66 THE RISE OF MAN. 



thus mitigating the fierceness of the struggle for existence 

 and keeping alive those things which otherwise would 

 have died. 



The spirit of civilization is reflected mainly in the 

 ethical tendencies of the religions which characterize this 

 period, foremost among them being Buddhism and Chris- 

 tianity. The trend of it might be expressed in the word 

 of Jesus who in his turn quotes from the Hebrew fore- 

 runners and path-finders of the age of the Son of Man that 

 u a bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax 

 shall he not quench." 



Civilization is practically the religion of the present 

 age, for whatever faith different people or nations may 

 confess, all religious leaders of the living present endeavor 

 to bring it abreast with the moral principles of civilization. 

 In fact if they try to prove their religion to be true, they 

 are mostly satisfied with pointing out that it supports and 

 agrees with our ideal of civilization. 



But while we can not sufficiently praise the boons of 

 civilization, we must at the same time recognize that like 

 all things of this world, civilization has its weak points. It 

 would be a mistake to think that civilization per se pro- 

 duces a higher type of man. It renders life comfortable but 

 does not make the type progressive. Progress in all lines 

 is the result of necessity and the man of yesterday could 

 not have produced the civilization of to-day without having 

 previously been prepared for it by a selection of the fittest, 

 who were chosen to do the work ; as Dr. Charles E. Wood- 

 ruff puts it, " Brain makes civilization, and civilization 

 never makes brains." 



The period of anthropogenesis, i. e., the age in which 



* American Journal of Insanity. No. i, p. 10, July, 1901. 



After the first publication of my articles on the rise of man (in The Open Court, 

 March 1904 and Jan , Feb. 1906) Dr. Woodruff courteously sent me his essay en- 

 titled " An Anthropological Study of the Small Brain of Civilized Man and its Evo- 

 lution," which contains a number of pointed conclusions; and passing over such 

 arguments as would in my opinion need modification I will make extensive quotations 

 and reproduce two of his diagrams. 



