SAVAGISM AND CIVILIZATION. 201 



entertain the doctrine tliat civilization never could have arisen had 

 not the Creator appeared upon earth as the first instructor ; for, un- 

 fortunately for this hypothesis, the aboriginals supposedly so taught, 

 were scarcely civilized at all, and compare unfavorably with the other 

 all-perfect works of creation ; so that this sort of reasoning like innu- 

 merable other attempts of man to limit the powers of Omnipotence, 

 and narrow them down to our weak understandings, is little else than 

 puerility. 



Nor, as we have seen, is this act of civilizing the effect of volition ; 

 nor, as will hereafter more clearly appear, does it arise from an 

 inherent princijile of good any more than from an inherent prin- 

 ciple of evil. The ultimate result, though difficult of proof, we 

 take for granted to be good, but the agencies employed for its 

 consummation number amono; them more of those we call evil than 

 of those we call good. The isolated individual never, by any possi- 

 bility, can become civilized like the social man ; he cannot even speak, 

 and without a flow of words there can be no complete flow of thought. 

 Send him forth away from his fellow-man to roam the forest with the 

 wild beasts, and he would be almost as wild and beastlike as his 

 companions ; it is doubtful if he would ever fashion a tool, but would 

 not rather Avith his claws alone procure his food, and forever remain 

 as he now is, the most impotent of animals. The intellect, by which 

 means alone man rises above other animals, never could work, because 

 the intellect is quickened only as it comes in contact with intellect. 

 The germ of development therein implanted cannot imfold singly any 

 more than the organism can bear fruit singly. It is a well-established 

 fact that the mind without language cannot fully develop ; it is like- 

 Avise established that language is not inherent, that it springs up 

 between men, not in them. Language, like civilization, belongs to 

 society, and is in no wise a part or the property of the individual. 



We may hold, then, a priori, that this progressional principle 

 exists ; that it exists not more in the man than around him ; that it 

 requires an atmosphere in which to live, as life in the body requires 

 an atmosphere which is its vital breath, and that this atmosphere is 

 generated only by the contact of man with man. Under analysis this 

 social atmosphere appears to be composed of two oj^posing principles 

 good and evil which, like attraction and rej^ulsion, or positive and 

 negative electricity, imderlie all activities. One is as essential to 

 progress as the other ; either, in excess or disproportionately admin- 

 istered, like an excess of oxygen or of hydrogen in the air, becomes 

 pernicious, engenders social disruptions and decay, which continue 

 until the equilibrium is restored ; yet all the while with the pi'Ogress 

 of humanity the good increases, while the evil diminishes. Every 

 impulse incident to humanity is born of the union of these two oppos- 

 ing principles. For example, as I have said, and will attempt more 

 fully to show further on, association is the first requisite of progress. 



