SAVAGISM AI^^D CIVILIZATION. 203 



evolved much more from our selfish than what are termed our vh-tuous 

 acts." No wonder that devil-worship obtains, in certain parts, when 

 to his demon the savage finds himself indebted for skill not only to 

 overthrow subordinate deities, but to cure diseases, to will an enemy 

 to death, to minister to the welfare of departed friends, as well as to 

 add materially to his earthly store of comforts. The world, such as it 

 is, man finds himself destined for a time to inhabit. Within him and 

 around him the involuntary occupant perceives two agencies at work; 

 agencies apparently oppugnant, yet both tending to one end im- 

 provement ; and Night or Day, Love or Crime, leads all souls to the 

 Good, as Emerson sings. The principle of evil acts as a perpetual 

 stimulant, the principle of good as a reward of merit. United in their 

 operation, there is a constant tendency toward a better condition, a 

 higher state; apart, the result would be inaction. For, civilization 

 being a progression and not a fixed condition, without incentives, that 

 is without something to escape from and something to escape to, there 

 could be no transition, and hence no civilization. 



Had man been placed in the world perfected and sinless, obviously 

 there would be no such thing as progress. The absence of evil im- 

 plies perfect good, and perfect good perfect haj^piness. Were man 

 sinless and yet capable of increasing in knowledge, the incentive 

 would be wanting, for, if perfectly hapi^y, w*hy should he struggle to 

 become happier? The advent of civilization is in the appearance of 

 a want, and the first act of civilization springs from the attempt to 

 supply the want. The man or nation that wants nothing remains 

 inactive, and hence does not advance ; so that it is not in what we 

 have but in what we have not that civilization consists. These wants 

 are forced upon us, implanted within us, inseparable from our being ; 

 they increase with an increasing supply, grow hungry from what they 

 feed on ; in quick succession, aspirations, emulations, and ambitions, 

 spring up and chase each other, keeping the fire of discontent ever 

 glowing, and the whole human race efiervescent. 



The tendency of civilizing force, like the tendency of mechanical 

 force, is toward an equilibrium, toward a never-attainable rest. Obvi- 

 ously there can be no perfect equilibrium, no perfect rest, until all evil 

 disappears, but in that event the end of progress would be attained, 

 and humanity would be perfect and sinless. 



Man at the outset is not what he may be, he is capable of improve- 

 ment, or rather, of growth ; but childlike, the savage does not care 

 to improve, and consequently must be scourged into it. Advance- 

 ment is the idtimate natural or normal state of man ; humanity on 

 this earth is destined some day to be relatively, if not absolutely, good 

 and happy. 



The healthy body has appetites, in the gi-atification of which lies 

 its chiefest enjoyment; the healthy mind asserts more and more its 

 independence. Increasing skill yields ever-increased delights, which 



