, the chief
+ stock of the Oceanic Mongolic family. They are of a distinctly
+ Mongolic physical type, of low stature and yellowish colour,
+ with high cheek-bones, black lank hair and broad skulls. They
+ may be divided into three races: the Orang-Benua, or men of the
+ soil, the indigenous Malay tribes at a low stage of culture; the
+ Orang-Laut, or men of the sea, who live by fishing and piracy;
+ and the Orang-Malayu, or civilised Malays proper. They inhabit
+ the southern provinces of Sumatra, the native states of the Malay
+ Peninsula (Kelantan, etc.), the British Straits Settlements (Johor,
+ Perak, Selangor, etc.), parts of Borneo, Ternate, Tidor and the
+ Banda Islands, and many islands of the Malay Archipelago. They
+ have wandered as far as Madagascar, where the Malagasy (_q.v._)
+ are Malays crossed with Negro blood. They were formerly warlike
+ and much given to piracy, but are now the chief trading race
+ of South-eastern Asia. Their origin is dubious, but Sumatra is
+ generally regarded as their original home. Of kindred blood are
+ many so-called Proto-Malay races, such as the Achinese, Javanese,
+ Sundanese, Dyaks, etc. (_q.v._).
+
+ =Malayalim.= See DRAVIDIANS.
+
+ =Manchus.= The dominant native race of Manchuria, who
+ conquered China in the seventeenth century and founded the existing
+ Chinese dynasty. They are of the Mongol stock of the Northern
+ Mongolic family. They first appear in history in the thirteenth
+ century, when a number of nomad Manchu tribes were formed into
+ a single people. They probably originated in Siberia, where the
+ Tunguses (_q.v._) represent their primitive stock.
+
+ =Mandans.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Mandaras.= See LAKE CHAD GROUP.
+
+ =Mandingans.= The chief race of Sudanese Negroes in the
+ Western Sudan, with numerous branches between the Upper Niger and
+ the coast, including Mandé or Mandingoes, Bambaras, Jallonkés,
+ Kassonkés, Masinas, Sarakolés, Solimas, Susus, etc. Timbuctoo was
+ formerly the capital of the Mandingan empire, before it fell under
+ Berber domination. A large proportion of American Negroes are
+ descended from slaves of Mandingan origin.
+
+ =Mangbattu.= Sudanese negroes of Welle group, noted for their
+ pronounced cannibalism.
+
+ =Mangkassara.= Malay natives of Macassar, in Celebes, under
+ Dutch rule.
+
+ =Manipuris.= Natives of Manipur, between Burma and Assam,
+ mostly wild hillmen of mixed Burmese and Hindu blood, but classed
+ with the Indo-Chinese stock of the Southern Mongolic family.
+
+ =Man-Tses.= Inhabitants of the mountain districts of Sze-chuen
+ in China, akin to Lolos (_q.v._). _m_
+
+ =Manx= or =Manxmen=. Inhabitants of the Isle of Man,
+ belonging to the Celtic stock of the Aryan family, and the Goidelic
+ or Q Celt branch of it. There is a strong Scandinavian element in
+ their blood, from the numerous invasions of the old Norse pirates.
+ Their customs are also strongly marked by the Scandinavian element.
+
+ =Manyuemas.= Warlike Bantu Negroes of the Upper Congo, long
+ allied with the Arab slave-traders.
+
+ =Maoris.= The aborigines of New Zealand, belonging to the tall
+ brown race of Polynesians (_q.v._), a branch of the Indonesian
+ family. A brave, generous and warlike people, who are said to have
+ reached New Zealand from the Pacific islands about a thousand
+ years ago, they are one of the few native races which promise to
+ assimilate western civilisation with success.
+
+ =Marathis=, or =Mahrattas=. A numerous Indian race of
+ mixed origin, probably of aboriginal (Dravidian) blood in the main,
+ with a Hindu element. They inhabit West and Central India, where
+ they became the dominant power under Sivaji in the seventeenth
+ century. The English had long and bloody contests with these wild
+ and warlike mountaineers, who founded several great native states,
+ some of which (Gwalior and Indore) survive to this day.
+
+ =Maronites.= A sturdy, warlike Christian race of mountaineers
+ in the Lebanon, belonging to the Syrian branch of the Aramæan stock
+ of the Semitic family. Implacable foes of the Druses, with whom
+ they are constantly at war.
+
+ =Marquesans.= See POLYNESIANS.
+
+ =Masais.= A branch of the Eastern Hamites, settled in British
+ East Africa on the Tana River. A finely-built race, whom only
+ their chocolate colour and frizzy hair prevent from passing for
+ Europeans. Extremely warlike and intelligent, they are confirmed
+ raiders and cattle lifters.
+
+ =Mashonas.= Natives of Mashonaland, in South-eastern Rhodesia,
+ formerly the half-fabulous empire of the Monomotapa, and the home
+ of a forgotten civilisation, to which the ruins of Zimbabye and
+ other similar relics bear witness. The Mashonas are Bantu Negroes,
+ a peaceful, industrious people, who were subjugated about 1838 by
+ the Matabeles under Umsilikatzi, and are now under British rule.
+
+ =Massachusett Indians.= See ALGONQUIAN.
+
+ =Massalits.= See WADAI GROUP.
+
+ =Matabeles.= A branch of the Zulu race of Bantu Negroes, which
+ was expelled from Zululand in 1838, and conquered the Mashonas, in
+ modern Rhodesia, under Umsilikatzi. Like the Zulus, they were proud
+ and fearless warriors, who were only subjugated with difficulty by
+ the English in 1893, and revolted unsuccessfully in 1896.
+
+ =Matacoans.= A South American Indian race on the Vermejo River
+ in Argentine.
+
+ =Mauri.= See MOORS.
+
+ =Maviti.= Bantu Negroes of the Upper Shiré in British South
+ Central Africa, of Zulu stock, who came as conquerors from the
+ south.
+
+ =Maya-Quiché.= A group of Central American Indian races,
+ mostly in Yucatan and Guatemala. It includes the Mayas of Yucatan,
+ Zendals and Zotzils of Chiapas, Quichés, Chols, Pokomans, and
+ Zutugils of Guatemala, Huastecs and Totonacs of Vera Cruz. Like the
+ Aztecs, the Mayas possessed an ancient civilisation and system of
+ picture writing.
+
+ =Maypuris.= See ARAWAKS.
+
+ =Mbengas.= Indigenous Bantu Negroes of French Equatorial
+ Africa, about Corisco Bay.
+
+ =Melanesians.= The indigenous natives of the Western Pacific
+ Islands, forming a distinct stock of the Oceanic Negro family of
+ Ethiopic Man. They are long-skulled, or dolichocephalic, with the
+ lowest cephalic index of all known races, prognathous, broad-nosed,
+ of a sooty-black colour, with black frizzy hair, and of low
+ stature. They are at a low stage of culture, being very savage,
+ bloodthirsty, and treacherous, mostly cannibals and head-hunters,
+ with little social organisation. They include the Fijians and the
+ natives of the New Hebrides, the Solomon, Admiralty, Bismarck,
+ and Loyalty Islands, New Britain, New Ireland, New Caledonia, and
+ other islands of the Eastern Pacific. They are closely allied to
+ the Papuans (_q.v._), under which name some ethnologists prefer to
+ class the whole body of Melanesians.
+
+ =Melanochroi.= A suggested division of Caucasic Man, in which
+ a pale skin is typically accompanied by dark hair and eyes; it
+ would thus include the Hamitic and Semitic families, with the
+ Hellenic, Italic, and Celtic stocks of the Aryan family.
+
+ =Mendis.= See TEMNÉ GROUP.
+
+ =Mentawey Islanders.= A remnant of the aboriginal Polynesian
+ race dispossessed by the Malays, off the coast of Sumatra.
+
+ =Mestizos.= Cross-breeds between Europeans and Indians, in
+ Spanish and Portuguese America.
+
+ =Mexicans.= See AZTECS and NAHUANS. Also the
+ modern inhabitants of Mexico, who are of Spanish descent, with a
+ strong infusion of Indian blood.
+
+ =Micmacs.= An Indian race of Nova Scotia, in whom some
+ ethnologists think that a trace of Norse blood, dating from the
+ pre-Columbian discovery of America, is perceptible.
+
+ =Minæans.= See HIMYARITES.
+
+ =Mingrelians.= See GEORGIANS.
+
+ =Minh-huongs.= Franco-Annamese half-breeds in Cochin China, an
+ increasing race who make very valuable colonists.
+
+ =Minnetarees.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Mishmis.= A wild Tibetan hill tribe occupying the
+ jungle-covered hills through which the Brahmaputra flows, on the
+ northern border of Assam. Warlike and turbulent.
+
+ =Missouri Indians.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Mixtecs.= An ancient Mexican race, contemporary with the
+ Toltecs (_q.v._), probably represented by the modern Miztecs of
+ Oajaca.
+
+ =Moabites.= An ancient pastoral race of Semitic origin,
+ ethnologically cognate with the Israelites, who dwelt on the east
+ of the Dead Sea, and are now extinct.
+
+ =Mœsogoths.= See GOTHS.
+
+ =Mohawks.= See IROQUOIAN.
+
+ =Mohicans.= One of the most famous and warlike of redskin
+ races, immortalised by Fenimore Cooper. See ALGONQUIAN.
+
+ =Mojos=, or =Moxos=. A yellowish Indian race of Bolivia,
+ akin to the Chiquitos.
+
+ =Mokis.= See SHOSHONEAN.
+
+ =Mongolic.= One of the four great divisions of mankind.
+ Typically characterised by yellowish skin, broad, flat features
+ with prominent cheek-bones, broad skulls, mesognathous jaws, and
+ oblique, almond-shaped eyes, with black, lank and coarse hair. The
+ Manchus are a typical Mongolic race. The Mongolic races are mostly
+ found in Asia, which is chiefly peopled by their stocks. The name
+ “Mongolic” has replaced the older “Turanian.”
+
+ =Mongols.= A stock of the Northern Mongolic, otherwise known
+ as Mongolo-Tartar or Ural-Altaic, family, from whom the general
+ term of Mongolic is derived. The name seems originally to have
+ meant “brave,” and the Mongols have provided some of the most
+ fierce and warlike races of history. They originated as scattered
+ tribes in modern Mongolia. Under Genghiz Khan they were formed
+ into a confederacy which conquered the whole of Central Asia in
+ the thirteenth century, thanks to an unlimited supply of hardy and
+ very mobile horsemen. The existing Mongol tribes, nomad pastors
+ of Mongolia in Central Asia, are divided into Sharras or Eastern
+ Kalmuks, or Western Buriats, or Siberian Mongols, and Tunguses,
+ including Manchus (_q.v._).
+
+ =Montenegrins.= A Servian race of civilised mountaineers,
+ inhabiting the rugged district of Montenegro; the only Balkan race
+ which preserved independence and Christianity against the Turkish
+ conquerors. Their history is one of constant warfare with the
+ Turks, and they have thus preserved the primitive virtues of the
+ warrior in great perfection.
+
+ =Moors.= The ancient Moors, or Mauri, were the inhabitants
+ of the Roman province of Mauretania, roughly including the modern
+ Algeria and Morocco. They were probably of mixed descent, partly
+ Semitic from Arabia, partly Western Hamitic from indigenous
+ sources. In modern times the name is applied (1) to the invaders
+ and conquerors of Spain in the Middle Ages, who were mostly of Arab
+ and Berber stock; (2) to the present inhabitants of Morocco and
+ the Barbary States, of the same stocks, with a large infusion of
+ Sudanese Negro blood. The Moors have always been a turbulent and
+ warlike people, who furnished the most notorious pirates of modern
+ history, thanks to their commanding position on the great highway
+ of sea-borne commerce.
+
+ =Moquis.= See PUEBLO INDIANS.
+
+ =Mordvins.= A branch of the Finns (_q.v._), forming small
+ communities on the banks of the Volga.
+
+ =Mosgus.= See LAKE CHAD GROUP.
+
+ =Mossis.= See NIGERIAN GROUP.
+
+ =Mpongwes.= A Bantu Negro race on the Gaboon Estuary in French
+ Equatorial Africa, given to drink and boasting, of little economic
+ value, though once powerful.
+
+ =Mulattos.= Half-breeds between whites and negroes.
+
+ =Mundas.= A Kolarian race of Lower Bengal, with possible
+ traces of Negroid blood.
+
+ =Mundrucus.= See TUPI-GUARANI.
+
+ =Mundus.= See NILITIC GROUP.
+
+ =Mushi-Kongo.= Bantu Negroes of Portuguese West Africa, still
+ in an absolutely savage state.
+
+ =Muskhogean=, or =Appalachian=. A group of North American
+ Indian tribes, formerly occupying the south-eastern corner of the
+ present United States, south of Tennessee, and east of Arkansas.
+ Formerly a powerful confederacy of warlike hunters, they are now
+ extinct or confined to Indian reservations. The chief tribes are
+ Alibamus, Apalachis, Chickasaws, Choktaws, Creeks or Muskhogees,
+ and Seminoles.
+
+ =Mycenæans.= The inhabitants of ancient Mycenæ, one of the
+ chief centres of prehistoric culture in Greece before the Homeric
+ age. Recent excavations, at Mycenæ itself, at Cnossos in Crete, and
+ other contemporary sites of government, have thrown light on the
+ remarkable civilisation which then existed. The Mycenæans, Cretans,
+ and their kindred peoples were probably a mixed Caucasic race,
+ with affinities to the later Aryan Achæans and to the aboriginal
+ Hamitic Pelasgians; but nothing is yet certainly known of their
+ ethnological place.
+
+ =Nagars.= See DARDS.
+
+ =Nagas.= Aborigines of the Naga Hills, in South Assam,
+ semi-savage and formerly accustomed to raid the British provinces;
+ now under British rule. They are of Tibetan stock.
+
+ =Nahuans=, or =Mexican Indians=. The aboriginal
+ inhabitants of modern Mexico, whose history dates back to the sixth
+ century. The oldest of the Nahuan races was that of the Toltecs,
+ who established a civilisation marked by architectural and
+ artistic monuments still existing, north of the valley of Anahuac.
+ They were followed by the ruder Chichimecs and the Aztecs (_q.v._).
+ Other branches of the same race are the Pipils and the Niquirans of
+ Nicaragua.
+
+ =Naimans.= (1) See SHARRAS. (2) A tribe of the Middle
+ Horde of the Kazaks. See KIRGHIZ.
+
+ =Nairs.= A Hindu tribe of Malabar, distinguished by their
+ peculiar marriage customs. They practise polyandry, and a Nair’s
+ property descends not to his own but to his sister’s children.
+
+ =Namas= or =Namaquas=. A Hottentot tribe of Namaqualand,
+ the true aborigines and the principal representatives of the
+ Hottentots (_q.v._). Scattered in small pastoral groups.
+
+ =Natchez Indians.= An extinct North American Indian race,
+ formerly inhabiting the region of the Lower Mississippi.
+
+ =Navajos.= See ATHABASCAN.
+
+ =Neanderthal Man.= A race of primitive man, represented
+ only by a skull and a few bones found in a limestone cave of the
+ Neanderthal in Rhenish Prussia in 1856. The most ape-like race yet
+ known, and probably the oldest.
+
+ =Negritoes.= A branch of Ethiopic Man, found in Central
+ Africa, and in the Andamans, the Malay Peninsula and the
+ Philippines, akin to negroes but of smaller stature and more
+ ape-like. Possibly the primitive stock from which the Negroes
+ (_q.v._) were developed.
+
+ =Negroes.= The most numerous branch of Ethiopic Man, divided
+ into African (Sudanese, Bantu, and Hottentot-Bushman) and Oceanic
+ (Papuan, Melanesian, and Australian) sections. American Negroes
+ are descended from African slaves, mostly of Sudanese origin. See
+ HAYTIANS.
+
+ =Nempés.= See NIGERIAN GROUP.
+
+ =Nestorians.= A Syrian race, belonging to the Aramæan stock of
+ the Semitic family, distinguished by a special form of Christian
+ belief, who were driven out of the Roman Empire in the fifth
+ century, and whose descendants now form a special community in
+ the mountain ranges of Kurdistan. They are poor and illiterate. A
+ branch of Nestorians is found in Travancore, where they go by the
+ name of Syrian Christians.
+
+ =New Guinea Natives.= See PAPUANS.
+
+ =New Zealanders.= (1) Aborigines [see MAORIS]. (2)
+ White inhabitants of New Zealand, of Anglo-Saxon descent.
+
+ =Nez Percés.= A tribe of North American Indians, in British
+ Columbia and Idaho, part of whom are well advanced in civilisation.
+
+ =Niam-Niam.= See AZANDEH.
+
+ =Nicaraguans.= White natives of Nicaragua, in Central America,
+ of Spanish descent, with Indian and negro elements.
+
+ =Nicobarese.= Natives of the Nicobar Islands, of Malay blood
+ mixed with that of the Mongolic aborigines. Formerly given to
+ piracy.
+
+ =Nigerian Group.= A group of Sudanese Negro tribes, all of
+ allied stocks, inhabiting the Niger Delta, the Oil River, Lower
+ Benue, and Niger region, including the Niger Bend. Amongst them are
+ the people of Benin--noted for their vast human sacrifices--the
+ Abo, Nempé, Nupé, Akasa, Qua, Efik, Okrika, Akpa, Mossi, Sienereh,
+ and many other tribes.
+
+ =Nilitic Group.= Another group of Sudanese Negro tribes,
+ inhabiting the districts of the White Nile, Sobat, and the northern
+ slopes of the Nile-Congo divide. They include the Abaka, Abukaya,
+ Bongo, Shuli, Falanj, Madi, Bari, Nuer, Shilluk, Dinka, Mundu,
+ Rol, Mittu, Krej, and Fertit tribes. They are mainly hard-working
+ agriculturists, from whom the British draw material for excellent
+ soldiery.
+
+ =Niquirans.= See NAHUANS.
+
+ =Nogais.= A race of Caucasian Tartars (_q.v._) inhabiting the
+ steppes of the Kuma River; nomadic cattle-breeders.
+
+ =Normans.= Natives of Normandy, descended from the Norsemen
+ (_q.v._) who settled on the French coast under Rolf the Ganger in
+ the beginning of the tenth century. The history of the Normans, who
+ conquered England and Sicily, is well known. The modern Normans
+ still preserve many signs of their Scandinavian ancestry, which
+ distinguish them from their French or Breton neighbours.
+
+ =Norsemen= or =Northmen=. A name given in the Middle
+ Ages to the piratical emigrants from Denmark, Iceland, Sweden,
+ and Norway, who descended on the coasts of England, France,
+ Germany, and Southern Europe. They called themselves Vikings. These
+ sea-rovers came, in the first instance, for portable plunder, but
+ in many cases they were tempted by the look of the more fertile
+ lands of the south to make settlements, among which those of the
+ Danes in England and Ireland and of the Norwegians in Normandy,
+ England, and Sicily were the most lasting and important.
+
+ =Norwegians.= A branch of the Scandinavian stock of
+ the Aryan family. They are probably descended from Teutonic
+ immigrants--perhaps of Gothic race--who entered the Scandinavian
+ peninsula in prehistoric times, and drove out the aboriginal Lapps
+ or Finns. Another theory makes Scandinavia the original home of
+ the Aryans, of whom, on this view, the Norwegians would represent
+ the primitive stock. Their history begins in the ninth century,
+ when a Norwegian kingdom was established by Harold Fairhair.
+ The old Norwegians were extremely warlike and piratical [see
+ NORSEMEN]. Their modern descendants are a peaceful and
+ industrious race, the most simple and democratic people of Europe,
+ who recently threw off the Swedish rule and re-established the
+ ancient Norwegian kingdom.
+
+ =Nsakkaras.= See WELLE GROUP.
+
+ =Nuba Group.= A group of Sudanese Negro tribes, occupying
+ Nubia, Dar-Fur, and Kordofan, in the Egyptian Sudan. They include
+ the Furs, Nubas, Nile Nubians, Tumalis, Kargos, Kulfans, Kolajis,
+ and Kunjaras. They are an active and warlike race, in which the
+ primitive Negro blood has frequently been modified by Semitic
+ (Arab) and Hamitic influences. They supply many of our Sudanese
+ regiments.
+
+ =Nubians.= Ancient inhabitants of Nubia, probably identical
+ with Ethiopians (_q.v._), but modified by the infusion of Negro
+ blood. They established a Nubian kingdom in the Upper Nile basin
+ about the sixth century.
+
+ =Nuers.= See NILITIC GROUP.
+
+ =Numidians.= An ancient Hamitic race, inhabiting the district
+ now known as Algeria. They were fine horsemen, warlike, but
+ treacherous, and were conquered by Rome B.C. 46. See
+ BERBERS.
+
+ =Nupés.= See NIGERIAN GROUP.
+
+ =Nutkas.= A collective name given to the Indian tribes of
+ Vancouver Island and the adjoining districts of British Columbia.
+
+ =Obongos.= A Bushman-like race of pygmy Negritoes discovered
+ by Du Chaillu on the western coast of equatorial Africa, physically
+ and mentally degenerate.
+
+ =Ojibbeways.= See ALGONQUIAN.
+
+ =Okrikas.= See NIGERIAN GROUP.
+
+ =Olkhonese.= A tribe of Buriats (_q.v._) inhabiting the
+ district of Lake Baikal.
+
+ =Omaguas.= See TUPI-GUARANI.
+
+ =Omahas.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Onondagas.= See IROQUOIAN.
+
+ =Opata-Pima.= A group of Central American Indian races, allied
+ to the Nahuan group (_q.v._), but of lower mental and physical
+ type. It includes the Cora, Yuma, Papago, Tarahumara and Tepeguana
+ tribes.
+
+ =Orang-Benua, Orang-Lauts.= See MALAYS.
+
+ =Ordos.= See SHARRAS.
+
+ =Orochs.= A nomadic tribe of the Siberian Tunguses (_q.v._).
+
+ =Osages.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Oscans.= A primitive Italic race inhabiting Campania, who
+ were conquered by and amalgamated with the Samnites (_q.v._) in the
+ fifth century, B.C. Their language was a ruder form of
+ Latin.
+
+ =Osmanlis.= See TURKS.
+
+ =Ossets.= An isolated Aryan race inhabiting the Central
+ Caucasus, and differing in language and customs from their
+ Caucasian neighbours. They are probably allied to the Iranian
+ stock, though some suppose them to be descended from Gothic
+ settlers.
+
+ =Ostrogoths.= See GOTHS.
+
+ =Ostyaks.= A Ugrian race of Mongolic physical type, allied
+ to the Samoyedes (_q.v._), inhabiting the Obi basin in Western
+ Siberia. They are mainly nomads, hunters and reindeer breeders.
+ They are kind, gentle and honest, and show considerable artistic
+ power.
+
+ =Otoes.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Otomis.= An Indian race of Mexico, assumed on linguistic
+ grounds to represent the oldest of American Indian stocks.
+
+ =Ottomans.= See TURKS.
+
+ =Ovaherero.= See HEREROS.
+
+ =Ovampos.= The chief Bantu Negro race of German South-west
+ Africa, tall and well-proportioned, with regular features--a fine
+ Negro type. They are industrious agriculturists, given to raiding
+ and inter-tribal warfare.
+
+ =Oworos, Oyos.= See YORUBAS.
+
+ =Pampas Indians.= See PUELCHES.
+
+ =Pangasinans.= A semi-civilised Malayan race in the Philippine
+ Islands.
+
+ =Papagos.= See OPATA-PIMA.
+
+ =Papuans.= The savage aborigines of New Guinea and the
+ neighbouring islands of the Torres Strait and East Malaysia.
+ They belong to the Oceanic division of Ethiopic Man, and are
+ allied to the African Negro, though they stand at a somewhat
+ higher intellectual level. They are of Negroid physical type,
+ characterised specially by their mops of frizzy hair; colour,
+ a sooty brown to black, with projecting jaws, thick lips and
+ retreating foreheads; nose sometimes flat, but oftener hooked
+ and of Jewish appearance. The race has probably been modified by
+ Malayan and Polynesian intermixture. Probably the Melanesians and
+ the Australian aborigines are closely related to the Papuans. They
+ are a fierce and treacherous race, hostile to strangers, and given
+ to cannibalism and head-hunting. They show much agricultural skill,
+ and in some cases are susceptible of European civilisation.
+
+ =Paraguay Indians.= See TUPI-GUARANI.
+
+ =Parsees.= Followers of Zoroaster, of Persian descent, who
+ have settled in India, chiefly near Bombay, where they have become
+ one of the most thriving sections of the community, owing to their
+ marked ability for commerce. A small remnant of Parsees, known as
+ Guebres, is still to be found in Persia itself.
+
+ =Parthians.= A warlike people of the ancient world, inhabiting
+ a district of Northern Persia. They seem to have been of Scythian
+ (_q.v._) descent, and were noted for their habit of fighting
+ on horseback and discharging their most fatal arrows whilst in
+ pretended flight. Under Mithridates (171-138 B.C.), the
+ Parthians became supreme in Persia, and afterwards warred for long
+ successfully with the Romans.
+
+ =Patagonians= or =Tehuelches=. Natives of the most
+ southerly region of the American continent, noted for their great
+ stature, in many cases approaching the gigantic. They are one of
+ the physically strongest races of the earth, of a yellowish brown
+ colour, with well-formed and regular features. They are nomadic
+ tribes of Araucanian (_q.v._) descent, who live by fishing and
+ hunting; and peacefully disposed to strangers.
+
+ =Pathans.= See AFGHANS.
+
+ =Payaguas.= A South American Indian race, in the Argentine,
+ whose wealth of silver ornaments gave a name to the Rio de la Plata.
+
+ =Pawnees.= A brave warlike tribe of North American Indians,
+ akin to the Shoshonean group (_q.v._) and formerly settled in
+ Nebraska.
+
+ =Pechenegs.= An ancient Mongolic race of Turki stock, a branch
+ of the Kipchaks (_q.v._).
+
+ =Pelasgians.= The pre-Aryan inhabitants of Greece, apparently
+ the aborigines of that country, who were dispossessed by the
+ Aryan Hellenes. Little or nothing is known of their racial
+ characteristics and affinities; but the excavations recently made
+ at Mycenæ, Knossos, etc., show that they had reached a high stage
+ of civilisation in prehistoric times on the Ægean coast. Probably a
+ branch of the Western Hamitic family, resembling Berbers (_q.v._)
+ in physical type. See MYCENÆANS and ETRUSCANS.
+
+ =Permians.= A branch of the Finnish race, inhabiting the
+ district of Perm in Russia, and closely resembling the Karelians
+ (_q.v._).
+
+ =Persians.= The ancient Persians were the main branch of the
+ Iranian stock of the Aryan family, a civilised and warlike nation,
+ who taught their sons “to ride, to shoot with the bow, and to speak
+ the truth.” They reared a great empire under Cyrus (B.C.
+ 537) and his successors, which was destroyed by Alexander the Great
+ and divided in 324 B.C. The modern Persians, known as
+ Tajiks, and as Tats on the west of the Caspian, are the descendants
+ of the ancient Persians with a considerable admixture of alien
+ blood, due to a long period of Arab and Turkish domination.
+ They present a fine Aryan type, however, and are cultivated and
+ commercial, though not warlike.
+
+ =Peruvian Indians.= See INCAS.
+
+ =Peruvians.= White natives of Peru, partly of pure Spanish
+ descent, partly crossed with Indian blood.
+
+ =Philippine Islanders.= The natives of the Philippines belong
+ to three distinct races--Negritoes, Indonesians and Malays.
+ The Negritoes are known as Aetas (_q.v._). The Indonesians are
+ confined to the island of Mindanao; they are light-skinned, tall
+ and well-developed physically. Their chief tribe is that of the
+ Igorrotes. The Malays are brown-skinned, with black hair and flat
+ noses, being crossed with Negrito blood. Their chief tribes are the
+ Visayans, Tagalogs, Bicols, Ilocanos, Cayagans, Pangasinans and
+ Pampangas. These are all Christianised and fairly civilised. The
+ interior is occupied by wild and savage tribes of similar race,
+ and by the dwarfish and nomadic Negritoes. Many of these tribes
+ practise head-hunting, cannibalism, and human sacrifices. The more
+ civilised tribes, with the Spanish-Indian half-breeds, known as
+ Filipinos, are turbulent and lawless, the source of much trouble to
+ the new American as to the old Spanish rulers.
+
+ =Philistines.= An ancient race inhabiting the Mediterranean
+ seaboard to the south-west of Judæa, who warred much with the
+ Israelites, and were finally subdued by them. They were probably
+ a Canaanitish people, belonging to the Semitic family; but some
+ regard them as an immigrant Hamitic race, perhaps related to the
+ Cretans or Pelasgians. The assumed inferiority of their culture
+ to that of the Israelites has given rise to the modern use of
+ “Philistine” as a term of reproach.
+
+ =Phœnicians.= The greatest seafaring and trading nation of
+ ancient times, and the earliest of Mediterranean sea-powers.
+ A branch of the Canaanite stock of the Semitic family, they
+ inhabited the Mediterranean coast between Latakia and Acre, their
+ chief cities being Tyre and Sidon. They possessed a remarkable
+ polytheistic religion, disfigured by human sacrifices. They were
+ an inventive race, to whom we owe glass and Tyrian purple. They
+ seem to have entered Phœnicia from the direction of the Red Sea
+ in prehistoric times, and were at first subject to Egypt, but
+ about 1300 B.C. reared a great maritime empire, which
+ endured for nearly a thousand years and was destroyed by Alexander
+ the Great. They were the great traders of the ancient world, and
+ carried on a commerce which ranged from Cornwall to Ceylon and
+ Senegal. The Carthaginians (_q.v._) were a colony of Phœnicians.
+
+ =Phrygians.= An ancient pastoral people of Asia Minor, closely
+ related to the Armenians (_q.v._), who were absorbed by the
+ Persians in the sixth century B.C.
+
+ =Picts.= The aborigines of ancient Scotland, a short,
+ round-headed, dark race, probably a branch of the Iberian stock of
+ the Western Hamitic family, and thus closely related to the Basques
+ (_q.v._). The Picts were a wild and warlike race, who harassed the
+ Roman province of Britain, and were exterminated by the invading
+ Scots from Ireland in the early part of the Christian era. The
+ whole Pictish problem is still unsolved by ethnologists, some of
+ whom hold that the Picts were a Celtic race, allied to the modern
+ Welsh or to the Scottish Highlanders of to-day.
+
+ =Picuris.= See PUEBLO INDIANS.
+
+ =Pipils.= See NAHUANS.
+
+ =Pitcairn Islanders.= Half-breed descendants of Englishmen
+ (the mutineers of the “Bounty”) and Tahitian women. A peaceful and
+ idyllic race.
+
+ =Pocomans, Poconches.= See MAYA-QUICHÉ.
+
+ =Poles.= A stock of the Western Slavonic family, originally
+ dwelling between the Vistula and the Oder. In the tenth century
+ Poland became an independent European Power, and remained an
+ elective kingdom down to its partition in the eighteenth century
+ between Russia, Austria and Prussia. The Polish peasantry have
+ always been industrious and successful agriculturists, whilst the
+ nobility were turbulent and warlike. The Poles who live under
+ Austrian and German rule are fairly contented, but those of
+ Russian Poland have carried on a long and often bloody series of
+ struggles for liberty. Of late years, Russian Poland has become a
+ manufacturing country, under German influence. The Poles have a
+ considerable literature, and are eminently musical.
+
+ =Polynesians.= The chief stock of the Indonesian (_q.v._)
+ family, the tall, brown-skinned race of Caucasic type who inhabit
+ the chief islands of the Eastern Pacific, and are generally
+ known as South Sea Islanders. Their chief races are the Maoris
+ (_q.v._) of New Zealand, the Marquesans, Tahitians, Tongans and
+ Samoans, besides the natives of Easter, Gambier, Hervey, and other
+ smaller islands. They are of tall stature--only surpassed by the
+ Patagonians--muscular frame, regular and often handsome features,
+ with brown skins, square jaws, and broad skulls. They probably
+ originated in Malaysia, where they are still represented by the
+ Battaks of North Sumatra, some Dyak races, and certain tribes
+ of the Philippines and Gilolo. They are a gay, pleasure-loving
+ people, formerly addicted to cannibalism, but otherwise of pleasing
+ manners, and are now rapidly acquiring civilisation, though their
+ numbers are everywhere decreasing under the influence of European
+ manners and diseases.
+
+ =Poncas.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Portuguese.= Natives of Portugal, a mixed race, probably
+ of Iberian or Basque origin, with later Celtic elements. After
+ falling successively under Roman, Visigothic, and Saracen dominion,
+ they formed an independent kingdom in the twelfth century. The
+ early Portuguese were enterprising seamen, who contributed largely
+ to the exploration of the world, and founded many colonies in
+ Africa, which they still possess. Brazil is their chief American
+ settlement, now independent.
+
+ =Provençals.= Natives of Provence, in the South of France.
+ Their primitive Ligurian (_q.v._) stock was modified by many
+ successive influences, such as the Greek colonists, who founded
+ Marseilles, the Roman settlers in the Provincia (Provence), and,
+ later, Gothic and Saracen invaders. The Provençals are a gay,
+ impulsive and pleasure-loving people, markedly distinct from the
+ more staid and industrious inhabitants of Northern France.
+
+ =Pruczi=, or =Old Prussians=. See LETTIC.
+
+ =Prussians.= The earliest inhabitants of Prussia were Slavonic
+ tribes [see LETTIC]. The modern Prussians, the dominant
+ race of the German Empire, belong to the High German branch of the
+ Teutonic stock.
+
+[Illustration: WOMEN OF THE NUPÉ TRIBE IN NIGERIA
+
+ The Nupé tribe is a family belonging to the Nigerian group of
+ Sudanese Negroes. They inhabit chiefly the town of Lokoja, in West
+ Africa. [See under Nigerian group].
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE AINUS, PROBABLY THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF JAPAN
+
+ The Ainus are a declining race, now confined to a small area in the
+ Far East. They have, as is seen in this picture, handsome features
+ and an abundance of hair. [See page 312].
+]
+
+ =Pueblo Indians.= A semi-civilised race of North American
+ Indians, dwelling in New Mexico and Arizona. They inhabit
+ “pueblos,” or huge houses, often large enough to contain a whole
+ tribe under one roof. They possess interesting religious and
+ social customs, much studied by anthropologists. Their chief tribes
+ are the Zunis, Teguas, Taos, Picuris, and Tusayas. The Moquis of
+ Arizona are closely related to them.
+
+ =Puelches=, or =Pampas Indians=. A strongly-built,
+ dark-skinned race of South American Indians, who inhabit the great
+ plains or pampas from the Saladillo to the Rio Negro in Argentina.
+ They are expert horsemen, from whom the Gauchos (_q.v._) are
+ derived.
+
+ =Punjabis.= Natives of the Punjab, in North-West India, mostly
+ Jats and Sikhs (_q.v._) belonging to the Hindu stock of the Aryan
+ family. An agricultural and warlike people.
+
+ =Puntis.= See CHINESE.
+
+ =Pygmies.= Dwarfish Negrito races of Central Africa, long
+ considered to be mythical, but now well known to ethnologists. They
+ include the Akkas and Wochuas of the Welle Basin, the Obongos of
+ the Gaboon, the Batwas of South Congo, etc. In very early times
+ they were known by repute to the Egyptians--on whose monuments they
+ appear in the thirty-fourth century B.C.--and the Greeks.
+ They live by the chase in the Central African forests, and use
+ poisoned arrows. Other small races, such as the Bushmen, Lapps,
+ Kalangs, Samangs, etc., have contributed to the fame of the Pygmies.
+
+ =Quas.= A Sudanese Negro tribe on the Ivory Coast, belonging
+ to the Nigerian group (_q.v._).
+
+ =Quapaws.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Queahs.= See LIBERIAN GROUP.
+
+ =Quichés.= A race of Central American Indians in Guatemala,
+ rivalling the Aztecs in the possession of an ancient civilisation
+ and a curious mythology. See MAYA-QUICHÉ.
+
+ =Quichuas.= See INCAS.
+
+ =Rajputs.= The predominant race of Rajputana, in Central
+ India, belonging to the Hindu stock of the Aryan family. They are a
+ proud and warlike aristocracy of soldiers and landowners, who rule
+ many native states, of which Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur are the
+ most important.
+
+ =Ramas.= See LENCAN.
+
+ =Redskins.= A term given in common parlance to North American
+ Indians, from their colour.
+
+ =Rejangs.= A Malayan race of Sumatra, akin to the Achinese
+ (_q.v._).
+
+ =Rols.= See NILITIC GROUP.
+
+ =Romans.= The most powerful and warlike, and in every sense
+ the greatest race of ancient Europe, who acquired the dominion of
+ the Western world, and laid the foundations of modern civilisation.
+ The city of Rome was founded by Alban shepherds, of Latin (_q.v._)
+ race, in the eighth century B.C. Oscan, Sabine, Samnite,
+ and Umbrian (_q.v._) elements were added to the original stock, and
+ thus the great Roman character was moulded. Rome later extended her
+ power over the whole of Italy, and then over the whole of the known
+ world.
+
+ =Romance Races.= See LATIN RACES.
+
+ =Romansch.= Natives of the Grisons in Switzerland, speaking a
+ Romance dialect, and probably of Italic race.
+
+ =Roumanians=, or =Vlachs=. Natives of the modern
+ Roumanian kingdom, the leading Balkan State, composed of the older
+ principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, which were long subject
+ to the Turks. The Vlachs (Wallachs, a name akin to our Welsh) are
+ probably descended from the Latin-speaking inhabitants of the
+ ancient Roman province of Dacia, a tribe of Thracian descent,
+ which was subjugated by Trajan in the second century. They have
+ preserved their language, but their blood has been mingled with
+ that of numerous conquerors--Goths, Huns, Slovenians, Albanians,
+ Turks, etc. The Roumanian peasantry are a hardy and thrifty race,
+ retaining their old warlike traditions.
+
+ =Rucuyennes.= See CARIBS.
+
+ =Russians.= The chief of the Slavonic races inhabiting
+ European Russia, and divided into Great, White, and Little
+ Russians. The physical distinction between these races is
+ attributed to the mixture of the primitive Russian stock
+ respectively with Finnish, Lithuanian, and Turkish blood. The
+ original Russians belonged to the Slavonic stock of the Aryan
+ family, and seem to have been settled in prehistoric times between
+ the Danube, the Elbe, and the south coast of the Baltic. Thus they
+ must have entered Russia from the west in the early centuries
+ of our era. There they conquered and drove out or assimilated
+ the aborigines of Northern Mongolic (Finno-Turkish) stock, and
+ established a number of small states, agricultural in character,
+ which long suffered from Tartar invasion, notably that of the
+ Golden Horde [see KIPCHAKS], and were gradually moulded
+ into a single kingdom, with Moscow for its capital. Modern Russia,
+ with its vast Asiatic dependencies, is one of the greatest
+ Empires in the world, but it is in a state of transition, and its
+ civilisation is consequently backward. The Russian peasants are
+ very patient, industrious, and thrifty. When well led, they are
+ admirable soldiers. Their chief occupation is agriculture.
+
+ =Ruthenians.= A branch of the Little Russian race, who inhabit
+ the district of the Carpathians in Galicia and Hungary; poor, but
+ hardy cultivators of the soil.
+
+ =Sabæans.= See HIMYARITES.
+
+ =Sabines.= An ancient Italic race, who inhabited the district
+ between the Central Apennines--their ancestral home--and Rome.
+ The Samnites were their descendants or near kinsmen, and the
+ Umbrians were less closely related to them. When Rome was founded
+ there was a strong Sabine element in its population, as indicated
+ by the story of the Rape of the Sabine Women, and the statement
+ that several of the early kings of Rome were of Sabine blood. The
+ Sabines and Samnites warred against Rome for many years, but both
+ were ultimately subdued and incorporated in the Roman State.
+
+ =Sac Indians.= See ALGONQUIAN.
+
+ =Sakais=, or =Samangs=. An aboriginal Negrito race of
+ the Malay Peninsula; a wild and uncivilised people, with black
+ skins and woolly hair, often approaching the ape-like in physical
+ development and intelligence.
+
+ =Sakalavas.= One of the principal groups of the Malagasy
+ tribes, inhabiting the west coast of Madagascar; of mixed Malay and
+ negro blood, and akin to the Hovas (_q.v._).
+
+ =Salish.= See FLATHEADS.
+
+ =Samangs.= See SAKAIS.
+
+ =Sambos=, or =Zambos=. Half-breeds sprung from Negro and
+ Indian parents.
+
+ =Samnites.= See SABINES.
+
+ =Samoans.= A Polynesian (_q.v._) race, of fine physical
+ development, lazy and pleasure-loving, inhabiting the Samoan group
+ of islands.
+
+ =Samoyedes.= A Finno-Ugrian race, inhabiting the Obi basin in
+ Siberia, once widely spread over the extreme north of Europe and
+ Asia. They are short and dark haired, with Mongolic features, brave
+ and honest, live by hunting and fishing, and are still in the Stone
+ Age.
+
+ =Samsams.= A mixed Malayo-Siamese race, forming a large part
+ of the population of the Malayan States of Kedah and Ligor.
+
+ =Santals.= A negro-like aboriginal tribe of Orissa in India,
+ agriculturists, of the Kolarian family (_q.v._).
+
+ =Saracens.= A term applied in the Middle Ages to the Moslem
+ enemies of Christendom, especially to the nomadic Arabs and
+ Bedouins of the Syrian deserts.
+
+ =Saras.= See LAKE CHAD GROUP.
+
+ =Sarakolés.= See MANDINGAN.
+
+ =Sards=, or =Sardinians=. The aboriginal inhabitants
+ of Sardinia, probably of the Western Hamitic family, akin to the
+ Iberians or Ligurians (_q.v._). The modern Sardinians are descended
+ from this race, with considerable admixtures of alien blood from
+ the Carthaginian, Roman, Saracen, Spanish and Italian owners of the
+ island in successive periods.
+
+ =Sarmatians.= An ancient nomadic and warlike people, probably
+ akin to the Scythians (_q.v._), who roamed over the wide plains of
+ Eastern Europe. Fine horsemen. They were destroyed by the Goths in
+ the fourth century, and disappeared from history.
+
+ =Sassaks.= Natives of Lombok in the Sunda Islands, of Malayan
+ race.
+
+ =Savoyards.= Natives of Savoy, originally a short,
+ round-skulled, dark race, akin to the Auvergnats (_q.v._), now
+ largely mingled with Teutonic blood.
+
+ =Saxons.= (1) The Old Saxons originally inhabited the estuary
+ of the Elbe and the neighbouring islands. They were a warlike race,
+ of Low German stock, whose name is said to be derived from the
+ “Saxes,” or heavy knives which they used in war. They were one of
+ the most adventurous of Teutonic races, and made many piratical
+ and colonising excursions, of which the most important was their
+ settlement in Britain in the fifth century, where they united with
+ the Angles (_q.v._) to lay the foundation of the modern English
+ people. (2) The Saxons who remained on the Continent gradually
+ extended their dominion till it reached modern Saxony. Under
+ Charlemagne the Saxon power was subordinated to that of the Franks.
+ Saxony later became an independent duchy, which is still one of
+ the chief States of the German Empire. The modern Saxons are less
+ adventurous than their ancestors, very industrious, and successful
+ in agriculture and industry, and make excellent soldiers.
+
+ =Scandinavians.= A main stock of the Aryan family, sometimes
+ classed as a branch of the Teutonic stock, including the
+ Icelanders, Norwegians, Danes and Swedes, as well as the old
+ Norsemen and Normans (_q.v._). Some ethnologists regard them as
+ the original stock of the Aryan family. They are tall, blue-eyed,
+ fair-haired, warlike, and good sailors and colonists.
+
+ =Scots= or =Scotch=. (1) The ancient Scots were a
+ Celtic race, belonging to the Goidelic or Q Celts (_q.v._),
+ originally settled in Ireland--the ancient Scotia--whence they
+ made settlements in the fifth century in modern Scotland, to which
+ they gave their name. They were gradually driven back into the
+ Highlands by Anglo-Saxon, Norman and Danish invaders, and are now
+ represented by the Highlanders (_q.v._) or Gaels. (2) The modern
+ Scots, or Lowland Scots, are mainly of Anglo-Saxon race, modified
+ by Norman, Danish, and Flemish elements. They are one of the
+ finest and most hardy and industrious races in the world, equally
+ successful in the arts of war and peace.
+
+ =Scythians.= An ancient nomadic and warlike race, found in the
+ seventh century B.C. on the vast plains of South-eastern
+ Europe, where they lived by cattle-breeding and raiding. They dwelt
+ in tent-covered waggons, fought on horseback with bows and arrows,
+ and made drinking-cups of their enemies’ skulls. Their origin is in
+ dispute. Some regard them as a Mongolic race, which was modified by
+ association with Aryan races, and others as an Aryan stock; their
+ kinsmen, the Sarmatians (_q.v._), were almost certainly Aryans.
+ They made several incursions into Asia, where they conquered a
+ large tract of Northern India and established a kingdom which
+ lasted till about the fourth century A.D. The Rajputs and Jats
+ (_q.v._) are sometimes held to be their descendants.
+
+ =Selengese.= See BURIATS.
+
+ =Seljuks.= A warlike Turkish people who were settled on
+ the Jaxartes in the eleventh century and afterwards founded a
+ considerable empire in Western Asia. See TURKS.
+
+ =Seminoles.= See MUSKHOGEAN.
+
+ =Semites.= An important family of Caucasic Man, who probably
+ originated in North Africa, from a similar stock to that of the
+ Hamites. They are characterised by fine regular features, large
+ aquiline noses, black eyes and hair, white skins, long skulls and
+ square jaws. They are very intellectual, though less practical
+ than the Aryan type; poets, prophets, and dreamers, rather
+ than men of action. They have given the world its two greatest
+ religions--Christianity and Islam. Their chief divisions are
+ Assyrians, Aramæans, Canaanites, Arabs and Himyarites (_q.v._).
+ In the modern world they are best known from the ubiquitous Jews
+ (_q.v._).
+
+ =Seneca Indians.= See IROQUOIAN.
+
+ =Serbs.= See SERVIANS.
+
+ =Serers.= Sudanese Negroes inhabiting Senegambia in the Cape
+ Verde district. They are the tallest of Negro races, with herculean
+ frames, and are akin to the Wolofs (_q.v._)
+
+ =Servians=, or =Serbs=. A race of Southern Slavonic
+ stock, now inhabiting Servia. They were at first identical with
+ the Croats (_q.v._), and seem to have originated in the Carpathian
+ district, whence they migrated into the Balkan peninsula in
+ the seventh century. The Serbs then separated from the Croats,
+ and in the twelfth century founded a powerful Servian kingdom,
+ which was conquered by the Turks in the fifteenth. The Servians
+ recovered their independence in 1830, under Milosh Obrenovitch. The
+ Servians are a well-built race, proud and martial in temperament,
+ quick-tempered and prone to deeds of violence, as their recent
+ revolution witnessed.
+
+ =Shangallas.= A mixed negroid race of the Abyssinian slopes.
+ Sudanese Negroes with a Hamitic infusion.
+
+ =Shans.= Natives of the independent Shan States, lying to
+ the north of Siam. They are identical with the Laos, and closely
+ related to the Siamese (_q.v._). They belong to the Indo-Chinese
+ stock of the Southern Mongolic family, and are probably descended
+ from an aboriginal race of China, which appeared on the Upper
+ Irawadi about 2,000 years ago. They are a peaceful, pleasure-loving
+ people, mainly agricultural, but not unwarlike. They have a sallow
+ skin and Mongoloid features.
+
+ =Sharras=, or =Eastern Mongols=. A branch of the
+ Mongol stock of the Northern Mongolic family. They are a nomad,
+ tent-dwelling, pastoral race, who roam over the great steppes of
+ Central Asia. They include the Khalkas, north of the Gobi Desert,
+ the Tanguts of Northern Tibet, the Chakars, Barins, Durbans, Uruts,
+ Naimans, and Ordos south of the Gobi. They are descended from the
+ older Mongols (_q.v._), whom they resemble in physical type.
+
+ =Shawnees.= See ALGONQUIAN.
+
+ =Shilluks.= See NILITIC GROUP.
+
+ =Shoshonean.= A group of North American Indian tribes, all
+ belonging to the Shoshone or Snake family, formerly occupying
+ Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, with neighbouring districts. They include
+ the Shoshones or Snakes, Bannocks, Comanches, Utahs, and Mokis.
+ With the exception of the warlike Comanches, they are a peaceful
+ race, who have received the white invaders with friendship.
+
+ =Shulis.= See NILITIC GROUP.
+
+ =Siamese.= Natives of Siam, belonging to the Indo-Chinese
+ stock of the Southern Mongolic family. They are closely related to
+ the Shans (_q.v._). They are of medium height, olive complexion,
+ with slightly flattened noses, prominent lips, and black hair. They
+ are a peaceful and indolent race, who have recently shown promise
+ of assimilating Western civilisation. Their blood is largely mixed
+ with Chinese and Malay. Siam is still independent, forming a buffer
+ state between British and French possessions.
+
+ =Siberian.= A stock of the Northern Mongolic family, including
+ the Chukchi, Koryak, Kamchadale, Gilyak, and Yukaghir tribes
+ (_q.v._).
+
+ =Sicani, Siculi.= See SICILIANS.
+
+ =Sicilians.= The primitive inhabitants of Sicily were the
+ Sicani, probably a Hamitic race allied to the Ligurians (_q.v._).
+ They were followed by the Siculi, an Aryan race of Italic stock,
+ who crossed from Italy about 1000 B.C. They were civilised
+ and modified by Phœnician, and especially Greek settlers, with
+ later Norman and Saracen influences. Of all these elements the
+ modern Sicilians are compounded. They are a handsome, industrious,
+ and amiable race, but turbulent, lawless, given to blood-feuds and
+ brigandage.
+
+ =Sienerehs.= See NIGERIAN GROUP.
+
+ =Sikhs.= A powerful and warlike race of Northern India, united
+ by a common religious faith, dating from the eighteenth century,
+ and mainly of Jat (_q.v._) descent. Under Ranjit Singh, at the
+ beginning of the eighteenth century, they reared a formidable
+ military power in the Punjab, which was conquered by the British
+ in 1846-1849. The Sikhs contribute many of the best and most
+ trustworthy troops to the Indian Army.
+
+ =Silurians.= A dark, round-skulled, short race who inhabited
+ South Wales and the neighbouring districts of England in Roman
+ times. They were probably of Iberian stock, related to the ancient
+ Picts and modern Basques.
+
+ =Sindis.= Natives of Sind in North-West India, of Hindu
+ descent.
+
+ =Singphos.= A wild, daring hill-tribe of Tibetan stock
+ bordering on the Assam valley, formerly given to raiding, but
+ now peaceful agriculturists. The Chins of the Arakan uplands are
+ probably an identical race; they are still predatory.
+
+ =Sinhalese.= See DRAVIDIANS.
+
+ =Siouan.= A numerous and formerly powerful group of North
+ American Indians, inhabiting the western prairies between the
+ Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. Their chief tribe was the
+ Sioux or Dakotas, warriors of fine physique, courage, and military
+ skill, who long maintained a successful resistance against the
+ white settlers. Other allied tribes were the Assinaboins, Omahas,
+ Poncas, Kaws, Osages, Quapaws, Iowas, Otoes, Missouris, Winnebagos,
+ Mandans, Minnetarees, Absarakas or Crows, Tutelos, and Catawbas.
+
+ =Sioux=, or =Dakotas=. See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Siryanians.= A tribe of Ugrian Finns, dwelling on both sides
+ of the Northern Urals, resembling the Samoyedes (_q.v._), except
+ in their white colour and fair hair, probably due to a mixture of
+ Slavonic blood. See FINNO-UGRIAN.
+
+ =Slavonic Races=, =Slavs= or =Slavonians=. A main
+ stock of the Aryan family, occupying the greater part of Eastern
+ Europe, and formerly extending as far west as the Elbe. Many
+ ethnologists consider them to be the primitive Aryan stock. They
+ are a peaceful and industrious agricultural and pastoral race,
+ broad-skulled, with fair hair and blue eyes; though the primitive
+ type has been much modified by intermixture of blood, especially
+ with Mongolic races, who have imprinted a Tartar character on
+ many Slavonic physiognomies. The Slavs are divided into Eastern
+ (Russians and Ruthenians), Western (Czechs and Slovaks, Poles and
+ Wends or Sorbs), and Southern (Bulgarians, Servians, and Croats,
+ Dalmatians, Slovenians, and Montenegrins). See under these heads.
+
+ =Slovaks.= See CZECHS.
+
+ =Slovenians.= A branch of Southern Slavonic stock, inhabiting
+ Styria, Carinthia, and adjoining districts.
+
+ =Solimas.= See TEMNÉ GROUP.
+
+ =Somalis.= An Eastern Hamitic race of Somaliland in North-East
+ Africa. They are a pastoral people, of good physique, handsome
+ features, and light-brown colour, warlike and independent. The
+ original Hamitic stock--closely akin to that of the Gallas
+ (_q.v._)--is modified by Semitic and Negro blood. They make
+ excellent soldiers and servants.
+
+ =Sonrhays.= A Negro race of the Middle Niger, in whom the
+ Sudanese stock is modified by Arab and Berber elements.
+
+ =Sorbs.= See WENDS.
+
+ =Soyots.= A tribe of Ugrian Finns, mixed with Tartar blood, in
+ the Sayan Mountains of South Siberia. See FINNO-UGRIAN.
+
+ =Spaniards=, or =Spanish=. The earliest known race
+ of Spain was the Hamitic Iberians (_q.v._), now represented by
+ the Basques. They were modified by Celtic invasions, which gave
+ birth to the Celt-Iberian races of Central and Western Spain,
+ who struggled so long against the Roman arms, by which they were
+ finally subjugated and further modified. In the fifth century
+ the Vandals and Visigoths (_q.v._) invaded Spain, and founded
+ a Gothic monarchy, which fell before the Saracens in 711. The
+ Visigothic refugees in the northern mountains gradually recovered
+ the country, and the kingdoms of Leon, Navarre, Castile, and Aragon
+ were ultimately united into a single state. The modern Spaniards
+ are thus of mixed race, in which the Iberian and Visigothic are
+ the predominant elements. They are haughty, brave, and warlike, by
+ which qualities they once owned the greatest power in Europe. But
+ they are turbulent and lacking in political skill, so that Spain
+ has decayed. There are now signs of a return to prosperity.
+
+ =Spanish Americans.= White natives of Central and South
+ American States, except Brazil.
+
+ =Spartans.= Natives of Sparta, the greatest state of ancient
+ Greece after Athens, of Dorian stock, eminently warlike and
+ patriotic, but wanting in art or literature.
+
+ =Sudanese.= Full-blooded Negroes inhabiting the Western,
+ Central, and Eastern or Egyptian Sudan--_i.e._ most of Africa
+ north of the Victoria Nyanza. They are black in colour, with
+ woolly hair, projecting jaws, long skulls, broad, flat feet and
+ projecting heels, and form one of the main divisions of Ethiopic
+ Man. They are less intelligent and susceptible of civilisation
+ than the Bantus (_q.v._), in whom the Negro blood is modified by
+ Hamitic or Semitic admixtures. They are mostly of strong physique,
+ warlike and predatory, fond of music and bright colours, with the
+ most elementary notions of art and religion. They may be divided
+ for convenience into several racial groups (_q.v._), such as Wolof,
+ Felup, Toucouleur, Mandingan, Temné, Nigerian, Nilotic, Liberian,
+ Lake Chad, Wadai, Welle, Nuba, and Nilotic, besides the Tshi, Ga,
+ Ewe, and Yoruba peoples of the Guinea district.
+
+ =Suevi.= See SWABIANS.
+
+ =Sundanese.= Natives of the Sunda Islands, of Malayan stock,
+ closely allied to Javanese (_q.v._).
+
+ =Susus.= See MANDINGAN.
+
+ =Sutughils.= See MAYA-QUICHÉ.
+
+ =Swabians.= Natives of Swabia, an ancient duchy occupying the
+ south-western part of the modern German Empire; descended from the
+ ancient Suevi, with whom the Alemanni (_q.v._) were amalgamated. A
+ strong, large-boned, and good-humoured race of High German stock.
+ The Alsatians are closely allied to them.
+
+ =Swahilis.= Natives of Zanzibar and the adjoining mainland,
+ Bantu Negroes, with a strong infusion of Arab blood, which has made
+ them superior in intelligence and enterprise to the average negro.
+ They play a large part in the commerce of East Africa, and their
+ language--Ki-Swahili--is the principal medium of communication
+ throughout the part of Africa between the Equator and the Zambesi.
+
+ =Swazis.= Natives of Swaziland, a native state on the
+ south-east of the Transvaal. A cross between Zulus and other
+ Kafirs, they are industrious and warlike.
+
+ =Swedes.= Natives of Sweden, a branch of the Scandinavian
+ stock. They seem to have been originally a Teutonic race, who
+ entered Northern Sweden about 3,000 years ago, and drove out the
+ aboriginal Lapps and Finns. The inhabitants of Southern Sweden
+ were called Goths, and may have been the ancestors of the Teutonic
+ Goths. In time they amalgamated with the Swedes, and formed one
+ nation, which has been an independent kingdom through most of the
+ Christian era. The Swedes are warlike, and successful in commerce
+ and industry; they make good sailors, and possess a considerable
+ literature.
+
+ =Swiss=, or =Switzers=. The prehistoric inhabitants of
+ Switzerland were the unknown builders of the lake dwellings. At the
+ dawn of history, in Cæsar’s time, the country was largely occupied
+ by a Celtic race, the Helvetii. Later, Switzerland was invaded by
+ Teutonic races of High German stock, Alemanni, Burgundians, etc.
+ The modern Swiss are mostly descended from these races; there
+ is also a considerable mixture of French, Italic and Romansch
+ elements. The Swiss have always been a warlike race, who preserved
+ the independence of their mountainous country through all ages, and
+ in earlier times furnished excellent mercenary soldiers to foreign
+ armies. They are now very industrious and successful in many arts
+ and crafts, such as watchmaking, wood-carving, hotel-keeping, etc.
+ They are a simple and handsome race, possessing in full measures
+ the virtues of the mountaineer.
+
+ =Syrians.= The ancient Syrians were a branch of the Aramæn
+ stock of the Semitic family, and the modern Syrians are their
+ descendants, with some Arab and Turkish elements added. They are
+ tall, with white skins and dark complexions, black eyes and hair,
+ often very handsome, and approaching the Jewish type. They are not
+ warlike, but succeed in commerce.
+
+ =Tacullis.= See ATHABASCAN.
+
+ =Tahitians.= Natives of Tahiti, of Polynesian stock;
+ pleasure-loving and polite, but immoral and untrustworthy; now
+ civilised but formerly noted for their cruelty.
+
+ =Taipings.= The Chinese rebels who attacked the dynasty from
+ 1850 to 1864.
+
+ =Tajiks.= See PERSIANS.
+
+ =Talaings.= An Indo-Chinese race who preceded the Burmese
+ in the Irawadi Delta, and founded a state of which Pegu was the
+ capital. They were subjugated by Burmese in the eighteenth century.
+
+ =Talamancas.= Wild hunting Indians, perfectly uncivilised, who
+ occupy the forest-covered Atlantic slopes of Costa Rica.
+
+ =Tamils.= Natives of Northern Ceylon and the Indian Carnatic.
+ See DRAVIDAS.
+
+ =Taos.= See PUEBLO INDIANS.
+
+ =Tanguts.= Nomadic Mongols of Northern Tibet. See
+ SHARRAS.
+
+ =Tarahumaras.= See OPATA-PIMA.
+
+ =Tarascans.= A group of Indian tribes inhabiting the province
+ of Michoaca in Mexico.
+
+ =Tartars= or =Tatars.= The modern Tartars are inhabitants
+ of the Russian Empire, belonging to the Turki stock of the Northern
+ Mongolic family. They are divided into various geographical
+ subdivisions, such as the Kazan, Astrakhan, Crimean (or Krim)
+ Caucasian and Siberian Tartars. The name has no definite ethnical
+ significance. The Tatars--a Manchu word meaning “archers” or
+ “nomads”--were Mongol tribes who were first so named in the ninth
+ century. They formed a large part of the hordes of Genghiz Khan
+ [see MONGOLS] and stood in the van of the mediæval Mongol
+ incursions into Europe, whence they attracted an attention out of
+ proportion to their importance. Europeans called them Tartars,
+ confusing the name Tartar with the Greek Tartarus or Hell. See
+ TURKI.
+
+ =Tasmanians.= The extinct aborigines of Tasmania, akin to the
+ Australians (_q.v._), but of a still lower Oceanic Negro type. They
+ held a place at the very bottom of humanity, alike in physique,
+ intelligence and culture, being still in the early Stone Age;
+ savage, untamable, and degraded.
+
+ =Tatars.= See TARTARS.
+
+ =Tats.= See PERSIANS.
+
+ =Tavastians.= A branch of the Baltic Finns, with thick-set
+ figures, small blue eyes, light hair, and white skins, probably
+ the consequence of an admixture of German blood with the original
+ Finnish stock. They inhabit central Finland.
+
+ =Tazis.= See TUNGUSES.
+
+ =Teguas.= See PUEBLO INDIANS.
+
+ =Tehuelches.= Another name for the gigantic Patagonians
+ (_q.v._) of South America.
+
+ =Telugus.= See DRAVIDIANS.
+
+ =Tembus=, =Amatembu=, or =Tambukies=. A group of
+ Kafir (_q.v._) tribes in Tembuland, to the north of the Kei River
+ in Cape Colony. Formerly warlike and troublesome, now settled to
+ agriculture and subjected to British rule.
+
+ =Temné Group.= A group of Sudanese Negro tribes, inhabiting
+ the Sierra Leone district of West Africa, including the Temnés or
+ Timnis, Kissis, Sherbros, Gallinas, Bulloms, Solimas, Limbas, and
+ Mendis.
+
+ =Tepeguanas.= See OPATA-PIMA.
+
+ =Teutons.= An important stock of the Aryan family, inhabiting
+ England and the Scottish Lowlands, with the United States and
+ British Empire, Germany, Holland, and parts of Austria and
+ Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The Teutonic races are
+ divided into Low German and High German divisions, to which some
+ add, but others do not, Scandinavians.
+
+ =Thlinkits.= A race of North American Indians inhabiting the
+ Pacific coast from Mount St. Elias to the Simpson River, and the
+ adjacent islands. They live chiefly by fishing and hunting.
+
+ =Thos.= An Indo-Chinese race of Lao descent [see
+ SHANS], in the north of Tongking.
+
+ =Thracians.= The ancient inhabitants of Thrace, on the west
+ of the Black Sea. Their origin is dubious, but they are generally
+ assumed to have belonged to the Aryan family, and been related
+ to the Teutons and the Greeks. They were wild hill tribes, who
+ acquired in later days a certain amount of Roman culture and spoke
+ the Latin language. There is some probability that they were the
+ ancestors of the Vlachs or Roumanians (_q.v._).
+
+ =Thuringians.= A High German tribe inhabiting Thuringia in the
+ fifth century, probably a branch of the Suevi (_q.v._). Now merged
+ into the modern Saxons.
+
+ =Tibetans=, or =Bod-Pa=. Natives of Tibet, forming
+ the Tibetan stock of the Southern Mongolic family, and allied
+ to the minor races of Lepchas, Baltis, Ladakhis, etc. (_q.v._).
+ The Tibetans are akin to the Burmese, with Mongolic features,
+ broad-shouldered and muscular. They are a secluded and archaic
+ race, with many curious customs, such as polyandry. Their religion
+ is full of elaborate ceremonials, and the land abounds in
+ monasteries.
+
+ =Tibbus.= A race inhabiting the oases of the Sahara,
+ intermediate between Berbers and Negroes; perhaps descended from
+ the ancient Garamantes (_q.v._).
+
+ =Timnis.= See TEMNÉ GROUP.
+
+ =Tinné=, or =Tinney=. See ATHABASCAN.
+
+ =Tobas.= A warlike and predatory race of South American
+ Indians on the Rio Vermejo in Bolivia.
+
+ =Tocantins.= See TUPI-GUARANI.
+
+ =Todas.= An isolated group of Caucasic race inhabiting the
+ Nilgiri Hills, and distinguished from the neighbouring Dravidian
+ tribes by their fine physique and regular features of Caucasic
+ type; a dying race.
+
+ =Togos.= See EWE.
+
+ =Toltecs.= The oldest of Nahuan (_q.v._) races, who
+ established a semi-civilised State in Mexico before the Aztecs.
+
+ =Tongans.= See POLYNESIANS.
+
+ =Tongas=, or =Amatonga=. A Kafir race of peaceful
+ agriculturists, occupying Tongaland, to the north of Zululand.
+
+ =Tonkinese.= A branch of the Annamese (_q.v._), skilled in
+ agriculture and dyke-building.
+
+ =Toucouleurs.= Sudanese Negroes of Senegambia, probably
+ crossed with Hamitic blood; formerly dominant in the Western Sudan.
+
+ =Tshi Group.= A group of Sudanese Negro tribes of the Guinea
+ Coast, including the warlike Ashantis, Fantis and Adansis.
+
+ =Tuaregs.= The predatory Berber (_q.v._) Nomads of the Sahara.
+
+ =Tudas.= See DRAVIDIANS.
+
+ =Tumalis.= See NUBA GROUP.
+
+ =Tunguses.= A branch of the Mongol stock of the Northern
+ Mongolic family, who lead a nomad existence in the mountains of
+ East Siberia and the Amur region. They are of Mongolic physical
+ type, with square skulls, low stature, and wiry, well-knit figures.
+ They are distinguished by fine moral qualities, a fearless race of
+ hunters, industrious, trustworthy, and self-reliant. Their main
+ tribes are the Lamuts, or “sea people,” Orochs, Chapogirs, Golds,
+ and Tazis. The modern Tunguses probably represent the primitive
+ stock of the Manchus (_q.v._).
+
+ =Tupi-Guarani.= A wide-spread family of South American
+ Indians, in Brazil, including numerous distinct tribes, of which
+ the Chiriguanas of Bolivia, Caribunas of the Rio Negro, Paraguay
+ Indians, Tupinambas of the Para coast, Mundrucus of the Tapajos,
+ Omaguas, Goajiris and Tocantins, are the most important. They are
+ copper-coloured, thick-set and muscular, with broad features,
+ black hair and sometimes obliquely set eyes. They are of apathetic
+ nature, and are slow to acquire civilisation.
+
+ =Tupinambas.= See TUPI-GUARANI.
+
+ =Turanian.= An ethnological term, now abandoned, roughly
+ corresponding to the Northern Mongolic or Ural-Altaic family.
+
+ =Turguts.= See KALMUKS.
+
+ =Turkanas.= An African Hamitic race, allied to the Masais
+ (_q.v._), and dwelling between Lake Rudolf and the Nile.
+
+ =Turki=, or =Turks=. An important and wide-spread stock
+ of the Northern Mongolic family, dwelling in Central Asia, Asia
+ Minor, and in European Turkey. The primitive Turki stock--the
+ Chinese Tu-kiu and ancient Turcæ--seem to have inhabited the Altai
+ region as early as the second century B.C. Thence they
+ spread far and wide, and founded many powerful and predatory,
+ but unstable empires. The Huns (_q.v._) who followed Attila were
+ largely of Turki stock. Their chief modern race is that of the
+ Ottoman Turks [see TURKS], who raised their empire on the
+ ruins of Constantinople in 1453. Other Turki races are the Yakuts,
+ Usbegs, Naimans Andijanis, Nogais, Tartars, Bashkirs, Kizil-Bashis,
+ Anatolian Turks, etc. They are closely allied to the Kirghiz,
+ Kipchaks, Kara-Kalpaks and Turkomans (_q.v._). The Turki physical
+ type, of Mongol origin, has been modified by intermixture with
+ Caucasic races.
+
+ =Turks=, =Osmanlis=, or =Ottoman Turks=. The
+ dominant inhabitants of the Turkish Empire in Europe and Asia
+ Minor, the most powerful of Turki races. They trace their descent
+ from the Seljuks, a confederacy of Turki tribes who were settled
+ on the Jaxartes in the eleventh century, and there adopted Islam.
+ They conquered Persia and established kingdoms in Syria--the great
+ Saladin was one of their princes--and Asia Minor, or Anatolia.
+ The true Ottoman Turks entered the service of the Seljuk rulers
+ in the thirteenth century, being driven from Kharasan by the
+ advance of the Mongol hordes, and under Othman and his successors
+ they became the dominant Turk race. They reared a great military
+ power, and soon invaded Europe, where they destroyed the Eastern
+ Empire in the middle of the fifteenth century and founded the still
+ existing Turkish Empire. The Ottoman Turks are proud, ignorant
+ and fanatical, but honourable and upright. They make admirable
+ soldiers, when properly led, but are surpassed in the arts of peace
+ by their subject races, Greeks, Bulgarians, Jews, etc.
+
+ =Turkomans.= A race of Turki nomads who inhabit the steppes
+ east of the Caspian and south of the Oxus. They include such tribes
+ as the Chaudors, Tekkes (Akhal and Merv), Salors, Yomuds, Goklen,
+ and Ali-Elis. They were formerly noted for their predatory and
+ man-stealing habits, but under Russian rule have been forced to
+ live a more peaceful life. _m_
+
+ =Tusayas.= See PUEBLO INDIANS.
+
+ =Tuscaroras.= North American Indians. See IROQUOIAN.
+
+ =Tushis.= See CHECHENZES.
+
+ =Tushilange.= A branch of the Baluba (_q.v._).
+
+ =Tutelos.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Tyrolese.= Natives of the Tyrol, the ancient Rhaetia, a
+ mountainous district now belonging to the Austrian Empire. They are
+ of High German Teutonic stock, and are noted for their patriotism
+ and bravery, illustrated by their resistance under Hofer to the
+ arms of Napoleon. They are industrious and thrifty, but backward in
+ education, and devout Catholics.
+
+ =Tyrrhenes.= An ancient pre-Hellenic race of Greece, found in
+ Thrace and Etruria, who probably belonged to the Pelasgian stock of
+ the Hamitic family, giving birth to the Etruscans (_q.v._).
+
+ =Ugrian.= A branch of the Finno-Ugrian stock (_q.v._)
+ including the Samoyedes, Voguls, Ostyaks, Soyots and Siryanians of
+ Siberia, the Permian Finns of Russia, and the Magyars of Hungary.
+ See under these heads.
+
+ =Umbquas.= See ATHABASCAN.
+
+ =Umbrians.= An ancient Italic race, perhaps allied to the
+ Etruscans (_q.v._) or the Samnites, afterwards subjugated by Rome.
+
+ =Ural-Altaic.= A term applied to the Northern Mongolic family
+ of races, corresponding nearly to the older Turanian. It includes
+ the Mongol, Turki, Finno-Ugrian, Siberian, and Koreo-Japanese
+ stocks.
+
+ =Uruts.= See SHARRAS.
+
+ =Utahs.= See SHOSHONEAN.
+
+ =Uzbegs.= Nomadic Turki race of the Oxus Basin.
+
+ =Vaalpens.= A Negrito race of the Kalahari Desert, probably a
+ half-breed between Bechuanas and Bushmen, formerly the serfs of
+ the dominant Bantu races, but now freed under British rule.
+
+ =Vandals.= A Teutonic race, settled at the dawn of the
+ Christian era in North-east Germany between the Oder and the
+ Vistula. Like the Goths, whom they physically resembled, they were
+ a warlike and roving race. Early in the fifth century they invaded
+ Gaul and formed a settlement in Spain, where Andalusia (anciently
+ Vandalitia) preserves their name. Later, under the fierce Genseric,
+ they crossed to Africa and over-ran Mauretania, where they
+ established a short-lived piratical Empire. In 534 it was destroyed
+ by a Byzantine army under Belisarius, and the Vandals thereafter
+ disappeared as a separate race. Their name has become a by word on
+ account of their turn for devastation.
+
+ =Vaudois.= See WALDENSES.
+
+ =Veddahs.= A primitive hunting people of Ceylon, who are
+ sometimes classed as Dravidian, but more probably represent the
+ still older (Negrito?) aborigines of the island. They are dwarfish,
+ of dark complexion, with features intermediate between the Hindu
+ and Papuan types. They rank among the rudest and least civilised
+ of races, being equally unable to laugh, count, or cook. They are
+ dying out.
+
+ =Veis=, or =Vey=. A Sudanese Negro race, of Mandingan
+ stock, on the West Coast of Africa, who are said to be the only
+ Negro race who have invented an alphabet.
+
+ =Venezuelans.= White natives of Venezuela, of Spanish descent.
+ Most of them are crossed with Indian blood.
+
+ =Vikings.= See NORSEMEN.
+
+ =Visigoths.= See GOTHS.
+
+ =Voguls.= A nomadic Finno-Ugrian race who inhabit both slopes
+ of the Urals. They closely resemble the Ostyaks and Samoyedes
+ (_q.v._). _m_
+
+ =Vuaregga=, =Vuarua=, =Vuarunga=, =Vuavinza=.
+ Bantu Negro tribes inhabiting the Congo basin and the Tanganyika
+ district.
+
+ =Wachaga.= A predatory Bantu race on the southern slopes of
+ Kilimanjaro.
+
+ =Wadai Group.= A group of Sudanese Negro tribes inhabiting
+ Wadai and East Darfur, including Birkits, Massalits, Korungas,
+ Mabas (mixed with Hamitic blood), and other tribes. They are mainly
+ of pastoral habit.
+
+ =Waganda.= A Bantu Negro race who founded the kingdom of
+ Uganda and attained a remarkable degree of civilisation before the
+ arrival of white men. They are very intelligent, and their skill in
+ the industrial arts has caused them to be called the Japanese of
+ Africa. They are also warlike, and formerly indulged in frequent
+ plundering and slave hunting raids among the surrounding races.
+
+ =Wagogo.= A Bantu Negro race of German East Africa.
+
+ =Wahehe.= See WASAGARA.
+
+ =Wa-Huma.= A conquering pastoral race, of Eastern Hamitic
+ stock, who migrated from Gallaland and penetrated as far south
+ as Unyamwezi, founding various kingdoms on the way. They are of
+ Hamitic features, fair complexion, and tall stature; very warlike.
+ The ruling classes of Uganda and Unyoro are of Wa-Huma origin. The
+ Wa-Huma are a branch of the Gallas (_q.v._). Among their tribes are
+ the Wajiji, Warundi, Waruanda, etc.
+
+ =Wajiji.= See WA-HUMA.
+
+ =Waldenses=, or =Vaudois=. A heretical sect which
+ originated in the South of France in the twelfth century, and was
+ formed into a separate race by persecution; of French, Swiss, and
+ Italian elements. They are now settled in Savoy.
+
+ =Walloons.= Natives of South-eastern Belgium, of mixed Celtic
+ and Romanic stock, probably descended from the ancient Belgae
+ (_q.v._). They are tall, bony, and of strong physique, and are very
+ successful in industry, as shown in the great manufacturing town of
+ Liege.
+
+ =Wanyamwezi.= A warlike Bantu race of German East Africa, who
+ formerly composed a powerful predatory state.
+
+ =Wanyoro.= Natives of Unyoro, in British East Africa, of Bantu
+ race, skilled in industrial arts, and formerly allied with Arab
+ slave-traders.
+
+ =Wapisianas.= See ARAWAKS.
+
+ =Wapokomo.= The chief Bantu race of the Tana basin, skilled
+ boatmen and hunters, formerly under Masai domination, now acquiring
+ civilisation under British rule.
+
+ =Warraus.= An aboriginal Indian race of British Guiana.
+
+ =Warua.= A powerful, warlike, and barbarous Bantu race of the
+ Lualaba district in the Congo Free State, forming a powerful native
+ state, and skilled in industry and rude art.
+
+ =Waruanda=, =Warundi=. See WA-HUMA.
+
+ =Wasagara.= A warlike and widespread Bantu people of German
+ East Africa; fierce mountaineers, much given to marauding. The
+ Wahehe, who claim Zulu affinities, are one of their tribes.
+
+ =Waswahili.= See SWAHILIS.
+
+ =Wataveita.= A mild and settled agricultural Bantu race
+ inhabiting the slopes of Kilimanjaro in German East Africa.
+
+ =Welle Group.= A group of Sudanese Negro races inhabiting the
+ region of the Upper Welle River in Central Africa, including the
+ cannibal Niam-Niam, or Azandeh, the Mangbattu, Nsakkara, Amadi,
+ Ababua, and other tribes.
+
+ =Welsh=, or =Cymry=. The chief surviving branch of the
+ Brythonic or P Celts, inhabiting Wales, where they preserve their
+ ancient language and customs. They probably represent the ancient
+ Britons who inhabited England at the time of the Anglo-Saxon
+ immigrations. “An old and haughty nation, proud in arms.”
+
+ =Wends.= A stock of the Western Slavonic family, settled in
+ the north and east of Germany in the sixth century. They were
+ gradually absorbed by the Teutonic Germans. A remnant of the
+ Wendish race, preserving their ancient language and customs,
+ survives in Lusatia, on the borders of Saxony and Prussia, where
+ they are also known as Sorbs.
+
+ =Winnebagos.= See SIOUAN.
+
+ =Wochuas.= See PYGMIES.
+
+ =Wolofs.= Sudanese Negroes, dwelling between Lower Senegal and
+ Gambia; very black, but with regular features, indicating a trace
+ of Hamitic blood. Their chief branch is that of the Jolofs.
+
+ =Wulwas.= See LENCAN.
+
+ =Xanthochroi.= A suggested division of Caucasic Man, opposed
+ to the Melanochroi, characterised by fair hair, blue eyes, and rosy
+ complexion. It would thus include the Teutonic, Scandinavian, and
+ Slavonic stocks of the Aryan family.
+
+ =Xosas=, or =Amaxosa=. The southern stock of the Kafir
+ race (_q.v._), allied to the Zulus, or northern stock. They are
+ eminently warlike, and have an interesting system of social
+ organisation. They are of Bantu origin, immigrants from the north,
+ who have dispossessed the Hottentot or Bushman aborigines. They are
+ tall, well-built, and muscular, with Negro features and complexion,
+ and woolly hair. They are semi-nomadic cattle-breeders and hunters,
+ but many have taken to the settled pursuits of agriculture. They
+ were long at war with the British and Boer settlers, but are now a
+ peaceful and contented people under British rule.
+
+ =Yakuts.= A Mongolic race of Turki stock, inhabiting the
+ province of Yakutsk in East Siberia. They are of middle height,
+ with black hair, flat noses, and narrow eyes. They are laborious
+ and enterprising, and show more aptitude for civilisation than the
+ Buriats or Tunguses. They inhabit log “yurtas” in winter, but camp
+ out in summer. Cattle-breeding, and to a less degree agriculture,
+ are their chief occupations.
+
+ =Yankees.= Natives of the New England States. In a wider
+ sense, the northern inhabitants of the United States.
+
+ =Yaos.= Agricultural aborigines of French Indo-China, perhaps
+ allied to the Chinese proper.
+
+ =Yedinas.= See LAKE CHAD GROUP.
+
+ =Yomuds.= See TURKOMANS.
+
+ =Yorubas.= A group of Sudanese Negro races inhabiting the
+ eastern half of the Slave Coast district, and united by a common
+ Yoruba language, though much broken up by political feuds. They
+ are peacefully disposed, industrious, and friendly to strangers.
+ Their main pursuit is agriculture, but they also practise many
+ industries; they are the best architects in Africa. Their chief
+ tribes are those of Egba, Jebu, Oworo, Ondo, Ife, and Oyo.
+ Abeokuta, the Egba capital, owes its fame to the success with
+ which it held out as a city of refuge against the slave-hunters of
+ Dahomey and Ibadan.
+
+ =Yukaghirs.= A nomadic tribe of north-east Siberia, probably
+ identical with the Tunguses (_q.v._).
+
+ =Yumas.= See OPATA-PIMA.
+
+ =Yuruks.= A nomadic Turki race in the Konia vilayet of
+ Turkey-in-Asia.
+
+ =Yusufzais.= See AFGHANS.
+
+ =Zambos.= See SAMBOS.
+
+ =Zaparos.= South American Indians, on the Upper Napo in Peru.
+
+ =Zapotecs.= Central American Indians of Oajaca in Mexico.
+
+ =Zendals=, =Zotzils=. See MAYA-QUICHÉ.
+
+ =Zulus=, or =Amazulu=. A very warlike Bantu race, allied
+ to the Xosas and other Kafir tribes, whom they resemble in physique
+ and organisation. Originally a small Kafir clan, the Zulus were
+ raised to eminence at the beginning of the nineteenth century by
+ the genius of Tchaka, a kind of Negro Napoleon, who established
+ a severe military despotism, and dominated South Africa from the
+ Zambesi to Cape Colony by the courage and military skill of his
+ regiments. Tchaka’s descendants ruled Zululand proper, and waged
+ war against Kafirs, Boers, and English, until their country was
+ annexed by Britain in 1887. The Zulus are both physically and
+ mentally one of the finest of African races.
+
+ =Zunis.= See PUEBLO INDIANS.
+
+[Illustration: TYPES OF THE CHIEF LIVING RACES OF MANKIND
+
+ 1. Anglo-Saxon 2. Finn 3. Celtic 4. Bulgarian
+
+ 5. Greek 6. Caucasian 7. Tartar
+
+ 8. Arab 9. Fellah 10. Berber 11. Syrian
+
+ 12. Afghan 13. Javanese 14. Malay
+
+ 15. Ladrone Islander 16. Hindu 17. Samang 18. Negrito
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ 19. Chinese 20. Japanese 21. Tartar 22. Aleutian
+
+ 23. Kalmuck 24. Kamchadale 25. Aleoutian
+
+ 26. Esquimau 27. Ainu 28. Samoyede
+
+ 29. Koriak 30. Stone Indian 31. Otoe Indian
+
+ 32. Kutchin Indian 34. Yucatan Indian
+ 33. Chili Indian 35. Fuegian
+]
+
+[Illustration: GROUPED ACCORDING TO PHYSIOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP
+
+ 36. Jeba Negro 37. Beja 38. Sahara Negro
+
+ 39. Hottentot 40. Kafir 41. Mozambique Negro
+
+ 42. North Australian 44. South Australian
+ 43. West Australian 45. Tasmanian
+
+ 46. Tikopia Islander 47. Maori 48. Samoan
+
+ 49. Melanesian (Vanikoro Island) 50. Melanesian (New Hebrides)
+ 51. Fijian
+]
+
+
+
+
+ETHNOLOGICAL CHART OF THE HUMAN RACE
+
+
+This Chart, intended for reference in connection with the Dictionary
+of Races beginning on page 311, gives a view of the various main
+divisions, families, and stocks into which the human race is divided
+by ethnologists. It is impossible to give a complete list of the
+individual races within the necessary limits, but the chief typical
+races are named under each stock in the right-hand column. The races
+marked with an asterisk are extinct.
+
+
+ETHIOPIC DIVISION
+
+ Family Stock Typical races
+
+ AFRICAN NEGRO
+
+ _Sudanese_ {Mandingan
+ {Ashanti
+ {Hausa
+ {Azandeh
+
+ _Bantu_ {Herero
+ {Wanyamwezi
+ {Basuto
+ {Waganda
+ {Ama-Xosa (Kafir)
+ {Zulu
+
+ _Hottentot-Bushman_ {Nama
+ {Griqua
+ {Bushman
+
+ AFRICAN NEGRITO
+
+ _Pygmy_ {Wochua
+ {Akka
+ {Obongo
+
+ OCEANIC-NEGRO
+
+ _Papuan_ {New Guinea natives
+
+ _Melanesian_ {Fijian
+ {Solomon Islanders
+
+ _Australian_ {Australian aborigines
+ {Tasmanian*
+
+ OCEANIC NEGRITO
+
+ _Negrito_ {Andamanese
+ {Sakai
+ {Aeta
+
+
+MONGOLIC DIVISION
+
+ Family Stock Typical races
+
+ NORTHERN MONGOLIC
+
+ {Sharra
+ {Kalmuk
+ _Mongol_ {Buriat
+ {Tungus
+
+ {Turks
+ {Tartars
+ _Turki_ {Bashkirs
+ {Kirghiz
+ {Turkoman
+
+
+ {Samoyede
+ {Magyar
+ _Finno-Ugrian_ {Finn
+ {Bulgar
+ {Lapp
+
+ _Siberian_ {Chukchi
+ {Kamchadale
+
+ _Koreo-Japanese_ {Korean
+ {Japanese
+
+ _Dravidian(?)_ Tamil
+
+ SOUTHERN MONGOLIC
+
+ {Tibetan
+ _Tibetan_ {Balti
+ {Lushai
+
+ {Burmese
+ _Indo-Chinese_ {Siamese
+ {Bhil
+ {Annamese
+
+ {Chinese
+ _Chinese_ {Punti
+ {Lolo
+
+
+ OCEANIC MONGOLIC
+
+ {Malay
+ _Malaysian_ {Dyak
+ {Javanese
+
+ _Malagasy_ Hova
+
+ _Philippine_ {Visayan
+ {Ilocano
+
+ _Formosan_
+
+
+AMERICAN DIVISION
+
+ Family Stock Typical races
+
+ ARCTIC
+
+ _Eskimo_ {Eskimo
+ {Aleutian
+
+ NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN
+
+ _Athabascan_ {Apache
+ {Navajo
+
+ _Algonquian_ {Delaware
+ {Mohican
+ {Blackfoot
+
+ _Iroquioan_ {Huron
+ {Mohawk
+ {Cherokee
+
+ _Thlinkit_ Thlinkit
+
+ _Haida_ Haida
+
+ _Chinook_ Chinook
+
+ _Siouan_ {Sioux
+ {Dakota
+ {Omaha
+
+ _Shoshonean_ {Shoshone
+ {Utah
+ {Comanche
+ {Pawnee
+
+ _Muskhogean_ {Choktaw
+ {Seminole
+
+ _Natchez_ Natchez*
+
+ _Kiowa_ Kiowa
+
+ _Salish_ Flathead
+
+ _Pueblo_ {Zuni
+ {Taos
+
+ CENTRAL AMERICAN INDIAN
+
+ _Otomi_ Otomi
+
+ _Opata-Pima_ {Cora
+ {Tarahumara
+
+ _Guaicuri_ Guaicuri
+
+ _Tarascan_ Tarascan
+
+ _Nahuan_ {Toltec
+ {Aztec
+ {Mexican
+
+ _Maya-Quiché_ {Maya
+ {Quiché
+ {Huastec
+
+ _Lencan_ {Chontal
+ {Guatusa
+
+ _Bribri_ Bribri
+
+ _Talamanca_ Talamanca
+
+ _Zapotec_ Zapotec
+
+ _Miztec_ Miztec
+
+ _Chorotegan_ Chorotegan
+
+ SOUTH AMERICAN INDIAN
+
+ _Inca_ {Quichua
+ {Chanca
+
+ _Aymara_ Aymara
+
+ _Chibcha_ Chibcha
+
+ _Choco_ Choco
+
+ _Zaparo_ Zaparo
+
+ _Jivaro_ Jivaro
+
+ _Mojo_ Mojo
+
+ _Chiquito_ Chiquito
+
+ _Barré_ Barré
+
+ _Charrua_ Charrua*
+
+ _Chuncho_ Chuncho
+
+ _Conibo_ Conibo
+
+ _Carib_ {Macusi
+ {Rucuyenne
+
+ _Arawak_ {Maypuri
+ {Wapisiana
+
+ _Warrau_ Warrau
+
+ _Botocudo_ Botocudo
+
+ _Tupi-Guarani_ {Paraguay
+ {Caribuna
+ {Tupinamba
+
+ _Payagua_ Payagua
+
+ _Matacoan_ Matacoan
+
+ _Toba_ Toba
+
+ _Araucanian_ Araucanian
+
+ _Puelche_ {Puelche
+ {Gaucho
+
+ _Patagonian_ Patagonian
+
+ _Fuegian_ Fuegian
+
+
+CAUCASIC DIVISION
+
+ Family Stock Typical races
+
+ HAMITIC
+
+ _Eastern_ { Egyptian
+ { Somali
+ { Galla
+ { Masai
+
+ _Western_ { Numidian Berber
+ { Iberian { Basque
+ { Pict*
+ { Ligurian Corsican
+ { Pelasgian { Mycenæan*
+ { Etruscan*
+
+ SEMITIC
+
+ _Assyrian_ Chaldæan*
+ _Aramæan_ { Syrian
+ { Hittite*
+ _Canaanite_ { Israelite
+ { Phœnician*
+ { Carthaginian*
+ _Arab_ { Arab
+ { Bedouin
+ _Himyarite_ Abyssinian
+
+ ARYAN
+
+ _Hindu_ { Punjabi
+ { Bengali
+ _Iranian_ { Afghan
+ { Persian
+ { Armenian
+ { Kurd
+ _Hellenic_ { Albanian
+ { Greek
+ _Italic_ { Roman
+ { Italian
+ { French
+ { Spanish
+ { Portuguese
+ { Latin American
+ _Keltic_ { Goidelic { Irish
+ { or { Manx
+ { Q Kelts { Highland Scottish
+ { Brythonic { Welsh
+ { or { Breton
+ { P Kelts { Cornish*
+ _Lettic_ { Lithuanian
+ { Lettish
+ _Slavonic_ { Russian
+ { Czech
+ { Polish
+ { Servian
+ _Scandinavian_ { Norwegian
+ { Swedish
+ { Danish
+ _Teutonic_ { Low { Old Saxon*
+ { German { Dutch
+ { { Flemish
+ { { Anglo-Saxon
+ { High { German
+ { German { Saxon
+ { Swiss
+ { Austrian
+
+ CAUCASIAN
+
+ _Southern_ Georgian
+ _Western_ Circassian
+ _Eastern_ { Chechenz
+ { Lesghian
+
+ INDONESIAN
+
+ _Polynesian_ { Samoan
+ { Maori
+ { Marquesan
+
+ AINU
+
+ _Ainu_ Ainu
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MAKING OF THE NATIONS AND THE INFLUENCE OF NATURE]
+
+
+
+
+THE BIRTH & GROWTH OF NATIONS
+
+BY PROFESSOR RATZEL
+
+
+In order that the cosmic conception of the life of man may be more
+than a mere isolated idea, incapable of being applied and developed,
+it is necessary to indicate the relation which human life bears to the
+collective life of the earth.
+
+[Sidenote: Man is Bound up with the Earth]
+
+Human existence is based upon the entire development of vegetable
+and animal life; or, as Alexander von Humboldt said, in reality the
+human race partakes of the entire life on earth. Just as plants
+and animals, vegetable and animal remains and products, occupy an
+intermediate position between man and the inanimate substance of the
+earth, so almost without exception the life of man depends not directly
+upon the earth, but upon the animals and plants, which in turn are
+immediately bound to the earth by the necessities of existence. It is
+the dependence of later and more evolved types upon the earlier and
+less evolved. In 1845 Robert Mayer, the German scientist, published
+his epoch-making thesis on “The Relations of Organic Motion to
+Metabolism,” in which he described the vegetable world as a reservoir
+wherein the rays of the sun are transformed into life-supporting
+material and are stored up for use. According to his view the physical
+existence of the human race is inseparably linked together with this
+“economic providence”; and he even went so far as to connect it with
+the instinctive pleasure felt by every eye at the sight of luxuriant
+vegetation.
+
+[Sidenote: Man’s Fight with Plants and Animals]
+
+[Sidenote: Spreading Life Over all the Earth]
+
+The history of mankind shows how various are the elements contained
+in this reservoir, and how manifold their action. Originally plants
+and animals share the soil with man, who must struggle with them for
+its possession. The plains favour and the forests obstruct historical
+movement; the inhabitant of the tropics is hardly able to overcome the
+growth of weeds that covers his field; for the Esquimau the vegetable
+world exists but two months in the year, and then only in stunted,
+feeble species. The unequal distribution of edible plants has in a
+large measure been the cause of divergence in the developments of
+different races. Australia and the Arctic countries have received
+almost nothing; the Old World has had abundance of the richest gifts
+showered upon it, Asia receiving more than Africa or Europe. The
+most valuable of domestic animals are of Asiatic origin. America’s
+pre-European history is incomparably more uniform than that of the Old
+World, and this is owing to her moderate endowment of useful plants
+and almost complete lack of domestic animals. The transplanting of
+vegetable species from one part of the earth to another, carried on
+by man, is one of the greatest movements in the collective life of
+the world. Its possibilities of extension cannot be conjectured; for
+the successful diffusion of single cultivated plants--the banana,
+for example--over a number of widely separated countries is yet
+problematical. This process can never be considered to have come to an
+end so long as necessity forces man to get a firmer and firmer hold on
+the store of earthly life.
+
+The relations of man to the earth are primarily the same as those of
+any other form of life. The universal laws of the diffusion of life
+include also the laws of the diffusion of the human species. Hence the
+study of the geographical distribution of man must be looked upon only
+as a branch of the study of the geographical distribution of life, and
+a succession of the conceptions belonging to the latter.
+
+[Sidenote: The Material Tie that Binds Men Together]
+
+To these conceptions belong the main area of distribution, the
+habitable world, and all its various parts: zones, continents, and
+other divisions of the earth’s surface, especially seas, coasts,
+interiors of lands, bordering regions, divisions exhibiting continuity
+with others as links in a chain, and isolated divisions. Also
+relations as to area: the struggle for territory, variations in the
+life development in small or inextensive regions, in insular or in
+continental districts, on heights of land and plateaus, and, in
+addition, the hindrances and the aids to development presented by
+different conformations; the advance development in small, densely
+populated districts; or the protection afforded by isolated situations.
+All must be included. Finally, properties of boundaries must be
+conceived of as analogous to phenomena occurring on the peripheries of
+living bodies.
+
+As races are forms of organic life, it follows that the state cannot
+be comprehended otherwise than as an organised being; every people,
+every state is organic, as a combination of organic units. Moreover
+there is something organic in the internal coherence of the groups and
+individuals from which a state is formed. However, in the case of a
+people and a state, this coherence is neither material nor structural;
+states are spiritual and moral organisms. But, together with the
+spiritual, there is also a material coherence between the individual
+members of a race or a nation. This is the connection with the ground.
+The ground furnishes the only material tie that binds individuals
+together into a state; and it is primarily for this reason that all
+history exhibits a strong and ever-increasing tendency to associate the
+state with the soil--to root it to the ground, as it were.
+
+[Sidenote: The State and the Soil]
+
+The earth is not only the connecting principle, but it is also the
+single tangible and indestructible proof of the unity of the state.
+This connection does not decrease during the course of history, as
+might be supposed, owing to the progressive development of spiritual
+forces; on the contrary, it ever becomes closer, advancing from the
+loose association of a few individuals with a proportionately wide
+area in the primitive community, to the close connection of the dense
+population of a powerful state with its relatively small area, as in
+the case of a modern civilised nation. In spite of all disturbances,
+the economic and political end has ever been to associate a greater and
+greater number of individuals with the soil. Hence the law that every
+relation of a race or tribe to the ground strives to take a political
+form, and that every political structure seeks connection with the
+ground. The notion of an unterritorial and a territorial epoch in the
+history of man is incorrect; ground is necessary to every form of
+state, and also to the germs of states, such as a few negroes’ huts
+or a ranch in the Far West. Development consists only in a constant
+increase in the occupation and use of land, and in the fact that, as
+populations grow, so do they become ever more firmly rooted in their
+own soils.
+
+[Sidenote: If One State Embraced the Whole Earth]
+
+At the same time the nature of the movements of peoples must change.
+Penetration and assimilation of one race by another occur instead
+of displacement of one by another; and with the rapid decrease of
+unoccupied territory the fate of the late-comers in history is
+irrevocably sealed. Since the state is an organism composed of
+independent individuals and households, its decay cannot be analogous
+to the death and corruption of a plant or an animal. When plants decay,
+the cells of which they are composed decay also. But in a decayed state
+the freed individuals live on and unite together into new political
+organisms; they increase, and the old necessity for growth continues
+in the midst of the ruin. The decay of nations is not destruction;
+it is a remodelling, a transformation. A great political institution
+dies out; smaller institutions arise in its place. Decay is a life
+necessity. Nothing could be more incorrect than the idea that the
+growth of nations would come to an end were one state to embrace the
+whole earth. If this were to happen, long before the great moment of
+union came, there would be a multitude of processes of growth already
+in operation, ready to rebuild in case of decadence, and to provide
+for a new organisation if needed. As yet the political expansion of
+the white races over the earth has not resulted in uniformity, but in
+manifoldness.
+
+[Illustration: THE PEOPLE OF THE MOUNTAINS: SHOWING THE INFLUENCE OF
+ENVIRONMENT ON CHARACTER
+
+ This picture, by Alexander Johnston, illustrates the keynote of
+ Professor Ratzel’s chapters on the influence of the earth on
+ character. Johnston represents a marriage among the Scottish
+ Covenanters, who, persecuted under the Stuarts, took to the
+ moss-hags and the hills, of whose stern ruggedness their own stern
+ independence was the outcome and counterpart.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Earth and the Movements of Peoples]
+
+All conditions and relations of peoples and states that may be
+geographically described, delineated, surveyed, and, for the greater
+part, even measured, can be traced back to movements--movements that
+are peculiar to all forms of life, and of which the origin is growth
+and development. However various these movements may be in other
+respects, they are always connected with the soil, and thus must be
+dependent upon the extent, situation, and conformation of the ground
+upon which they take place. Therefore, in every organic movement we
+may perceive the activity of the internal motive forces which are
+peculiar to life, and the influences of the ground to which the life
+is attached. In the movements of peoples, the internal forces are the
+organic powers of motion common to all creatures, and the spiritual
+impulses of the intellect and will of man.
+
+In many a view of history these forces alone appear; but it must not
+be forgotten that they are conditioned by the fact that they cannot be
+active beyond the general limits of life, and they cannot disengage
+themselves from the soil to which life is bound. In order to understand
+historical movements it is first necessary to consider their purely
+mechanical side, which is shown clearly enough by an inquiry into the
+nature of the earth’s surface. Neglect of this occasions a delay in
+the understanding of the true character of such movements. Men merely
+spoke of geography, and treated history as if it were an atmospheric
+phenomenon.
+
+[Sidenote: National Emigrations in History]
+
+Nations are movable bodies whose units are held together by a
+common origin, language, customs, locality, and often necessity for
+defence--the strongest tie of all. A people expands in one direction
+and contracts in another; in case of two adjacent nations, a movement
+in the one betokens a movement in the other. Active movements are
+responded to by passive, and vice versa. Every movement in an area
+filled with life consists in a displacement of individuals. There are
+also currents and counter-currents: when slavery was abolished in the
+Southern States of America, an emigration of white men from the South
+was followed by an influx of ex-slaves from the North, thus causing an
+increase in the black majority of the South.
+
+[Sidenote: Why Nations Must Seek New Homes]
+
+Such external movements of peoples assume most varied forms. History
+takes a too narrow view in considering only the migrations of nations,
+looking upon them as great and rare events, historical storms as it
+were, exceptional in the monotonous quiet of the life of man. This
+conception of historical movements is very similar to the discarded
+cataclysmic theory in geology. In the history of nations, as in
+the history of the earth, a great effect does not always involve a
+presupposition of its being the immediate result of a mighty cause.
+The constant action of small forces that finally results in a large
+aggregate of effect must be taken into account in history as well as in
+geology. Every external movement is preceded by internal disturbance:
+a nation must grow from within in order to spread abroad. The increase
+of Arabs in Oman led to an emigration to East Africa along highways of
+traffic known to times of old. Merchants, craftsmen, adventurers, and
+slaves left their native land and drew together in Zanzibar, Pemba,
+and on the mainland. The process was repeated from the coast to the
+interior, and as a result of the aggregate labour of individuals as
+merchants, colonists, and missionaries, Arabian states grew up in
+the central regions of Africa. Instances of the occupation of vacant
+territories are of the greatest rarity in history as we are acquainted
+with it. The best example known to us is the settlement of Iceland
+by the Northmen. The rule is, a forcing in of the immigrating nation
+between other races already in possession; the opposition of the latter
+often compels the former to divide up into small groups, which then
+insinuate themselves peacefully among the people already established in
+the land.
+
+[Illustration: THE NORTHMEN TAKING POSSESSION OF ICELAND
+
+ Instances of peoples taking possession of uninhabited lands and
+ settling therein are extremely rare. Iceland is the best example
+ known. The hardy Northmen took possession of it in the ninth
+ century, but found the country untenanted.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: The Human Will Knows no Obstacle]
+
+The movements of nations resemble those of fluids upon the earth: they
+proceed from higher altitudes to lower; and obstacles cause a change of
+course, a backward flow, or a division. Though at first there may be a
+series of streams running along side by side, there is a convergence
+at the goal, as shown by the migration of different peoples to a
+common territory; there is concentration when there are hindrances to
+be overcome, and a spreading out where the ground is level and secure.
+One race draws other races along with it; and, as a rule, a troop of
+wanderers come from a long distance will be found to have absorbed
+foreign elements on its way. But it would be wrong to look upon the
+movements of nations as passive onflowings, or even to deduce a natural
+law from the descent of tribes from the mountains to the river valleys
+and to the sea--an idea that once led to the acceptance of the theory
+of the Ethiopian origin of Egyptian civilisation. Either the wills
+of individuals unite to form a collective will, or the will of a
+single man imposes itself upon the aggregate. The human will knows no
+insurmountable obstacle within the bounds of the habitable earth.
+
+[Sidenote: Bursting Nature’s Barriers]
+
+As time goes on, all rivers and all seas are navigated, all mountains
+climbed, and all deserts traversed. But these have all acted as
+obstructions before which movements have either halted or turned aside,
+until finally they have burst the barriers. At least two thousand years
+passed from the time of the first journey of a Phœnician ship out
+through the Pillars of Hercules into the Atlantic until the arrival of
+the day when a voyage across was ventured from Southern Europe. The
+Romans turned at the Alps, both to the right and to the left, seven
+hundred years after their city had been founded, but how many nooks in
+the interior of those mountains were unknown to them even centuries
+later! Yet to-day Europe feels the effect of this circumstance, the
+fact that the Romans did not advance straight through the Central Alps
+into the heart of the Teutonic country. They followed a roundabout way
+through Gaul, and thus Mediterranean culture and Christianity were
+brought to Central Europe from the west instead of from the south;
+hence the dependence of the civilisation of Germany upon that of France.
+
+It is precisely the Romans who, contrasted with barbarians, show us
+that will or design in the movements of nations does not necessarily
+increase with growth of culture, even though culture constantly
+puts more means of action at its disposal, improved methods of
+transportation, by which the way may be lightened. The mounted bands
+of Celts and Germans crossed the Alps quite as easily as did the Roman
+legions; and in spreading about and penetrating to every corner of
+the Alps and the Pyrenees, the barbarians were always superior to the
+Romans.
+
+[Sidenote: The Great Wanderers of the Earth]
+
+Wandering tribes of semi-civilised people are smaller, less
+pretentious, and less encumbered. In every war that has taken place in
+a mountain land, the greater mobility of untrained militia has often
+led to victories over regular troops. Races of inferior culture are
+invariably more mobile than those of a higher grade of civilisation;
+and they are able to equalise the advantages of the superior modes of
+locomotion with which culture has supplied the latter. Mobility also
+indicates a weaker hold upon the ground, and thus uncivilised peoples
+are more easily dislodged from their territories than are nations
+capable of becoming, as it were, more deeply rooted. In nomadic races,
+mobility bound up with the necessity for an extensive territory assumes
+a definite form, and, owing to a constant preparedness for wandering
+and to the possession of an organised marching system, such peoples
+have been among the greatest forces in Old World history.
+
+Movements of nations are often spoken of as if certain definite
+directions were forced upon them by some mysterious power. This view
+not only wraps itself in the garment of prophecy--for example, when
+announcing that the direction in which the sun travels must also be
+that of history--but it formally presupposes a necessary east-to-west
+progression of historical movements, endeavouring to substantiate
+its doctrine by citation of examples, from Julius Cæsar to the
+gold-seekers of California. But this necessity remains always in
+obscurity. Not only is it contradicted by frequently confirmed reflex
+movements in historical times, but it is also disproved still more by
+the great migrations which have taken place on the same continent in
+contrary directions. In Asia the Chinese have spread over the entire
+area of interior plain and desert, westward to the nation-dividing
+barriers of the Pamir Mountains; other Asiatic races have overflowed
+into Europe--also from east to west. Contrariwise, ever since the
+sixteenth century we have seen the Russians at work conquering the
+entire northern part of the continent, constantly pressing on towards
+the east. Even the sea proved no obstacle, for they both discovered and
+acquired Alaska during the course of this same movement.
+
+[Illustration: HOW CIVILISATION SPREAD THROUGH EUROPE
+
+ The inexorable influence of physical conditions on the life of
+ the peoples is well illustrated by the influence of the Alps in
+ deflecting the path of Mediterranean culture. These mountains
+ hemmed in the north of the Roman Empire and forced the Romans,
+ in their expansion, to the west. Hence Mediterranean culture and
+ Christianity were carried to Central Europe from the west instead
+ of from the south, and the civilisation of Germany depends on that
+ of France. The map shows the route followed by the stream of Roman
+ civilisation.
+]
+
+We shall not attach any universal significance to such fashionable
+terms employed in historical works as political or historical
+attraction, elective affinity or balance; least of all shall we presume
+to discover occult, mysterious sources for them. It is obvious that a
+powerful nation will overflow in the direction of least resistance; and
+in the case of a strong Power confronting one that is weak there is a
+constant movement toward the latter. Thus, from the earliest times,
+Egypt has pressed on toward the south; and everywhere in the Sudan
+we find traces of similar movements to the south as far as Adamawa,
+where they are still to-day in energetic continuance. The history of
+colonisation in America shows a turning of the streams of immigration,
+in the south as well as in the north, towards the more thinly settled
+regions; the more thickly populated are avoided. The migrations of
+nations, which took place during periods of history when a surplus of
+unoccupied land existed, were determined to a great extent by natural
+causes. The more numerous nations become, the greater the obstacles
+to migration, for most of these obstacles arise from the very nations
+themselves.
+
+Nations increase with their populations; lands with enlargement of
+territory. So long as a country has sufficient area, the second form
+of growth need not of necessity follow the first--the race spreads
+out over the gaps which are open in the interior, and thus internal
+colonisation takes place. If there is need for emigration, occupiable
+districts may be found in the lands of another people--for centuries
+Germans have thus found accommodation in Austria, Hungary, Poland, and
+America.
+
+[Sidenote: How New States are Born]
+
+Of course, such colonists gradually become absorbed into the people
+among whom they have settled. This is simple emigration, which is
+therefore connected with the internal colonisation of a foreign land.
+External colonisation first comes into being when a state acquires
+territory under its control, into which territory, if it be suitable, a
+portion of the inhabitants of the state move and settle. Colonisation
+is not necessarily a State affair from the first. If a race inhabit
+a country so sparsely as the Indians did America in the sixteenth
+century, a foreign people, having the power of spreading out, may press
+into the gaps with such success that this initial internal colonisation
+may also be advantageous from a political standpoint. The State then
+intervenes and appropriates the territory over which groups of its
+inhabitants have previously acquired economic control.
+
+The emigrants formed a social aggregate in the new country, and from
+this aggregate a state, or the germ of a state, develops. Since such
+an economic-social preparatory growth greatly assists in the political
+acquirement of land, it is obvious that this form of colonisation
+is especially sound and effectual. The opposite method follows when
+a state first conquers a territory which it occupies later with its
+own forces; this is colonisation by conquest. It can be capable of
+development only when subsequent immigration permanently acquires the
+land as a dwelling-place.
+
+[Sidenote: Why Rome’s Empire Endured Long]
+
+Conquest that neither can nor will take permanent possession of the
+soil is characteristic of a low stage of culture; thus the Zulu states
+in Africa, surrounded by broad strips of conquered yet uncontrolled
+territory, and the old “world-empires” of Western Asia, exhausted
+themselves in vain efforts to obtain lasting increase of area through
+aggressive expeditions. That the Roman Empire lasted a longer time than
+any of the preceding universal empires was due to the single fact that
+agricultural colonisation invariably followed in the footsteps of its
+political conquests.
+
+The enlargement of a nation’s area is associated with soil and
+inhabitants. If the increase of territory--for example, through
+conquest--is much more rapid than the increase of population, an
+inorganic, loosely connected expansion results, which, as a rule,
+is soon lost again. If, on the contrary, population increases at a
+proportionately greater rate than area, a crowding together, checks to
+internal movements, and over-population follow. In consequence, great
+discrepancies between growth of territory and increase of population
+lead to the most varied results. The conquering nation expands over
+extensive regions for which there are no inhabitants. Passive races in
+India and in China become so crowded together that it is impossible for
+their soil to support them any longer; hence a continuous degradation
+and recurrent periods of famine, which may bring with them a relatively
+feeble and unorganised emigration.
+
+[Sidenote: The Modern Nations as Colonisers]
+
+There are nations with whom conquest and colonisation seem to follow
+in most profitable alternation: this appears to have been the case
+with all colonising countries of modern history that have followed the
+example of the Roman Empire. But there are great contrasts presented
+even by these nations. Germany, Austria, and Russia, in immediate
+connection with their conquered provinces, have colonised and expanded
+toward the east. In spite of a rapid increase of population, Germany
+has been backward in establishing trans-marine colonies, while France,
+with a proportionately smaller increase of population, began by
+colonising in all directions, but occupied more land than she was able
+to master; for which reason colonization in the history of France has
+taken more or less the character of conquest. England, on the contrary,
+with a vigorous emigration and an expansive movement in all directions,
+presents an example of the soundest and strongest method of founding
+colonies which has been seen since early times.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ ABBREVIATIONS
+
+ BR. BRITISH
+ FR. FRENCH
+ SP. SPANISH
+ RU. RUSSIAN
+ GER. GERMAN
+ DU. DUTCH
+ PORT. PORTUGUESE
+
+ G. F. MORRELL 1907.
+
+THE EXPANSION OF THE WHITE RACES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
+
+ This map illustrates the extent to which the white races have
+ spread into other than their native lands. The pale tint, as on
+ the British Isles, indicates the native land of the whites; the
+ darker tint shows where whites have settled down; while the black
+ portions represent those parts of the earth where the coloured
+ races predominate.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Some New National Problems]
+
+Through the entire course of history an ever-increasing value attached
+to land may be traced; and in the expansion of nations we may also
+see that mere conquest is growing less and less frequent, while the
+economic acquisition of territory, piece by piece, is becoming the
+rule. The getting of land assumes more and more the character of a
+peaceful insinuation. The taking possession of distant countries
+without consideration for the original inhabitants, who are either
+driven away, or murdered--speedily with the aid of bullets, or slowly
+with the assistance of gin or contagious diseases or by being robbed of
+their best land--is to-day no longer possible. Colonisation has become
+a well-ordered administration combined with instruction of the natives
+in useful employments. The old method has left scarcely a single
+pure-blooded Indian east of the Mississippi in the United States, and
+not one native in Tasmania; the new method has before it the problem
+how to share the land with negroes--in the Transvaal with 74 per cent.
+and in Natal with 82 per cent. Climatic conditions are also to be taken
+into consideration, for Caucasians are able to develop all their powers
+in temperate regions only; a hot climate impels them to ensure the
+co-operation of black labour through coercion.
+
+[Sidenote: Mankind Ages with Civilisation]
+
+During the course of centuries a motley collection of countries has
+developed, all of which are called colonies, although they stand in
+most striking contrast with one another. Several are nations in embryo,
+to which only the outward form of independence is lacking; not a few
+have once been independent; and many give the impression that they will
+never be fit for self-government. There are some in which the native
+population has become entirely extinct, such as Tasmania, Cuba, and
+San Domingo; others in which the original inhabitants, still keeping
+to their old customs and institutions, are guided and exploited by a
+few white men only; and, finally, colonies in which the rulers and the
+natives have assimilated with one another, as in Siberia. Once upon
+a time such tokens of the youth of races as may be seen in rude but
+remunerative labour on unlimited territory were widespread in many
+colonies. But the new countries fill up visibly, and even they show
+that mankind, as a whole, ages the more rapidly the more the so-called
+progress of civilisation is hastened. However, an examination of the
+peoples of the present day shows that the differences in age between
+mother-countries and colonies will, indeed, continue for a long time
+yet. Such differences exist between west and east Germans as well as
+between New Englanders and Californians; they are even to be detected
+in Australia, between the inhabitants of Queensland and of New South
+Wales. Such differences are shown not only in the characteristics of
+individuals, but also in the division of land and in methods of labour.
+
+[Sidenote: Nations Hold fast to Nature]
+
+Divergence and differentiation are the great factors of organic
+growth. They govern the increase of nations and states from their
+very beginnings. Since, however, these organisms are composed of
+independent units, differentiation does not consist in an amalgamation
+and transformation of individuals, but in their diffusion and grouping.
+Therefore the differentiation of nations becomes eminently an affair
+of geography. Never yet has a daughter people left its mother-country
+to become an independent state without a previous disjunction having
+taken place. All growth is alteration in area, and, at the same time,
+change in position. The further growth extends away from the original
+situation, the sooner dismemberment follows. In Australia, New South
+Wales spreads out towards the north, and at the new central point,
+Brisbane, a new colony, Queensland, is formed, which already differs
+materially from New South Wales. And Queensland itself expands towards
+the north, beyond the tropic of Capricorn into the torrid zone; and a
+younger, tropical North Queensland develops.
+
+[Illustration: LANDMARKS OF PAST AGES: FAMOUS FORTRESSES THAT HAVE
+CEASED TO BE OF USE
+
+ With the changing conditions of politics, places once of enormous
+ importance have often become mere curiosities. There are in Europe
+ to-day hundreds of useless castles, fortresses, and harbours.
+ Even Dover Castle is of little strategic value. The fortresses
+ illustrated are (1) Mantua, (2) Dover, (3) Chillon, (4) Calais, (5)
+ Verona.
+
+ Photographs by Frith and Neurdein
+]
+
+[Sidenote: The Genius of the Coloniser]
+
+The fact that nations hold fast to their natural conditions of
+existence, even when growth impels them towards expansion in various
+directions, is a great controlling force in historical movement. Russia
+expands in its northern zone to the Pacific ocean; England continues
+its growth on American soil, across the Atlantic, in almost the same
+latitude. The Phœnicians, as a coast-dwelling people, remained on
+the coasts and on the islands; the colonising Greeks ever sought out
+similar situations to those of their native land; the Netherlanders
+are found everywhere in Northern Germany as colonists of the moors
+and marshes. All German colonies beyond the Alps and the Vosges have
+disappeared; and the few Germans that remain are Latinised. Nations
+that are accustomed to a limited territory, as were the Greeks,
+always search for a similar limited area; on the other hand, the
+Romans discovered a main factor of empire-building in their judicious
+agricultural colonisation of broad plains; and the Russians sought
+and found in Siberia the endless forests, steppes, and vast rivers
+of their native land. Every nation, in expanding, seeks to include
+within its area that which is of the greatest value to it. The
+victorious state acquires the best positions and drives the conquered
+race into the poorest districts. For this reason competition between
+the colonizing nations has become very keen; they all judge of the
+character of territory according to the same standard. Therefore,
+wherever England has colonised, only a gleaning remains for the rest of
+the Northern and Central European Powers.
+
+Differentiation, arising from the valuation of land, is the cause of
+a constant creation of new political values and of a constant lapsing
+of old. Every portion of the world has its political value, which,
+however, may become dormant, and must then be either discovered or
+awakened. Such a discovery was the selection of the Piræus as the
+harbour for Athens from among a number of bights and bays.
+
+[Sidenote: The World is Being Centralised]
+
+Every settlement and every founding of a city is at bottom an awakening
+of dormant political value. Capacity for recognizing this value is
+a part of the genius of a statesman, whose policy may be called
+far-seeing partly because he is able to discern the dormant value while
+yet on the most distant horizon. It is obvious that political values
+vary; each is determined by the point of view from which it is looked
+upon. The French and the German valuations of the Rhine borderland
+are very different. Every nation endeavours to realise the political
+value which it recognises; and in respect to political growth, ends are
+set up in the shape of the portions of the earth to which that growth
+aspires. Peculiarities in the conformation of states may be traced
+back to an appreciation of the value of coasts, passes, estuaries, and
+the like. With the spreading out and the concentration of nations,
+such portions of the world as are important from a political point of
+view have marvellously increased both in number and in value. But for
+this very reason a choice of selection has become necessary, and this
+we see in the use of fewer Alpine passes during the age of railways
+than before, and in the concentration of a great commerce into fewer
+seaports--into such as are capable of accommodating vessels of the
+deepest draught. Others must withdraw from competition. To-day there
+are hundreds of worthless harbours, passes, and fortresses in Europe
+that were once situated on the highways of historical movement; now
+however, they are avoided, deserted by the current of traffic.
+
+[Sidenote: All the Rubbish of Civilisation]
+
+There are more things necessary to an understanding of the dependence
+of history on natural conditions than a mere knowledge of the land
+upon which the development has taken place, particularly than a mere
+knowledge of the ground as it was when history found it. Although each
+country is in itself an independent whole, it is at the same time
+a link in a chain of actions. It is an organism in itself, and, in
+respect to a succession or a group of lands forming a whole, of which
+it is a member, it is also an organ. Sometimes it is more organism than
+organ; sometimes the opposite is true; and an eternal struggle goes
+on between organism and organ. If the latter be a subjected province,
+a tributary state, a daughter country, a colony, or member of a
+confederation, the striving for independence is always a struggle for
+existence.
+
+This by no means presupposes a state of war. Not only war, but the
+outwardly peaceful economic development of the world’s industries
+reduces organisms to organs. When the wholesale importation of bad but
+cheap products of European industries into Polynesia or Central Asia
+causes decay in the production of native arts and crafts, it is a loss
+to the life of the whole people; henceforth the race will be placed
+in the same category with tribes that must gather rubber, prepare
+palm-oil, or hunt elephants to supply European demand, and who in
+turn must purchase threadbare fabrics, spirits that contain sulphuric
+acid, worn-out muskets, and old clothes--in a word, all the rubbish of
+civilisation.
+
+Their economic organisation dies; and in many cases this is also
+the beginning of the decline and extinction of a people. The
+weaker organism has succumbed to the more powerful. Is the case so
+different--that of Athens, unable to live without the corn, wood, and
+hemp of the lands on the Northern Mediterranean coast?--or of England,
+whose inhabitants would starve were it not for the importation of meat
+and grain from North America, Eastern Europe, and Australia?
+
+In vain have men sought for characteristics in the rocks of the
+earth and in the composition of the air by which one land might be
+distinguished from another.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Underwood and Underwood.
+
+MAN’S WONDERFUL TRIUMPH OVER NATURE
+
+ By irrigation the arid desert of California has been made to
+ blossom as the rose in the luxurious orange groves of Riverside.
+ These views show the desert, the method of irrigation, and the
+ result of man’s labour.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: How Man is Levelling the Earth]
+
+The idea of great, lasting, conclusive qualitative variations in
+different parts of the earth is mythical. Neither the Garden of Eden
+nor the land of Eldorado belongs to reality. There is no country
+whose soil bestows wondrous strength upon man or an exuberance of
+fruitfulness upon woman. In India precious stones are as little apt
+to grow out of the cliffs as silver and gold are likely to exude
+from fissures in the earth. Nor is there any basis for the slighter
+differences between the Old World and the New which the philosophers
+of history of the eighteenth century believed they had discovered.
+The opinion that the New World produces smaller plants, less powerful
+animals, and finally a feebler humanity, was not unconditionally
+rejected by even Alexander von Humboldt. The degeneration and wasting
+away of the American Indians would certainly be a less disgraceful
+phenomenon could it be attributed to some great natural law instead
+of to the injustice, greed, and vices of the white men. In the
+course of development of the European daughter-nations in America
+we cannot recognise any such great and universal distinction. The
+course of history in America, just as in corresponding periods of
+time in Northern Asia, in Africa, and in Australia, only confirms the
+belief that lands, no matter how distant from one another they may
+be, whenever their climates are similar, are destined to be scenes of
+analogous historical developments.
+
+It is certain that, so far, one of the greatest results of the labour
+of man has been the levelling and overcoming of natural differences.
+Steppes are made fertile through irrigation and manuring; the
+contrast between open and forest land becomes less and less--indeed
+the destruction of forests is being far too rapidly and widely
+carried out--the acclimatisation of men, animals, and plants causes
+variations to disappear more and more as time passes. We can look
+forward to a time when only such extremes as mountains and deserts will
+remain--everywhere else the actions of the earth will be equalised. The
+process by which this is carried out may be described shortly. Man, in
+spite of all racial and national differences, is fundamentally quite as
+much of a unity as the soil upon which he dwells; through his labour
+more and more of this character of unity is transmitted to the earth,
+which, as a result, also becomes more and more uniform.
+
+[Sidenote: History from Heaven to Earth]
+
+One of the most powerful of the ties by which history is bound to
+Nature is that of its dependence on the ground. At the first glance
+any given historical development is involved with the earth only--the
+earth upon which the development takes place. But if we search deeper
+we shall find that the roots of the development extend even to the
+fundamental principles of the planetary system. By this it is not meant
+that every history must be founded on a cosmological basis, that it
+must begin with the creation, or, at least, with the destruction of
+Troy, as was once thought necessary; but it is certainly safe to say
+that a philosophy of the history of the human race, worthy of its name,
+must begin with the heavens and then descend to the earth, filled with
+the conviction that all existence is fundamentally one--an indivisible
+conception founded from beginning to end on an identical law.
+
+The 316,250,000 square miles of the earth’s surface is the first area
+with which history has to do. Within it all other surface dimensions
+are included; it is the standard for measurement of all other areas,
+and also comprehends the absolute limits of all bodily life. This area
+is fixed and immutable so far as the history of mankind is related to
+it, although in respect to the history of the world it is not to be
+looked upon as having been unalterable in the past, or as being likely
+to remain unchanged in the future.
+
+[Sidenote: 316,250,000 Miles of History]
+
+The earth’s surface may be divided into three unlike constituent
+parts--84,250,000 square miles of land, 220,000,000 square miles of
+water, and 13,750,000 square miles of ice-covered, and for the greater
+part unexplored, land and sea in the Northern and Southern Polar
+regions. The land is the natural home of man, and all his historical
+movements begin and end upon it. The size of states is computed
+according to the amount of land which they include; their growth has
+derived its nourishment from the 84,250,000 square miles of earth as
+from a widespread fundamental element. The sea is not to be looked upon
+as an empty space between the divisions of land, merely separating them
+one from another, for the 220,000,000 square miles of water are also of
+historical importance, and the area of every ocean and of every portion
+of an ocean has its historical significance. History has extended
+itself over the sea, from island to island, from coast to coast, at
+first crossing narrow bodies of water, later broad oceans; and states
+whose foundations arose from connections by sea remain dependent on the
+sea. The Mediterranean held together the different parts of the Roman
+Empire just as the oceans unite the Colonies of the British Empire.
+
+The variations of the earth’s form from that of a perfect oblate
+spheroid are so small that they may be entirely disregarded from the
+point of view of history. All portions of the earth’s surface may be
+looked upon as of equal curvature; the pyriform swelling which Columbus
+believed to be a peculiarity of the tropic zones in the New World was
+merely an optical illusion. Thus all portions are practically similar,
+and uniformity obtains over the entire earth to such an extent that
+there is room left only for minor inequalities in configuration. To
+these belong the differences in level between lands and seas, highlands
+and lowlands, mountains and valleys. Such variations amount to very
+little when compared with the earth as a whole; for the height of the
+tallest of the Himalayas added to the earth’s radius would increase its
+length by about 1/700 only; and the same may be said of the greatest
+depressions beneath the level of the sea--inequalities that cannot be
+represented on an ordinary globe. Their great historical significance
+is due chiefly to the fact that the oceans and seas occupy the
+depressions, from which the greatest elevations emerge as vast islands.
+
+[Sidenote: Irregular Surface of the Earth]
+
+The remaining irregularities of the earth’s surface are not sufficient
+to produce any permanent variations in the diffusion of races or of
+states. Their influence is merely negative; they may only hinder or
+divert the course of man in his wanderings. Even the Himalayas have
+been crossed--by the Aryans in the west, and by the Tibetans in the
+east; and British India has extended its boundaries far beyond them to
+the Pamirs. The historian is concerned with but two of the variable
+qualities of the land--differences in level and differences in contour.
+Variations in constitution, development, elementary constituents,
+and the perpetual phenomena of transformation and dissolution which
+present a thousand problems to the geographer, scarcely exist for the
+historian. Nor are those great inequalities, the depressions in which
+the seas rest, of any interest to him. It is indifferent whether the
+greatest of such depressions be covered by five miles of water, or,
+as we now know, by almost six miles. The fact that the Mediterranean
+reaches its greatest depth in the eastern part of the Ionian Sea has
+nothing whatever to do with the history of Greece.
+
+[Sidenote: Depths of The Sea]
+
+To be sure, there is a general connection between the depth of the
+Mediterranean, shut up within the Straits of Gibraltar, and the
+climate of the neighbouring regions, which has a direct influence on
+the inhabitants of Mediterranean countries; but it is a very distant
+connection, and it is only mentioned here in order to remind the reader
+that there is not a single phenomenon in Nature that is not brought
+home to mankind at last. Still, as a rule, history is concerned with
+the depths of the sea only in so far as they are the resting-places for
+submarine telegraph cables; and this is a fact of very recent times.
+It may be said that the formation of the earth’s crust occurred at a
+period too remote to have had any influence on the history of man, and
+that therefore all questions concerning it should be left to geology.
+The first statement may be admitted, but the latter does not follow by
+any means; for if the whole Mediterranean region from the Caucasus to
+the Atlas Mountains, and from the Orontes to the Danube, is a region
+of uniform conformation, it is purely by reason of a uniformity in
+development. In the same manner there is an extensive region of uniform
+conformation to the north, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Sudetic
+Mountains in Austria.
+
+[Sidenote: Nature Divides and Unites]
+
+There are great features of the earth’s conformation that are so
+extensive that groups of nations share them in common. Russia and
+Siberia occupy the same plain upon which the greater portions of
+Germany, Belgium, and Holland are situated. Germany and France share
+the central mountain system which extends from the Cévennes to the
+Sudeten, or Sudetic Mountains. A mere participation in a common
+geological feature produces such affinity and relationship as may be
+seen in the Alpine states, in Sweden and Norway, and in the nations
+of the Andes. This reminds us of the groups of nations that surround
+seas; but that which separates the Baltic states binds them together;
+and the mountains that unite the Swiss cantons also separate them from
+one another. Lesser features of conformation divide countries and often
+exhibit gaps and breaches in development, for the reason that they
+divide a political whole into separate natural regions. The history
+of the lowlands of North Germany differs greatly from that of the
+mountainous districts of the same country; the lowlands of the Po and
+Apennine Italy are two different lands. The great contrast between the
+hilly manufacturing west of England and the low-lying agricultural
+east extends throughout English history; and in like manner the
+highlands and the lowlands are opposed to each other in Scotland.
+
+[Illustration: SCENERY THAT SHAPES CHARACTER: THE INFLUENCE OF THE
+MOUNTAINS
+
+ The stories of mountain peoples are very similar; the Highlanders
+ of Scotland, Wales, Switzerland, the Cevennes, and Tyrol, have
+ many characteristics in common, owing their rugged nature and
+ independence to environment.
+]
+
+Wherever mountain formations occur largely in a country, the question
+arises whether, in spite of all diversity, they unite to form a whole,
+or whether they exist as separate, independent neighbouring parts.
+The elements of the surface formation of the earth are not only
+historically important in themselves as units, but also on account
+of the way in which they are connected with one another. We have in
+Greece an example of an exceedingly intricate mountain system in which
+barren plateaus are interspersed with fertile valleys and bays. Owing
+to the sea, such bays as those of Attica, Argos, and Lamia are to a
+high degree self-dependent; they became little worlds in themselves,
+independent states, which could never have grown into a united whole
+had they not been subjected to external pressure.
+
+The reverse of this state of disunion, arising from the juxtaposition
+of a great number of different formations, is the division of
+North America into the three great regions of the Alleghanies, the
+Mississippi Valley, and the Rocky Mountain plateau, which gradually
+merge into one another and are bound into a whole by the vast central
+valley. Austria-Hungary includes within itself five different mountain
+features--the Alps, Carpathians, Sudeten, the Adriatic provinces, and
+the Pannonian plains. Vienna is situated where the Danube, March,
+and Adria meet, and from this centre radiates all political unifying
+power. If a still closer-knit unity is co-existent with a diversified
+geological formation of insular or peninsular nature, as in Ireland or
+Italy, it follows that this unity binds the orographic divisions into
+an aggregate. The discrepancies between Apennine Italy, Italy of the
+Po Valley, and Alpine Italy, which have been evident in all periods of
+history, formed, in their rise and in their final state of subjugation
+to political force, an example of dissimilarity of mountain features
+existing within peninsular unity.
+
+The great continental slopes are also important aids to the overcoming
+of orographic obstacles to political unity. In Germany there is a
+general inclination towards the north, crossed and recrossed by a
+number of mountain chains and successions of valleys. It is not to
+be denied that the intersecting elevations have furthered political
+disunion. Without doubt, a gradual slope from the southern part of
+Germany to the sea, with a consequent partition of the country by
+the rivers into strips extending from east to west, would have been
+attended by a greater political unity. Again, but in another way, the
+preponderance of any one orographic element has a unifying effect on
+all the other elements, as we have seen in North America, where the
+simple, even course of development has been in conformity with the
+existence of geological formations on a large scale.
+
+[Illustration: THE SOFTENING EFFECT OF THE RICH AND FRUITFUL LOWLANDS
+
+ Whereas mountains breed independence and rugged character in their
+ inhabitants, the more fruitful lowlands develop a gentler race,
+ loving the companionship of communities. The lowlands, also, are
+ the homes of mixed races.
+]
+
+There are internal differences in formation in every mountain range
+and in every plain, all of which have different influences on history.
+The steep fall of the Alps on the Italian side has rendered a descent
+into the plains of the Po far easier than a crossing in the opposite
+direction, where many obstacles in the shape of mountain steeps,
+elevated plateaus, and deep river valleys surround the outer border
+of the Alps. Again, penetration from the plains to the interior of
+the Alps is less difficult in the west, where there are no southern
+environing mountains, than in the east, where there is such a
+surrounding mountain chain. The compact formation of the Alps in the
+west crowds obstacles together into a small space, where they may be
+overcome with greater labour and in a shorter time than in the east,
+among the broadened-out chains of mountains, where there are numerous
+smaller hindrances to progression spread out over a wider territory.
+The route from Vienna to Trieste is twice as long as that from
+Constance to Como.
+
+In mountain passes orographic differences are concentrated within very
+limited areas, and for this reason passes are of great importance in
+history. The value of gorges and defiles increases with their rarity,
+and their number varies greatly in different mountain chains. The
+Pindus range is broken but once, by the cleft of Castoreia, and an easy
+passage from Northern to Central Greece is possible only by way of
+Thermopylæ; the short overland route from Persia to India is through
+the Khyber or Bolan Passes. The Rhætian Alps are rich in defiles and
+gorges; but the mountain ridges are poor in crossing-places, and, as a
+rule, the elevation of the passes decreases towards the east.
+
+[Sidenote: Nature’s Place in History]
+
+The possibility of journeying over the Himalayas increases as we travel
+westward. During the Seven Years’ War the great difference between
+the accessible, sloping Erz-Gebirge of the Bohemian frontier and the
+precipitous, fissured, sandstone hills of the Elbe was very apparent.
+Mountain passes are always closely connected with valleys and rivers;
+the latter form the ways leading to and from the former. The valleys
+of the Reuss and the Tessin are the natural routes to the pass of St.
+Gothard; and were it not for the gorges of the Inn and the Etsch in
+the northern and the southern Alps, the Brenner Pass would not possess
+anything like its present supreme importance. Wherever such entrances
+to passes meet together or cross one another, important rallying-points
+either for carrying on traffic or for warlike undertakings are formed;
+such places are Valais, Valteline, and the upper valley of the Mur.
+Coire is a meeting-point of not less than five passes--the Julier,
+Septimer, Splügen, St. Bernardin, and Lukmanier. The value of passes
+varies according to whether they cross a mountain range completely
+from side to side, or extend through only a part of it. When the
+Augsburgers, on the way to Venice, had got through the Fern Pass, or
+that of Leefeld, the Brenner still remained to be crossed; but when the
+Romans had surmounted the difficulties of Mont Genevre, the ridges of
+the Alps were no longer before them; they were in Gaul.
+
+There are also passes through cross ridges that connect mountain
+chains, such as the Arlberg, that pierces a ridge extending between
+the northern and the central Alps. Passes of this sort are of great
+importance to life in the mountains, for, as a rule, they lead from one
+longitudinal valley to another, such valleys extending between ridges
+being the most fertile and protected districts in mountainous regions.
+In this manner the Furka Pass connects Valais, the most prosperous
+country of the Alps during the time of the Romans, with the upper Rhine
+valley; and the Arlberg connects the Vorarlberg with the upper valley
+of the Inn.
+
+[Sidenote: Value of Mountain Passes]
+
+Mountain passes are not only highways for traffic, they are the
+arteries of the mountains themselves. Commerce along the mountain ways
+leads to settlements and to agriculture at heights where they would
+hardly have developed had it not been for the roads; and the highest
+permanent dwellings are situated in and about passes. The Romans
+established their military colonies in the neighbourhood of passes,
+and the German emperors rendered the Rhætian gorges secure through
+settlements. There are political territories that are practically
+founded on mountain passes. The kingdom of Cottius, tributary to the
+Romans, was the land of the defiles of the Cottian Alps; Uri may be
+designated as the country of the north Gothard, and the Brenner Pass
+connects the food-producing districts of the Tyrol with one another.
+
+[Sidenote: Battlefields of Mountain Borderlands]
+
+The transition point from one geological formation to another is
+invariably the boundary line between two districts that have different
+histories. The movements in one region bring forces to bear on the
+movements in the other. Hence the remarkable phenomena which occur on
+mountain borderlands. The historical effects of mountainous regions
+are opposed by forces that thrust themselves in from without; external
+powers anchor themselves, as it were, in the mountains, seeking to
+obtain there both protection and frontier lines. Rome encroached more
+and more upon the Alps, first from the south, and then from the west
+and the north, by extending her provinces. Austria, Italy, Germany,
+and France have drawn up to the Alps on different sides; they merely
+fall back upon the mountains, however; their centres lie beyond. The
+same phenomenon is shown in the regions occupied by different races.
+Rhætians, Celts, Romans, Germans, and Slavs have penetrated into the
+Alps; but the bulk of their populations have never inhabited the
+mountainous districts. The question as to which nation shall possess
+a mountain chain or pass is always decided on the borders. Here are
+the battlefields; here, too, are the great centres of traffic whose
+locations put one in mind of harbours situated at points where two
+kinds of media of transmission come into contact with each other. This
+margin, like that of the sea, also has its promontories and bays.
+
+[Illustration: THE BANDIT’S WIFE
+
+ The effect of life in the hills is clearly seen in this picture by
+ Leopold Robert, who painted it after living among the “Brigands of
+ the Mountains” and studying their wild and picturesque life. The
+ association of peoples with mountains develops a rugged character
+ and gives that strength and independence which mountain races have
+ displayed in history.
+]
+
+Height of land obstructs historical movements and lengthens their
+course. The Romans remained at the foot of the Alps for two centuries
+before they made their way into them, forced to it by the constant
+invasion of Alpine robbers who descended from the heights as if
+sallying forth from secure fortresses. Long before this the Romans
+had encircled the western side of the Alps and had begun to turn the
+eastern side. The colonies on the Atlantic coast of America, the
+predecessors of the United States, had been in existence for almost
+two hundred years before they passed the Alleghanies; and it is certain
+that this damming up of the powerful movement towards the west, which
+arose later, had a furthering influence on the economic and political
+development of the young states. The passes of the Pyrenees occur at
+about two-thirds of the distance from the level ground to the summits
+of the mountains; in the Alps the elevation of the gorges is but
+one-half or one-third that of the mountain tops; hence, as a whole, the
+Alps are more easy of access than the Pyrenees. The Colorado plateau is
+a greater obstacle than the Sierra Nevada range in California, which,
+although of much greater elevation, slopes gently and is interspersed
+with broad valleys. It was due rather to the forests than to the
+moderate elevation of the central mountains of Germany that their
+settlement was delayed until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
+The influence of the broad, desert tableland of the great basin in
+separating the western from the Mississippi states is greater than
+that of the Rocky Mountains with peaks more than twelve thousand feet
+in height. The extensive glacial formations and the sterility of the
+mountains in Scandinavia have held Sweden and Norway asunder, and at
+the same time have permitted the Lapps and their herds of reindeer to
+force themselves in between like a wedge. The broad, elevated steppes
+of Central Tien-schan enabled the Kirghese to cross the mountains with
+their herds and to spread abroad in all directions.
+
+[Sidenote: Little Worlds on the Heights]
+
+[Sidenote: Man in Touch with Nature]
+
+In such cases the natives of tablelands and mountainous regions,
+who inhabit little worlds of their own on the heights, themselves
+contribute not a little towards rendering it difficult to pass through
+their countries. The most striking example of this is Central Asia
+with its nomadic races, whose influence in separating the great
+coast-nations of the east, west, and south from one another has been
+far more potent than that of the land itself. And these nomads are a
+direct product of the climate and the soil of this greatest plateau
+in the world. The dry tablelands of North America, from the Sierra
+Madre in Mexico to Atacama in the south, were in early times inhabited
+by closely related races, having more or less similar institutions
+and customs. A like effect of life on plateaus, shown in the Caucasus
+Mountains, that have preserved their character as a barrier against
+both Romans and Persians, and have been crossed by the Russians
+only in recent times, points to a further reason for the sundering
+influence of the wall-like position of mountains between the steppes
+and the sea. Phenomena similar to those observed in Central Asia
+and in North America occur on a smaller scale in every mountainous
+country--extensive uninhabited tablelands in which man and free nature
+come into direct contact with each other. Independent development
+is thus assured to the dwellers on mountains, and to their states a
+preponderance of territory over population. The political importance
+of Switzerland is not owing to its three millions of inhabitants,
+but to the impossibility of occupying one-fourth of the Alps. The
+position--almost that of a Great Power--held by Switzerland during
+the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was due to the union of this
+element of strength (and the fact that Switzerland, by reason of its
+situation, includes many of the most important commercial routes in
+Europe) with the mountain-bred spirit of liberty and independence of
+its people. In other respects, too, mountain states stand pre-eminent
+among nations--as Tyrol outshone all other Austrian provinces in 1809,
+so the mountain tribes of the Caucasus were the only Asiatics able to
+offer any permanent resistance to the advance of the Russians. The
+broad, rough character of a highland country is an active force; in
+all mountain wars it has led to the spreading out of armies and to the
+lengthening of columns.
+
+[Sidenote: Mountains the Friends of Weak Nations]
+
+The support afforded by mountains to weak nations that without the
+protection of a great uninhabited region would not have been able to
+maintain their independence can be likened only to the protection
+which, as we have seen, is given by the sea. Switzerland has often
+been compared to the Low Countries; and there is even a still greater
+resemblance between city cantons such as Basle and Geneva and ports
+like Hamburg and Lübeck. It was owing to similar reasons that the
+strongholds of French Protestantism during the sixteenth century
+were the Cévennes, Berne, and La Rochelle. The protection given by
+mountains must not be looked upon as of an entirely passive nature,
+for the rugged nature of mountaineers, and their concentration within
+small areas where a development is possible, rendering them conscious
+of independence and assisting them to preserve it, are also a result
+of life in the highlands. In low-lying countries difference in levels
+cannot exceed a thousand feet; and, as the variations in conformation
+are correspondingly small, the lowlands offer fewer hindrances to
+historical movements than do rivers, seas, and marshes--thus there is
+a greater opportunity for the development of such movements upon the
+plains. Consequently there is a rapid diffusion of races over extensive
+regions whose boundaries are determined by area rather than by
+conformation.
+
+[Sidenote: Effect of Mountains on People]
+
+Lowlands hasten historical movements. There is no trace of the
+retarding and protecting effects of the highlands in lands where,
+as Labu said of Saxony, a nation dwells together with its enemies
+on the same boundless level. Nomadism is the form of civilisation
+characteristic of broad plains and extensive tablelands. But the
+Germanic races of history, a great part of which were no longer
+nomads, exhibited a hastening in their movement towards the west when
+they reached the lowlands; for they appeared on the lower Rhine at
+an earlier time than on the upper Rhine, delayed in their wanderings
+towards the latter by the mountainous, broken routes. Long after the
+Celts had disappeared from the lowlands, when their memory only was
+preserved in the names of hills and rivers, they still continued to
+exist in the protected mountain regions of Bohemia. In like manner, in
+later times, the Slavs maintained themselves in natural strongholds
+after they had vanished from the plains of Northern Germany. Compare
+the conquest of Siberia, accomplished in a century, with the endless
+struggles in the Caucasus. And what lowland country can show remnants
+of people equivalent to those of the Caucasus?
+
+[Sidenote: The Natural Strongholds of Nomad Races]
+
+The lowlands are also regions of the most extensive mingling of races.
+We have but to think of Siberia or the Sudan. In the development of
+states, lowlands take precedence over mountainous district. Rome
+expanded from the sea-coast to the Apennines, and from the valley of
+the Po to the Alps; the conquest of Iberia began in the one great
+plain of the peninsula, in Andalusia, and in the lowlands of the Ebro;
+and foreign control of Britain ended at the mountains of Scotland and
+Wales. In North America colonisation spread out in broad belts at
+the foot of the Alleghanies before it penetrated into the mountains.
+In Southern China the mountains with their unsubdued tribes are like
+political islands in the midst of the Mongolised hills and plains.
+
+The lesser the differences in level, and the smaller the conformations
+of the earth, the more important are those differences that remain
+within heights of less than a thousand feet above the sea. Elevations
+of a dozen yards were of the greatest importance on the battlefields
+of Leipzig, Waterloo, and Metz. The significance of the little rise in
+the land of Gavre, near Ghent, lies in the fact that even at times of
+flood a foundation for a bridge will remain firm upon it. The slightest
+elevation in the lowland cities of Germany and Russia offers such a
+contrast in altitude to its surroundings that a fortress, a cathedral,
+or a kremlin is erected upon it. The two ridges that extend through the
+plains of North Germany are not only very prominent in the landscape,
+but also in history. Owing to their thick forests, their lakes and
+marshes, and small populations, they are peculiarly like barriers; and
+the breaches in them are of importance to the geography both of war and
+of commerce. The battles fought against Sweden and Poland, round about
+the points where the Oder and the Vistula cross these regions, are to
+be counted among the most decisive struggles in the history of Prussia.
+
+[Sidenote: Nature at Waterloo]
+
+Wherever there are no differences in level, a substitute is sought in
+water. In such cases wide rivers or numerous lakes and marshes form
+the most effective obstacles, boundaries, and strongholds. Finally
+the plains approach the sea and are submerged by it; and here lowland
+countries find a support safer than that of the mountains, and richer
+in political results. North Germany is supported by the sea; South
+Germany by mountains. Which boundary is the more definite, the more
+capable of development, politically and economically? Political
+superiority is ever connected with the protection and support of the
+sea.
+
+The influences of vegetation upon historical movements are often more
+important than those of the earth-formation itself. Wherever extensive
+lowland regions are overgrown with grass, we always find mobile nomadic
+races that, with their large herds and warlike organisations, are
+great causes of disturbance in the development of neighbouring lands.
+Since the form of vegetable growth which covers grass steppes and
+prairies is dependent on climate, it follows that nomadism is prevalent
+throughout the entire northern sub-temperate zone, where such grass is
+abundant--from the western border of Sahara to Gobi. Nomadic races of
+historical significance are even to be seen in the New World--for
+example, the Gauchos of the Pampas, and the Llaneros of Venezuela.
+
+[Illustration: THE GREATEST PLATEAU IN THE WORLD: ITS PEOPLE, AND ITS
+INFLUENCE IN HISTORY
+
+ This is a typical scene of life in Central Asia, the greatest
+ plateau in the world, whose people, the direct product of the
+ climate and the soil, inhabiting little worlds of their own on the
+ heights, have exercised an enormous influence in separating the
+ great coast nations of the east, west, and south from one another.
+]
+
+[Illustration: A MOUNTAIN PASS: A NATURAL FACTOR OF VAST IMPORTANCE IN
+HISTORY
+
+ Mountain passes have been of great importance in history. The
+ Romans established their military colonies in the neighbourhood of
+ passes, and there are political territories practically founded on
+ mountain passes. This is a picture of an entrance to the famous
+ Bolan Pass, through which, and through the Khyber Pass, lie the
+ shortest overland routes from Persia to India.
+]
+
+[Illustration: NOMADIC PEOPLES OF THE NEW WORLD
+
+ Wherever there are vast lowland countries covered with grass,
+ nomadic peoples are found moving from place to place with their
+ herds. There are many such peoples in the Old World and a few in
+ the New World, notable among the latter being the Gauchos of the
+ Pampas, types of whom are here seen.
+]
+
+In comparison with plains and prairies, forests are decided hindrances
+to historical movements. Peoples are separated from one another by
+strips of woodland; the state and the civilisation of the Incas ceased
+at the fringe of primeval forest of the east Andes. Thickly-wooded
+mountains present the most pronounced difficulties to historical
+movements. The appearance of the oldest large states and centres of
+culture on the borders of steppes, in the naturally thinly-wooded
+districts at the mouths of rivers, and on diluvial plains, seems
+natural enough to us when we think of the difficulties presented by
+life in a forest glade to men who had only stone implements and fire at
+their command.
+
+A description of the difficulties encountered during Stanley’s one
+hundred and fifty-seven days’ journey through the primeval woods of
+Central Africa gives us a very clear conception of what are termed
+“hindrances” to historical movements. The early history of Sweden has
+been characterised as a struggle with the forest; and this description
+is valid for every forest country. The forest divides nations from each
+other; it allows only small tribes to unite, and creates but small
+states, or, at the most, loosely bound confederations. It is only where
+a great river system forms natural roads, as in the regions of the
+Amazon and the Congo, that great forest districts may be rapidly united
+to form a state. In other cases settlements in forest clearings and
+road-breaking precede political control.
+
+In this way the Chinese conquered the races of the western half of
+Formosa in two hundred years; in the eastern half the land is still
+under forest and the natives have also retained their independence.
+The existence of small states, with their many obstacles to political
+and economic growth, still continues in forest regions alone; and the
+roaming hordes of hunters inhabiting them belong to the simplest forms
+of human societies.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE MAKING OF THE NATIONS--II
+
+Professor FREDERICK RATZEL]
+
+
+
+
+LAND AND WATER AND THE GREATNESS OF PEOPLES
+
+
+Since man is a creature capable only of life on land, bodies of water
+must at one time have been the greatest obstacles to his diffusion.
+Thus the original family of human beings could have inhabited only one
+portion of the earth, to which it was restricted by impassable barriers
+of water. We know that in early geological times the division of the
+earth’s surface into land and water was subject to the same general
+laws as to-day; therefore such a portion of the earth could not have
+been more than a part of the total land in existence--a larger or
+smaller world-island.
+
+[Sidenote: Early Man’s Greatest Invention]
+
+The first step beyond the bounds of this island was the first step
+towards the conquest of the whole earth by man. The first raft was
+therefore the most important contrivance that man could have invented.
+It not only signified the beginning of the acquisition of all parts of
+the earth to their very farthest limits, but also--and this is far more
+important--the potentiality for all possibilities of divergence and
+temporary separation offered by our planet. It brought with it escape
+from the development that always turns back upon itself, travelling in
+a circle, and the progress that constantly consumes itself--factors
+inseparable from life confined within a small area; it led to the
+creation of fruitful contrasts and differences, and to wholesome
+competition--in short, to the beginning of the evolution of races and
+peoples. Looked at from this point of view, even the discovery of
+Prometheus has been of less moment to the progress of mankind than that
+of the inventor who first joined logs together into a raft and set out
+on a voyage of discovery to the nearest islet.
+
+[Sidenote: Why the Sea is Important]
+
+From the time of this first step onward, the development of the human
+race was so intimately connected with the uninhabitable water that
+one of its most powerful incentives lay in the struggle with the sea.
+And so little have we advanced from this condition that the stoutest
+race of the present day is one that from a narrow island commands the
+ocean. England’s strength is a proof of the tremendous importance of
+the sea as a factor of political power and of civilisation. But not
+to exaggerate the significance of the ocean, we may at the same time
+remember that it consists in the fact that, by means of the sea, open
+highways are presented from land to land. Command of the sea is a
+source of greatness to nations, for it facilitates dominion over the
+land.
+
+By reason of its consistency the water is an important agent of
+levelling and equalising effects. As we perceive this in Nature, so
+do we also in history. A race familiar with the sea in one place is
+familiar with it in all regions. The Normans off the coast of Finland,
+and the Spaniards in the Pacific, found the same green, surging
+element, moved by the same tides, subject to the same laws. The ocean
+has an equalising effect upon the coasts even; the dunes of Agadir and
+of the harbour at Vera Cruz awaken memories of home in the mind of the
+sailor from Hela. The diffusion of the sea over three-quarters of the
+earth’s surface must also be taken into account. Thus the influence
+of the ocean in rendering men familiar with different parts of the
+world is far greater than that of the land. From the ocean comes a
+constant unifying influence which ever tends to reduce the disuniting
+effect of the separation of land from land. As yet no attempt to extend
+boundaries beyond the land out over the sea has been followed by
+lasting success.
+
+[Sidenote: No Nation can Possess the Sea]
+
+[Sidenote: The Sea’s Unifying Influence]
+
+No nation can or ever will possess the sea. Carthage and Tarentum
+wished to forbid Italian vessels the passage of the Lacinian capes by
+treaty; the Venetians desired dominion over the Adriatic to be granted
+them by the Pope; Denmark and Sweden strove for a dominion over the
+Baltic Sea; but all this is against the very nature of the sea; it is
+one and indivisible. Only near by the coast, within the three-mile
+limit of international law, and in landlocked bays, may it be ruled as
+land is ruled. The claims of the Americans concerning the sovereignty
+of Behring Sea have never been recognised, and England can retain
+dominion over the Irish Sea only by means of her naval power. The ocean
+has a unifying influence on the land, even when this influence consists
+only in the same ends to be attained being placed before different
+nations. During a time of the greatest disunion, German cities that lay
+far enough from one another were united by Baltic interests. The union
+of scattered land-forces prepared the way for the opening up of wider
+horizons to England in the sixteenth century in the same manner as for
+Italy and Germany in the nineteenth.
+
+[Illustration: THE LITTLE ISLAND THAT RULES THE SEA
+
+The command of the sea is the source of national greatness, as it
+facilitates dominion over land. England from a narrow island dominates
+the sea. The tiny part of white in the Eastern Hemisphere on this page
+shows how relatively insignificant Great Britain is to the vast world
+of waters where her shipping is supreme.]
+
+Sea power is far more closely connected with traffic than is land
+power; in fact, the foundation of sea power is trade and commerce. It
+is, however, more than mere commercial power and monopoly of trade.
+In spite of all egoism, greed, and violence there remains one great
+characteristic peculiar to maritime Powers, spared even by Punic faith
+and Venetian covetousness. Even the neighbourhood of the ocean is
+characterised by its vast natural features; rivers broaden as they
+approach the sea, great bays lie within the coasts, and, though the
+latter may be flat, the horizon lines of their low dune landscapes are
+broad. The horizons of maritime races are also broad. Whether it be the
+hope of profit from commerce or of gain from piracy that lures men
+forth, many a ship has returned to port bearing with it inestimable
+benefits to mankind; for the greatest maritime discoveries have not
+been mere explorations of new seas, but of new lands and peoples. Such
+discoveries as these have contributed most to the broadening of the
+historical horizon. Even political questions expand, assume a larger
+character, and often become less acute, when they emerge from the
+narrow limits of continental constraint upon the free and open coasts.
+This is true even of the Eastern Question, to the solution of which
+definite steps were taken upon the Mediterranean when it seemed to have
+come to a deadlock in the Balkan peninsula.
+
+[Sidenote: Short-lived Nations of the Sea]
+
+[Sidenote: The Fall of Maritime Nations]
+
+The ocean is no passive element to maritime races. By deriving power
+from the sea they become subject to the sea. The more strength they
+draw from the ocean, the less firm becomes their footing upon the
+land. Finally, their power no longer remains rooted in the land,
+but grows to resemble that of a fleet resting upon the waves; it
+may with but small expenditure of effort extend its influence over
+an enormously wide area, but it may also be swept away by the first
+storm. As yet all maritime nations have been short-lived; their rise
+has been swift, often surprisingly so; but they have never remained
+long at the zenith of prosperity, and, as a rule, their decay has been
+as rapid as their elevation to power. The cause of the fall of all
+maritime nations has been the smallness of their basis, their foreign
+possessions, widely separated from one another and difficult to defend,
+and their dependence upon these foreign possessions. In many cases
+the over-balancing of political by economic interests, the neglect
+of materials for defence, and effeminacy resulting from commercial
+prosperity, have also contributed to their destruction.
+
+[Illustration: MAN’S FIRST STEP TOWARDS THE CONQUEST OF THE EARTH
+
+ The most momentous event in the early history of man was the
+ launching of the first raft. That moment was instinct with all the
+ mighty conquests and discoveries yet to be accomplished over seas;
+ and even the discovery of fire, says Professor Ratzel, has been of
+ less moment to the progress of mankind than that of the inventor
+ who first joined logs together into a raft and set out on a voyage
+ of discovery to the nearest islet.
+]
+
+Special combinations of characteristics arising from the geographical
+positions of oceans, continents, and islands are connected with the
+broad features common to oceanic continuity. These characteristics
+are reflected from the sea back to the land, and there give rise to
+historical groups. The historical significance of such groups is
+expressed in their names even--Mediterranean World, Baltic Nations,
+Atlantic Powers, and Pacific Sphere of Civilisation. They are
+primarily the results of commerce and exchange, and of the furthering,
+correlating influences of all coasts and islands. When they united all
+peninsulas, islands, and coasts of the Mediterranean into one state the
+Romans merely set a political crown upon the civilised community that
+had developed round about, and by means of, this sea.
+
+[Sidenote: Uniqueness of the Mediterranean]
+
+And if we wish rightly to estimate the significance of Roman expansion
+from a Central European point of view, we may express our conception
+very shortly--the diffusion of Mediterranean culture over Western and
+Central Europe. It was at the same time a widening of the horizon of a
+landlocked sea to that of the open ocean. The Atlantic Ocean succeeded
+to the Mediterranean Sea. The Americans and the Russians, and the
+Japanese, repeating their words, maintain that in the same manner the
+Pacific must succeed to the Atlantic; but they forget the peculiar
+features of the Mediterranean, especially its conditions of area. It is
+no more probable that such a compact, isolated development will occur
+again than that the history of Athens will repeat itself on the Korean
+peninsula or at Shantung. The greater the ocean, the farther is it
+removed from the isolated sea. It was not the Atlantic that succeeded
+to the Mediterranean, but the broad world-ocean that succeeded to the
+narrow basin called the Mediterranean Sea. There have always been
+differences between the various divisions of the main sea; and these
+variations will ever continue to be prominent, although constantly
+tending to become less and less so.
+
+[Sidenote: The vast Potentialities of the Pacific]
+
+The Pacific will always remain by far the greatest ocean, including,
+as it does, forty-five per cent. of the total area of water. Owing to
+its great breadth, the Pacific routes are from three to four times as
+long as those of the Atlantic. The Pacific widens toward the south;
+and Australia and Oceania lie in the opening, thus furnishing the
+Pacific with its most striking peculiarity--a third continent situated
+in the Southern Hemisphere, together with the richest series of island
+formations on earth. Whatever the Pacific may contribute to history,
+it will be a contribution to the annals of the Southern Hemisphere;
+and if a great independent history develop in the antipodes, it will
+have the Southern Pacific, bounded by Australia, South America, New
+Zealand, and Oceania, for its sphere of action. The area of the
+Atlantic Ocean is but half that of the Pacific. Nor is it for this
+reason alone that in comparison with the latter it is an inland rather
+than a world sea; for, owing to its narrowness between the Old and the
+New Worlds, the branches it puts forth, and the islands and peninsulas
+that it touches, it shortens the routes from one coast to the other.
+In it there is more of a merging of land and sea than a separation;
+and to-day it is chiefly a European-American ocean. The Indian Ocean
+is both geographically and historically but half an ocean. Even though
+important parts of it may be situated north of the equator, it is too
+much enclosed to the north; it widens to the south, and thus belongs to
+the Southern Hemisphere.
+
+[Illustration: A STORM SUCH AS MAY SWEEP AWAY A NATION’S POWER
+
+ All maritime nations, says Professor Ratzel, have been short-lived.
+ The more strength they draw from the ocean the less firm becomes
+ their footing upon the land, and their power grows to resemble that
+ of a fleet resting upon the waves; it may extend its influence over
+ an enormous area, but it may also be swept away by a single storm.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: The Coast the Threshold of the Land]
+
+The great oceans open up broad areas for historical movements, and
+through their instrumentality peoples are enabled to spread from
+coast to coast in all directions; the inland seas, on the contrary,
+cause the political life of the nations bordering upon them to be
+concentrated within a limited area. The Mediterranean will ever remain
+a focus towards which the interests of almost all European Powers
+concentrate. It has, moreover, become one of the world’s highways
+since the completion of the Suez Canal. The Baltic somewhat resembles
+the Mediterranean; but it would be saying too much to look upon its
+position as other than subordinate to that of the greater sea. The area
+of the Baltic is but one-seventh that of the Mediterranean; and it is
+lacking in the unique intercontinental situation of the latter. In many
+respects it resembles the Black Sea rather than the Mediterranean,
+especially by reason of its eastern relations.
+
+Originally the coast was the threshold of the sea; but as soon as
+maritime races developed it became the threshold of the land. In
+addition it is a margin, a fringe in which the peculiarities of sea
+and land are combined; and for this very reason sea-coasts have a
+historical value greatly disproportionate to their area, especially as
+they constitute the best of all boundaries for the nations that possess
+them. Here harbours are situated, fortresses, and the most densely
+populated of cities. Owing to their close connection with the sea, the
+inhabitants of coasts acquire characteristics which distinguish them
+from all other peoples. Even if of the same nationality as their inland
+neighbours--as, for example, the Greeks of Thrace and of Asia Minor and
+the Malays of many of the East Indian islands--their foreign traffic
+nevertheless impresses certain traits and features upon them which in
+the case of the Low Countries led almost to political disruption.
+
+[Sidenote: Living and Dead Coasts]
+
+A coast is more favoured than an interior in all things relating to
+commerce and traffic; yet neither may enjoy permanent life alone
+without the other. The French departments of the Weser and of the Elbe
+were among the most ephemeral of the political results achieved by the
+short-lived Napoleonic era. With the sea at their backs it is easy for
+the inhabitants of a coast to become detached from their nation, and
+but a simple matter for them to spread over other coasts. Ever since
+the time of the Phœnicians there have been numerous colonists of coasts
+and founders of coast states. The Normans are most typical in European
+history. The expansion of coast colonies towards the interior is one
+of the most striking features of recent African development. Thus
+coasts are to be looked at from within as well as from without. To many
+races--such as Hottentots and Australians--the coast is dead compared
+with the interior; for Germany the coast has been politically dead for
+centuries. A river-mouth is best suited to carrying the influences of
+the coast inland.
+
+All ancient historians supposed that the Mediterranean Sea, with
+its many bays, peninsulas, and islands, schooled the Phœnicians in
+seamanship. This, however, is not so. Nautical skill is transmitted
+from one people to another, as may be seen from some of the most
+obvious cases in modern history. No maritime people has become great
+through its own coast alone. It is not the coast of Maine, with its
+numerous inlets and bays, that has produced the best seamen, but the
+coast of Massachusetts, naturally unfavourable for the most part;
+and it has produced the best seamen for the reason that the inland
+districts bounded by it are far more productive and furthering to
+commerce than are the interior regions of Maine.
+
+[Sidenote: The Place of the Coast in History]
+
+Nature has forced races to take to the sea only in such countries as
+Norway and Greece, where the strips of coast are narrow and the inland
+territory poor. In order to have political influence it is sufficient
+to have one foot on the sea-coast. Aigues-Mortes, with its swampy
+environment, was sufficient to extend France to the Mediterranean
+during the reign of St. Louis; Fiume sufficed for Hungary. Forbidding
+desert coasts have had a peculiarly retarding effect on historical
+development. It was necessary to rediscover the Australian mainland,
+to touch at more favourable points, one hundred and thirty years after
+the time of Tasman; thus the history of the settlement of Australia by
+Europeans originated, not with him, but with Cook.
+
+As portions of the general water area, rivers are branches or runners
+of the sea, extending into the land--lymphatic vessels, as it were,
+bearing nourishment to the ocean from the higher regions of the
+earth. Therefore they form the natural routes followed by historical
+movements from the sea inland and vice versa. A solid foundation of
+truth underlies those rivers of legendary geography that joined one
+sea with another. The connection of the Baltic and the Black Sea via
+Kieff is not that described by Adam of Bremen; but Russian canals have
+established a water-way, following out the plan indicated by Nature,
+just as the Varangians also realised it in a ruder way by dragging
+their boats from the Dwina to the Dnieper. By uniting the Great Lakes
+to the Mississippi by means of the Illinois River, the French provided
+a waterway from the North Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, a line
+of power in the rear of the Atlantic colonies. The latter fell back on
+salt water, the former on fresh. The Nile, flowing parallel to the Red
+Sea from Tanasee in the Abyssinian highlands, shares with the Red Sea
+even to-day in the traffic between Eastern and East-central Africa. The
+railway from Mombasa to Uganda completes a western Mediterranean-Indian
+line of connection, as a road along the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf
+would an eastern, each following the direction of rivers running
+parallel to the Red Sea. We can clearly see the transition of the
+functions of oceans to fresh, shallow water, to sounds and lagoons, in
+which sea traffic is furnished with smoother, quieter routes under the
+shelter of the coasts.
+
+[Illustration: THE OCEANS OF THE WORLD
+
+ This map, on a projection used by mariners, shows the relative
+ sizes of the great oceans, viewed from above. The natural advantage
+ of the position of the British Isles for communicating with the
+ ocean’s highways is clearly seen, and the vast area of the Pacific
+ is strikingly indicated.
+]
+
+In truth, only portions of the lines of traffic follow rivers; for
+rivers flow from highland to lowland, watersheds breaking their course
+here and there. In comparison with the oceans, rivers are but shallow
+channels, the continuity of which may be broken by every rocky ledge.
+Thus different regions for traffic arise at various points in the same
+stream. Only that part of Egypt which is situated north of the first
+cataract is Egypt proper; the territory to the south was conquered from
+Nubia. The farther we travel up a stream the less water and the more
+rapids and falls we shall find; therefore traffic also decreases in
+the direction toward the river’s source. It may be seen from this that
+there is but little probability of truth in the analogy drawn between
+the flowing of rivers from elevations to plains and the migrations
+of nations and directions in which states expand. History shows that
+migration and development follow a direction contrary from that in
+which rivers flow.
+
+Maritime and terrestrial advantages are concentrated where a river
+joins the sea; especially characteristic of such districts are deltas,
+at an early date rendered more efficient for purposes of commerce
+through canals and dredging. The fertility of the alluvial soil, the
+lack of forest occasioned by frequent floods, and the protection
+afforded by the islands of the delta, may have had not a little
+influence on the choice of such regions as settlements for man. At
+all events, estuaries and deltas, both small and great, were in the
+earliest times centres of civilisation. Egypt and Babylonia both
+testify to this; the colonising Greeks also showed a preference for
+river mouths. Miletus, Ephesus and Rome were states situated at the
+mouths of rivers, and so were the ancient settlements on the Rhone,
+the Guadalquivir, and the Indus. It would not be possible, however,
+to deduce from this proofs of a potamic phase of civilisation and
+formation of nations preceding the Thalassic, or Mediterranean. Estuary
+and delta states are far more a result of the Mediterranean culture.
+The latter led to the settlement of favourable districts on various
+coasts, all of which were finally swallowed up into the Roman Empire
+during the period of its northern and eastern expansion.
+
+[Illustration: THE ORIGIN OF SEAFARING PEOPLES
+
+ It is not sufficient to have a favourable sea-coast in order to
+ breed a race of sea-going people. The land behind the coast-line
+ must be fertile and productive, else no inducement exists for
+ seafaring. This condition is everywhere present along the British
+ shores, of which this is a typical coasting scene.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE JUNCTIONS OF GREAT RIVERS ARE LANDMARKS OF HISTORY
+
+ Where two rivers join, two lines of political tendencies always
+ meet, and their junction is the point whence political forces must
+ be controlled. This is the significance of the situations of Mainz
+ (1 at top), Khartoum (2), Lyons (3), and Belgrade (4)
+
+ Photos: Frith and Photochrome
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Rivers as Highways of Development]
+
+Another much more evident process of development through the
+instrumentality of rivers was shown at the time when traffic began
+to extend itself over wide areas. Rivers are the natural highways
+in countries which abound in water, and are of so much the greater
+importance because in such lands other thoroughfares are frequently
+wanting. Taken collectively, rivers form a natural circulatory system.
+In America at the time of the exploration and conquest, in Siberia, in
+Africa to-day, they are natural arteries by means of which exchange
+and political power may be extended. The more accessible a river is
+to commerce, the more rapidly political occupation increases about
+its basin, as has been shown by the Varangians in Russia and the
+Portuguese in Brazil. The best example of a country having developed
+through conformity with a natural river system and in connection with
+it is that of the Congo State, with part of its boundaries drawn
+simply along the lines of watersheds. Mastery among rival colonies is
+determined by the results of the struggle for the possession of rivers;
+this has been as clearly shown by the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi
+in America, as by the Niger and the Benuwe in Africa. The influence of
+riverways in furthering the path of political development may be best
+seen in the contrast between South America and Africa; the colonising
+movement came to the latter more than 300 years later than to the
+former continent.
+
+Every river is a route followed by political power, and is therefore
+at the same time a point of attraction and line of direction. The
+Germans have pushed their way along the Elbe between the Danes and the
+Slavs, and along the Vistula between the Slavs and the Lithuanians or
+old Prussians. The river that supports an embryonic nation holds it
+together when developed. The influence of the Mississippi was directed
+against the outbreak of the Civil War in America. As pearls are strung
+along a cord, so the provinces of new and old Egypt are connected
+by the Nile. Austria-Hungary is not the Danube nation only because
+the river was the life nerve of its development, but also because
+eighty-two per cent. of Austro-Hungarian territory is included within
+the regions drained by it. When the natural connection of rivers is
+broken then this power of cohesion ceases. The political and economic
+disunion of the Rhine, the Main, and other German rivers preceded the
+dissolution of the German Empire.
+
+[Sidenote: Rivers as Sources of Power]
+
+Where two rivers join there is always a meeting of two lines of
+political tendencies, and the place of their junction is the point
+whence the political forces must be controlled and held together. This
+is the significance of the situations of Mainz, Lyons, Belgrade, St.
+Louis, and Khartoum. The course followed by flowing water is far less
+direct than that of historical movements; the latter take the shortest
+way, and do not continue along the stream where a loop is formed; or
+they may follow a tributary that runs on in the original direction of
+the main stream, as in the case of the very ancient highway along the
+Oder and the Neisse to Bohemia. The sides of sharp angles formed by a
+river in its course lead to a salient point as, Regensburg and Orléans.
+A tributary meeting the main stream at this point forms the best route
+to a neighbouring river, or the angle may become a peninsula, so
+bounded by a tributary stream at its base as almost to take the form of
+an island.
+
+[Sidenote: Rivers as Dividers of Land]
+
+Breaks in the continuity of the land occasioned by rivers are caused
+rather by the channel in which the water flows than by the river
+itself. Thus we often find that dry river-beds are effective agents of
+this dividing up of the land. Permanent inequalities of the earth’s
+surface are intensified by flowing water. Therefore a river system
+separates the land into natural divisions. These narrow clefts are ever
+willingly adopted as boundary lines, especially in cases where it is
+necessary to set general limits to an extensive territory. Thus Charles
+the Great bounded his empire by the Eider, Elbe, Raab, and Ebro.
+Smaller divisions of land are formed by the convergence of tributaries
+and main streams, and again still smaller portions are created by the
+joining together of the lesser branches of tributaries, these taking
+an especially important place in the history of wars: for example,
+those formed by the Rhine, Weser, Elbe, and Oder, and on a lesser
+scale by the Moselle, Seille, and Saar. Fords are always important; in
+Africa they have even been points at which small states have begun to
+develop. Rivers as highways in time of war no longer have the value
+once attributed to them by Frederick the Great, who called the Oder
+“the nurse of the army.” Yet rivers were of such great moment in this
+respect in the roadless interior of America during the Civil War that
+the getting of information as to water-levels was one of the most
+important tasks of the army intelligence department. Rivers will always
+remain superior to railways as lines of communication during time of
+war, at least in one respect, for they cannot be destroyed.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE MAKING OF THE NATIONS--III
+
+Professor FREDERICK RATZEL]
+
+THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT IN THE LIFE OF NATIONS
+
+
+Upon the earth, with its varied configuration and formation of land and
+sea, are many kinds of hindrances and limits to life.
+
+The most obvious effect of natural region and natural boundary lies
+in the counteracting forces opposed by the earth through them to a
+formless and unlimited diffusion of life. Isolated territory furthers
+political independence, which, indeed, is of itself isolation. The
+development of a nation upon a fixed territory consists in a striving
+to make use of all the natural advantages of that territory. The
+superiority of a naturally isolated region lies in the fact that
+seclusion itself brings with it the greatest of all advantages. Hence
+the precocious economic and political development of races that dwell
+on islands or on peninsulas, in mountain valleys and on island-like
+deltas.
+
+[Sidenote: The Rise and Death of Isolated States]
+
+Often enough growth that originates under such favourable conditions
+leads to ruin. A young nation deems itself possessed of all so long
+as it has the isolation that ensures independence; it sees too late
+that the latter has been purchased at the price of a suffocating lack
+of space; and it dies of a hypertrophy of development--a death common
+to minor states. This was the cause of the swift rise and decline of
+Athens and of Venice, and of all powers that restricted themselves to
+islands and to narrow strips of coast.
+
+[Sidenote: Natural Boundaries of a State]
+
+[Sidenote: A State must Forsake its Boundaries]
+
+The more natural boundaries a state possesses, the more definite are
+the political questions raised by its development. The consolidation
+of England, Scotland, and Wales was simple and obvious, as patent
+as if it had been decreed beforehand, as was also the expansion of
+France over the region that lies between the Alps and the Pyrenees,
+the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. On the other hand, what a
+fumbling, groping development was that of Germany, with her lack of
+natural boundary in the east! Thus in the great geographical features
+of lands lie pre-ordained movements, constrained by the highest
+necessity--a higher necessity in the case of some than of others.
+The frontier of the Pyrenees was more necessary to France than that
+of the Rhine; an advance to the Indian Ocean is more necessary to
+Russia than a movement into Central Europe. Growth is soundest when a
+state expands so as to fill out a naturally bounded region--as, for
+example, the United States, that symmetrically occupy the southern half
+of the continent of North America, or Switzerland, extending to the
+Rhine and Lake of Constance. There are often adjustments of frontiers
+which force the territory of a nation back into a natural region, as
+shown in the case of Chili, which gave up the attempt to extend its
+boundaries beyond the Andes, in spite of its having authorisation to do
+so, founded on the right of discovery, the original Spanish division
+of provinces, and wars of independence. A favourable external form is
+often coincident with a favourable internal configuration which is
+quite as furthering to internal continuity as is the external form to
+isolated development. The Roman Empire, externally uniform as an empire
+of Mediterranean states, was particularly qualified for holding fast
+to its most distant provinces, by reason of the Mediterranean Sea that
+occupied its very centre. Everything that furthers traffic is also
+favourable to cohesion. Hence the significance of waterways for ancient
+states, and of canals and railways for modern nations. Egypt was the
+empire of the Nile, and the Rhine was at one time the life-vein of the
+empire of Charles the Great. A state does not always remain fixed in
+the same natural region. However advantageous they may have been, it
+must, on increasing, forsake the best of boundaries. Since one region
+is exchanged for another, the law of increasing areas comes into force.
+Every land, sea, river region, or valley should always be conceived
+of as an area that must be discovered, inhabited, and politically
+realised before it may exert any influence beyond its limits. Thus the
+Mediterranean district had first to complete its internal development
+before it could produce any external effect.
+
+[Sidenote: First Continent State]
+
+This internal development first took possession of the small
+territories, and, mastering them, turned to the greater. Thus we may
+see history progress from clearings in forests, oases, islands, small
+peninsulas, such as Greece; and strips of coast, to great peninsulas,
+such as Italy; isthmian situations of continental size, such as Gaul;
+only to come to a halt in half continents such as the United States and
+Canada, and continents. Europe--next to the smallest continent--has
+had the richest history of all, but with the greatest breaking up of
+its area into small divisions. Australia, the smallest continent, is
+the earliest to unite its parts into a continental state. Development
+expends all its power in bringing the areas of the three greatest
+land-divisions into play, and in opposing their one hundred and five
+million square miles to the ten and a half million of the smaller
+divisions; their economic action is already felt to a considerable
+degree. Thus there arises an alternation of isolation and expansion,
+which was clearly shown in the history of Rome, whose territory grew
+from the single city, out over the valley of the Tiber, into Apennine
+Italy, into the peninsula, across the islands and peninsulas of the
+Mediterranean, and finally into the two adjacent continents.
+
+[Illustration: THE HOTTEST PLACE IN THE WORLD IS INHABITED BY MAN
+
+ No climate has triumphed over the endurance of man. Massowah, the
+ most important town in the Italian Colony of Eritrea, in North
+ Africa, is the hottest place in the world, but, like the coldest
+ known place, it is inhabited.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Nature and National Destiny]
+
+The boundaries of natural regions are always natural boundaries.
+Although this delicate subject may be left to political geography, it
+is by no means to be neglected by those who are interested in history,
+boundary questions being among the most frequent causes of wars. In
+addition, boundaries are the necessary result of historical movements.
+In case two states strive against each other in expanding, the motion
+of both is impeded, and the boundary lies where the movement comes to
+a halt. It is in the nature of things that growing states are very
+frequently contiguous to uninhabited regions, not to other states.
+This contiguity is always a source of natural boundaries. The most
+natural of all arise from adjacency to uninhabitable regions: first
+the uninhabitable lands, then the sea. The boundary at the edge of the
+uninhabitable world is the safest; for there is nothing beyond. The
+broad Arctic frontiers of Russia are a great source of power. A high
+mountain range, also, may separate inhabited regions--which are always
+State territory--by an uninhabited strip of land. After all, the sea,
+marshes, rivers even, are uninhabitable zones. But traffic brings
+connection with it, and the Rhine, which to the Romans was a moat,
+especially well adapted as a defence, is now, with its thirty railway
+bridges and thousands of vessels plying up and down and across, far
+more of a highway and a means of communication than a dividing line.
+
+The position, form, and movements of the earth seem far enough removed
+from the deeds and destinies of peoples, yet the more we contemplate
+the latter, the more we are led to consider the earth’s inclination
+to its axis, its approximately spherical form, and its motion, which,
+combined, are the cause of the recurrence in fixed order of day and
+night, summer and winter.
+
+[Illustration: INHABITANTS OF THE COLDEST PLACE IN THE WORLD
+
+ Man is the most adaptable of living creatures. There is no climate
+ in the world in which he cannot live. The lowest temperatures taken
+ have been at Verkhoyansk, in Siberia, but the place is inhabited by
+ people, of whom we give a group.
+]
+
+The effects of these great earthly phenomena are differently felt
+in every country; for they vary according to geographical location.
+Practically, that which most conforms to any given situation north
+or south of the equator is the climate of a land. Day and night are
+of more even length at the equator than in our country; but beyond
+the Polar circles there are days that last for months, and nights
+equally long. Scarcely any annual variation in temperature is known to
+the inhabitants of Java, while in Eastern Siberia Januarys of fifty
+degrees below freezing-point and Julys of twenty degrees above zero of
+Centigrade, winters during which the mercury freezes, and summers of
+oppressive sultriness, are contrasted with one another.
+
+[Illustration: MAN’S TRIUMPH OVER CLIMATE: THE COLDEST PLACE IN THE
+WORLD
+
+ Just as man has established himself in the torrid heat of Massowah,
+ so he can endure the highest degree of cold. The coldest place
+ in the world, Verkhoyansk, of which this is a photograph, is the
+ capital of a Siberian province.
+]
+
+In our temperate region there is rain, as a rule, during all months,
+but as far north as Italy and Greece the year is divided into a dry
+and a wet season. Great effects are produced over the entire earth and
+upon all living creatures by the thus conditioned climatic differences.
+They must be considered at the very beginning of every investigation
+into history. Since we know that a fluctuating distribution of heat is
+caused by the 23½° inclination of the earth’s axis, investigation
+also leads us to a knowledge of further phenomena, to a consideration
+of the dependence of the winds and of the precipitation of heat upon
+this very same condition.
+
+[Sidenote: The First Question about a Country]
+
+And thus we come into contact with the thousand connecting threads by
+which man’s economic activity, health, distribution over the earth,
+even his spiritual and his political life, are inseparably bound
+up with the climate. Hence the first question that should be asked
+concerning a country is: What is its geographical situation? A land may
+be interesting for many other reasons besides nearness or remoteness
+from the equator; but that which is of the greatest interest of all
+to the historian is a consideration of the manifold and far-reaching
+effects of climate.
+
+The study of human geography teaches us that climate affects mankind
+in two ways. First, it produces a direct effect upon individuals,
+races, indeed the inhabitants of entire zones, influencing their
+bodily conditions, their characters, and their minds; in the second
+place, it produces an indirect effect by its influence on conditions
+necessary to life. This is due to the fact that the plants and animals
+with which man stands in so varied a relationship, which supply him
+with nourishment, clothing, and shelter, which, when domesticated and
+cultivated, enter his service, as it were, and become most valuable
+and influential assistants and instruments for his development and
+culture, are also dependent upon climate. Important properties of the
+soil, the existence of plains, deserts, and forests, also depend upon
+climate. Effects of climate, both direct and indirect, are united in
+political-geographical phenomena, and are especially manifest in the
+growth of states and in their permanence and strength.
+
+[Sidenote: Man can Bear all Climates]
+
+There is no climate that cannot be borne by man; of all organic beings
+he is one of the most capable of adapting himself to circumstances.
+Men dwell even in the very coldest regions. The place where the lowest
+temperatures have been measured, Verkhoyansk, with a mean January
+temperature of -54° F., is the capital of a Siberian province; and a
+district where the temperature is of the very hottest, Massowah, is the
+most important town in the Italian colony of Eritrea.
+
+However, both heat and cold, when excessive, tend to lessen population,
+the size of settlements, and economic activity. The great issues of
+the world’s history have been decided on ground situated between the
+tropic of Cancer and the Polar circle. The question as to whether the
+northern half of North America should be English or French was decided
+between the parallels of 44° and 48° north latitude; and in the same
+manner the settlement as to whether Sweden or Russia should be supreme
+in Northern Europe took place a little south of 60° north. Holland
+did not lose and regain her Indian possessions in the neighbourhood
+of the equator, but in Europe; and Spain fell from the high estate
+of sovereign over South and Central America because her power as a
+European nation had decayed.
+
+[Sidenote: Strange Divergence of a Race]
+
+The coldest countries in the world are either entirely uninhabited--as
+Spitzbergen and Franz Josef’s Land--or very thinly populated. Some are
+politically without a master--the two territories just mentioned, for
+example; some are politically occupied, as is Greenland, but are of
+very little value. History teaches that traffic between such colonies
+and the mother country may cease entirely without the mother country
+suffering any loss thereby. The hottest regions in the world are for
+the most part colonies or dependencies of European Powers. This applies
+to the whole of tropical Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania, and
+partly to tropical America.
+
+The exclusion of European nations from grasping for possessions in
+America was not determined upon in the compromised territory of
+tropical America, but in the United States, a short distance south of
+39° north latitude. What a difference in the parts played in history
+by the two branches of the Tunguse race, the one held in subjection
+in the cold latitude of Russia, the other conquering China, and now
+the sovereign power in the more temperate climate of that country;
+or between the Turks who, as Yakuts, lead a nomadic life in the Lena
+valley, and the Turks who govern Western Asia! Latham called the region
+extending from the Elbe to the Amoor--within which dwell Germans,
+Sarmatians, Ugrian Finns, Turks, Mongolians, and Manchurians, peoples
+who strike with a two-edged sword--a “Zone of Conquest.” Farther to
+the north nations are poor and weak; toward the equator, luxurious
+and enervated. The inhabitants of this central zone have over-run
+their neighbours both to the north and to the south, while never,
+either from the north or from the south, have they themselves suffered
+any lasting injury. The Germans have advanced from the Baltic Sea to
+the Mediterranean; the Slavs inhabit a territory that extends from
+the Arctic Ocean to the Adriatic Sea; the Turks and Mongolians have
+penetrated as far south as India; and there have been times when
+Mongolians ruled from the Arctic Ocean to Southern India. Finally, the
+Manchurians have extended their sphere of influence over Northern Asia
+as far south as the tropic of Cancer.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ ISOTHERMAL LINES
+
+ JANUARY
+
+ ISOTHERMAL LINES
+
+ JULY
+
+EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON THE COURSE OF HISTORY
+
+ A map on which the isothermal lines are drawn is rich in historical
+ instruction. Where the lines diverge we have regions of equal
+ temperature; where they crowd together, districts of different mean
+ annual temperatures lie close together. The crowding of climatic
+ variations in any region enlivens and hastens the course of
+ history.
+]
+
+These differences occur over again in more restricted areas, even
+within the temperate zone itself. The inhabitants of the colder
+portions of a country have often shown their superiority to the men who
+dwell in the warmer districts. The causes of the contrast between the
+Northerners and the Southerners, which has dominated in the development
+of the United States, may for the most part be clearly traced: the
+South was weakened by the plantation method of cultivation, and
+slavery; its white population increased slowly, and shared to a lesser
+degree than did the Northerners in the strengthening, educating
+influences of agriculture and manufacturing industries. Thus after a
+long struggle that finally developed into a war, the North won the
+place of authority.
+
+[Sidenote: Sunbeams and Rainfall in History]
+
+In Italy and in France the superiority of the north over the south is
+partially comprehensible; and in Germany the advantages possessed by
+Prussia, at least in area and in sea coast, are obvious. But when in
+English history also the north is found to have been victorious over
+the south, conditions other than climatic must have been the cause. In
+this case elements have been present that are more deeply-rooted than
+in sunbeams and rainfall alone.
+
+We must call to mind the zone-like territories of early times, occupied
+by peoples from which the nations of to-day are descended; the boundary
+lines have disappeared, but the northern elements have remained in the
+north, and the southern elements in the south. It is well known that
+Aristotle adjudged political superiority and the sphere of world-empire
+to the Hellenes because they surpassed the courageous tribes of the
+north in intelligence and in mechanical instinct, and were superior to
+the both intelligent and skilful inhabitants of Asia in courage. “As
+the Hellenic race occupies a central geographical position, so does
+it stand between both intellectually.” The thought that this union of
+extreme intellectuality and power in arms on Hellenic soil could be the
+result of ethnical infiltration did not seem to have occurred to the
+philosopher. The fundamental idea of Aristotle, the aristocratic state,
+in which the talented Hellene alone was to rule over bondmen of various
+origins, who were, above all, to labour for him, could not have been
+possible had his views been otherwise. And yet he had clearly seen that
+the two talents--for war and for industry--were unequally distributed
+among the different Hellenic stocks, and that they were also variable
+according to time.
+
+[Illustration: HOW THE SAME PEOPLES DIFFER
+
+ The Yakuts, who lead a nomad life in the valley of the Lena, and
+ the Turks who govern Western Asia, are of the same stock, but the
+ genial climate has enabled the Turks to flourish while the cold has
+ kept the Yakuts poor. These groups represent both branches of the
+ stock.
+]
+
+Considering the influence even of slighter differences in climate,
+the locations of regions of similar mean annual temperature, and the
+distances which separate them from one another, cannot be otherwise
+than important. A map on which the isothermal lines are drawn is rich
+in historical instruction. Where the lines diverge we have regions of
+equal temperature; where they crowd together, districts of different
+mean annual temperatures lie close to one another. The crowding of
+climatic variations in any region enlivens and hastens the course of
+history in that region. If the variations occur only at long intervals,
+all parts of a large territory having approximately equal mean annual
+temperatures, then climatic contrasts, which act as a ferment, as it
+were, are not present to any appreciable extent, and their effects lose
+in intensity and are dispelled.
+
+Where are greater combinations of contrasting climatic elements to
+be found than in Greece and in the Alps? The joining together of the
+natives of rich, fruitful Zürich with the poor shepherds of the forests
+and mountains was of the utmost importance to the development of the
+Swiss Confederation. It was also a union of regions of mild and cold
+temperatures. The possession of Central European and Mediterranean
+climates, that shade into one another without any sharp line of
+demarcation, is a great advantage to France. If climatic differences
+approach one another in too great a contrast, clefts in development are
+likely to occur, such as the gap between the Northern and the Southern
+States in America, and that between North and South Queensland. If it
+be possible to adjust the political differences, then the union of
+areas of different temperatures has an invigorating effect, as shown
+by the history of the American Southern States since 1865.
+
+[Illustration: THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE ON THE POWER OF PEOPLES
+
+ There is a world of difference between the two branches of the
+ Tunguse race: the one is a poor people living in cold regions and
+ subject to Russia; the other is the ruling race of the Chinese
+ Empire, flourishing in a temperate climate. The upper group is
+ composed of ruling Tunguses in China and the lower group represents
+ Tunguses subject to Russia.
+]
+
+Winds blowing in a constant direction for many months at a time were
+of great assistance to navigation during the days of sailing vessels,
+which, indeed, have not yet been entirely supplanted by steamships.
+Before the time of steam vessels all traffic on the Indian Ocean was
+closely connected with the change of the monsoons; and important
+political expansions have followed in the track of the same winds--for
+example, the diffusion of the Arabs along the east coast of Africa
+and in Madagascar. The influence of the trade winds on the Spanish
+and Portuguese discoveries along the Atlantic coast of America is
+well known. The south-eastern trade winds have been a cause of both
+voluntary and involuntary emigrations of Polynesian races. It may be
+clearly seen from the history of Greece what advantage was obtained by
+the race that won the alliance of the coast of Thrace and the wind that
+blows south from it with constancy during the entire fair season, often
+eight months long.
+
+Where the wind is most variable, visiting entire countries with
+storms, to the great destruction of lives and property, the result is
+a stirring up of the survivors to exertions that cannot fail to be
+strengthening both to body and to mind, and of direct benefit to life
+in general. At the same time that the people of Holland were engaged in
+forcing back the ocean, they won their political liberty. In another
+part of the North Sea coast the Frisians receded farther and farther
+south, owing to the invasions of the sea and the attacks of the
+natives of Holstein. The tempest that scattered the armada of Philip
+II. was one of the most important political events of the time; and
+it is not to be denied that the snowstorm in Prussian Eylau, at the
+beginning of the battle in which Napoleon suffered his first defeat,
+contributed not a little to the result.
+
+[Sidenote: One of the Greatest Problems]
+
+Acclimatisation is one of the greatest of human problems. In order that
+a nation shall expand from one zone into another, it must be capable
+of adapting itself to new climates. The human race is, as a whole, one
+of the most adaptable of all animal species to different conditions of
+life; it is diffused through all zones and all altitudes up to about
+thirteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. But single nations
+are accustomed to fixed zones and portions of zones; and long residence
+in foreign climates leads to illness and loss of life.
+
+[Sidenote: Climate and Will-Power]
+
+In some races the individuals are of a more rigid constitution than
+in others, and are thus less capable of adaptation. Chinamen and Jews
+adapt themselves to different climates far more easily than do Germans,
+upon whom residence in the southern part of Spain even, and to a still
+greater degree in Northern Africa, is followed by injurious effects.
+The constant outbreaks of destructive disease before which the German
+troops withered away are to be counted amongst the greatest obstacles
+opposed to the absorption of Italy into the German Empire. During the
+Spanish discoveries and conquests in America in the sixteenth century,
+whole armies wasted away to mere handfuls. The greatest hindrances to
+German colonisation in Venezuela are climatic diseases. Medical science
+has, to be sure, pointed out such deleterious influences as may be
+traced to unsuitable dwelling-places, nutrition, clothing, etc.; and
+the losses to Europe of soldiers and officials in the tropics have been
+greatly reduced. But even to-day deaths, illnesses, and furloughs make
+up the chief items in the reports sent in from every colony in the
+tropics. British India can only be governed from the hills, where the
+officials dwell during the greater part of the year.
+
+Climatic influence is not limited to bodily diseases. One of the first
+effects of life in warm climates upon men accustomed to cold regions
+is relaxation of what is known as will-power. Even the Piedmontese
+soldier loses his erect carriage in a Neapolitan or Sicilian garrison.
+Englishmen in India count on an ability to perform only half the amount
+of work they would be capable of at home. Many inhabitants of northern
+countries escape the bodily diseases of the tropics; but scarcely one
+man of an entire nation is able to resist the more subtle alterations
+in spirit.
+
+[Sidenote: The Peoples of North and South]
+
+Their historical influence extends only the deeper for it. The
+conquering nations that advance from north to south have invariably
+forfeited their power, determination, and activity. The original
+character of the Aryans who descended into the lowlands of India
+has been lost. A foreign spirit rings through the Vedic hymns. West
+Goths and Vandals alike lost their nationalities in Northern Africa
+and Spain, as the Lombards lost theirs in Italy. In spite of all
+emigration, immigration, and wandering hither and thither, there always
+remains a certain fixed difference between the inhabitants of colder
+and those of warmer countries; it is the nature of the land, moulding
+the more ductile character of a people into its own form. There are
+differences also between the northern and the southern stocks of the
+same race, and thus climate exerts here greater and there lesser
+influence upon nations and their destinies.
+
+Since it lies in the nature of climatic influences to produce
+homogeneity among those peoples who inhabit extensive regions of
+similar mean annual temperatures, it follows that a unifying effect
+is also produced on political divisions that might otherwise be
+inclined to separate from one another. In the first place, a similar
+climate creates similar conditions of life, and thus the northern and
+southern races of each hemisphere, with their temperate and their
+hot climates, differ widely. Climate is also the cause of similar
+conditions of production over large territories. Leroy-Beaulieu rightly
+mentioned climate--above all, the winter, during which almost every
+year the whole land from north to south is covered with snow--as next
+in importance to the configuration of the country in its unifying,
+cohesive effects on the Russian Empire. Winters are not rare during
+which it is possible to journey from Astrachan to Archangel in
+sledges; and both the Sea of Azov and the northern part of the Caspian
+Sea are frozen over during the cold months, as well as the Bay of
+Finland, the Dnieper as well as the Dwina.
+
+[Illustration: A STORM THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY: THE WRECK OF
+THE ARMADA
+
+ The weather has greatly influenced the course of history and
+ helped to mould the fate of nations. The tempest that scattered
+ the Spanish Armada in 1588 was one of the most important political
+ events of the time. This picture, from the painting by J. W. Carey,
+ illustrates the wreck of the galleon “Girona,” at Giant’s Causeway.
+]
+
+Situation determines the affinities and relations of peoples and
+states, and is for this reason the most important of all geographical
+considerations. Situation is always the first thing to be investigated;
+it is the frame by which all other characteristics are encircled.
+Of what use were descriptions of the influence of the geographical
+configuration of Greece on Grecian history, in which the decisive point
+that Greece occupies a medial position between Europe and Asia, and
+between Europe and Africa, was not insisted upon above all? Everything
+else is subordinate to the fact that Greece stands upon the threshold
+of the Orient. However varied and rich its development may have been,
+it must always have been determined by conditions arising from its
+contiguity with the lands of Western Asia and Northern Africa. Area
+in particular, often over-valued, must be subordinated to location.
+The site may be only a point, but from this point the most powerful
+effects may be radiated in all directions. Who thinks of area when
+Jerusalem, Athens, or Gibraltar is mentioned? When it is found that the
+Fanning Islands or Palmyra Island is indispensable to the carrying out
+of England’s plans in respect to telegraphic connection of all parts of
+the empire with one another, merely because these islands are adapted
+for cable stations on the line between Queensland and Vancouver, is it
+not owing to their location alone, without consideration as to area,
+configuration, or climate?
+
+Every portion of the earth lends its own peculiar qualities to
+the nations and races that dwell upon it, and so does each of its
+subdivisions in turn. Germany, as a first-class Power, is thinkable
+only in Europe. There cannot be either a New York or a St. Petersburg
+in Africa. Our organic conception of nations and states renders it
+impossible for us to look upon situation as something lifeless and
+passive; far rather must it signify active relations of giving and
+receiving. Two states cannot exist side by side without influencing
+each other. It is much more likely that such close relationships result
+from their contiguity; that, for example, we must conceive of China,
+Korea, and Japan as divisions of a single sphere of civilisation,
+their history consisting in a transference, transplanting, action, and
+reaction, leading to results of the greatest moment. Some situations
+are, indeed, more independent and isolated than others; but what would
+be the history of England, the most isolated country in Europe, if all
+relations with France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia were
+omitted? It would be incomprehensible.
+
+The more self-dependent a situation is, the more is it a natural
+location; the more dependent, the more artificial, and the more it
+is a part of a neighbourhood. Connection with a hemisphere or grand
+division, identity with a peninsula or archipelago, location with
+respect to oceans, seas, rivers, deserts, and mountains, determine the
+histories of countries. It is precisely in the natural locality that
+we must recognise the strongest bonds of dependence on Nature. Apart
+from all other features peculiar to Italy, her central position in the
+Mediterranean alone determines her existence as a Mediterranean Power.
+However highly we may value the good qualities of the German people,
+the best of these qualities will never reach so high a development in
+the constrained, wedged-in, continental situation of their native land
+as they would in an island nation; for Germany’s location is more that
+of a state in a neighbourhood of states than a natural location, and
+for this reason more unfavourable than that of France.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ _Outward Voyage of Columbus shown thus_
+ _Homeward Voyage of Columbus shown thus_
+ _Periodical Winds_ (_Monsoons_) _shown thus_
+ _Prevailing & Constant Winds shown thus_
+
+POLITICAL EXPANSION HAS FOLLOWED IN THE TRACK OF THE WINDS
+
+ This map illustrating the trade winds and prevailing winds shows
+ how important were these winds before the days of steam vessels. It
+ shows that the outward voyage of Columbus was entirely along the
+ track of the north-east trade winds. Where the arrows cross, as off
+ the North-west of Scotland, we have regions of wind disturbances.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE RIVERS OF TWO CONTINENTS AND THEIR INFLUENCE IN
+CIVILISATION
+
+ The influence of riverways in furthering political development may
+ be best seen in the contrast between South America and Africa; the
+ colonising movement came to Africa three hundred years later than
+ to South America.
+
+EUROPEAN COUNTRIES AND THEIR NEARNESS TO THE SEA
+
+ A country’s prosperity depends greatly upon its relation to the
+ sea. This map shows the boundaries of European countries, and the
+ black lines indicate those countries that lie within 250 and 500
+ miles from the sea-coast.
+
+THE RELATION OF RIVERS AND THE SEA TO THE CIVILISATION OF COUNTRIES]
+
+[Sidenote: The Ideal Situation for a State]
+
+Natural localities of the greatest importance result from the
+configuration and situation of divisions of the earth’s surface. The
+extremities of continents--such as the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Horn,
+Singapore, Ceylon, Tasmania, and Key West--are points from which
+sea power radiates; and at the same time they are the summits of
+triangular territories that extend inland and are governed from the
+apex. In the same way all narrowings of parts of continents are of
+importance. France occupies an isthmian position between ocean and
+sea; Germany and Austria between the North Sea, the Baltic, and the
+Adriatic. Some states are situated on the coast, occupying a bordering
+position; others occupy an intermediate location. And the more isolated
+situations are all fundamentally different, according to whether they
+are insular, peninsular, or continental. Situations in respect to the
+oceans are even more various. How different are Atlantic locations in
+Europe from those on the Mediterranean, the Baltic, or the Black Sea!
+Only a few nations occupy a position fronting on two great oceans. The
+ideal natural situation for a state may be said to be the embracing
+of a whole continent within one political system. This is the deeper
+source of the Monroe Doctrine.
+
+[Sidenote: Contrasts and Comparisons]
+
+Similar locations give rise to similar political models. Since
+there are several types of location, it follows that the histories
+of such locations assume typical characters. The contrast between
+Rome and Carthage, their association with each other, exhibiting the
+reciprocal action of the characters of the northern and southern
+Mediterranean coasts, is repeated in similarly formed situations in
+Spain and Morocco, in Thrace and Asia Minor, and on a smaller scale
+in the Italian and Barbary ports. In all these places events similar
+to those in Roman and Punic history have taken place. Japan and
+England are unlike in many respects; yet not only the peoples, but
+also the political systems, of the two island nations have insular
+characteristics. Germany and Bornu are as different from each other
+as Europe is from Africa, but central location has produced the same
+peculiarity in each--a source of power to the strong nation, of ruin to
+the weak.
+
+Contiguity with neighbouring states brings with it important
+relationships. The most striking examples of such contiguity are to
+be seen in nations that are cut off from the coast of their continent
+and completely surrounded by other countries. Owing to the constant
+reaching out for more territory, such a situation in Europe, as well
+as in other continents, signifies unconditional loss of independence.
+Only connection with a great river can prevent the dissolution of a
+nation so situated. The instinctive impulse to extend its boundaries
+to the sea, shown by all nations, arises from the desire to escape
+an insulated continental position. Only the very smallest of states,
+such as Andorra and Liechtenstein--which, moreover, do not aspire
+to absolute independence--could have existed for centuries in the
+positions that they occupy. A medial situation held by one country
+between two others is also, in point of risk, comparable to a
+completely encompassed position. France was so situated when Germany
+and Spain were under the same ruler. The alliance of two neighbouring
+lands may place a third state in a similar position.
+
+[Sidenote: What is National Progress?]
+
+Whatever the individual locations of neighbouring states may be,
+their number is a matter of great importance. It is better to have a
+multitude of weak neighbours than a few strong ones. The development
+of the United States that gradually ousted France from the south,
+Mexico from the west, and Spain from both south and west, in order
+to be in touch with the sea on three sides, has, with the decrease
+in neighbouring Powers, resulted in an enviable simplification of
+political problems.
+
+A nation covering various dispersed and scattered situations is to be
+seen at the present day only in regions of active colonisation and in
+the interiors of federal states. Powerful nations are consolidated
+into a single territory. We may see everywhere that when the area of
+distribution of a form of life diminishes in extent, it does not simply
+shrink up, but transforms itself into a number of island-like sites,
+giving the appearance that the form, of life is proceeding from a
+centre of the conquest of new territory. In what does the difference
+lie between islands of progress and of recession? With nations and
+states progress lies in the occupation of the most advantageous sites;
+retrogression lies in their loss and sacrifice. The American Indians,
+forced back from oceans, rivers, and fertile regions, form detached
+groups of retrogression; the Europeans who took these sites from
+them formed isles of progress as, one after another, they seized the
+islands, promontories, harbours, river-mouths, and passes.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE MAKING OF THE NATIONS--IV
+
+Professor FREDERICK RATZEL]
+
+
+
+
+THE SIZE AND POWER OF NATIONS
+
+
+[Sidenote: The State and its Territory]
+
+It is not without reason that so much importance is attached to extent
+of surface in geography. Area and population represent to us the two
+chief characteristics of a state; and to know them is the simplest
+means--often too simple--for obtaining a conception of the size and
+power of a nation. We cannot conceive of any man, much less a human
+community, without thinking of surface or ground at the same time.
+Political science may, through a number of clever conclusions, reduce
+the area of a state to a mere national possession; but we all know that
+territory is too tightly bound up with the very life of a state for
+it to assume a position of so little importance. In a nation, people
+and soil are organically united into one, and area and population
+are the measure of this union. A state cannot exchange or alter its
+area without suffering a complete transformation itself. What wonder,
+then, that wars between nations are struggles for territory? Even in
+war the object is to limit the opponent’s sphere of action; how much
+more does the whole history of nations consist in a winning and losing
+of territory. The Poles still exist as they did in former times; but
+the ground upon which they dwell has ceased to belong to them in a
+political sense, and thus their state has been annihilated.
+
+[Sidenote: The Vast Modern Empires]
+
+During the course of history we constantly see great political areas
+emerging from the struggle for territory. We see nations from early
+times to the present day increasing in area: the Persian and Roman
+Empires were small and mean compared with those of the Russians,
+English, and Chinese. Also the states of peoples of a lower grade of
+culture are insignificant compared with the states of more advanced
+races. The greatest empires of the present day are the youngest;
+the smallest--Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, appear to
+us only as venerable, strange petrifications of an alien time. The
+relation of surface to the growth of spheres of commerce and of means
+of communication is obvious. Communication is a struggle with area;
+and the result of this struggle is the overcoming of the latter. The
+process is complicated because, as control is gained over area, one
+also acquires possession of its contents: advantages of location,
+conformation, fertility, and, by no means least, the inhabitants of
+the territory themselves. But the loss in value of all these things,
+brought about by their being widely scattered throughout an extensive
+area, can be overcome only by a complete control of the region over
+which they are spread.
+
+[Sidenote: Traffic Leads to Empire]
+
+The development of commerce is the preliminary history of political
+growth. This applies to all races, from Phœnicians to North Americans,
+who point out to us a post of the American Fur Company as the germ
+from which Nebraska developed. Every colony is a result of traffic;
+even in the case of Siberia, merchants from European Russia travelled
+thither as far as the Ob about three centuries before its conquest. The
+phrase “conquests of the world’s commerce” is perfectly legitimate.
+The building of roads is a part of the glory of the founders and
+rulers of nations. To-day, tariff unions and railway politics have
+taken the place of road-making. It has always been so; both state and
+traffic have had the same interest in roads and thoroughfares. Traffic
+breaks the way, and the state improves and completes it. It seems to
+be certain that the firmly organised state in ancient Peru opened
+the roads which were later a service to traffic. In a lower phase of
+development we may see commerce leading directly to the establishment
+of states; in a higher, to victory in war, arising from commercial and
+railway communication. It would be impossible for France to construct
+the Sahara Railway without first subjugating the Tuareg and seizing
+their country. Highways of traffic as weapons for hostile states, the
+important part played by commercial nations and the culture of strictly
+industrial and commercial peoples, the endeavour of traffic to be of
+service to the policies of states, and, finally, the powerful reactions
+caused by the removal and disuse of thoroughfares of commerce to races,
+nations, and to entire spheres of civilisation--can only be indicated
+here.
+
+[Sidenote: Every Trader Bears his State with him]
+
+Every political movement, whether it be a warlike expedition or a
+peaceful emigration, is preceded by movements which are not political.
+Inquiries must be made and relations instituted; the object must be
+determined, and the road explored. All the while that knowledge of the
+world beyond the bounds of a country is being gained, there is also
+an imperceptible broadening of the geographical horizon; and this not
+only widens out, but becomes clearer. Fabulous tales are circulated as
+to the terrors of strange countries; but the fear gradually vanishes
+as our knowledge increases, and with the latter a spirit of political
+enterprise awakens One can say that every trader who passes the bounds
+of his country bears his state with him in his load of merchandise. To
+be sure, there are both long preparations made and quick leaps taken
+in the processes of commerce. Roman merchants prepared the way to a
+knowledge of Gaul and its conquest. But how different the attitude
+of the Romans to Gaul before and after the time of Cæsar! What a
+difference in the Spanish estimate of the worth of American colonies
+before the days of Cortez and Pizarro, and afterward! The broader and
+clearer the geographical horizon grows, the greater become political
+schemes and standards of policy.
+
+[Sidenote: Causes of National Success and Failure]
+
+The widening of the geographical horizon and the clearing up of
+mysteries beyond are invariably a result of the travels of individuals
+or of groups for peaceful purposes. The first of these purposes
+is commerce; the chase and fishing are also to be taken into
+consideration; and the involuntary wanderings of the lost and strayed
+are not to be excluded. Europe possessed a Pytheas and a Columbus who
+discovered new worlds; and every primitive community had its explorers,
+too, who cleared paths from one forest glade to another. If such
+pioneers return, they also bring back with them contributions to the
+general stock of knowledge of the world without, and it becomes less
+difficult for others to follow in their footsteps; finally armies
+or fleets may advance, conquering in their tracks. Whenever traffic
+makes busy a multitude of men, and employs extensive means by which to
+carry on its operations, the truth of the saying, “The flag follows
+trade,” is finally established in its broadest sense. With all this
+struggling and labouring, territory does not fall to the state simply
+as a definite number of square miles. Just as single individuals bring
+enlightenment to the state, in the same manner the idea of area arises
+in the intelligence of the aggregate.
+
+When we say that an area increases, we must remember that by this we
+mean that the intelligence which views it and the will that holds it
+together have increased, and naturally, also, that which is requisite
+for rendering intelligence and will capable for their work. In this
+lies one of the greatest differences that exist between nations, one of
+the greatest causes of success and failure in development.
+
+A disposition for expansion that advances boundaries to the farthest
+possible limit is a sign of the highest state of civilisation. It is a
+result of an increase both of population and of intellectual progress.
+
+[Sidenote: Small States in Fine Situations]
+
+There is something very attractive in the small political models of
+early times: those city-states whose development had in definiteness
+and in precision a great deal of the lucidity and compactness of
+artistic compositions. Lübeck and Venice are more attractive than
+Russia. The concentration of the forces of a small community in a
+limited, beautifully situated, and protected location, is a source of
+a development that takes a deeper hold on all the vital powers of a
+people, employing them more extensively, and therefore ending in a more
+rapid and definite perfection of historical individuality. Thus small
+areas take the lead of large territories in historical development; and
+we may see many examples of a slow but sure transference of leadership
+from the small area to the large, and of the gradual diffusion of
+progress in the latter. Thus Italy followed Greece; Spain, Portugal;
+England, Holland.
+
+[Illustration: THE COMMAND OF THE SEAS: GREAT BRITAIN’S MIGHTY
+MACHINERY OF DEFENCE
+
+ Great Britain’s strength is a proof of the tremendous importance of
+ the sea as a factor of political power. This is a bird’s-eye view
+ of the British Navy assembled at Spithead.
+]
+
+The opposite of this is precocity in growth: the earlier a state
+marks out its limits without consideration for later expansion, the
+sooner the completion of its development. The growth in area of Venice
+and the Low Countries stood still, while all about them territories
+increased in size. The development of small countries flags unless the
+increase of population within a limited area leads to that disquiet and
+emigration and expulsion of citizens especially characteristic of small
+nations: the horizon grows too narrow for the times; patriotism becomes
+local pride; and the most important life forces are impaired. Thus
+minor nations, through which races are separated into little groups,
+develop: the great national economic and religious cohesive forces are
+broken up; and even the political advantages of the ground are reduced
+in value through disintegration.
+
+[Sidenote: Founding of States by Strangers]
+
+Under such conditions the impulse for new growth must be brought in
+from without. The native, who is acquainted with only one home, is
+always inferior to the foreigner, who has a knowledge of two lands
+at least. It is remarkable how numerous are the traditions of the
+establishment of states by strangers. Sometimes these are mighty
+hunters, as in Africa; often they are superior bearers of civilisation,
+as in Peru; and an especially large number of them have descended
+to the earth from heaven. In the face of history which tells of
+the foundation of a Manchurian dynasty in China and a Turkish in
+Persia, of the establishment of the Russian Empire by wandering North
+Germans, and that of the great nations in the West Sudan by the Fulah
+shepherds--these mythical accounts, although they may appear decidedly
+incredible when taken singly, as a whole are probable enough. The
+foundation of the nation of Sarawak in Borneo by Brooke is reality and
+corresponds with many of the old legends of the formations of states.
+
+[Sidenote: A Great Turning-point in History]
+
+The broad conception of a state, which acts as a ferment does on
+a disrupted mass, is introduced from one neighbouring nation into
+another, each sharing in its production. When such territories are
+adjacent, the state situated in the most powerful natural region
+overgrows the other. The more mobile race brings its influence to
+bear on the less mobile, and possibly draws the other along with it.
+The more compact, better organised and armed state intrudes on weaker
+nations, and forces its organisation upon them. A nation left to itself
+has a tendency to split up into small groups, each of which seeks to
+support its own life upon its own soil, heedless of the others; and
+as such groups increase, they always reproduce in their own images:
+families families, and tribes tribes. We find all sorts of measures
+taken by some nations to limit an increase in growth that would carry
+them beyond their old boundaries and place them under new conditions
+of life. Many an otherwise inexplicable custom of taking human life is
+a result of this tendency; perhaps, in some cases, even cannibalism
+itself. This impulse towards limitation would have rendered the growth
+of nations impossible had not the antithetical force of attraction
+of one to another led to growth and amalgamation. Truly, the advance
+from a condition of isolated, self-dependent communities to one of
+traffic between state organisms, which must of necessity lead to ebb
+and flow and union of one group with another, is one of the greatest
+turning-points in the history of man.
+
+[Sidenote: Nations as Neighbours]
+
+Since the tendency has been for territory to become the exclusive
+reward of victory in the competition of nations, balance of territorial
+possessions has grown to be one of the chief ends of national
+policies. The phrase “balance of power,” which has been so often
+heard since the sixteenth century, is no invention of diplomats, but
+a necessary result of the struggle for expansion. Hence we find an
+active principle of territorial adjustment and balance in all matters
+concerning international politics. It is not yet active in the small
+and simple states of semi-civilised peoples; such states are much more
+uniform, for they have all originated with a uniformly weak capacity
+for controlling territory. In addition, the principle of territorial
+isolation hinders the action of political competition. As soon,
+however, as necessity for increased area leads to the contiguity of
+nations, the conditions alter. The state that occupies but a small
+region strives to emulate its larger neighbour. It either gains so much
+land as is necessary to restore equality, or forces a decrease in the
+neighbour’s territory.
+
+[Sidenote: The Balance of Power]
+
+Both alternatives have been of frequent occurrence. Prussia expanded
+at the expense of Schleswig and Poland in order to become equal in
+territory to the other great Powers. The whole of Europe fought
+Napoleon until France had been forced back within such boundaries as
+were necessary to international balance. Austria lost provinces in
+Italy and replaced them with others in the Balkan Peninsula. This
+loss and gain appears to us, in looking over an easily epitomised
+history, such as that of France, as an alternation of violent waves
+and temporary periods of rest attained whenever a balance is reached.
+Therefore it is not owing to chance that the areas of Austria, Germany,
+France, and Spain may be respectively designated by 100, 86, 84, and
+80, that the area of Holland is to that of Belgium as 100 is to 90, and
+that the United States stands to Canada as 100 to 96. To be effective,
+such balances must presuppose equal civilisations, similar means for
+the acquirement of power. Rome was so superior to her neighbours in
+civilisation that she could not permit any territorial balance. Perhaps
+the adoption of the River Halys as the boundary between Media and Lydia
+was a first attempt to establish a national system on the principle of
+balance instead of “world” dominion.
+
+[Sidenote: A New British Empire is not Conceivable]
+
+Our standards for measuring the areas of countries have constantly
+increased during the growth of historical territories. The history of
+Greece is to us but the history of a small state; and how many years
+shall pass before that of Germany, Austria, and France will be but the
+history of nations of medium size? England, Russia, China, and the
+United States include the better half of the land of the world; and
+to-day a British Empire in the other half could not be conceivable.
+Development has ever seized on greater and greater areas, and has
+united more and more extensive regions into aggregates. Thus it has
+always remained an organic movement. The village-state repeats itself
+in the city-state, and the family-state in the race-state, the smaller
+ever being reproduced in greater forms. The smallest and greatest
+nations alike retain the same organic characteristics more or less
+closely united to the soil.
+
+[Sidenote: Area Does Not Mean Power]
+
+The surface of a state bears a certain relation to the surface of the
+globe, and according to this standard is the land measured upon which
+the inhabitants of a nation live, move, and labour. Thus it may be said
+that the 208,687 square miles of the German Empire represent about
+1/940 of the entire surface of the earth; further, that the empire
+has a population of 60,500,000, from which the ratio of 5·45 acres to
+each individual follows. Although it is true that wholly uninhabited
+or very thinly populated regions, high mountains, forests, deserts,
+etc., may be valuable from a political point of view, nevertheless the
+whole course of the world’s history shows us that, as a general rule,
+the value of territory increases with the number of inhabitants that
+dwell upon it. Thus, before their disunion, Norway-Sweden, with an area
+of 297,000 square miles--two-fifths greater than that of the German
+Empire--but with a population of 6,800,000, cannot be looked upon as a
+first-class Power; while Germany closely approaches the Russian Empire
+in strength, for although its area is but 1/43 that of the latter, its
+population is only one-half less. Thus area alone is never the deciding
+factor of political power. In the non-recognition of this fact lies the
+source of the greatest errors which have been made by conquerors and
+statesmen. The powerful influence that small states, such as Athens,
+Palestine, and Venice, have exerted on the history of the world proves
+that a great expanse of territory is by no means indispensable to great
+historical actions. The unequal distribution of mankind over a definite
+area is a much more probable source of political and economic progress.
+
+Civilisation and political superiority have always attended the
+thickly populated districts. Thus the whole of development has been a
+progression from small populations dwelling in extensive regions to
+large populations concentrated in more limited areas. Progress first
+awoke when division of labour began to organise and differentiate among
+heaped-up aggregates, and to create discrepancies promoting life and
+development. A simple increase of bodies and souls only strengthens
+that which is already in existence by augmenting the mass. In China,
+India, and Egypt, population has increased for a long time; but
+development of civilisation and of political power has been unable to
+keep pace with it.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE MAKING OF THE NATIONS--V
+
+Professor FREDERICK RATZEL]
+
+
+
+
+THE FUTURE HISTORY OF MAN
+
+
+[Sidenote: Man and the Universe]
+
+Looking back upon the history of man, it appears to us the history of
+the human race as a life phenomenon bound and confined to this planet
+alone. We are thus unable to form any conception of progress into the
+infinite, for every tellurian life-development is dependent upon the
+earth, and must always return to it again. New life must follow old
+roads. Cosmic influences may broaden or narrow the districts within
+which man is able to exist. This was experienced by the human race
+during the Glacial Period, when the ice sheet first drove men toward
+the equator, and later, receding, enabled them once more to spread out
+to the north. The limits of world life in general depend upon earthly
+influences; and thus, for mankind, progress limited by both time and
+space is alone possible.
+
+Perhaps it would be well, for the elucidation of the question of
+development, were geography to designate as progress only that which
+from sufficient data may be established as such beyond all doubt. Thus,
+to begin with, we have learned to know of a progress in space--man’s
+diffusion over the earth--which proceeds in two directions. The
+expansion of the human race signifies not only an extension of the
+boundaries of inhabited land far into the Polar regions, but also the
+growth of an intellectual conception of the whole world.
+
+[Sidenote: Manifold Growth of Mankind]
+
+Together with this progress there have been countless expansions
+of economic and political horizons, of commercial routes, of the
+territories of races and of nations--an extraordinarily manifold
+growth that is continually advancing. Increase of population and of
+the nearness of approach of peoples to one another goes hand in hand
+with progressing space. Mankind cannot become diffused uniformly over
+new areas without becoming more and more familiar with the old. New
+qualities of the soil and new treasures have been discovered, and thus
+the human race has constantly been made richer. While these gifts
+enriched both intellect and will, new possibilities were all the while
+arising, enabling men to dwell together in communities; the population
+of the earth increased, and the densely inhabited regions, at first but
+small, constantly grew larger and larger.
+
+[Sidenote: History is the Growth of Differences]
+
+With this increase in number, latent abilities came to life; races
+approached one another; competition was entered into; interpenetration
+and mingling of peoples followed. Some races acted mutually in
+powerfully developing one another’s characteristics; others receded
+and were lost, unless the earth offered them a possibility of
+diffusion over better protected regions. Already we see in these
+struggles the fundamental motive of the battle for area; and at the
+same time, on surveying this progress, we may also see the limit set
+to it--that increase in population is unfavourable to the progress of
+civilisation in any definite area, if the number of inhabitants become
+disproportionately large in respect to the territory occupied. Many
+regions are already over-populated; and the numbers of mankind will
+always be restricted by the limits of the habitable world.
+
+Already in the differences in population of different regions lie
+motives for the internal progress of man; but yet more powerful
+are those incentives to the development of internal differences in
+races furnished by the earth itself through the manifoldness of its
+conformation.
+
+The entire history of the world has thus become an uninterrupted
+process of differentiation. At first arose the difference between
+habitable and uninhabitable regions, and then within the habitable
+areas occurs the action brought about by variations in zones, divisions
+of land, seas, mountains, plains, steppes, deserts, forests--the whole
+vast multitude of formations, taken both separately and in combination.
+Through these influences arise the differences which must at first
+develop to a certain extent in isolation before it is possible for
+them to act upon one another, and to alter, either favourably or
+unfavourably, the original characteristics of men.
+
+[Sidenote: Earth’s Variety Reflected in its Peoples]
+
+All the variations in race and in civilisation shown by different
+peoples of the world, and the differences in power shown by states, may
+be traced to the ultimate processes of differentiation occasioned by
+variations in situation, climate, and soil, and to which the constantly
+increasing mingling of races, that becomes more and more complex with
+the diffusion of mankind over the globe, has also contributed. The
+birth of Roman daughter states, and the rise of Hispano-Americans
+and Lusitano-Americans from some of these very daughter nations, are
+evidences of a development that ever strives for separation, for
+diffusion over space, which may be compared only to the trunk of a
+tree developing, and putting forth branches and twigs. But the bole
+that has sent forth so many branches and twigs was certainly a twig
+itself at one time; and thus the process of differentiation is repeated
+over and over again. Progress in respect to population and to occupied
+area is undoubted; but can these daughter nations be compared to Rome
+in other respects? They have shown great powers of assimilation and
+great tenacity, for they have held their ground. Nevertheless, their
+greatest achievement has been to have clung fast to the earth; in other
+words, to have persisted. Certainly this is far more important than the
+internal progress in which the branches might perhaps have been able to
+surpass the older nation.
+
+[Sidenote: Decisive Element in a Nation]
+
+It is an important principle that since all life is and must be closely
+attached to the soil, no superiority may exist permanently unless it be
+able to obtain and to maintain ground. In the long run, the decisive
+element of every historical force is its relation to the land. Thus
+great forces may be seen to weaken in the course of a long struggle
+with lesser forces whose sole advantage consists in their being more
+firmly rooted in the soil. The warlike, progressive, on-marching
+Mongols and Manchus conquered China, it is true, but they have been
+absorbed into the dense native population and have assumed the native
+customs. The same illustration applies to the founding of nations by
+all nomadic races, especially in the case of the Southern European
+German states that arose at the time of the migration of Germanic
+peoples. The health and promise of the English Colonies in Australia
+present a striking contrast to the gloom that reigns over India, of
+which the significance lies only in a weary governing, conserving, and
+exploiting of three hundred millions of human beings. In Australia the
+soil is acquired; in India only the people have been conquered. Will
+a time ever come when all fertile lands will be as densely populated
+as India and China? Then the most civilised, evolved nation will have
+no more space in which to develop, maintain, and root its better
+characteristics; and the success of a state will not result from the
+possession of active forces, but from vegetative endowments--freedom
+from wants, longevity, and fertility.
+
+[Sidenote: The Goal of the Nations]
+
+Even though the future may bring with it a union of all nations in the
+world into the one great community already spoken of in the Gospel of
+John, growth may take place only through differentiation. And thus
+there is no necessity for our sharing the fear that a world-state would
+swallow up all national and racial differences, and all variations in
+civilisation.
+
+From the fact that history is movement, it follows that the geographer
+must recognise the necessity for progress in space in the sense of a
+widening out of the historical ground, and a progressive increase of
+the population of this ground; further, a development toward the goal
+of higher forms of life together with an uninterrupted struggle for
+space between the older and newer life-forms. Yet, for all this, the
+definite bounds set to the scene of life by the limited area of our
+planet always remain.
+
+Finally, all development on earth is dependent on the universe, of
+which our world is but a grain of sand, and to the time of which
+what we call universal history is but a moment. There must be other
+connections, definite roads upon which to travel, and distant goals,
+far beyond. We surmise an eternal law of all things; but in order to
+_know_, we should need to be God himself. To us only the belief in it
+is given.
+
+ FREDERICK RATZEL
+
+[Illustration: THE FAR EAST DIVISION OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD
+
+ This History begins with the East and comes westward round the
+ world. Japan is therefore the first country to come into its
+ survey, and from Japan we travel to Siberia, which, though
+ extending far west, must be treated as one. After Siberia come
+ China and Korea; and Australia, Oceania, and Malaysia all come into
+ the “Far East” when thus treated geographically. The whole of the
+ white portion of this map is treated in the Grand Division which
+ now opens.
+]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HISTORY OF THE WORLD
+
+SECOND GRAND DIVISION
+
+THE FAR EAST
+
+ STEPHEN REID
+]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+SECOND GRAND DIVISION
+
+
+
+
+THE FAR EAST
+
+
+The Far East falls into two sections, Asiatic and Oceanic. The Asiatic
+comprises the insular empire of Japan; and, on the continent, China,
+Korea, and Siberia, the extreme northern territory which, though
+extending far westward, must be treated as one.
+
+The Oceanic division includes the Australian continent, with the island
+of Tasmania; the Pacific islands grouped under the names of Melanesia,
+Micronesia, and Polynesia, to which last New Zealand is attached, the
+whole being conveniently associated under the name of Oceania; and the
+Malay Archipelago, or Malaysia, lying between Australia and the Asiatic
+continent.
+
+Of these three sections of Oceanic Far East only Malaysia has a
+record extending over centuries. The history of the other two, till
+the white sea-going races began to settle among them, is inferential,
+conjectural. A doubt was suggested whether New Zealand should be
+attached rather to Australia than to Oceania, for the reason that it
+has developed into one of the group of autonomous states which make up
+so large a portion of the British Empire; but this consideration must
+clearly yield to those based on geography and ethnology.
+
+
+ PLAN
+
+ THE INTEREST & IMPORTANCE OF THE FAR EAST
+ Angus Hamilton
+
+ JAPAN
+ Arthur Diósy and Max von Brandt
+
+ SIBERIA
+ Dr. E. J. Dillon and other writers
+
+ CHINA
+ Sir Robert K. Douglas, W. R. Carles, C.M.G., and other writers
+
+ KOREA
+ Angus Hamilton
+
+ AUSTRALIA & OCEANIA
+ Hon. Bernhard R. Wise and Professor Weule
+
+ MALAYSIA
+ Basil Thomson and other writers
+
+ INFLUENCE OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ For full contents and page numbers see Index
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: LANDS & PEOPLES OF THE FAR EAST]
+
+
+
+
+THE INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE OF THE FAR EAST
+
+BY ANGUS HAMILTON
+
+
+The influence of environment upon a people is seldom shown more
+prominently than in the high degree of civilisation attained by the
+early Chinese.
+
+Although the records are shrouded in mystery and marred by
+discrepancies, a consensus of scientific opinion traces the origin of
+the Chinese to a nomad tribe who, setting out from the shores of the
+Caspian, continued to wander until it found a home on the banks of the
+Yellow River and in the plains of Shansi. Under the influence of these
+immigrants, the rude manners of the aboriginals gave way to conditions
+in which a knowledge of the smelting of iron and the resources of
+agriculture was acquired. In the upward process of development, the
+weaving of flax into garments and the spinning of silk from cocoons
+followed; then, with primeval chaos reduced to order and the faculties
+quickened by habits of industry, the beginnings of government were
+made in the separation of the tribes from one another under their own
+leaders.
+
+While conditions of a settled existence were in course of attainment
+within the region which is now known as China Proper, the spectacle
+of a prosperous civilisation, reacting upon the uncouth instincts of
+tribes dwelling among the grassy uplands of Mongolia and the plains
+of Manchuria or amid the ice-clad fastnesses of the mountains and
+forest-strewn valleys of the farthest north, was presently to be
+responsible for the rise of predatory races, who, in the zenith of
+their strength, regarded the teeming cities of the south as lawful
+prizes. While the northern heights of Asia were producing a race that
+was to leave an indelible impression on the whole of the Asiatic
+Continent, the evolution of a no less specific type was proceeding in
+the islands off the coast. Carried by a wave of migration from India,
+which lapped the coast of Malaysia, Indo-China and Polynesia, and
+mingled in the islands of the Yellow Sea with a stream from New Guinea
+so that separate ethnographic identities were lost, were tribes who
+looked to the ocean for their existence much as the earlier Chinese
+relied upon the proceeds of their husbandry and the northern nomads
+upon their flocks.
+
+Glancing at the people living amid the plains, the uplands, and the
+islands, it will be seen that an irresistible force was enveloping the
+several races, moulding their instincts and idiosyncrasies in accord
+with the nature of their environment. Thus, while the Chinese, under
+the incentive of a knowledge of arts and crafts, had already produced,
+in 2356 B.C., a system of civilisation destined to endure to
+our time, the nomads and the islanders, unqualified by knowledge and
+controlled by climate, were hardly removed from a state of savagery a
+few centuries before the Christian era.
+
+If the passage of 4,000 years has affected the Chinese no more than
+the gliding of an hour, the existence of this great impassive people
+has not been without its effect upon the nations of Europe as upon the
+races of the Farthest East.
+
+[Sidenote: Eternal Mystery of China]
+
+A point of ancient contact between Christendom and the world of
+Confucius, reflecting, in contemporary Japan to-day the more permanent
+qualities of its teaching, China has stirred the spirits of the
+adventurous in all ages by its singular graces of refinement, its
+hidden wealth and the exquisiteness of its artistic perceptions.
+Arousing the curiosity of the Arab traders as early as the eighth
+century, it was known to the ancients, if they journeyed by the
+Southern Sea, as the kingdom of Sin, Chin, Sinæ, or China, in
+corruption, perhaps, of the word Tzin--under which dynasty occurred,
+in 250 B.C., the fusion of several petty kingdoms into an organic
+empire; or by the name of Seres if, traversing the longitude of Asia,
+they came by the overland route. Known to the Middle Ages by the name
+of Cathay--corrupted from Kitai, the name by which China is still
+described by Russia and by the races of Central Asia, but which itself
+sprang from the Khitans, the first of the northern dynasties--it
+represented to European commerce of the thirteenth century the
+embodiment of wealth, romance, and mystery; much as its position,
+maintained unchanged through long centuries, had made it the actual
+repository of the records of Central, as well as Southern, Asia.
+
+[Sidenote: Korea, the Middle Kingdom]
+
+Contemporary with the early Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Hebrews,
+and comprising an empire that in 241 B.C. represented as nearly as
+possible the present limits of the Eighteen Provinces, the Middle
+Kingdom has been affected by the great upheavals of the Western world
+as little as she herself has troubled to impress her methods and manner
+of government upon the aboriginal races beyond her borders. Indeed,
+filled with a lofty disdain of the outer barbarians, it was not until
+the chance migration to Korea of some five thousand Chinese under
+Ki-tze, in 1122 B.C., that the ethical, social, and political systems
+in vogue in China were carried further afield. Once transplanted,
+however, the aboriginal life of the cave-dwellers of the peninsula
+gave way before the superior culture of Ki-tze’s followers, and within
+the course of the succeeding thousand years a cluster of independent
+states, fashioned upon the parental model, was firmly established.
+
+Although in the centuries just before the Christian era there was
+a constant interchange of communications with these states of the
+Eastern Peninsula, the classic conservatism of the Middle Kingdom was
+unabated by any expression of curiosity or interest in the welfare of
+the unknown islands. Yet the islanders, confronted with a struggle for
+existence, had risked the perils of many voyages to the neighbouring
+coasts, spreading wonderful stories of their own land and returning
+with ample evidences of the power and importance of the Korean kingdom.
+Unconscious of this intercourse, but by reason of it, China, the tutor
+of Korea, became through the agency of her pupil a determining factor
+in the upward progression of the islanders when, between 290 B.C. and
+215 B.C., in consequence of dynastic difficulties, a steady stream of
+inhabitants from the peninsula passed from the Land of Morning Radiance
+eastwards with the intention of settling on the coasts of Japan, with
+whose inhabitants, in fact, they at once merged.
+
+[Sidenote: Japan at the Dawn of Our Era]
+
+Though at the other end of the pole of human endeavour in comparison
+with the Chinese, and familiar only with the elemental accessories
+to life, the islanders, under the influence of this alien strain, at
+the dawn of our era had emerged from a state of tribal control to
+the recognition of the authority of a single and supreme ruler. Two
+centuries later Japanese arms were strong enough to invade Korea,
+where several victories were gained; but even then the Middle Kingdom
+maintained no communication with the islands of the Yellow Sea, and
+was more or less indifferent to the rise of over-sea relations between
+her vassal and the mariners from the East. It is possible to trace
+to this obliquity in the political vision of the Celestial Empire of
+the day much of the subsequent havoc that the self-same race were to
+inflict upon the coasts of Asia. Impressed with no consideration for
+the interests of the mainland, and troubled by no sense of material
+responsibility, Japanese corsairs harried the Chinese and Korean coasts
+unmercifully, finding in the occupation an outlet for that primitive
+but inherited instinct for aggression that stimulates the race to-day.
+
+Disturbed less by the appearance of an island Power than by a
+confederacy of barbarian clans that, by 1000 A.D., had exerted a
+mastery over Mongolia, Tartary, and Manchuria, and a century later
+served as a menace to the safety of the dynasty itself, the Celestial
+Empire was beset on two sides by enemies who were attracted by the
+prosperity of its people. Unmindful to a great degree of the dangers
+which were accumulating, an instinct for and an interest in trade,
+confirmed by the revelation of the self-supporting character of an
+empire that reached to Cochin-China in one direction and the Pamirs
+in another, prompted the Chinese to neglect the arts of war in their
+preference for the triumphs of peace.
+
+[Sidenote: The Peaceful Path of the Chinese]
+
+Characterised by a capacity for infinite pains, and possessed of
+a complete understanding of the varied resources of agriculture,
+the Chinese insensibly pursued a path leading always in a contrary
+direction to those marked out by Nature for the islanders, as for
+the fierce nomads of the steppe. Thus innately addicted to habits of
+peace, centuries upon centuries of undisturbed prosperity chastened
+natures that were never very warlike; whereas the exact inversion of
+this existence propelled those hordes of Tartars, Huns, Turks, Khitans,
+Kins, Mongols, and Manchus to leave the Far North in a disfiguring
+passage through Asia, and bade the islanders release their sails in
+expeditions against Korea. It was not enough for the founder of the
+Tzin dynasty to fortify his northern frontiers by the construction of
+the Great Wall, or for that great warrior Panchow to drive the Huns
+before him to the Oxus itself, or for the rulers in the long period of
+disunion which unites the fall of the Han dynasty to the rise of the
+Sung to compromise with the leaders of successive rushes of barbarian
+horsemen by matrimonial alliances with their families. The cause lay
+in the foundations of the race itself. Yet, such was the insidious
+character of the land against which these mounted hordes so often flung
+themselves that, although the imminence of attack ultimately became
+a thing with which the Government of China was wont to conjure the
+peaceful, well-contented lower classes and the luxury-loving upper
+classes, the effect of each invasion was dissipated so soon as the
+invaders experienced the subtle blandishments of Chinese civilisation.
+
+[Sidenote: Swift-moving History in Little Known Lands]
+
+Presented with remarkable clearness, we have an array of devastating
+invasions, the one following the other in rapid succession and
+occasionally assuming such dimensions that the operations riveted
+the attention of Europe upon the little-known lands of Asia, which
+in most instances required only the passage of a few centuries for
+the minutest vestige to be obliterated. Thus the Kins, who left no
+trace, displaced the Khitans, equally irrecoverable, and were in turn
+dispossessed by the Mongols, whose wide dominion embraced so much of
+the earth’s surface that in 1227 A.D. the whole of High Asia, from the
+Caspian to Korea, and from the Indus to the Yellow Sea, recognised
+its sway--always excepting the strong but still despised sea-state of
+Japan, whose lusty inhabitants threw back the allied hosts of China,
+Korea, and the Mongol monarch in 1274 and 1281.
+
+Yet if the Mongols, in an effort to wreak their vengeance on the
+Chinese, razed to the ground the cities of the vanquished so that their
+horsemen could ride over their deserted sites without stumbling, none
+the less they earned the acclamations of posterity by the facilities
+that the Mongol domination of Central Asia offered to communications
+between the West and Cathay. Marco Polo was not alone in his knowledge
+of the Court of the Great Khan, although doubtless he was the first
+to visit it. But this liberty of intercourse, existing only by the
+land route to Asia, was measured solely by the duration of the Mongol
+rule; freedom of action along the high-road from West to East stopped
+prematurely when the sway of Islam settled once again over Central
+Asia. Two centuries elapsed before, under the banners of the Manchus,
+bold horsemen of the North, in 1644, flashed once again through the
+plains of China, imposing, by a change of costume and of coiffure,
+perhaps the most striking effect of any that has followed in the train
+of these invasions.
+
+[Sidenote: Opening the Gates of the East]
+
+[Sidenote: Lifting the Veil in Japan]
+
+But if the exclusiveness of the Mohammedan conquerors closed the route
+to Cathay so effectually that for two hundred years nothing more was
+heard of the country, Columbus, Cabot and others set themselves the
+task of opening up communications by water. But it was not Cathay
+that they reached. That was left to the Portuguese Raphael Perestralo
+to accomplish by sailing, in 1511, from Malacca to Canton, and thus
+winning the coveted distinction of first approaching China by sea.
+Fifty years later (1560) the same race succeeded in obtaining a
+settlement at Macao, while the Spaniards gazed with longing eyes from
+their strongholds in the Philippine Islands upon the rich junks
+on the China seas. Such was the effect of these trading visits from
+the West that the Chinese in their turn were emboldened to visit for
+themselves these outlying centres of Western traffic. But it was more
+usually vessels from Japan that were seen, for the Chinese were still
+without any special appetite for Western trade. With the islanders,
+on the other hand, a love of barter, acting on the native instincts
+of a maritime people, caused them to traverse these more distant
+waters; although occasionally the scantiness of the resources in their
+own country moved them, so that they were propelled as much by stern
+necessity as by the lust of war and loot or a passion for trade. At
+first Polynesia, then Malaysia and India were visited. Again, trips
+were made to the remote coasts of Mexico. Still later, a colony founded
+at Goa became the centre of an important trading connection throughout
+the Indian hemisphere. In these voyages we see the attractive influence
+exercised by the Pacific and the Indian Oceans on an island people,
+who, fitted by temperament no less than by position, played in Eastern
+waters the rôle filled by the Elizabethan explorers on the coasts of
+the New World.
+
+[Sidenote: Raising the Curtain]
+
+As yet the distinctive call of the East had been heard only along the
+byways of Turkestan, and even those who had responded had ventured no
+further than the provinces of Cathay. Thus the isles of the Yellow Sea
+were to the Western mariner at the dawn of the sixteenth century as
+much a terra incognita as the Arctic and Antarctic regions are to the
+sailor of to-day. The spectacle of Japanese junks sailing gaily across
+the heaving waters of the Spanish Main and rounding the heel of India
+aroused the interest of the Western traders, who at once embarked for
+the fortunate lands of the East, arranging relations there even before
+they had been welcomed by the Chinese.
+
+With the arrival of Portuguese traders off Japan in 1542, a curtain was
+raised which was never quite to descend. In the interval a commercial
+entrepôt was established on the island of Hirado, and an intercourse
+set afoot that encouraged a visit from a Spanish squadron towards the
+close of the sixteenth century. This visit was returned in 1602 by
+the despatch of a ceremonial embassy to the Governor-General of the
+Philippines.
+
+[Sidenote: Untold Wealth of Asia]
+
+Throughout the first half of that century Japan continued to attract
+the adventurous, and the Dutch now followed in the wake of the
+Portuguese and Spanish ships. The reception of the bold spirits was
+unequal, and in 1624 all foreigners except the Dutch and the English
+were banished. By 1641 no traders were allowed but Dutch, who, in spite
+of being restricted to the island of Deshima, enjoyed a monopoly of the
+trade with Japan until 1867. In the meantime, abroad, rumours of the
+untold wealth of Asia had brought the Indies, together with Cathay and
+Japan, into distinct prominence. Under the Chinese Emperor Kien-Lung,
+whose reign of sixty years, 1735-1795, was remarkable for its conquests
+and successful administration, commercial intercourse with the West
+was regularised, and the founding of recognised trading settlements
+on the China coast ended the era of furtive attempts to open trade
+relations with this exclusive people. From these early trading stations
+have sprung the several commercial capitals that now grace the China
+coast. Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, Tientsin, and Newchang are the
+links existing to-day between the magnificence of the merchant princes
+and the sway of the “John Company.” Of course conditions are now much
+altered, yet the memories of the past find a very splendid setting
+in the size, dignity, and importance of the modern treaty ports.
+Although the Far East was already manifesting its powers of holding the
+attention of the civilised world, the centres of interest there were
+concerned for many years solely with the kingdoms of China and Japan.
+
+[Illustration: CALM IN THE FAR EAST: THE SETTING OF THE SUN IN THE
+MONGOLIAN DESERT]
+
+[Sidenote: China on the Western Horizon]
+
+Australasia was a great unknown when the high latitudes of Asia were
+the fount of many conquering races. Obviously, therefore, the magnet
+of acquisitiveness pointed to the value of investigating the bleak
+northern steppes. Once started, the Pacific and the Amur were reached
+within eighty years under the impetus of an unrelenting progress which
+swept from west to east across the regions of North Asia. Begun at
+the instigation of Stroganoff, who pushed the hesitating footsteps of
+Yermak across the Urals in 1580, by 1584 this gallant freebooter was
+offering to Ivan IV. with no uncertain voice the wide dominions of
+Siberia as the price of pardon. Khan after khan was unseated, tribe
+after tribe dispossessed, for neither Tartar nor Turk, Buriat nor
+Tunguse, could offer effective resistance to the Cossacks from the
+Don. In the end this all-conquering advance was stayed by the Chinese,
+who, in the treaty of Nertchinsk, 1689, contracted their first formal
+convention with a foreign Power. For nearly two centuries Russia
+faithfully observed the terms of this engagement, apprehensive of
+endangering the Kiachta trade if she continued her encroachments upon
+Manchu territory. By this action the trade of China, which has now made
+the problem of the Far East of dominating importance, became of more
+than passing interest to a Western Government. As generations passed,
+however, the advance of Russia, to the Pacific in one direction, and
+in search of a warm-water harbour in another, was resumed. First
+Eastern Siberia and then Northern Manchuria were added to her Asiatic
+satrapy, and the Amur ceased to be the containing line. Ultimately her
+frontier rested on the ocean to the north, the east, and the south;
+Vladivostock, Port Arthur, Harbin, and Mukden becoming the centres from
+which her Far Eastern dominions were administered.
+
+[Sidenote: The English Find Australia]
+
+The spirit of adventure, now inspiring all ranks of society as well as
+most of the civilised races of the world, was by no means satisfied by
+territorial conquest. The wide dominions of the sea, as yet untraced
+and all unknown, embraced an empire which appealed as strikingly to the
+sympathies of geographers as did the prospects of Far Eastern trade to
+the feelings of the East India merchants. Much the same ceaseless quest
+carried the Cossack Dejneff, in 1648, round the north-eastern extremity
+of Asia; Torres, a Spaniard commissioned by the Spanish Government
+of Peru, in 1606 negotiated the strait between New Guinea and the
+mainland; and various Dutch expeditions in 1606, 1616, 1618, 1627 and
+1642 endured the dangers of the reef-bound coasts. But it was not until
+1688 that the English first made their appearance on the Australian
+coast. In some measure the situation was awaiting the man. The
+voyages of Captain Cook (1769-1777) took up the work of geographical
+exploration in the Southern Hemisphere in a style quite befitting the
+records already elsewhere accomplished.
+
+[Sidenote: Pacific and the Destinies of Peoples]
+
+If between the continent of Australia and the coasts of China to-day
+there is only a commercial connection, it must not be forgotten that
+Australia is closely identified with the Polynesian races, who in
+turn are related to the early Japanese. New Zealand, Australia, New
+Caledonia, and New Guinea, as parts of one and the same continent,
+which now in many places has disappeared beneath the sea, present an
+ethnographic study of unusual importance and interest. In few other
+parts of the world is so great an ethnographic variation imposed upon a
+single connecting racial family as in the island divisions of the South
+Seas--Australasia, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. It is by the
+existence of this underlying relationship that the Indo-Pacific races,
+whatever their specific origin, undoubtedly link up two hemispheres
+which organically are widely separated. By the abruptly disintegrated
+character of existing racial location, however, it is possible to read
+the impression made by the Pacific Ocean on the history of the world.
+If oceanic influences are represented in other ways to-day, and tribal
+migrations in a body are occurrences of the past, the necessities
+of the age still make such heavy demands on what is, after all, the
+immemorial highway of mankind that the Pacific can still be said to
+mould the destinies of races to-day as easily as it has obliterated
+them in the past.
+
+[Sidenote: What will Happen To-morrow?]
+
+Turning to Asia, although the Empires of Russia in Siberia and of
+China have worked out their destinies independently of the Pacific,
+remaining unaffected by it more than all other Eastern states, the
+part that the Pacific has played in the development of Asia since the
+eighteenth century cannot go unnoticed. Japan, in particular, has
+profited by the readiness of communication that the ocean provides to
+rise above prejudices which are usually inseparable from an island
+people and are pre-eminently to be expected among Asiatics. In China
+the absence of any prominent dependence on the sea, either for food
+or means of transport, has produced in very sinister form an aversion
+against the West. None the less, under pressure from the Occident,
+and without regarding the example set by Japan, the Celestial Empire
+has permitted much commercial encroachment. Succeeding the galleons
+of the buccaneers have come the stately traders of the merchant
+princes of Europe and America, and these in turn have given place to
+the steamers of industrial trusts, exacting as large a tribute as the
+earliest marauders. While the consequences of industrial expansion
+among Oriental people have made the Pacific the focus of much restless
+energy, Japan, now as great a Power on land as formerly she was, and
+is, at sea, has developed an intelligence that has made her pre-eminent
+among the trading nations of the East. Undeterred by exertion, unmoved
+by expenditure, Japan has displaced the carrying trade of the Pacific
+by her fearless invasion of Western markets. Throughout the isles of
+the Southern Seas, and up and down the face of the Pacific slope,
+the islanders have swarmed, filling the lands of their passage with
+unaccustomed energy.
+
+Looking back, then, at the conditions of Asia in the eighteenth and
+nineteenth centuries, and comparing them with those existing to-day,
+it will be noticed that a wide gulf still separates Japan from China
+in the twentieth century as it formerly separated China from the rest
+of the Far East. On the one side there is China, now emerging from
+revolution; on the other there is Japan, voicing the regeneration of
+Asia with raucous tones.
+
+[Sidenote: China Thirty years Hence]
+
+Meanwhile the vast interests of the Occident in the Orient are united
+with either power by frequent political intercourse and a traffic which
+has given to the Pacific priority of place in the battle for commercial
+supremacy. Yet while China is commercially independent of the West,
+and Japan dependent upon it, all branches of foreign industry cannot
+but view with alarm the increasing aggressiveness of the spirit of
+independence now inspiring Asia at the prompting of Japan. Obviously
+these signs are the indication of an approaching cleavage between East
+and West, which, when fully attained, will bear witness to the complete
+severance of the shackles hitherto enthralling Asia to the interests
+and purposes of the West. It must not be forgotten that Japan already
+has achieved her complete regeneration. Thirty years hence China, no
+doubt, will have followed suit, when a federacy of the Far Eastern
+Powers may become an accomplished fact. Even at this moment such a
+union is possible, and its realisation would impose upon all European
+Governments the immediate revision of their Asiatic policies.
+
+At this time such a combination is hampered only by the unwillingness
+of China to accept the suggestions of Japan in anything affecting the
+policy of Asia, although, in spite of this objection, active reforming
+influences are gradually effecting important changes throughout the
+Chinese Empire. For the moment, therefore, Japan is content to tread
+alone the path she has marked out, encouraging her subjects by example
+to exploit Asia for the Asiatics, and to secure recognition of the
+doctrine of equality between the white and Asiatic races.
+
+If the full significance of this movement is not yet discernible,
+there is enough evidence to show that the problem will rank among the
+greatest that the politics of the twentieth century can disclose. Not
+only one part of the civilised globe will be affected by the rise of
+a dominant Asia, for the whole world will be confronted equally with
+the necessity of resisting whatever indications may appear. If it is
+difficult to devise an arrangement short of total exclusion that does
+not admit an annual influx of a large number of Japanese, Chinese,
+Korean, or Indian immigrants into the lands affected by this invasion,
+it is at least tolerably certain that if the existing flow of Asiatics
+across the Pacific to America and Australasia continues unabated for
+a further decade, the areas now menaced will be inhabited by a white
+minority.
+
+[Sidenote: Problem of the Century]
+
+It appears evident that the continuation of the Far East under existing
+conditions is doubtful, if not impossible, in view of the awakening
+of Asia and the visible prejudices that Western democracy entertains
+against the Asiatic. Yet if the clash of conflicting interests
+ultimately precipitates a struggle between the two great racial
+divisions of the world, there can be no doubt that the moral teachings
+of humanity will be discredited.
+
+ ANGUS HAMILTON
+
+
+
+
+ +---------------------------------------------------+
+ | GREAT DATES IN THE HISTORY OF JAPAN |
+ +------+--------------------------------------------+
+ |=B.C.=| =To 500 A.D.= |
+ | =660=| Supposed foundation of the Japanese |
+ | | Empire by Jimmu |
+ | | |
+ |=A.D.=| |
+ | =3=| Emperor Suinin flourished. Abolition |
+ | | of the practice of burying retainers |
+ | | alive on the master’s death |
+ | =59=| Reputed Korean immigration |
+ | =125=| Legendary hero Yamato Daké |
+ | | flourished |
+ | =202=| Reputed conquests in Korea by Empress |
+ | | Jingō Kōgō |
+ | =397=| Probable introduction of Chinese |
+ | | civilisation, through Korea |
+ | | |
+ | | =500-1000= |
+ | =552=| Introduction of Buddhism |
+ | =645=| The Taikwa Laws of Kōtōku |
+ | =675=| Encouragement of Buddhism by Temmu |
+ | =689=| The Laws reduced to a written code |
+ | =750=| Development of the Samurai class |
+ | =782=| Emperor Kwammu |
+ | =800=| Fusion of Shintō with Buddhism by |
+ | | Kōbō Daishi |
+ | =889=| High offices become hereditary in the |
+ | | Fujiwara family |
+ | | |
+ | | =1000-1500= |
+ |=1155=| Wars of the Taira and Minamoto |
+ | | clans |
+ |=1186=| Victory of the Minamoto |
+ |=1192=| The Minamoto Shogunate established |
+ | | Japanese feudal system |
+ |=1220=| Supremacy of the Hōjō family |
+ |=1275=| Attempt of Kublai Khan to invade |
+ | | Japan |
+ |=1281=| Destruction of the Chinese (Mongol) |
+ | | Armada |
+ |=1333=| Ashikaga revolt and overthrow of the |
+ | | Hōjō |
+ |=1337=|Rival Mikados of the North and South |
+ | | for fifty-five years |
+ | | |
+ | | =1500-1800= |
+ |=1543=| First appearance of Europeans |
+ | | (Portuguese) in Japan |
+ |=1549=| Francis Xavier attempts to introduce |
+ | | Christianity |
+ |=1574=| Overthrow of Ashikaga by Nobunaga |
+ |=1581=| Rapid development of Christianity |
+ |=1582=| Death of Nobunaga. Supremacy of his |
+ | | general Hideyoshi (Taikō Sama) |
+ |=1583=| Envoys sent from feudal lords to the |
+ | | Pope |
+ |=1592=| Hideyoshi’s invasion of Korea |
+ |=1598=| Death of Hideyoshi. Accession to |
+ | | power of Iyeyasu |
+ |=1606=| Prohibition of Christianity |
+ |=1615=| Restoration of Minamoto Shōgunate |
+ |=1617=| Foreign trade limited to two ports |
+ |=1621=| Japanese prohibited from foreign travel |
+ |=1624=| Decree of expulsion against all foreigners |
+ | | except Dutch and Chinese |
+ |=1637=| Peasant and Christian revolt |
+ |=1641=| Dutch and Chinese restricted to Nagasaki |
+ |=1694=| Development of trade-guilds |
+ |=1792=| Russian squadron visits Japanese coast |
+ +------+--------------------------------------------+
+ | | |
+ | | =1800-1867= |
+ |=1804=| Russia attempts unsuccessfully to open |
+ | | relations with Japan |
+ |=1818=| Captain Gordon at Yedo Bay |
+ |=1844=| Holland makes proposals for extension |
+ | | of trade |
+ |=1848=| Visit of American and French warships |
+ | | to Japanese waters |
+ |=1853=| Commodore Perry in Yedo Bay |
+ |=1854=| First Japanese Treaty with a Western |
+ | | Power (U.S.A.) in March. First Treaty |
+ | | with Great Britain in October |
+ |=1855=| Russian Treaty |
+ |=1856=| Dutch Treaty |
+ |=1859=| Readmission of Christian missionaries |
+ |=1861=| Attack on British Legation |
+ |=1862=| Murder of Mr. Richardson |
+ | | Japanese Embassy to the Treaty Powers |
+ |=1863=| Bombardment of Kago-shima by British |
+ |=1864=| Bombardment of Shimonoseki by |
+ | | international squadron |
+ | | Contest and reconciliation of the two |
+ | | great clans (Sats-cho) |
+ |=1866=| Kei-ki, last Shōgun |
+ | | New Conventions with Western Powers |
+ |=1867= Accession of Mutsu-hito as Mikado |
+ | | Appointment of Europeans: French |
+ | | military and British naval instructors |
+ | | Resignation of Shōgun Kei-ki |
+ | | |
+ | | =1868-1907= |
+ |=1868=| Restoration of imperial power |
+ |=1869=| The Emperor takes up residence at |
+ | | Yedo, re-named Tokio. Emperor’s |
+ | | “charter” oath |
+ | | The Daimiyo surrender feudal rights |
+ |=1871=| Feudalism abolished |
+ |=1872=| Establishment of religious toleration |
+ |=1873=| Adoption of Gregorian Calendar |
+ | | Universal Military Service |
+ |=1874=| Saga rebellion. Formosan expedition |
+ |=1875=| Saghalin exchanged for Kuriles |
+ |=1876=| Korean Treaty |
+ |=1877=| Revolt and death of Saigo |
+ |=1879=| Annexation of Riu-Kiu Islands |
+ |=1889=| Promulgation of the Constitution. |
+ | | Establishment of local self-government. |
+ | | Anti-foreign reaction |
+ |=1890=| First Imperial Parliament. New civil |
+ | | and commercial codes |
+ |=1894=| War with China |
+ |=1895=| Victory over China. Formosa annexed |
+ |=1897=| Revised customs tariff. Gold standard. |
+ | | Freedom of Press and public meetings |
+ |=1899=| New Treaties on terms of equality. |
+ | | Opening of the whole country |
+ |=1900=| Expedition against Boxers in China |
+ |=1902=| Anglo-Japanese agreement |
+ |=1904=| War with Russia |
+ |=1905=| Victory over Russia. Japan obtains |
+ | | Port Arthur, S. Saghalin, control of |
+ | | S. Manchuria, and protectorate of |
+ | | Korea |
+ | | Anglo-Japanese alliance |
+ |=1907=| Franco-Japanese Agreement |
+ | | Russo-Japanese Convention |
+ |=1910=| Korea annexed |
+ |=1911=| Anglo-Japanese Agreement |
+ +------+--------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: JAPAN]
+
+THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE
+
+BY ARTHUR DIOSY
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPIRE OF THE EASTERN SEAS
+
+
+[Sidenote: Length and Breadth of Great Japan]
+
+Asia’s furthest outpost towards the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean,
+a long, narrow chain of rocky, volcanic islands, extends north-east to
+south-west along the eastern coast of the mainland, separated from it
+by the Sea of Japan and the China Seas. A glance at the map shows this
+long string of more than three thousand islands and islets, stretching
+from 51°5′, the latitude of Shumo-shu, the most northern of the Kurile
+group of islands, down to 21°48′, the latitude of the South Cape of
+Formosa, a total length of nearly thirty degrees. Its component parts
+extend from 157°10′ east longitude, at Shumo-shu, as far westwards as
+119°20′, the position of the extreme western islets of the Pescadores,
+or Hokoto, archipelago, a distance of nearly thirty-eight degrees, the
+total breadth of the Empire of Dai Nippon--Great Japan.
+
+The enormous length of the island empire, the configuration of which is
+likened by the Japanese to the slender body of a dragon-fly, provides
+a great variety of climate, from the Arctic rigour of the Kurile
+Islands and the Siberian climate, with its long and terrible winter
+and its short but fierce summer, obtaining in the larger northern
+islands, to the sweltering, steamy heat of Formosa, the tropic of
+Cancer passing through that island and through the Pescadores. These
+extreme temperatures apart--and they prevail only at the ends of the
+empire--Japan possesses a temperate climate, similar to that of the
+northern shores of the Mediterranean, but colder in winter and much
+damper, the excessive humidity causing both heat and cold to be very
+trying, though never dangerous. The rainfall is especially heavy in
+June and in September, but no month is entirely without rain. The
+hottest period of the year is called dō-yō, corresponding to our
+“dog-days,” and follows the rainy season of June and early July.
+
+[Sidenote: What Japan Owes to its Position]
+
+Japan owes its great humidity, the consequent fertility of such parts
+of its surface as are cultivable--about 84·3 per cent. of the whole
+area of Japan proper is too rocky to yield food for man--and the
+luxuriant verdure that clothes the lower slopes of its wooded hills, to
+its insular position, and, chiefly, to two great factors, a current and
+a wind. The great warm current known as the Kuro-shio, the Black Brine,
+or Black Tide, flowing from the tropical region between the Philippines
+and Formosa, raises the temperature of the east coast, and, where it is
+in part deflected by contact with the southern coast of Kiū-shū, also
+of the west coast, acting in the same beneficent manner as the Gulf
+Stream of the Atlantic. The wind that affects the Japanese climate
+most strongly is the north-east monsoon, tempered by the action of the
+dark, warm, ocean current.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Keystone View Co.
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE INLAND SEA, THE LOVELIEST SHEET OF WATER IN JAPAN
+
+ Studded with hundreds of islands, every part of the Inland Sea of
+ Japan, stretching 240 miles in length, and widening once to 40
+ miles, offers an enchanting prospect. The islands occur often in
+ clusters, giving the appearance of lakes.
+]
+
+The geographical position of Japan has had great influence on the
+history of its people, and clearly indicates the supremely important
+part the empire is destined to play in the future development of the
+Far East. Its insular character has preserved it from invasion--it is
+the proud and legitimate boast of the Japanese that no foe has, within
+historical times, trodden Japanese soil for more than a few hours--and
+whilst it rendered possible the seclusion in which the nation lived for
+more than two centuries, developing, undisturbed, a high civilisation
+of its own, the basis of many of the qualities displayed by the
+Japanese in our day, it has been, in recent times, the cause of Japan’s
+real might in the world--her sea-power, naval and commercial.
+
+The map shows the four principal islands of Japan Proper: HON-SHŪ,
+or Hon-dō--“Principal Circuit,” the largest island of Japan,
+commonly called Nippon, really the name of the whole empire, meaning
+“Sun-origin,” equivalent to Sunrise Land; KIŪ-SHŪ, or Nine Provinces;
+SHI-KOKU, or Four States; and the great northern island of YEZO, the
+second in size, officially termed Hok-kai-dō--“North Sea Circuit.”
+
+The four islands extend, opposite the mainland, from the coast
+of the Russian Maritime Province, on the north-west, down to the
+southern extremity of the Korean peninsula, on the south-west. North
+of Yezo, facing the mouth of the great River Amur, the long, narrow
+island of Saghalin--Karafuto, in Japanese--belongs partly to Russia,
+partly to Japan, its southern districts, up to the fiftieth degree
+of latitude, being ceded to the victors by Article IX. of the Treaty
+of Portsmouth (1905). Separating these islands, important channels
+afford communication between the Sea of Japan and the Pacific. The
+Gulf of Tartary divides Saghalin from the mainland, whilst the Strait
+of La Pérouse, or Strait of Tsugaru, separates the island from Yezo.
+The Straits of Korea, between that empire, now under the protectorate
+of Japan, and the main island, Hon-shū, or Nippon, are the way of
+communication joining the Sea of Japan and the eastern part of the
+China Sea, the straits being divided into three channels by the island
+of Iki and by those of Tsu-shima, a name rendered for ever glorious
+by Togo’s great victory on May 27th, 1905. The various straits are
+sufficiently narrow to be easily closed to an enemy by Japan’s splendid
+fleet.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Keystone View Co.
+
+A CRATER WITH EIGHTY VILLAGES, IN WHICH TWENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE LIVE
+
+ Twenty thousand people live in eighty villages in the outer crater
+ of Aso-san, probably the largest crater on earth, competing, says
+ Professor Milne, with some of the great craters of the moon. The
+ crater of Aso-san is from 10 to 14 miles across, and its wall is
+ everywhere 2,000 feet high, the highest peak being Taka-dake, 5,630
+ feet.
+]
+
+Although Japan has remained immune from invasion throughout historical
+time, its proximity to the mainland, and especially to the Korean
+peninsula, led, in prehistoric ages, to its receiving from the
+continent an influx of immigrants who gradually conquered the
+insular natives, and whose descendants probably form the main stock
+of the present Japanese race. It was this proximity that brought the
+civilisation of China into Japan, in the first instance through Korea;
+the same route was followed by another mighty invasion of foreign
+thought, the introduction of Buddhism.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Keystone View Co.
+
+HAKONÉ LAKE AND THE GATEWAY TO THE INARI TEMPLE IN KIŌTO
+
+ Hakoné Lake, the top picture, is a delightful summer resort. The
+ bottom picture, the avenue of Torii (portals), forming the entrance
+ to a Shintō Temple at Kiōto, is a wonderful sight. There are over
+ 400 Torii, arranged in two colonnades.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Keystone View Co.
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE BUSY NAGOYA CANAL AND OF THE PARK AT KUMAMOTO
+
+ Nagoya is one of the great manufacturing cities of Japan, and a
+ busy canal links the city with the port of Yokkaichi. The park of
+ Suizenji, in Kumamoto, is a beautiful example of Japanese landscape
+ gardening.
+]
+
+No country has been better fashioned by Nature for the acquirement
+of sea-power than the Island Empire of the Rising Sun. Its enormous
+extent of coast-line, with countless indentations, especially numerous
+on the south-eastern coasts of Hon-shū, Shi-koku, and Kiū-shū, its
+many excellent harbours, naturally fortified by reason of the narrow
+entrances to the gulfs in which they are situated--for example:
+Nagasaki, in Kiū-shū, the naval stations at Sasebo, in the same island,
+Kure, in the Inland Sea, and Yoko-suka, near Tōkio Bay--and, above all,
+the excellence of its seafaring population, supply the elements that
+give Japan the mastery in Far Eastern waters.
+
+[Sidenote: Seafaring Qualities of Japanese]
+
+In the thousands of hamlets nestling in the bays, large and small,
+and creeks of the Japanese islands, dwells a hardy race of fishermen,
+inured to peril and fatigue, men of brawny strength and indomitable
+pluck, frugal and enduring, as fine material for the manning of
+warships and trading craft as the world has ever known. The persistence
+of those seafaring qualities which the Japanese owe chiefly to the
+natural advantages of their island home--partly, no doubt, to a
+strain of the blood of Malay sea-rovers, perhaps also of Polynesian
+canoe-men--is a remarkable phenomenon. In olden times they were
+bold seafarers, roaming as far as the Philippines and the coast of
+Indo-China. The waters of Formosa and of Siam were the scene of their
+piratical exploits, for, like all nations destined to be great at sea,
+they passed through a period when the spirit of adventure, as much as
+the lust for spoil, made them into daring sea-robbers.
+
+But, with the closing of Japan to foreign intercourse--save on a
+strictly limited scale--early in the seventeenth century, came the
+enactment of laws devised to prevent the Japanese from visiting foreign
+parts; the tonnage and build of ships were fixed by these decrees in
+such a manner that only fishing and coasting trips were thenceforward
+possible. This prohibition lasted for two centuries and a half; yet, on
+its removal, the germ of the seafaring qualities, supposed to have died
+out, was found to have been only in a state of suspended animation; it
+revived with surprising rapidity. In less than a quarter of a century
+it produced a naval _personnel_ capable of manning a highly efficient
+fleet of thirty-three sea-going fighting-ships; in ten years more the
+amazed world recognised Japan’s Navy as the triumphant victor in the
+greatest battle since Trafalgar, and coupled Admiral Togo’s name with
+that of Nelson.
+
+[Sidenote: The Sea as Japan’s Friend]
+
+The sea has, indeed, ever been Japan’s friend; to this day it supports
+a large number of the population, and, in a sense, it may be said to
+keep the whole nation alive, as the fish that teem in Japanese waters
+supply a considerable part of the people’s food. Every marine product
+available as nutriment is utilised, even seaweed of various kinds
+being largely used as food. Fishing seems to have been practised from
+the earliest times; it is probably in recognition of its antiquity
+and national importance that the Japanese of our day still affix to
+any gift a strip of dried seaweed, passed through a piece of paper
+peculiarly folded, the idea they thus symbolise being, it is said:
+“This is but a trumpery present, but it comes from a cheerful giver; be
+pleased to take it as it is meant. Remember our forefathers were poor
+fisherfolk; this strip of seaweed is to remind you that poverty is no
+crime.”
+
+[Sidenote: Japan’s Beautiful Scenery]
+
+There are many other customs connected with the harvest of the sea, and
+innumerable legends and folk-tales wherein the chief part is played by
+some marine spirit or by a visitor--deity or mortal--to the mysterious
+realms of the deep. And deep it is, for, off the eastern coast of
+Northern Japan, the sea-bed falls abruptly to a depression--the
+famous Tuscarora Deep, called after the United States warship of that
+name--of 4,655 fathoms, nearly 28,000 ft., or more than five miles,
+probably the deepest sea-bed in the world. The encircling sea forms
+an important part of most of the beautiful pictures the scenery of
+Japan offers to the delighted eye. Whether the waves dash tumultuously
+against the precipitous rocks of the south-eastern side of the main
+islands, especially of Shi-koku and Kiū-shū; whether the waters dance
+in the sunshine in the countless bays and creeks of those coasts
+where the frequency of the shelter afforded to fishing-craft led to
+an earlier and more dense settlement than on the north-west coast of
+Hon-shū; whether the far-famed Inland Sea shines like a mirror under
+the moonbeams, or the Sea of Japan tosses its grey billows or spreads a
+sullen expanse under the pall of fog caused by the meeting of warm and
+cold currents--in all its moods the ocean forms part of nearly all the
+grandest scenery of Japan.
+
+[Illustration: SCENES IN JAPAN AFTER AN EARTHQUAKE
+
+ There is at least one shock of earthquake every day in Japan; there
+ are 500 shocks in a year. As late as 1891 an earthquake wrecked two
+ populous towns and destroyed two smaller ones. These photographs
+ show the havoc of such earthquakes.
+]
+
+[Illustration: YOKOHAMA: THE TOWN AND HARBOUR IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE
+GREAT CHANGE]
+
+[Illustration: OLD TŌKIO: THE CITY OF YEDO, SEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
+THE SHŌGUNS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS
+
+ The “Japan Bridge,” one of the striking features of the capital of
+ Old Japan, was regarded as the centre of the empire, and from it
+ all distances were measured.
+]
+
+The “Three Views,” known to every Japanese man, woman and child,
+for they are portrayed in countless pictorial representations, are
+sea-scapes. The 808 islets of Matsu-shima, with the thousand trees from
+which the group derives its name of Pine Islands, are the glory of the
+province of Sen-dai, in Northern Hon-shū; the hoary tori-i, or gateway,
+of the great Shin-tō temple at the sacred island of Miya-jima,
+or Itsuku-shima--so holy that no birth nor death may take place on
+the island, and no dog is allowed there--stands firmly amidst the
+very waves of the Inland Sea; Ama-no Hashidaté, the “Sacred Bridge,”
+stretches its slender two-mile length of sandy spit, only 190 ft.
+broad--crowned, all along, with an avenue of pine-trees--into the blue
+waters of the gulf of Miya-zu, in the Sea of Japan.
+
+The so-called Inland Sea, 240 miles long from its narrow western
+entrance, only one mile across, between Shimo-no-seki on the main
+island and Mo-ji, the busy colliery port in Kiū-Shū to its eastern
+extremity, where it joins the open sea through the Aka-shi and Naru-to
+Straits--it widens to forty miles where the Bungo Channel divides
+Shi-koku from Kiū-shū--is perhaps the most lovely sheet of salt water
+in the world. Studded with many hundreds of islands, every part of
+its expanse offers an enchanting prospect, the islets being often in
+clusters, making many stretches appear like lakes.
+
+Water enters into the beauty of every Japanese landscape; districts
+remote from the sea have their lakes and rivers--generally short,
+swiftly-flowing streams, almost, sometimes quite, dry in summer,
+exposing beds of pebbles, but rushing torrents in the wet season.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Keystone View Co.
+
+MODERN YOKOHAMA: THE HARBOUR, SEEN FROM THE HEIGHTS OF THE TOWN]
+
+Biwa is the largest lake in Japan, and far-famed for its scenery;
+its area is about the same as that of the Lake of Geneva, and it is
+nearly as beautiful. Lake Chū-zen-ji, or Chū-gū-shi, is surrounded by
+luxuriant verdure at an altitude of 4,375 ft. above sea-level, and
+is surpassed in beauty by the smaller Lake Yumoto, higher up, in the
+sulphur-springs region, 5,000 ft. above the sea. There are many other
+lovely lakes in Japan, Lake Hakoné amongst them. Those just mentioned
+are singled out because they lie in the mountainous district round
+Nikkō, a region on the main islands, to the north of Tōkio, presenting,
+in their greatest beauty, characteristic features of Japanese inland
+scenery--imposing mountains, stately, venerable trees, and grand
+waterfalls comparable to those of Norway. The aspect of the Japanese
+islands is, as may be inferred, diversified, stern and rugged amidst
+the dark forests of the north, smiling in the sunlit regions further
+south, beautiful almost everywhere.
+
+[Illustration: OVERLOOKING MODERN TŌKIO, THE CAPITAL OF JAPAN]
+
+[Illustration: Looking over the Bay of 808 Islands]
+
+[Illustration: Sunset among the pine-clad rocks]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ A natural arch The White Co.
+
+SCENES IN MATSUSHIMA BAY, JAPAN]
+
+The land is chiefly mountainous, the ranges running from south-west
+to north-east, interspersed with smiling valleys, fertile plains,
+chequered into regular squares by the narrow, raised embankments
+dividing the rice-fields, with, here and there, wild, desolate moors
+in places where even the untiring industry and agricultural skill of
+the people could not induce the stubborn ground to yield sustenance.
+Where anything useful can possibly be made to grow, the Japanese grow
+it. Beside plants of utility, they grow, to a greater extent than in
+any other land, plants intended only for pleasure, for the delight they
+give the Japanese eye by their beauty.
+
+In no other country are flowers so reverently admired as in Japan;
+nowhere are they more skilfully grown and tended. Every month has a
+special blossom, and what may be termed its flower festival, when the
+people, high and low, rich and poor, go in their tens of thousands
+to seek happiness in the contemplation of Nature’s most delicate
+productions. The plum-blossom appears about a month after the New Year,
+and is followed by the far-famed cherry-flower early in April, when,
+in many ancient groves and on many hillsides, the lightest of delicate
+clouds, faintly pink, seem to have settled on the trees.
+
+No words can do justice to the exquisite beauty of Japan in
+cherry-blossom time; it is then easily to be understood how dear the
+flower of the cherry is to the Japanese heart. To the people of Great
+Japan it is the emblem of patriotism and of chivalry, sharing their
+affections with the chrysanthemum, the badge of the empire. Other
+flowers grown to wonderful perfection are the peony, symbolical of
+valour; the graceful wistaria, the glowing azalea, the slim-stalked
+iris, the convolvulus, or “morning-glory,” in many strange forms, and
+the lotus, the sacred flower of Buddhism. Besides these and other
+cultivated flowers, Japan possesses wild blossoms galore that fleck
+its plains and valleys with colour. The leaves of the maple turn, in
+November, to hues of crimson and gold, clothing the woods with a glory
+to be equalled only in Canada.
+
+The natural, beauty of Japan has undoubtedly fostered the æsthetic
+taste inborn with the Japanese of all classes. High and low, they
+admire and enjoy intensely the lovely scenes amidst which they
+dwell. This admiration and enjoyment are strong incentives to their
+patriotism. It seems to them that their beautiful country must indeed
+be _Kami-no-Kuni_, “the Land of the Gods.” To travelled Occidentals,
+the scenery of Japan suggests, in places, the Norwegian fjords; in
+others, the smiling shores of the Italian lakes; at some points the
+coves of Devonshire, the rocky coasts of the Channel Islands, or the
+pleasant hills of Surrey. That these impressions are correct is proved
+by the fact that Japanese travellers who visit any of these places
+never fail to recognise their similarity to some favourite spot in
+Japan.
+
+The “backbone” of the southern half of the main island and of the whole
+island of Shikoku consists of rock, principally primitive gneiss and
+schists; Kiū-shū, Yezo and the northern half of the main island are
+partly, the Kurile islands--Chishima--entirely, volcanic. Subterranean
+fires still smoulder in many parts of Japan, many of the mountains
+being volcanoes, not all of them extinct. Fuji, the glorious cone so
+dear to the Japanese heart, uplifting its peak 12,365 ft. from the
+surrounding plain, is a volcano that erupted last in January, 1708.
+Fifty-one volcanoes, such as Asama and Bandai-san in Eastern Japan,
+Aso-san in Kiū-shū, Koma-ga-také in Yezo, have been active in recent
+years, some of them, especially Bandai-san, with disastrous results.
+Nor do only volcanoes threaten danger to the inhabitants of Japan:
+earthquakes are frequent--about 500 shocks yearly--and sometimes
+appallingly destructive of life and property.
+
+The great earthquake in the Gifu region, in the central provinces
+of the main island, on October 28th, 1891, wrecked two populous
+towns--Gifu and Ōgaki--completely destroyed two smaller ones--Kasamatsu
+and Takegahana--killed about ten thousand people, and caused more or
+less severe wounds to nearly twenty thousand. In Japanese earthquakes,
+a great part of the destruction arises from the innumerable fires
+that break out when the flimsy houses--mostly of wood, with paper
+partitions, in sliding frames, between the rooms--collapse through the
+shock, scattering the glowing charcoal from the kitchens amidst heaps
+of highly inflammable materials. Earth-tremors bring not only fiery
+ruin in their train; they cause at times upheavals of the sea that work
+stupendous havoc. On the evening of June 15th, 1896, the north-eastern
+coasts of the main island were overwhelmed by a so-called “tidal wave.”
+The sea, impelled probably by a seismic convulsion on the bed of the
+Northern Pacific, rose in a wave of towering height and, rushing inland
+with terrific speed, engulfed whole districts. More than 28,000 lives
+were lost, and more than 17,000 people were injured.
+
+[Illustration: Sea-girt gateway of Miya-ima, a famous Shintō shrine
+
+The Sacred Bridge at Nikko
+
+ The White Co.
+
+View of Fuji-yama across Motosu
+
+THREE FAMOUS SCENES IN JAPAN]
+
+[Illustration: THE CEMETERY HILL AT NAGASAKI BEFORE THE MODERN
+EXPANSION OF THE TOWN]
+
+[Illustration: THE CRATER OF FUJI, THE MOST GLORIOUS MOUNTAIN OF JAPAN,
+MORE THAN TWO MILES HIGH
+
+ Japan has fifty volcanoes that have been active in recent years;
+ this picture shows the crater of the most famous mountain in the
+ island empire. Fuji, the cone so dear to the Japanese heart,
+ uplifts its peak 12,365 feet from the plain. It has not erupted
+ since the beginning of 1708. No other natural feature in Japan
+ comes so often into its pictures as Fuji.
+]
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE ISLAND EMPIRE OF JAPAN]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: JAPAN AND ITS PEOPLE--II
+
+ARTHUR DIÓSY]
+
+QUALITIES OF THE JAPANESE PEOPLE
+
+
+[Sidenote: The Wonderful Islanders]
+
+It is in presence of great calamities that the best qualities of the
+Japanese masses shine brilliantly. Their resignation, their patient
+endurance, the altruism that prompts them to mutual help and to
+countless acts of kindness; their self-sacrificing bravery in the work
+of rescue, the proud honesty with which they will content themselves
+with the barest pittance, when relief is distributed, so that enough
+may be left for others in greater need--these are only some of the fine
+characteristics of the wonderful islanders whose achievements in recent
+times have earned the respectful admiration of the world, even of their
+late foes. There is, of course, another aspect of their character; they
+are not without some of the vices and failings human nature is heir to.
+An attempt is made, later in these pages, to describe their moral and
+mental characteristics, and in so doing to hold the scales impartially.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Underwood & Underwood
+
+THE RISING GENERATION IN JAPAN]
+
+According to the census of 1913 there were 52,985,423 subjects of the
+Emperor of Japan (excluding Korea), and their number is increasing
+steadily and rapidly. The number of males exceeds that of females by
+well-nigh a million. The population is very dense in the fertile
+regions, and increases so rapidly that emigration is absolutely
+necessary. The masses are healthy and strong, capable of great
+endurance--a fact brought into striking prominence by the achievements
+of the Japanese forces in the Arctic winter of Manchuria, and in its
+torrid summer. The Japanese can, as a rule, bear cold much better
+than heat. Living thinly clad in unwarmed houses that offer but little
+protection and are by day draughty as bird-cages, they early become
+inured to cold. The average physique of the upper classes is by no
+means so good as that of the manual workers, and is considerably below
+the Occidental standards.
+
+[Sidenote: A Race of Little People]
+
+The Japanese are a black-haired race, with smooth skins, varying in
+colour through various yellowish shades, from a hue of brown, in the
+case of those working in the sun, to a light tint no darker than that
+of the Southern European, with comparatively large skulls, prominent
+cheek-bones, and a tendency to projecting jaws. They are of small
+stature, the average height of the male being only slightly over five
+feet (5·02 ft.), that of the female slightly over four feet six inches
+(4·66 ft.). In other words, the men are of about the same average
+stature as European females, the women proportionately shorter.
+
+[Sidenote: The Two Types of Japanese]
+
+There are, of course, exceptions, some Japanese being of a height
+that would cause them to be considered tall amongst Occidentals; but
+they appear as giants amongst their diminutive compatriots. Both men
+and women have small hands and feet, those of the upper classes being
+beautifully shaped. Even amongst manual workers it is not rare to find,
+especially amongst females, hands of an aristocratic type. The shapely
+appearance of the feet is often spoiled by thick ankles, probably the
+result of wearing sandals. The black hair is abundant on the head,
+straight and coarse; there is hardly any on the arms, legs and chest.
+The eyelashes are scanty, and grow immediately out of the eyelids,
+without the “hem” that borders the eyelids of Occidental races. The
+eyes are dark, full in the broad-faced, plebeian type, narrow in the
+aristocratic cast of countenance. In the latter they are generally set
+more or less obliquely, their slanting appearance being enhanced by the
+fact that the aperture for the eye seems to have been cut, as it were,
+directly in the smooth skin, tightly stretched over the upper part of
+the face, not, as in the white races, in a very marked depression under
+the brow.
+
+[Illustration: THE CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL: FEAST OF DOLLS IN A JAPANESE
+HOME
+
+ Japan is the land of love for children, and many quaint customs
+ are observed for their sake. On the third day of the third month
+ in each year the Feast of Dolls is held in thousands of Japanese
+ homes, and the day is one of great delight.
+]
+
+[Illustration: THE VARIOUS GRADES OF SOCIETY IN OLD JAPAN
+
+ Society in Old Japan was based on the principle that the producer
+ was worthy of high honour. There were four great classes. At
+ the top were the _Shi_, the nobility and gentry, warriors,
+ administrators, and scholars. Next were the _No_, the agricultural
+ class; thirdly came the _Ko_, craftsmen and artists; and at the
+ bottom were the _Sho_, traders and bankers. Some of the wealthier
+ classes were thus at the bottom, because they were not producers
+ but only circulators.
+]
+
+[Sidenote: Physique of the Nation]
+
+[Sidenote: Cleanest Nation in the World]
+
+There are two plainly distinct types in the nation. The majority are
+“stocky,” rather squat people, with broad, round faces, rather thick
+lips and flat noses; the minority, of the aristocratic type, are more
+slenderly built, with long oval face and aquiline nose. In both types
+the trunk is long as compared with the legs, their shortness being
+probably due, in some measure, to the national habit of sitting on the
+floor, in a kneeling posture, the weight of the body being thrown back
+on to the heels. Sitting on benches, as in school and in barracks,
+necessitated by the introduction of Western educational and military
+methods, has somewhat improved the proportions of the Japanese body in
+this respect. The admirable gymnastic training given in the schools
+to children of both sexes, and, still more, the naval or military
+service to which every able-bodied Japanese adult male is liable,
+have done wonders in improving the physique of the nation. Statistics
+collected by the Army Medical Department clearly show that the race is
+gradually growing taller since the introduction of universal service.
+The Japanese grow to maturity more rapidly than Occidentals; they also
+age earlier. As in other countries, very old women are more numerous
+than very aged men. Both the slender, often weakly, upper classes and
+the stout plebeians are nimble in their movements, have supple limbs
+and remarkably skilful fingers. The workers use their toes to hold
+and steady the material on which they are at work, often sitting at
+their labour where Occidentals would stand. The great toe is well
+separated from the others, owing to the effect of the loop of cord
+passing between them to secure the sandal to the foot, the tabi, or
+sock, of cotton-cloth being made with a separate compartment for
+the great toe. The skin of the whole body is generally of satin-like
+smoothness, owing, no doubt, to the very hot baths--at a temperature
+of about 110° F.--in which all Japanese indulge at least once a day,
+thus maintaining their well-deserved reputation as the cleanest nation
+in the world. To the Occidental eye, the majority of Japanese men
+are not comely, although there are notable exceptions, presenting
+fine faces, of noble and intellectual type. The women are often very
+pretty, judged by the Occidental standard; they are nearly always
+graceful and charming, owing to their exquisite manners and gentle
+voice. The chief element in their charm is undoubtedly their perfect
+femininity. There is absolutely nothing masculine about their ways or
+their speech, yet, when the need arises, they are capable of courage
+and self-sacrifice that places them on the same high level as their
+heroic fellow-countrymen. It may safely be asserted that there are no
+more dutiful wives, no better mothers. There are certainly no daughters
+with a greater sense of filial piety, a virtue that forms the basis of
+family life in Japan.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ A lantern-mender
+
+ A clock-maker
+
+ Coopers at work
+
+ Artists
+
+ Plasterers at work
+
+ A marionette show in the street
+
+ The Royal Mail in Old Japan
+
+LIFE AND WORK IN OLD JAPAN: SOME TYPES IN THE ANCIENT CAPITAL]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Peasant woman reeling silk
+
+ Buddhist priest
+
+ Mediæval friar
+
+ Preparing cotton for spinning
+
+ Servant
+
+ Samurai bowing
+
+ Japanese ladies at their toilet, using burnished metal mirrors
+
+ Lady in walking costume
+
+ A Japanese lady and her servant, showing the aristocratic and
+ plebeian types of face
+
+ Lady in walking costume
+
+SOME TYPES IN OLD JAPAN: CHIEFLY DEPICTED BY NATIVE ARTISTS]
+
+[Sidenote: The Chief Qualities of the Race]
+
+Throughout the Far East the whole social fabric is based on the family;
+the whole state is, indeed, considered as one great family, with the
+Emperor at its head. It is the mothers who train Japanese children from
+infancy in the spirit of reverence and obedience to parents and elders
+in the family circle, and to the Emperor as the supreme chief of the
+great national family. And well do the children assimilate the lessons
+of obedience and devotion so carefully inculcated by the mother, for
+there are none more docile than the boys and girls of Japan, whose
+respectful, courteous manners, not only towards their parents, but
+towards elder brothers and sisters, earn the admiration of Occidentals.
+The chief qualities of the Japanese race are patriotism--which is, with
+them, synonymous with loyalty--courage, filial piety, and cleanliness.
+In love of country, in self-sacrifice for the common weal, in loyalty
+to the sovereign--with them a cult--in reckless gallantry, and in
+bodily cleanliness, the Japanese surpass all other nations of our time.
+It may be truly said that patriotism is their real religion; it
+inspires their magnificent courage in war, on land and sea; it supplies
+the incentive of their lives in times of peace, all merely personal
+considerations being subordinate to this passionate national feeling.
+
+[Illustration: WINTER IN JAPAN; BY A JAPANESE ARTIST]
+
+The people of Japan are distinguished, besides, by quick intelligence,
+a remarkable power of observation--derived, no doubt, from their close
+study of Nature, of which they are devoted lovers--by a mastery of
+detail, and a very retentive memory, fostered by the system of learning
+by rote imported from China, together with the writing by means of
+ideographic signs, necessitating the memorising of thousands of
+characters standing for words. In politeness they stand first amongst
+the nations, every incident of life being attended by strictly-defined
+rules of social etiquette, observed by all, not only, as in Occidental
+countries, by the more highly educated classes. Their courtesy, though
+often degenerating into mere hollow formality, is based on a kindly
+regard for the feelings of others, a generous altruism and a consequent
+depreciation of self. They are hospitable and open-handed, the giving
+of presents attending numerous festivals and many occasions in social
+life.
+
+Schooled from babyhood by the rules of their rigid etiquette, Japanese,
+young and old, of all classes, are remarkably quiet in their demeanour,
+the higher ranks being extremely dignified in manner, and completely
+concealing their feelings under an imperturbable mask. They bear pain,
+both physical and mental, with Spartan stoicism, their nerves being
+much less easily excited than those of Occidentals, so that they have
+often been described as “a nation without nerves.” Their apparent
+contempt for death arises chiefly from the fact that, to most of them,
+the passing out of this world does not imply a total severance from
+mundane interests, their general belief being that the spirits of the
+departed have cognisance of the doings of those they leave behind. This
+idea, inseparable from the ancestor-worship that has prevailed amongst
+them from time immemorial, and still prevails, was well exemplified in
+their great struggle with Russia, their forces being buoyed up by the
+conviction that the spirits of all the warriors who had died for Japan
+were fighting side by side with their gallant successors.
+
+[Sidenote: Artistic Taste of the Japanese]
+
+The love of the beautiful in Nature, common to all members of the
+Japanese race, is probably one of the chief factors in the artistic
+feeling so highly developed among all classes. Their appreciation of
+beauty of form and colour, their exquisite sense of appropriateness in
+decoration, the delicate restraint so evident in the productions of
+their wonderfully skilful, patient artist-craftsmen, are too well known
+to require more than passing mention. Even their commonest household
+utensils are beautiful in shape, elegant, and well adapted to their
+purpose. Their innate good taste has added a delicate refinement to the
+vigorous art they received, in early times, from China, chiefly by way
+of Korea. Their æsthetic perception enables even the poorest Japanese
+to derive intense pleasure from the contemplation of the beautiful,
+thus providing them with many delights unknown to the vast majority of
+modern Occidentals. Combined with the simplicity and frugality of their
+lives, and with their naturally contented spirit, it would seem to
+have enabled the Japanese to solve the great problem “how to be happy,
+though poor.”
+
+A nation possessing, to a high degree, the virtues and qualities
+just enumerated would appear to be living in a perfect Utopia. There
+is, however, shade in the picture as well as bright light. This
+happy, contented, smiling people, pre-eminent in domestic virtues,
+industrious, fond of learning, easily governed, gentle in manners
+and speech, capable of rising, in moments of national emergency,
+to admirable heights of patriotic heroism and self-sacrifice, is,
+after all, human, and consequently tainted with some of the vices
+and many of the defects inherent in human nature. The defects of the
+Japanese character are, to a great extent, inseparable from their very
+virtues and good qualities in their extreme manifestations. Their
+intense patriotism is the cause of the anti-foreign spirit still,
+unfortunately, rife amongst them. Their country is to them “the Land
+of the Gods,” their nation the Elect People, living under the special
+protection of Heaven, whose blessings are transmitted to them by the
+benevolence of a superhuman sovereign, directly descended, in unbroken
+line, from the Sun Goddess.
+
+[Sidenote: National Pride of the Japanese]
+
+With this belief firmly rooted in the minds of the great majority
+of the people, it is no wonder that all those who have not the good
+fortune to be born Japanese appear to them not only as foreigners, but
+as Gentiles. The statesmen of New Japan are profuse in their assurances
+that it is the desire of their people to form a unit, on terms of
+equality, in the great family of nations.
+
+This assurance is echoed by many Japanese writers; it is in accordance
+with the spirit of the tolerant, all-embracing, gentle Buddhist faith,
+brimming over with sympathy for all living creatures; it is also in
+agreement with the calm, placid tenets of the Chinese philosophy that,
+with Buddhism, has to such a great extent moulded the thought of Japan.
+Yet those statesmen and writers know full well that in this respect
+neither Buddhism, nor Chinese philosophy, nor the cosmopolitan spirit
+of the middle period of the nineteenth century, nor the brotherhood of
+man inculcated by true Christianity, has succeeded, to any appreciable
+degree, in causing the Japanese to look upon foreigners as brothers, or
+even on the same plane with their own heaven-descended race.
+
+[Illustration: LADY AT HER TOILET: BY A JAPANESE ARTIST]
+
+The reckless bravery of the Japanese, their contempt for death, are
+closely related to the slight value they set upon human life and to the
+national delight in tales of bloodshed. Co-existent with the mildness
+of their manners and the placid tenor of their domestic life, there
+is found, deep in Japanese hearts, a wild delight in carnage, the
+legacy, naturally most cherished amongst those of the warrior class,
+of centuries of internecine warfare. The sword, “the living soul of
+the Samurai,” is still held in reverence as the instrument not only
+of national defence against the foreign foe, but of vengeance and
+of the chastisement of one looked upon by the wielder of the weapon
+as an enemy to the State. Hence the indulgence with which political
+assassination is still regarded by the masses in Japan. As the brutal
+instincts, inherited from primeval ancestors, often become manifest
+in an English-speaking crowd watching a football match or a boxing
+contest, so, in Japan, the old savagery reveals itself, time and again,
+at fencing bouts, the excited cries of the combatants recalling the
+bad, wild days of yore.
+
+[Illustration: JAPANESE ON A PILGRIMAGE]
+
+This fierce spirit seems incompatible with the noble generosity towards
+prisoners of war, and the tender care of the enemy’s wounded and
+sick, that redounded to the glory of the Japanese in both their great
+struggles in our time, the wars against China and against Russia. It is
+difficult to believe that savagery can survive in the breasts of people
+capable of organising such an admirable institution as the Red Cross
+Society of Japan, whose noble work, in war and peace, is one of the
+chief glories of New Japan; but it must be remembered that the young
+Great Power still feels itself to be undergoing probation under the
+eyes of an observant and critical world. The natural instinct of the
+Japanese warrior would lead him utterly to destroy the foe who dared to
+oppose his Emperor’s will, and it requires the application of the most
+severe discipline to make him understand that on his exercise of humane
+forbearance to the vanquished depends, to a great extent, his nation’s
+good repute among the Powers.
+
+This desire to stand well in the opinion of foreign nations has
+been so thoroughly inculcated in the people of New Japan that every
+individual brought into contact with foreigners beyond the boundaries
+of his native land feels that the honour of Japan is dependent on his
+behaviour, even in minute particulars. Hence the high reputation for
+excellent conduct enjoyed by Japanese students and others residing, or
+travelling, abroad.
+
+[Illustration: A FISH HAWKER IN JAPAN]
+
+The altruism and self-effacement, born of the family system, fostered
+by the division of the nation into clans--now officially abolished, but
+still binding huge groups of families with strong ties--and culminating
+in the most complete devotion to the head of the national family,
+the Emperor, are the causes of a peculiar defect in the Japanese
+character--the lack of individuality. It may be said of the Japanese
+that, on most important matters, they feel and think by millions.
+The whole system of their civilisation tends to make individual
+effort subservient to the common cause; the reverence and obedience
+inculcated from early childhood are not likely to develop the spirit
+of individuality. Hence the wonderful facility with which the Japanese
+combine to carry out any policy they recognise as needful for the
+public welfare once that course has been clearly indicated by their
+trusted leaders as one that has the Emperor’s approval.
+
+[Illustration: A PEASANT IN A RAIN CLOAK
+
+ (Made of straw.)
+]
+
+Japan is, for this reason, the land where leagues, unions, guilds,
+trusts and “combines” work with astonishing efficiency, such
+institutions being, by their very nature, well suited to the national
+character. There are, of course, exceptional Japanese who chafe under
+the repression of their strong individuality; these occasionally break
+through the national custom and strike out an independent line. Their
+fate is not encouraging to those who might be tempted to follow their
+example. Public opinion reproves them, and they are soon made to feel
+that their conduct is looked upon as anti-national. Those amongst
+them who will not bow their heads to the popular verdict, and refuse
+to be reduced to the level at which the nation strives to keep the
+individual, soon find life in their own country unbearable. In various
+cities of Europe, still more in those of North America, such Japanese
+individualists may be found living in self-imposed exile, shunned by
+their compatriots, until the day, which comes to most of them, when
+they submit and go home to resume their place in the ranks of a nation
+that abhors eccentricity and expects every man to fit into his proper
+groove in the great national machine.
+
+The mental activity of the Japanese, their respect for knowledge and
+for all intellectual pursuits, causing them to admire keen wits and
+exercise of brainpower, have probably contributed in a large measure
+to form one of the traits in their character that is repellant to
+Occidentals--their inclination to be cunning and deceitful. In spite of
+the high and pure ideals of their chivalry, they have not our loathing
+for deceit, our contempt for chicanery, our respect for the truth. A
+Japanese convicted of an untruth merely conceals his annoyance at being
+found out by a smile, sometimes by a laugh, and is not deterred from
+another statement at variance with facts should he consider it useful
+to make one. Low cunning is frequently looked upon as cleverness;
+the suppression of facts is so common that there is no other country
+where it is so difficult to arrive at the truth. The national failing
+of intense secretiveness arises, no doubt, from the suspicious nature
+of the people, who distrust not only all foreigners, but even most of
+their own race--a condition of mind due, to a great extent, to the
+widely ramified system of spying that flourished during the rule of the
+Tokugawa Shōguns, and still exists to a lesser degree.
+
+Their infinite capacity for attention to the most minute details leads
+to a certain pettiness, a disinclination to consider great abstract
+questions, and, consequently, to a narrowness of view that accounts
+for some of the blunders which occur in the execution of the otherwise
+marvellously efficient policy of the rulers of Japan.
+
+[Sidenote: Manners of the Haughty Samurai]
+
+The exquisite politeness of the Japanese is responsible for a great
+part of that insincerity with which they are taxed by Occidentals
+who have been much in contact with them. This extreme courtesy makes
+them so anxious to avoid any speech that might possibly give offence
+that they frequently distort the truth, suppress it entirely, or
+replace it by polite fiction, intended to give pleasure. It should be
+remembered that, in the knightly times of old--they continued until
+the early ’seventies of the nineteenth century--a Japanese had to be
+very guarded in his speech and demeanour; quite unintentionally, a word
+lightly spoken, an incautious gesture, might give dire offence to a
+Samurai--one of the gentry, privileged to wear two swords--who would be
+quick to resent the fancied slight to his punctilious sense of personal
+dignity. Insults, real, and often imaginary, were wiped out with blood.
+Hence the endeavour to avoid any possible cause of offence, for the
+same reason that made Europeans very circumspect in their behaviour in
+the days when gentlemen wore swords and drew them on small provocation.
+
+[Illustration: THE END OF A JAPANESE FEAST: BRINGING IN THE SEA-BREAM]
+
+To such a pitch was punctilio carried amongst Japanese gentlemen until
+quite recent times that they preferred death, inflicted by their own
+hands in the most painful manner--by self-disembowelment, or hara-kiri,
+more elegantly termed seppuku, or “self-immolation”--to living with
+a stain on their honour, such stain being often merely inability to
+disprove a slanderous imputation. To this day, the Japanese remain the
+most acutely sensitive people on the point of honour; so “touchy” are
+they that friendly intercourse with Occidentals is thereby rendered
+extremely difficult.
+
+What places an additional bar to perfect cordiality in such relations
+is the deplorable fact that an Occidental may unwittingly give grave
+offence to a Japanese without the latter giving any sign of displeasure
+at the time. Allowance is seldom made for the perfectly unintentional
+error on the part of the offender, whilst the grievance is allowed to
+rankle, is rarely forgiven, and never forgotten. Where an Occidental
+would certainly call his friend’s attention to the fact that he was
+displeased by some remark or action that would, no doubt, be promptly
+atoned for by a sincere apology, thus terminating the incident, the
+Japanese says nothing. He nurses his resentment, sometimes for years,
+until a fitting opportunity presents itself to avenge the real, or
+fancied, wound to his feelings by some particularly unpleasant action
+directed against the Occidental, all unconscious of his offence.
+
+This unfortunate peculiarity of the Japanese character is the outcome
+of two main currents that run through the national temperament--the
+spirit of secrecy, already alluded to, and the thirst for revenge. The
+latter, possibly due to the strain of Malay blood in the much-mixed
+Japanese race, is one of the chief stumbling-blocks hindering the
+introduction of Christianity, and has prevented Buddhism, also a
+religion teaching meekness, from obtaining a complete hold on the
+people. In its petty forms, this spirit of long-cherished spite is
+merely annoying; in its extreme manifestations it becomes exceedingly
+dangerous.
+
+It may be thought that the admirable magnanimity displayed by the
+Japanese towards the vanquished in their wars with China and with
+Russia affords evidence that the old spirit of revenge is dying out.
+Unfortunately, it is as strong as ever, the explanation of the apparent
+anomaly being that, in both cases, the foe was vanquished, and thus
+became, according to the principles of Japanese chivalry, an object
+for mercy and compassion. As long as the opponent resists, or refuses
+to surrender at the mercy of the conqueror, he is implacably attacked;
+the moment he has, metaphorically speaking, grovelled and placed the
+victor’s foot on his head, he is raised from the ground and treated
+with the greatest consideration.
+
+[Illustration: A GROUP OF CIVIL AND MILITARY OFFICIALS IN OLD JAPAN]
+
+This applies not only to warfare, but to those incidents in civil life,
+already alluded to, in which a Japanese considers himself aggrieved,
+especially when the offender is a foreigner. In such cases, humble
+apology for the slight, however unintentional--in fact, an attitude
+amounting to “I do not know what I have done to offend; but, in any
+case, I own I am in the wrong, and promise, with sincere apologies, not
+to offend again; deal with me as you think fit,” would generally ensure
+the restoration of good relations, provided the apology be sufficiently
+public to gratify the self-esteem of the Japanese. It is hardly to be
+expected that a self-respecting Occidental would demean himself thus to
+atone for an error unconsciously committed.
+
+[Sidenote: Defects of Japanese Character]
+
+Japanese self-esteem has just been mentioned; it often becomes
+insufferable arrogance, showing plainly, through a cloak of false
+modesty, “the pride that apes humility.” This arrogance, displayed
+chiefly towards foreigners, but also by Japanese in official positions
+towards their fellow-countrymen of inferior rank, is intimately
+connected with another national failing, excessive vanity. It is less
+noticeable amongst sailors and soldiers than amongst civil officials of
+corresponding rank.
+
+Minor failings of the Japanese are jealousy, envy of those who achieve
+success, and, connected with these faults, a great love of gossip and
+a readiness to listen to slander, or to disseminate it.
+
+[Illustration: A STREET SCENE IN A VILLAGE OF OLD JAPAN]
+
+[Sidenote: Japanese Ideas of Modesty]
+
+There are, finally, two charges to be examined that are frequently
+levelled at the Japanese by those who profess to know them well--the
+accusations of immorality, sexual and commercial. The first of these
+charges may be disposed of by the statement that the Japanese are about
+as moral in their sexual relations as the Latin nations of Europe,
+with the advantage slightly in favour of the Japanese. What has given
+them an evil repute in this respect is, probably, the fact that they
+consider as natural, and treat accordingly, certain evils that the
+Northern Occidental peoples affect to ignore. The natural, simple
+life led by the vast majority of Japanese predisposes them to take a
+natural, sensible view of matters that the less primitive conditions of
+Western civilisation have imbued with an objectionable significance.
+They see, for instance, no harm in nudity where it is unavoidable,
+as in bathing, or convenient, as in the performance of hard work in
+hot weather. A Japanese woman will feel no shame at being seen naked
+when entering or leaving the daily bath, but would strongly object to
+what she would consider the gross immodesty of exposing a considerable
+surface of her body in Occidental evening dress. In the first case,
+the nudity is looked upon as quite natural; in the second, as useless
+and provocative of pruriency.
+
+[Sidenote: National Honour in Commerce]
+
+As to the commercial morality of the Japanese, it is necessary to
+observe the great difference that exists between the position, in this
+respect, of Japanese State institutions, financial and commercial
+corporations, and firms of the first rank on the one hand, and the
+great mass of traders on the other. The Imperial Japanese Government,
+municipal corporations, and the great financial institutions and
+industrial and commercial associations under State control (such as
+subsidised steamship companies), have always met their obligations with
+scrupulous fidelity and are likely to continue to do so. With them
+the national honour is considered at stake; it is certain that the
+last Japanese will part with his last garment sooner than involve the
+national credit in disgrace by failure to meet the nation’s engagements
+towards the foreign creditor.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of Old Class Divisions]
+
+It is, unfortunately, quite otherwise in the case of the great bulk
+of the trading classes. There are, in Japan, a number of first-class
+firms, some of them established for centuries, whose reputation is
+above reproach; but between these and the majority of the merchants a
+great gulf is fixed. It must be remembered that, until the beginning
+of the New Era, in the early ’seventies of the nineteenth century, the
+trading community formed the lowest of the four classes, then sharply
+and immutably divided one from the other, composing that part of the
+Japanese nation that had full civil rights (below them stood only the
+Eta, who carried on despised occupations, involving contamination by
+contact with dead bodies, human or animal, and the outcast Hi-nin).
+
+[Illustration: IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF YEDO, NOW TŌKIO, THE CAPITAL OF
+JAPAN]
+
+The nation was divided into Shi, the nobility and gentry, the military,
+scholarly and administrative class; No, the agriculturists; Ko, the
+craftsmen, with whom the artists were counted; and Sho, the traders,
+placed below farmers and handicraftsmen as non-producers.
+
+The natural consequence of this low place in the social scale was a
+lack of self-respect on the part of those engaged in commerce and
+finance that led them to be unmindful of their good repute. Trade and
+finance were looked upon by the majority as occupations unworthy of
+a gentleman and beneath the callings of the peasant and the workman;
+every trick was considered excusable when practised by the merchant,
+whose whole business was looked upon as a sort of warfare, in which
+cunning stratagem could be legitimately employed to the end of personal
+gain, a purpose appearing most unworthy to the classes swayed by the
+old knightly spirit. The evil effects, on a class as on an individual,
+of a bad reputation and consequent public contempt have, unfortunately,
+outlived the abolition of the old social divisions. The Japanese
+merchants and bankers no longer form a separate and despised class;
+the gentry, even members of the aristocracy, are engaging every day
+more and more in financial, industrial and commercial pursuits, many of
+them with marked success, yet the old taint adheres to the bulk of the
+trading community.
+
+[Sidenote: The Desire to Trick the Foreigner]
+
+There are, of course, many strictly honourable dealers in Japan, even
+amongst the smaller tradespeople and retailers. It is amongst the
+wholesale merchants and the brokers that lapses from the straight
+path of commercial integrity are still frequent, especially in their
+dealings with foreigners. It is, unfortunately, still the case that an
+advantage gained over the foreigner, even by the most shady methods, is
+looked upon as, in some way, a national victory. This deplorable point
+of view is likely to prevail as long as Japanese nationalism exists in
+its extreme form.
+
+[Sidenote: Japanese National Finance]
+
+The Japanese Government has, time after time, loudly proclaimed, by
+the mouths of its statesmen at home, and its representatives abroad,
+its desire to facilitate, in every way, the introduction of foreign
+capital, the vital influence so urgently required for the realisation
+of Japan’s bold schemes of industrial and commercial development.
+Strange to say, this cordial invitation, though energetically responded
+to by the capitalists of Europe, especially of Britain, and by those
+of America, has not, as yet, led to the investment of any very
+considerable sums in Japanese enterprises, although, as is well-known,
+the Japanese Government has easily borrowed many millions sterling in
+London, New York and Paris, for purposes of State. The chief obstacle
+to the investment on a large scale, of foreign capital in Japanese
+enterprises is to be found in the fact that, forgetting that capital
+is, after all, a commodity, therefore subject to the laws of supply and
+demand, the Japanese financial and industrial classes do not realise
+that the capitalist, being virtually the seller, controls the price of
+his property.
+
+[Sidenote: The Social Qualities of the Japanese]
+
+A mistaken impression appears to prevail in Japan that foreign capital
+is _obliged_ to find an outlet in the Empire of the Rising Sun and
+must, therefore, submit to such conditions as may seem suitable to the
+Japanese and accept such security as the Japanese may deem sufficient.
+As long as this erroneous view obtains, there can be no considerable
+influx of foreign money into the coffers of Japanese industrial and
+commercial concerns. Experience is proverbially the best teacher; the
+dearth of funds that is certain to follow, in due time, the abnormal
+and feverish activity which is animating Japanese economic conditions,
+immediately after the successful issue of the great struggle with
+Russia, will undoubtedly induce a more reasonable appreciation of
+the circumstances. Once the Japanese have been taught by experience
+that they must regulate their demands by the lowest terms considered
+acceptable by the foreign holders of capital, a vast and profitable
+field will lie before those Occidental capitalists who have the
+advantage of expert advice in their selection of Japanese investments.
+
+As a general rule, it may be stated that intercourse with the people
+of Japan leaves Occidentals very favourably impressed with the social
+qualities of the inhabitants of the island empire. Their exquisite
+courtesy, their gentle manners, and the thousand ways in which they
+demonstrate that kindness of heart that lubricates the wheels of life’s
+machinery all tend to make ordinary, everyday relations with Japanese a
+delightful experience. It is only when the more serious aspects of life
+are approached that the Occidental begins to feel the wide divergence
+between his point of view, in nearly every important matter, and that
+of the Japanese.
+
+[Sidenote: Courtesy of the Japanese]
+
+It is exceedingly difficult to specify with exactitude the particular
+feature of the Japanese character which lies at the root of the
+unfortunate fact that nearly all Occidentals who have had serious
+dealings with the people of Dai Nippon have emerged from their
+experience exasperated and often disgusted. It is probable that want of
+candour is the trait that acts as the sharpest irritant, for it must be
+confessed that frankness, so highly prized by Occidentals, especially
+by those of the nations that “push the world along,” is neither
+appreciated at its true value nor generally practised by the Japanese.
+The very nature of their elaborate courtesy makes them shrink from
+that bluff frankness which obtains amongst Occidentals on a footing of
+intimate friendship. Even the Japanese mode of speech is a hindrance
+to direct statement of fact; a Japanese, asked if he has ever been in
+England, will reply, in his own tongue, “Yes,” and, after a pause, “I
+have _never_ visited England.” He would not deem it polite to shock his
+questioner by a direct negative!
+
+[Illustration: THE AMAZING SUICIDE: A GHASTLY FACT IN THE LIFE OF OLD
+JAPAN
+
+ This picture represents the Japanese custom of “Hara-kiri,” or
+ disembowelment, known also as “Seppuku,” or self-immolation, the
+ form of suicide which was the privilege of gentry in Old Japan
+ instead of death at the hands of the executioner. Instances of this
+ ghastly act occurred frequently during the Russo-Japanese war,
+ Japanese destroying themselves rather than surrender. The standing
+ figure in the picture is the best friend of the man about to die,
+ acting as his kai-shaku, or second, ready to strike off his head on
+ receiving the sign from the dying man.
+]
+
+Another peculiarity of the Japanese character, that is apt to loom
+large in Occidental eyes as a grave national failing, is the lack
+of the spirit of gratitude, as it is understood by the white races.
+The Japanese have, hitherto, never failed to deal out fair measure,
+according to the letter of the contract, to the numerous Occidentals
+whom they have employed, as advisers and instructors, in adapting
+Western civilisation to the material needs of their re-organised
+empire; their labours, as well as those of friends of Japan who have
+rendered voluntary, unpaid services, have also been recognised by the
+bestowal of marks of Imperial favour; but it is doubtful whether a real
+feeling of what we term gratitude has ever entered the hearts of
+the nation towards the many distinguished men who have given of their
+best to assist in the making of New Japan, or to spread a knowledge of
+its greatness. This doubt does not apply to the Navy and Army; those
+gallant forces, keeping the sacred fire of chivalry alight, show deep
+gratitude to the British sailors and European soldiers--French and,
+after them, Germans--who instructed them in the modern art of war.
+
+[Illustration: TYPICAL JAPANESE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS]
+
+Sympathy with their aspirations is, of course, cordially welcomed from
+every quarter by the Japanese; they are delighted to receive help of
+any kind from Occidental friends at such times as, in their view,
+render such assistance or sympathy necessary. When the occasion has
+passed, and they feel independent of foreign support, they not only
+cease to make any effort to attract, but take no pains to conceal their
+indifference to it. This attitude, induced by the severely practical
+nature of their policy, is repugnant to Occidental feeling, and has
+caused the accusation to be brought against the Japanese that they
+treat their foreign friends “like lemons, to be thrown away once the
+juice has been squeezed out of them.”
+
+This course of conduct should not be judged too harshly; it should be
+remembered that such a proud, hypersensitive nation is ever desirous of
+displaying its independence, and is consequently averse to appearing
+to solicit help or sympathy from the outside. A gifted Frenchman, a
+true friend of Japan, the late Félix Régamey, several of whose spirited
+pictures of Japan are reproduced in this History, and who did much
+to gain sympathy for that country amongst his compatriots at a time
+when they were little inclined to extend it, said to the writer: “It
+would, indeed, be a pleasure to help the Japanese, but they will not
+let one help them.” It is noticeable that this coolness towards foreign
+sympathy is usually coincident with a period of national elation,
+consequent on the victory of Japanese arms or the obtaining of some
+solid advantage by Japanese diplomacy.
+
+Reviewing impartially the good and the bad points of the Japanese
+national character, one must come to the comforting conclusion that
+its faults are likely to disappear, or, at least, to be considerably
+attenuated in the future, as Japan enters more and more into the active
+life of the family of nations. The pressure of the public opinion of
+the vast majority of civilised mankind must exercise a beneficial
+influence in bringing the Japanese gradually into line with ourselves
+where the points of view are still too widely divergent to admit of
+cordial co-operation between them and Occidentals. The virtues now
+pre-eminently Japanese may, indeed probably will, suffer to a certain
+extent in the process; it is the writer’s firm conviction that enough
+of them will remain to enable the Japanese to accomplish the glorious
+destiny towards which they are marching. Their patriotism, their
+valour, their thoroughness, their wisdom in matters of national moment,
+are of the virtues that make nations great.
+
+ ARTHUR DIOSY
+
+[Illustration]
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 67214 ***
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